Taya

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Oh, whoa! Where did summer go?

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Taya our youngest resident :o)

If you'd like to see a few more of Taya's baby pictures, visit her very own lens on Squidoo:
A Day in the Life

Meet Taya...
She is our first (and only) foal born here at the farm. Before everything got turned upside down (and backwards :o) here, we made the decision to breed Lady to a gorgeous paint stud, My Dream Cochise. Lady has an awesome bloodline, is tall, and very elegant. She is, however, also prone to pigheadedness, has a overdeveloped sense of "flee" and underdeveloped (okay, non-existent) social skills; of course we love her anyway :o) Cochise on the other hand, is short and built like a semi-tractor trailer. He also has the most laid back, people friendly babies I've ever seen, and is just as kind and gentle as he can be (we had one of his offspring for a little while; Katie, which is what started this whole thing). So we bred Lady, hoping for the world's calmest endurance horse and praying (at the same time) that we wouldn't wind up with a hyperactive tank ~ these things can go either way, you know :o)

Thankfully, we were blessed with the most wonderful foal (and you know I just had to put a big silly pink bow on our mailbox when she was born :o) After the world's longest pregnancy (358 days), Taya arrived at 6:15a.m. one beautiful spring morning. An even bigger blessing was that Lady waited for me to come outside before she had her, so I was able to watch her come into the world (isn't that awesome?)

What has she taught us?

That a pesky little sibling (brother or sister) doesn't necessarily come with two legs; they can have four. We dubbed it graduation day when we weaned Taya and put her in with Bella and Rina. She was so excited to be with the "big kids" (see picture #3 of her celebrating) and followed her big sister Rina absolutely everywhere. This, of course, drove Rina up the wall :o)

There are amazing similarities between very young children and very young horses, including teething, mimicry of behavior (copying), pestering your big sister (picture #4), and taking pride in learning new things.

That while you might can lose some serious time doing it, there is nothing more amazing than watching a foal explore their surroundings, play and grow.

Favorite Taya Tales: The Learning Curve
(or perhaps I should say Loop)

We worked on lots of things with Taya...picking up her feet, leading, coming when called, etc. but the two things that stand out the most are the bridge and learning the halter drill. The bridge serves many purposes; it's great for stepping up onto (and down from) an unusual surface, crossing over something, loud footfalls (it's wood), and so on. Taya didn't want to actually step on it, of course, so I alternated with Rina and Bella crossing the bridge with Taya alongside on the ground. It didn't take long before Taya was ready to give it a try by herself. We walked over the bridge a couple of times and then stopped for the day. The next morning, as I was scooping feed I heard "thump-thump-thump-thump....thump-thump-thump-thump" over and over. Sticking my head out the door, I saw Taya (looking very smug) going back and forth across the bridge by herself again and again; she was having a grand time...coooool :o)

We do "halter drills" around here. Everyone is taught to drop their nose in the halter; when it's all the way on they get a treat. Why? Lots of reasons; the most important being that this creates the mindset that halter = treat. This is a much better perspective than the usual halter associations horses have: halter = work, halter = worming, halter = shot, halter = vet and so on. Do you see all of these negative associations? Taya's baby halter stayed on her for a few days until she mastered the art of the drill. It was fascinating to see the "click" in her head (hmmmm...hey, if I do this like the other kids did, I get one of those little yummy thingies...) She got so excited when she figured it out that she asked me to put her halter on her, then Rina's, then Bella's and ended up wearing all 3 halters at one time (both of us were tickled over it :o) Oh, why do I never have a camera handy when I need it???

Pictures: [Pic 1] Baby Taya resting; [Pic 2] Scratching (isn't she cute??); [Pic 3] Graduation day excitement ~ celebrating her promotion to official "big kid"; [Pic 4] Annoying her big sister Rina (because she can); [Pic 5] Following Rina around and copying everything she does; [Pic 6] Practicing the bridge by herself; and [Pic 7] Trying to put her own halter on (we had already finished the drills, but Taya said she wanted to do it again :o)