Slingshot

Baystar - PMU Bay draft cross filly with star

Update 1/13/02 - Her new name is Slingshot (she was a bit of an acrobat when trying to load her the first time! HA!).

I spent all day with the new filly, she is wonderful. She whinneys at us when we drive up, when we leave and every time we take a wheelbarrow load out to the manure pile just in case we don't come back. She has already bonded to her new buddy and has scoped out every inch of her new space. She is healthy and eating very well, and the long trip home Saturday didn't slow her down at all. Absolutely no problems with the transition. She spent the morning sharing some grain with her new buddy and playing with her bucket. Then I let her out into the pasture while I rode our gelding and she ran around us in circles. She is so athletic. We put her back in the corral and she laid out in the sun and napped for most of the afternoon. Then it was a lot of brushing and playtime with her new orange road cone. In the corral she's a "sweet pea" but once you turn her loose she's a "slingshot"! She has tons of energy and she can fly across the pasture. She was jumping the bushes going down the hill full tilt. We just love her.

Update 1/27/02 - Here are some more pictures of Slingshot. She has settled in just fine and looks like a fuzzy little buffalo. She tried to teach our gelding how to jump in the roundpen today. I had the cones and poles out there and they used it as an excuse to play tag. SLingshot won and Biscuit has tiny muddy hoofprints all over his chest and backside. She only hurt his pride. They have great fun together playing hide and seek in the trees along the fence.

Update 1/29/02 - Here are some pictures of our pests. Slingshot is enjoying a little scratch before she goes out to run around. The two fuzzballs play all the time and are very mischevious. Slingshot is there by the roundpen trying to destroy some plywood that we will use on the gate once it stops raining. I moved my jumps and things in the roundpen and the two beasties turned that into a heck of a game of tag. Slingshot has decided to teach Biscuit how to jump more gracefully.

There is also a picture of one of the little hiefers that I have been helping out with at our dairy.

Update 6/26/02 - We've been real busy between jobs and taking care of the horses. Slingshot is growing like a weed and doing very well. We're waiting for her to even out a little, last week she had a nice quarter horse butt and this week she looks like a giraffe (talk about a growth spurt). She has made friends with all the goats, and cows and and children. My friends think that "Slingshot" is an inappropriate name so they call her "Twinkle Toes." All I can say is that they have not seen her jump anything yet.

New photos 6/28/02

Update 11/9/02 - Slingshot has been playing and growing. She has finally filled out to show her percheron hindquarters and really is a fine looking horse. Neighbors and friends come by to drool over her and ask about where she came from. I am thinking about having her registered with the American Draft Cross Association. They give 25% discount to PMU and nurse mares. Slingshot still cuts chickens in her pen, she spins and slides and looks like a stocky warmblood. We thought she was getting overweight but it is all muscle, she is a tank. And busy growing up and having fun. After much struggling with the truck we were able to pick up Ben's 2002 PMU filly in Poway. And I ended up with a colt that came along as an extra. They are not related at all but did come off the same farm in alberta. The little filly is an eater and we named her "Alfalfa Sprout" and the colt is still shy and a little grumpy. I'm sure he would feel better if he would just let us take his halter off:)

Update 3/2/03 - Slingshot is growing like a weed. She is very happily turned out with her peruvian buddy with several acres to roam. Our bull (also in the pasture) has become very affectionate towards her and persues her as much as he can. She is not very tolerant of his advances though. The other two palomino babies are growing and coming along with their ground training. One of these days we will get them all together. We have to make some fence adjustments before we can put Slingshot in with the other two pmu foals. She is just too smart and has proven that she can dismantle most fences. We have additional photos of the horses at our new website: http://www.toriseavey.com

Update 8/6/03 - We finally had the camera with us while we visited Slingshot today. She now has the run of 30 acres with her 4 buddies. She is taller and bigger around than any of her pasture mates and luckily they do not bother the goats. Ben and I hope to bring her down to school to be started under saddle sometime this year. We also have a new addition to the herd, we took in a 3 y/o spotted donkey named, Buddy. He is lots of fun to have around, loves oranges and chasing the dog. I just started him under saddle this afternoon and I couldn't ask for a smoother ride. One of these days we will actually get the whole herd together in one pasture, but at least they are all happy and healthy:)

Update 1/11/04 - She looks a little like a wooly mammoth right now. I think she is starting to mellow out some, maybe some draft kicking in. Slingshot was full of beans today when we turned her out to meet the rest of the herd. We finally got all of our other girls together and Slingshot showed off for the whole group. She raced around and bucked and spun, checked out all the empty pens and sampled all the water buckets. Our other girls still aren't quite sure what she is about. Slingshot is still a great mover and we will start her this spring. We keep waiting for her to finish growing but she still changes nearly every week. Her mane is getting very long and thick. I brushed through it this afternoon and it stuck out all over. I just posted some new photos at: www.toriseavey.com/Christmas2003.htm. Slingshots photos are down at the bottom of the page.

Update 9/14/09 - Here is a 10th ride with Tori, baby pic from back in '04

Slingshot still hangs out with our dear friend Rena in Santa Cruz and she is a lovely saddle horse. This is Slingshot with Rena & the infamous Ray Hunt. Slingshot and Rena are best pals and we communicate quite a bit.