Friday was pretty uneventful. I did night chores again and gave Rory a good scritching.Saturday we put them out in the new field for half an hour, with the two pregnant broodmares. They were very interested in the foals and came over to see them. Both mums were protective and there was a good bit of milling around. They did some running around too (and I got some good shots of Rory and his mum).
The bay preggie mare attached herself to Rory and his mum and at one point Rory went to her, ignoring her "P*** off!" and mouthing. She took a swing at him with one hind leg (thank gods she missed). I don't know if he thought she was mum or what. He was pretty persistent and his mum wasn't upset. Anyway, I went and brought him away from that mare and back to his mum. Then just hung out with him for a bit, scratching him and scrubbing mosquitoes off him. He pooped while I was standing with him - it's still very runny, but the liquid jet is absent.
We took the two mares out a bit later and left the two foals (and mums) to see how they'd do. It was hilarious to watch.Rory started bouncing. Rearing, bucking, leaping into the air - you name it, he did it. Then he started running in big circles, very fast. He went to try and get the other foal to play without any luck. The other foal hid behind his mum. So Rory tried running past them very fast to try and entice the other foal away. After a bit he took a break and nibbled a bit before bouncing again. The other foal got a little daring and cantered away from his mum. Rory spotted him and ZOOMed over at high speed, scaring the other foal back to his mum. Rory did the drive by gallops a couple more times. The other foal moved away from his mum again a bit later, towards Rory this time. Rory cantered slowly towards him and then started bouncing with each stride, flinging his forelegs up and forward as an invitation to play. The other foal's eyes popped and he ran back to mum yet again. We felt sorry for both of them. Rory wanted to play so badly, and the other foal was scared of his antics. We didn't leave them out for very long - the alfalfa is knee high.
Rory has discovered that he can whinny. He's been a very quiet foal, but on Sunday he was whinnying a fair bit. We put the two mares and foals out in the new field again on Sunday. There was a lot less activity this time. Rory did some bucking and playing and running very fast for the first ten minutes or so, without really trying to engage the other foal today. After the BO chased his mum away from the in-progress shelter, they had a lovely trot across the field to near the other mare and foal and the two foals were showing some interest in each other at about the time we had to bring them in. The other foal's mum is getting used to Rory and not objecting when he comes up close now. It's progress and I'm sure they'll be tearing around together in a week or so.
I gave him a bum wash again last night. He was good. He wasn't sure about the zinc, but once I started rubbing it on he liked it. I picked up all four feet without needing to have the halter on him. He's getting good at that. Good thing - he's going to have to get his feet done soon.One more note. Rory has the typical baby scrapes/wear marks on his hocks and the hair is growing back in black (or extremely dark brown). His mane has the dark growth at the base, and on the backs of his ears the new hair is also a very dark greyish, blackish, maybe brown colour. The area around his eyes looks quite dark as well, though I can see chestnut hairs very close to his eyes. I can hardly wait to see what colour he turns out. Perhaps he will be a very dark chestnut - that would be (he could wear red!) or perhaps he will do what last year's (unrelated) foal did go darker after the foal coat, and then lighten up again in the spring or perhaps he has the sooty gene to darken his chestnut colour.
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