Welcome

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Welcome back to Katching Up With Katie. And no, we don’t have a foal yet. As of this being filmed,

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we don’t. It is almost February and we don’t have a foal yet. Last year at this time,

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we had three foals and by the end of January, we had four. Here’s the kicker. That’s still

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possible. Very true. I feel [clears throat] one’s going to drop and the rest are just going to follow. Today’s the 29th. Foal-o. We have 48 hours. We have two days and some change

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and we could beat last year. We have five mares in the foaling window and one of them is nine

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days overdue. It could still be possible. You think they’re all going to go tonight?

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I don’t know. I haven’t even looked at any of their udders today yet because we’ve been just doing so many other things and so I’m about to go after this and check on them. But Raven,

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I don’t, she might just be one of those that goes a long time because here’s the thing. Healthily,

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a mare can go a year. Mhm. Like that’s not uncommon. [snorts] I think it’s not necessarily

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the average. The average is what we consider their due date, which is around 340. But that

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means there’s got to be a lot of mares that go over, right? I just have not had that experience.

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And I think there are actually a couple studies about the light theory that I’ve been having.

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And I don’t think we can necessarily use my own mares at this point to say if it’s working or

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not because Raven, I’ve never foaled her out before. This could just be her normal. Indy always goes to her due date in my experience and she’s getting there. And then it’s really

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the last couple of mares that are due. So it’ll be April when they’ve all had their babies in

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the 320s and I made sure that we were intentional in not having their lights on past four or five

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o’clock this year. So we’ll see if they go a little longer. But yeah, we’re at this point

Foal Watch

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everyone in the comments is like, “Turn her light on. Turn her light on.” Like someone last night, “Give us the freaking baby.” Someone last night was like, “Charm that baby out.”

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Well, for Luminara. So we’ve been live streaming the foaling, not foaling, foal watch. And so on

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the nights where we’re not hanging out and we’re just like dead to the world, we turn it on to just the foal camera. And so we’ve been just swapping points of view of watching Raven.

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And that’s fine. Like, a lot of people have been watching it. We’ve been leaving it on for like 10 to 12 hours. Yeah. And so it’s all night. And last night we played Dungeons and Dragons,

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which is a new hyperfixation. We’re watched. And so last night we started a new campaign. And so

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our fellow nerds who were watching with us had some funny jokes. Yeah, I did see someone be like,

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I can’t remember the exact spell, but there was a spell someone kept saying. They were like, “Immedius” or something like that. [laughter] I saw that one, too. Okay. The have to foalus.

3:13

Yeah, something like that. Foalus. So we’re ready. We’re ready. Yeah.

3:20

But at the same time, I keep being like, it’s cold. [laughter] Yeah. Can we wait till it’s 40

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something? Because with the new insulation in the barn, it’s like truly 20 to 25 degrees warmer in

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the barn at night than it is outside. So next week it’s going to be, you know, 30s at night

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instead of zero. And so it’ll be not even jacket weather inside. It’ll be like in the 50s. Yeah.

3:47

But yeah, we’re all tired. I haven’t slept in my own bed. I’ve been in the shop for two

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weeks. Lindsay lives here now. You’re a trooper. An absolute trooper. And Buck, no complaints. Buck

4:00

didn’t even know us a couple weeks ago. He got thrown in for sure. I’ve been acquainted now.

4:06

We’ve been trying to keep you fed. Oh, it’s great here. He sleeps on a bed with a pillow and a blanket. He’s gotten minimum four showers per day.

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Got to get my showers in. We find everyone’s little things,

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quirks, and he likes a good shower. I do.

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But yeah, we’re trucking along. Lindsay does have some questions that we got from Facebook and we’re

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just trying to keep all the new people that are finding my channel through foaling season and through foal watch informed because there are so many different things going on all at once pretty

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much all the time on the farm. Like we’re still waiting on calves. It’s calving season right now.

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We have three heifers that are due like right now. So it’s calving season. It’s foaling season. Like we’re about to start breeding season here soon. I mean, we’re doing horse shows. Like, it’s just,

5:00

there’s always something going on. So do you have, you got something to start us off with? Yes. This one is just a fun one just to start us off. Just to break the ice. Have

5:11

you ever had break the ice because there’s a lot of ice? Because it’s icy outside. Got him.

5:19

So have you ever had a snake encounter? Like someone, like a snake has bitten you?

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I hate snakes. Okay. I hate them. Like, even a little garter snake. I can’t do snakes. No,

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I did have a snake in, hold on. There was one at the barn. The other, it wasn’t me though.

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Like the girls had me freaked out to go into the tack room because there was one that had made a little home and then it was just sticking its head out. But I haven’t, no, I haven’t really

5:49

had any snake encounters myself. What are y’all, snake people?

5:54

I love snakes. No. No. You look like a snake guy. I’m a snake, I’m an anything

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guy. They don’t bother me. I could see you with like a reptile guy. Like a pet snake. I’ve had some pet snakes. Yeah,

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but they were just like ones I found in the yard. Not like real, still. See, that checks out. You’re an old soul. Old country boy.

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Yeah, I’ve had raccoons. I’ve had bobcat pets. Just whatever shows up at the old

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house in Mississippi. [laughter] They would just stick around and then at that point you just feel bad for them. So you’re like, “Here’s some food,” and then now they’re your pet.

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So, my dad is like that. That’s what I’m saying. Kind of an old soul. And I remember one of his

My Dad's Crazy Pet

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favorite stories is that in college, hey y’all, it’s Katie. Did you know that you could bring a

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little piece of Running Springs into your home? And just so you know, if you’re a paid subscriber

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on TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram, you will always get a 25% off discount with your subscriber code

6:50

on the merch store. We’ve got the cutest merch featuring all the farm favorites like our mini cows, mares and foals, goats, donkeys, and of course the mini horses. You’ll find t-shirts,

7:01

cozy hoodies, zip ups, mugs, and so much more. Some of the designs are limited edition,

7:06

so when they’re gone, they’re gone. But don’t worry, a few favorites stick around at least until the end of the year. We’ve also started adding fun new things like diamond art kits,

7:14

paint by number sets, shoe charms, and even coloring books. And trust me, there’s a lot more coming later this year. So check back often and don’t forget to join the email list so you

7:24

don’t miss out on the new drops. So head over to katievanslyke.net to get all of your favorites before they’re gone. And now back to the video. He had a rat snake as a pet. So he had like,

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I guess in the old dorm rooms, I can’t remember. He went to Martin Methodist, I think, or something

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like that. And I don’t know if the dorms were super old or what. They were just like super, like, he had rats in his room. I don’t know what that says about his cleanliness or whatever,

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but he was like, “Yeah, I kept me a rat snake for the rats in my room.” And I was like, “Okay.” And

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he would, he just left, he would let it out during the day and then he put it up at night. Like he

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would just let it be out in his room during the day. And he said the last day I had it, it got cold and he felt it slithering up his leg one night. It got in bed with him for heat

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and [clears throat] it slithered up his leg one night and I was like, I can’t even imagine. And

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so he’s like, “Yeah, after that I went and set it free. It never bit me once until I released it and then it bit me as it left.” Oh, I didn’t like that. Oh my goodness.

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And when they bite you, they leave little teeth in you. Yeah. You’ve seen me with a little anxiety. You’ve never seen me in a panic. Snakes. I would have been in a panic if a snake was up my leg.

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I mean rat snakes get, they’re big. Yeah, they’re big. It wouldn’t even have to be a snake. I could just, that was a graphic. Yeah. Yeah. I could just think

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it was something similar. I don’t take chances. It would have been wild. That’s all I can say. I

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would have gone crazy. I would have been throwing everything, kicking, screaming, flopping covers. I would have embarrassed myself. Your wife would have been like, ick big

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time. [laughter] Oh my god. So Jonathan, my husband, is the opposite where he freaks me out with how comfortable he is with

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snakes. And so he’ll just, he doesn’t care. And I’ve seen him be in predicaments where I’m like,

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you should care a little bit more. Like, why are we putting ourselves in vicinities

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with rattlesnakes and stuff? Like why are we like, no. [laughter]

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I got a lovely video I got to show you. John, you and Jonathan should talk snakes.

How Many Foals Can a Mare Have?

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Okay. So, is there a limit to how many, I wrote, how many mares a foal can have? How many foals a mare can have? I would love to know what

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the record is, like how many has a mare had. I would say generally in my experience

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a [snorts] a career broodmare, so one that that’s like her job, her whole adult life,

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10 to 15 is super normal for those types of mares that start early. Now, the later

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they start kind of the less they can have safely. Like it’s like if they start earlier and they’re

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kept healthy throughout the pregnancies, it’s like their body adapts to it and is used to it and they can hold that pregnancy a lot easier if they’re just kind of staying in broodmare shape.

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But let’s see. Beyonce had six before we retired her for other reasons from carrying for herself.

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I’m trying to think of any of my mares. We don’t know how many Indy’s had. I bet Indy’s had quite a few. She’s only had two with me since 2021. This will be her third one. And I know she had

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at least one to one or one to three before me. But yeah, I would say the norm for a career

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broodmare is I would say maybe eight. Eight to 15. That’s a pretty big range. But I mean,

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there’s some people that have said, like I’ve seen them in my comments being like, “Oh my gosh, back

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in the day we had a mare that carried babies into her late 20s.” And so if she had a baby even every

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other year from the time she was, you know, three, four, five, like that’s over 10. Or if she had

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one every year for a while, that could be in the teens, you know. So it just depends. It depends on

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the mare. It depends on her genetics. It depends on when she starts. It’s a lot of factors.

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And I would say like the oldest mare I’ve ever bred was 20. She was in super good health when

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we bred her. She unfortunately, it was like one of the most fluke things, it was cool. We’ve talked

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about her. But every single day, fellow breeders that I’ve looked up to or thoroughbred farms,

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you’ll see these mares that are having these million-dollar babies at 22 years old,

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24 years old. And I would definitely say it’s harder to get them in foal maybe

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as they get a little bit older. But some mares genetically, they are just absolutely good at it

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and it’s not as hard on their body. And then there’s mares like Gracie, who was a recent

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mare of ours. She’s had three babies and I’m like, I think she’s done. You can just tell.

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So I don’t think there’s necessarily a hard stop. And I think it’s just like women, you know,

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it’s like humans, everybody’s different. Some women, one pregnancy is hell on their body and

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it’s not healthy for them to have more. Other women can pop out 10. It just is what it is.

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Good on you for recognizing that and like other mares that you don’t continue to push them when they’re done. They have zero issues having babies year

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to year because they’re built to be where they have an 11-month pregnancy so that they have

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their babies in the spring, they can be bred pretty quickly after they foal, but their body,

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they don’t even recognize they’re pregnant till later on. So it’s such a long gestation

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that you can breed them and then they’re recovered by the time they have another one. And they basically have this six-month break of just chilling. Like they have their foal, even if

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you rebreed them like a month or two months later, they have their foal on their side for about six months and then they have another six to eight months where they’re just chilling, hanging out.

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And so, you know, sometimes my mares have zero issues having multiple babies in a row. Other

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times they just don’t really hold weight well or whatever and then they need a year off in between.

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Like it just, it’s all very mare dependent. Cool. Thank you for that. I did not know that.

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Okay. How nervous were you, sorry, I need to stop saying um, how nervous were you to foal out the first time? And who did you foal out the first time?

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So, I’ve been watching foals be born since I was like literally a toddler. There are

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photos of me in my footy pajamas down at the barn with Bo when he was born. Yeah, Bo is 26 years old. That would put you about, we don’t need

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to talk about what that’ll put me at. [laughter] And so I’ve been around it and we weren’t the type

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of breeding farm that had as many as we’re doing now. We had one to three babies a year and it

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was consistent. We had them every year. And we had calves every year and we had a couple of my ponies

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foal. So we had some smaller, you know, not minis but my show ponies would foal sometimes. Just

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always was very in it, but I wasn’t necessarily doing the behind the scenes, wasn’t necessarily doing the breeding part of it until later. And I would always help at night and help

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watch and we did have a break there for a little bit where we foaled out for other people because

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we didn’t have any broodmares of our own. And so a couple of our trainers we were working with had

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recent mares that needed foaling out and so we did it for them and stuff like that. And that was more when I was in college and I wasn’t at home, so I wasn’t as hands-on during those years.

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And then I decided, you know what, I want to get back into this. And so we, let’s see, we

16:00

had Annie in 2015, which we, like Annie was born on the property. I don’t know if you knew that.

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I remember you saying that at one point. But Annie, which is one of the mares, she’s due this year, she was born in 2015 when I was in college. And so we had to send her to

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the vet clinic to foal out because it was over spring break and we had a trip. So she went to

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the vet clinic and they foaled her out. She was born like Annie herself was born a day or two

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before we got home. And so that was all good. And I don’t think we had another foal that was

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ours. Like I think we foaled out a boarder and stuff like that. I don’t think we had another foal that was ours until 2019. So there was a little gap there.

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And 2019, I remember my parents were there, but I did it all, which was with

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Beyonce’s first baby, Frankie. And Frankie ended up passing away at two weeks old. She ran into a fence and broke her neck. Freak accident. So that was Beyonce’s oldest filly.

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And then with Stevie on it was pretty much me. And so the first one that I can remember where

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I did not have the option to call for backup, I didn’t have this sense of safety to be like,

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“Hey mom” or “hey dad” or “hey whoever, can you come see if everything’s whatever,”

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the first time I had no safety net other than calling my vet in was Penelope, which was 2023.

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Yeah. So like I had done some stuff before that by myself, but they were like up at the house and I’d be like,

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“Hey,” or like call and ask questions or whatever. They went on like a cruise or something over

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Penelope and I was like, bro, just leaving me, just deserting me. And so Penelope was born a little early. So I think they were supposed to be home by her

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due date, but she was born in the early 320s. And so I think we did a video of that because

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I think one of the YouTube videos from Penelope’s birth was me sitting down talking about the fact

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that that was like the first time I had been just like, no backup. And it was on Jonathan’s phone.

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Yeah. We didn’t get that on film. And we had, all of a sudden she changed like super quick that day and was dripping milk and stuff. I

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was like, shoot, I don’t have any enemas. I don’t have any, like she was the first mare of the year. Like I had nothing. And so I went to Walgreens at like 11 o’clock that night and that was a viral

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video actually. It ended up being a viral video where I went to go get enemas, went to go get

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more betadine or iodine or whatever. And when I got back, literally her foal alert went off within

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an hour. Like feet were coming out like that. And so that was a wild ride. But that was I think that

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was my first solo, like my first free solo. Yeah. No backup, no safety rope, no nothing.

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I meant free solo, like the guy that’s been climbing the buildings, Alex Honnold. Yeah. Yeah. People were surprised that he,

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like climbed it beforehand to make sure it was climbable there and everyone’s like, you thought he was just going to climb it without making sure he could climb it. So

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he climbed it with a rope connected first just to make sure it was climbable. He had

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the correct hand grabs or whatever just to make sure he could do it. Honestly, I didn’t even think about that. And then did not even think about that.

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Yeah, I didn’t realize it was, he did it either and then everyone was like, okay, that makes. Did he climb down or do they go get him with a helicopter?

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A lot of times he’ll rappel down. I don’t know if he did it on that one, on the building. How did he get down? I’m not sure. We should look that up.

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I saw like a TikTok where he said like sometimes I climb down, sometimes I rappel, sometimes I’ll just, I think it was on it. Yeah, I’m sure he was on Netflix.

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Yeah, it was live on Netflix. Yeah, I feel like from a building like that, I’d be like helicopter. Just grab the, lift up. Or farming just, yeah.

20:07

Whenever you wean cows, is it different from horses or is it the same? So we try our best to go off of the Farmer’s Almanac for all of our weaning. It does make

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a difference. I swear it does. But there is a little bit tighter of a, you want to wean them

20:48

as close to 205 as possible. So, because our calving season is spread out so far,

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we have like multiple weanings. So sometimes like the groups, you know, someone might be a little

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over 205, whatever. And so we do it in batches. So we’re not just weaning one calf at a time.

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And what we do is we separate them and we put the mamas in a different field and the babies

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close to the barn and we feed them and try to keep them as low stress as possible. But yeah,

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we basically do it in batches. It’s a little bit different but same concept.

21:26

How to determine the best mixture of feed for your horses. So, I am very lucky to have found Tribute Equine Nutrition. This is not, I didn’t know

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she was going to ask this and this is not an ad. I just meant in like, do you like have a specific.

21:42

Well, right. But I utilize their free feed plans. So when I decided to swap over to Tribute,

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they have an option to make a feed plan and they will, like you say, “Hey, here’s my horse. Send in pictures. Here’s some medical issues they have, here’s their age, here’s their

22:02

activity level, like whatever. Help me feed him.” So you’ve done that for every horse pretty much. Yeah. And like we’ll make some changes, you know, on our own, but basically, yeah.

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And so a lot of it’s trial and error. A lot of it is like, you know, you give them what you think

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they need and then if they’re gaining too much weight, if they’re not gaining enough weight, if they’re too high energy, you know, like you can kind of figure out what they need. But yeah,

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I’ve utilized over the past couple years the Tribute free feed plan, which is, I did not mean,

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this was not a shameless plug. She did not know I was asking for this to be an ad, but I’ll go ahead and put the link to that in the description. We were having a conversation. This is one of my

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questions actually. Okay. We were having a conversation the other day about something you used to watch as a kid and I can’t

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remember what it’s called, but I showed her, I don’t know why this came in my brain the other day and I found a couple clips on TikTok and I don’t even know how you would watch it now because

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it was I think it’s on VHS and it’s called Chatter Happy Ponies and it was my favorite show as a kid

Chatter Happy Ponies

23:12

and I think if you look it up as to what it is, my content now will make so much sense. Like I

23:20

didn’t even correlate that I make videos where I give narrations to animals and a horse will

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be standing out in the middle of a pasture and I’ll come up with something that makes it that they’re thinking for a full minute and it makes so much sense after realizing that was the main

23:40

show that I watched as a small child. Sparky’s first day. [laughter]

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The mouth moving on the horses is great. Like it’s just a bunch of horses. Like it was one of those. [laughter] I literally feel like I’m just watching you, your YouTube channel.

23:58

Yeah. [laughter] Like it was one of those things where it’s like Charlie Brown where the adults can’t talk, it was like, and the horses talk and they just save the

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day and like the kids that rode them were like, you know, it was more so the horses were the main

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characters and I’m like, oh my gosh, like horse Power Rangers. This is so true. I’m just living

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my Chatter Happy Ponies life. [laughter] Did you ever expect to?

24:26

No. I always had chalked it up that I would never be able to afford horses past the age where my dad

24:33

paid for them. [laughter] No. And here you are. So, okay, the foal alert. This is a question about,

24:41

we get a lot about the foal alert. [snorts] Okay. How do you know which one goes off?

24:47

So, like, we’re watching the cameras like hawks. Okay. And honestly, last year, was there a time where the foal alert went off when we weren’t already walking out the door?

24:57

I don’t think so. Yeah, we’re pretty much walking out the door before it goes off. So generally speaking, they give us some

25:04

sort of signs. Not always. I mean, Erlene had her baby last year without anyone knowing. We

25:10

woke up to a baby. Generally, we will have an idea of, okay, this one’s getting closer. And

25:17

then they are very obvious when they are in labor and when they’re contracting and when

25:23

they’re having those early labor signs. So like every, it’s funny watching the live streams and I’ll read the chat for a minute and everyone’s like, “She’s pushing.” I’m like,

25:31

I promise she’s not. You will know. You will know when it’s happening. And so generally speaking,

25:38

we know when it’s happening before that. But if we were to fall asleep and if we were to,

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I have this TV that is hooked up to my cameras and I can see all cameras at once. That would be

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my first go-to. I would go look on the big screen and whoever is distressed doing it.

25:59

Yeah. I’m like, all right, I’m on my way. And we’d be on the way down to the barn. And if I had to, I do a quick lap at the barn.

26:06

Yeah. Who’s down. Who’s. But there’s been a couple times that mares have surprised me. Like one time in 2023, I think it was 2023, when Ethel had Patrick,

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that was a foal that unfortunately passed away. So Patrick, I remember she was in the mid-320s,

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hadn’t even put her foal alert in yet because she wasn’t really showing signs and didn’t have straw

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down. Wasn’t expecting it. Went to the barn to check on things. Just happened to walk in,

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look in, feed her out. I’m like, and so like I got the whole thing on film because I just propped my phone up on the stall and like she ended up needing help because he had some like

26:54

major issues. His legs were like bent up and stuff and that’s why she no longer has babies.

27:01

And so I had to help her and so I just literally propped it up and that’s how

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it got on film. But anyway, yeah, it was sometimes just super unexpected.

27:14

So there’s no like, this is, this foal alert went off. No. Okay, cool. No, unfortunately. Good to know.

27:21

It’s all just, it’s all a pre-recorded, and that’s another thing. They’re like, “We’re going to hear the foal alert.” I’m like, “No, I’m so sorry.” Sorry. It’s literally just

27:28

like I’m getting a phone call and then I answer it and they say it’s from my own home phone number [snorts] and they say, “Foal alert. Your mare is foaling.” That’s it.

27:37

That’s it. Yeah. Huh. I thought it would be like woo, foal alert. Something like louder.

27:46

Well, the one night that the fire alarm went off, we were all like, this is not the foal alert. [laughter] We could rig up a little button and some lights.

27:56

Yeah, I keep saying I want like a gong. Okay. A foal gong.

28:03

Boom. Whenever it’s born, gong it. Or whenever it’s coming out, gong it. Or do we do like a bell? A little foal alert bell.

28:11

Yeah, that could be good to wake everybody up. Rally the troops. Yeah, I like that because sometimes y’all are sleeping and I’m the only one up watching.

28:19

And then like I think with Phoebe last year because she had it in the middle of the night. I think everyone was already kind of like up, asleep, and I called everyone down.

28:29

What you should have done is when the foal alert goes off, it should trip a lever that

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strikes a match, which and then lights a fire over by the barn, the big flame. And

28:42

then somebody over here is standing watch. And then when they see the flame smoke, then they light this flame and then we’re on the way. Then they bust to the door and they say, “The

28:53

beacons are lit. Gondor calls for aid.” [laughter] And then you say, “And for those that don’t know,

29:04

that was Lord of the Rings nerd out.” [laughter] Let’s get that going. The beacons are

29:10

lit. The beacons are lit. She’s sending all the way. [laughter] Oh my gosh. You have lights all the way down the road on the farm and they just [laughter] you’re

29:22

like, the beacons are lit. Oh my.

29:28

Okay. All right. This is a donkey question. Can donkeys get colic?

Can Donkeys Colic?

29:34

Yeah, absolutely. They’re an equine species. So even though they’re not a horse, they’re still

29:40

an equine species and they have the same gut, the same digestive tract, the same everything.

29:48

So yeah, they [clears throat] absolutely can. I haven’t had one of my donkeys colic. But have you?

29:56

No. That’s good. How did your donkeys fare during the weather? I thought they were going to be freezing

30:03

and they didn’t even look like there was anything going on. Did you blanket them? No. I mean, they’ve got their nice little house though. Like they have like a full

30:11

house to get underneath. Not even like a lean-to. They can get in. Yeah, they can get in. Yeah. It’s fully, and it’s two rooms. So

30:17

like there’s the door and then the front room and then they can [snorts] go further into a back room

30:23

and then, you know, we put all the hay and stuff in the back room. But I mean, it’d be the middle of the night and I would go out there and check on them. I’m like, why are you not in your house?

30:32

Oh, they were out in the, they would just get out and play. Like jumping on each other and

30:40

just being rough around. That’s so cute. Was Kiko as long-haired as he was last winter? I clipped him about maybe three or four months

30:50

ago and so it’s not as long but it’s long but it looks tidy.

30:56

Yeah. He was so shaggy last year. Yeah. He just had like all of his, you know,

31:08

when like the hair switches from like baby hair to like adult hair and they look kind of mangy.

31:13

Yeah. So I was like, you know what, you need to feel good about yourself. So I gave him a little trim up and he looked great and then

31:22

that just kind of grew back out to full length. Now, I blanketed mine just because they don’t have

31:27

a full house to get in and it was, they have a two-sided shed, so depending on the wind, like they can get away from it and it’s deep enough that they can get in there. Like they

31:36

were dry. We went and checked on them and they were always dry, warm, toasty, but I blanketed them just because like I was worried more about just them getting wet and then it was windy,

31:47

too. Yeah. But they were toasty every time I went out there. They didn’t care about being out there.

31:52

I mean, for the most part, if they’re not acting cold, I just let them be.

32:00

Yeah. If they’re like, I’m like, oh, you look like you might be cold. Mhm. Then we’ll maybe blanket him or do it. Have you had to blanket Pico yet?

32:10

No. Pico has never had a blanket on his life. He’s never had a blanket on. He was who I was most worried about because he’s still a baby. He’s still the youngest and smallest. Because I

32:19

remember when you think he’s as small as Pretzel? I mean, they look very similar.

32:27

Is he going to be as small as Pretzel, you think? I don’t know. You think he’ll be bigger? He might be a little bigger. Dolly. So did you know that he had

32:36

a Dolly baby before like I got Dolly? He had Dolly before I had Dolly.

32:43

No, I had no idea. The lore. The donkey lore. The donkey lore. So, I got Blanche first,

32:50

then I’m like, I need another donkey. Like, she needs a friend. She needs another. Did you know Nate at this point? Yeah.

32:56

And then he had Buck and Pretzel, but earlier he had had Dolly and Pretzel, which was Dolly and

33:05

her baby Pretzel. But then they had thought they got Dolly and a little jenny. Like,

33:10

they thought Pretzel was a jenny. He was not a jenny. He was a little jack. They didn’t want like Dolly hated him. They didn’t want him breeding his mom and like they didn’t have

33:19

space to separate them. And why would you want to separate them? So they traded Dolly for Buck,

33:25

which is another little boy. And so Dolly went to live with some other donkey girls, jennies. But then the people moved, yada yada yada, they needed a home for Dolly. I took Dolly.

33:37

Wow. Okay. That’s the lore. That’s the lore. Okay. So then when Dolly had a baby, it was a natural brothers reuniting.

33:47

Yeah, [snorts] they’re very cute. And just recently they started, they’re the ones who play

33:55

together now. They’re the two youngest. Yeah, that’s cute. You have three and a half donkeys. Three and a half. Because Eli is half his and like

34:06

it’s really the neighbors, but he stays there. They’re kind of all merged and live together now.

34:11

Yeah, everyone takes care of all of them. That’s cool. So it’s like a community.

34:17

Donkey lore. Yeah, donkey lore. Cool. Cool. Cool. What job would everyone do if

34:22

they couldn’t do anything related to what they’re doing now? So like completely different fields.

34:28

Anything related as in? So like you can’t do videography or photography.

34:35

Okay. Okay. Okay. She wouldn’t be able to breed horses or cows or do social media.

34:40

Okay, let’s see. Oh, well, yeah, that’s the big one. Yeah.

34:46

What would everybody do? I would do hair and makeup. Okay. You’re really good at makeup. I don’t know. I haven’t seen.

34:53

You know what? [laughter] You have only seen me be a hobbit. Really? [laughter] Well, I mean, I didn’t know

35:00

you had any love for hair or makeup. You got nice hair and makeup. I didn’t know that was something that you like to do yourself. We doesn’t know me. Okay.

35:08

She does. I saved it. Slack. She’s been trying to do better. I brought it back. [laughter] Okay. You’ve only seen me in winter and for two

35:22

weeks. For two weeks. I have looked like Trunchbull. Miss Trunchbull two weeks.

35:29

Okay, I understand. But no, I actually used to do makeup and then like honestly wore a

35:36

full beat every day of my life until about the age of 24, 25 and then was like tone this down.

35:44

So she gets pretty and dressed up every now and it’s like I either look like this or I

35:50

go full beat. Yeah, there’s not really an in between. I’ve been trying for an in between.

35:59

It lasted about a week. Anyway, what’s y’all’s. Once foal alert or once foal watch hit, that’s when it kind of like disappeared.

36:08

No, but I love doing, I used to do hair and makeup at horse shows and do like prom makeup and stuff

36:16

like that and hair. I freaking love it. I’ve done like so many of my friends’ wedding hair and I

36:21

enjoy it very much. It’s awesome. What would you do?

Question for Buck!

36:31

If I couldn’t do video or photography stuff, I don’t know. I mean, I think the dream growing

36:36

up was always to work with my dad, being on the other side of the camera and the hunting game and, you know, traveling with him and getting to just, you know, hunt, be on the other side of

36:46

the camera. But my father also was doing the video stuff, too. He was kind of half and half. Yeah,

36:52

either that or I don’t know, on the other side of the camera. I always wanted to be like an action

37:01

sports type of guy. Okay. Whether that was like motocross or something like that.

37:06

I could see you doing that. Yeah, something like that. That’d be cool.

37:13

So that’s more of like a, okay, you’d want to be like an athlete. Yeah, I guess that’s not really a job. Could be.

37:20

Outside the box. Buck. What? [clears throat] I mean, or you’re just doing your dream so hard that there’s no other options.

37:27

Yeah, that’s definitely what it is for [laughter] sure. Yeah. I mean,

37:33

my dream was to always not work for something that I didn’t enjoy. And I’ve been doing that

37:40

right now more than ever. But I’ve been doing that for a while, so I’ve been pretty happy.

37:47

Is this, are we thinking more like realistic or. Yeah. Oh, I was going realistic, but you. I think if I think if we’re going realistic,

38:54

I would say I would either be, I’d try to get into real estate, try to be a realtor,

38:59

or what I was doing all of my younger life, which was kind of like what Jonathan was doing,

39:06

landscape. I keep calling, I’ve got a best friend named Joseph and I always want to call him Joseph. Jonathan. [laughter] Joseph is, yeah, he’s a guy I grew up with. But yeah,

39:17

something like that where it was like I did a lot of landscaping, would have wanted to move into more of a like excavation and being more of like a foreman type, like running the show.

39:28

Yeah. Not as much in the field. Gotcha. Lowkey thought that was going somewhere else. What is your. Yeah.

39:35

What would you do? Dude, I love retail. Yeah. I really enjoy retail.

39:42

You’re a special human, dude. I’ve worked in American Eagle, in J. Crew Factory, Loft, Levi’s, Perry Ellis. I have a nice Perry Ellis jacket. Perry Ellis.

39:55

What do you like about retail? So, I guess I’m not, it’s just as a

40:01

not wanting to like interact with strangers all, like that’s not my strength. It’s so

40:08

foreign to be like something you want to do. I really enjoy like talking to people. So,

40:15

I used to work at Lip Lab before I worked here and I really enjoyed the face-to-face interaction and

40:21

having to like force a, not force a conversation but have to keep a conversation up since you’re

40:27

sitting across from someone for an hour. Yeah. But like with shopping, people come in and out. You can meet people from all over the world,

40:33

which I mean you can do that at any job, right? But within a mall, like whenever I worked at

40:39

Opry Mills, people would come from the airport and just be like, “Oh yeah, I’m at my layover going to Australia.” And I’m like, “Oh, okay, cool.” Like, yeah. But I just really like that.

40:48

And money handling. I love counting cash. I love doing deposits. Oh, so you could be banker. I would totally, I could maybe,

40:56

probably not. I don’t know. You know, I was gonna make fun of

41:02

you for a second. I was gonna say, you’re like, I love money handling and counting, and I was like how long it took for us to figure out a payroll debacle earlier.

41:12

I didn’t say I was good at it. [laughter] We had to bring in the finance bro.

41:18

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We did. He had to help a little bit. Which, to be fair, my degree is in

41:24

accounting. He is an accountant. What? Yeah. Lore. No.

41:31

I stand by, I rarely meet someone that actually does the job that they went to college for.

41:36

Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know anybody. I’ve told the story a million times about me not going to college. But like everyone I know,

41:44

I feel like other than maybe if someone had like a blanket business degree and then they work as a,

41:51

you know, have their own business or something. But other than that, the amount of accountants I meet that are doing something else, or someone that started out in nursing and now they like,

42:00

it just, no one ever does the same thing they think they’re going to do when they’re 18 to 20. No, no, not at all. Did you go to college? I forgot.

42:10

Yeah, I did four whole weeks. It was fun. [laughter] It was a great time. I dropped out.

42:19

I mean, I left. I had all A’s whenever I left, but I was like four weeks in is like you’ve done, or I did the first semester. [laughter] It probably wasn’t four weeks. I did whatever the first

42:28

semester was until Christmas and then on Christmas break I was like, man, this is lame, man. This

42:33

is like the same thing I was doing in eighth, ninth, 10th grade. And I was in there for that,

42:38

you know, your standard, I’m in business degree, and it just wasn’t going anywhere. So I left and

42:44

spent all the money I had in my pocket to buy a drone and a camera. And that’s where it started. Nice. And here we are.

42:49

Here we are. Here we are. I like it. Yeah. Well, anyway, we’re about to have to go put some more horses out because

42:55

we’re using the arena right now for lots of turnout. It’s still

That's All Folks

43:01

icy outside. It’s a little dangerous for the horses to go out. If you missed that video, by the time this is posted, it’ll be up. There’s a video of the yearlings and the cows going out

43:10

and it’s pretty special. So go watch that. Hope y’all enjoyed. If you haven’t seen it, there’s new Running Springs merch. Oh, nice. There’s Valentine’s Day merch right now. Oh,

43:20

there’s so much stuff on the Katy Van Slyke store. So go to katyvanslyke.net for that. And check out the live streams if you’re interested in it. We’ve been doing it

43:29

quite a bit and we plan on doing more of it. And yeah, let us know what you would like to see in future Katching Up With Katie episodes or future YouTube videos. And we’ll see you next week