We thought Emma might have foaled around 8th May but looks like she may have gone on another season, so probably looking up to 29th May or within the next week. Today she tested around 40% chance of foaling. Here she is in the field yesterday, she never seems to look quite a big as some of the mares. We hope for a happy outcome for Emma this year after losing her beautiful filly last year.
May 23rd, 2013
Suki had a lovely piebald colt at noon on 11th May. Here’s a few pics taken when he was born and up to yesterday. Cherry, our filly foal loves him. She was already a fan of Suki’s before he was born and now hangs out even more with Suki and her foal.
Less than an hour old!
Out with Suki
Happily Munching!
Luca with his girlfriend Cherry
Best Friends
Suki has 2 foals!
May 23rd, 2013
Rosie had her filly at 9pm yesterday. We’d tested Rosie yesterday morning and she tested in the 95% foaling range which indicates foaling within 12 hours! So we were all glued to the cameras all day – my mum came for tea and, despite it not being very exciting viewing, she was hooked too! We even had Rosie on the ipad sat on the table at dinner!
It got to 8pm and Rosie was mouching around and munching hay, Sarah decided she would stay until 9pm and then depart back to Leeds and at 8.55pm Rosie went down…… when we reached the stable only 2 minutes away, Cherry was all but born – talk about fast!
All was fine and Rosie had a third filly for us so we can’t ask for more. Lots of great pics taken by Pip on our facebook page – we’ve had lots of lovely comments and likes, here’s a few more pics. She wore her John Whitaker dog fleece today and looked very smart!!!
April 2nd, 2013
Finally, Rosie is starting to get her milk bag. She could have foaled from 9th March but possibly will go now to the end of the month….. watch this space!
March 18th, 2013
We did an analysis of when our foals have been born to look at any trends – of course it won’t necessarily reconcile with anyone else’s experience but nevertheless we found the results interesting: -
68% of foals were born in darkness hours [or just as it came dark]. 32% were born in daylight hours.
Foxy foaled Bee at 9.45pm
New born Faline [Emma's foal] born at 12.15pm
With 68% born during darkness, there’s still a reasonable percentage foaling during the day, it’s interesting to see that we’ve no births from 5am to noon. Only one mare has foaled at the same time each time [within 15 mins]. 2 mares have only foaled at night and the rest have had both day and night time foalings.
We’ll see what this year brings – no doubt we all prefer daytime, it beats the waiting around for foals to feed and pass meconium when we could be tucked up in our warm beds! I’ll have a quiet word with Rosie tomorrow and see if she’ll oblige!
March 3rd, 2013
Cindy [Kettlesnout Cinderella] aka Louley is 6 today! Here she is on the lawn today.
Can’t believe that it is 6 years ago today that we found baby Cindy in the field, wet and cold, with Rosie. Ironically, it could possibly have been a fox that dragged her under the fence from her real mum, Foxy, into Rosie’s field. Eventually, we figured out that she wasn’t Rosie’s and she was subsequently reunited with Foxy. The vet initially thought I was crazy when I called her out a second time telling her this was our conclusion.
Cindy is rescued and brought inside with Rosie who looked after her when she became separated from Foxy.
After 2 plasma infusions [ and a huge vet bill] and 2 weeks on ICU [our converted stable] Cindy pulled through and is a super loving little girl. I read that foals are most impressionable in their first 3 weeks and given that we were with Cindy virtually 24/7 , we think that’s a factor why she is so people friendly. She would often copy Pip, jumping when she jumped and playing chase around the stable!
Recovered and out with her mum Foxy
Playing chase with Pip!
Looking for birthday treats, Cindy would have come inside today if we’d let her!
Cindy didn’t get in foal to our stallion Prince Charming, which is a shame but we’re hoping for a foal in 2014 to our new stallion, Tom.
We now have a supply of frozen colostrum in our freezer… just in case – the alternative plasma [when foals miss their colostrum] comes at a high price!
February 27th, 2013
Following the success of testing milk last year to predict foaling, we’ll be using it again once the mares have started to bag up. It’s really easy to use – simply express half a ml of milk, mix with distilled water and dip with the tester strip for an immediate result! You just then compare the colours on the strip to establish the proximity of foaling.
The amount of milk needed for testing is minimal and a gentle approach has meant the mares haven’t minded at all so I’d recommend giving it a try. The kit comes complete with everything needed including collection pot and syringes.
February 7th, 2013
Was happy to see and feel Rosie’s foal moving today, she probably has just over a month to go now. We’ve started to give her a bit of mix to make sure she gets enough – the dreaded hyperlipaemia which shetlands are more prone to, although rare is always at the back of my mind. Rosie is still with the herd for the moment where she is settled so we have an arrangement where she knows to follow me to the top of the field after I’ve delivered fresh hay to the others and there she has her feed without being disturbed.
Rosie is a total sweetheart, so loving and never puts a hoof wrong. She’s had 2 fillies whilst with us to Piper so we’ll see what she has this year to Prince.
February 7th, 2013
The route for the Tour de France 2014 is to pass right alongside one of our fields so we are guaranteed a great view. We expect that, given the ponies inquisitive natures, they will also be there to watch the action.
Should be a good photo opportunity so watch this space….. [July 2014]
February 7th, 2013
Our wonderful stallions Piper and Prince are now both in their new homes, Piper in Finland and Prince in Holland. Both have been transported by Owen Jones who takes care of all the paperwork and makes selling ponies to Europe very straight forward.
We miss both boys who we’ve owned for over 7 years, both bought as foals. I can honestly say that neither put a foot wrong whilst with us so of course we wanted good homes for them. Both new owners are pleased with them and we look forward to hearing news about them. We’ve had some super photos of Piper already which have been a big hit our facebook page. A couple of early photos below of when they came to us, more on facebook – happy memories!
January 16th, 2013