Poppy’s Easter Foal
Poppy foaled on Easter Sunday! A tiny little colt, probably early but well. Despite keeping a close eye on Poppy, the minute we turned our backs she foaled! Here he is on his first days out.
Add comment April 9th, 2010
May goes to her new home in Germany
Little May’s last photo at Kettlesnout on the day she departed for Germany. We were very sad to see her leave but sure she will soon settle in her new home.
May was vetted the day she travelled and export papers completed - all the necessaries/Defra paperwork was arranged by Owen Jones who is very experienced in international pony transport which makes the process easy for vendors [the hard bit being them leaving].
Even though she has gone further afield, we will visit May in the summer if our plans to tour Europe come to fruition.
Add comment March 29th, 2010
And After - Foxy Foals!
Foxy gave birth to a gorgeous filly foal at 3.45am on Saturday. We had been watching her on camera and saw her rolling around midnight, then she seemed to settle and went to sleep but was then just a bit more restless than usual but when I woke at 3.30am, I could see her down straining.
When I got to the stable she was just starting the second stage, then came 2 tiny feet and the tip of her nose. The foal was born without any problems and thankfully Foxy seemed to be much better than last time. The foal was soon on her feet sucking but being a chilly night I put the dog coat on her for extra warmth. Here are pics of her first 3 days! She’s a real sweetie and very much like her full sister Queen Bee.
Add comment March 16th, 2010
Foxy Before Foaling!
 
Here’s Fox and Pops 3 days before Fox foaled - Fox is really moulting [as you can see from the amount of hair groomed out] which some say they do more when close to foaling. You can see her belly is quite low and also shown is a photo of her bag to show it’s size at that stage!
Add comment March 16th, 2010
Little May
Little May has been sold to a lovely new home - a pony stud in Germany so we hope she’ll soon settle and be happy there. It looks a beautiful spot - I’m tempted to go with her!
Add comment March 9th, 2010
Foaling Update
Foxy is now looking quite bagged up and yesterday evening and again this morning, the foal could be seen kicking, in fact when I put my hand on her abdomen, I could clearly feel the foals movements - quite amazing!
The foal will be full brother/sister to Queen Bee so it will be interesting to compare them. With her first foal, Foxy foaled 319 days from the date she ran with the stallion, so on that basis she could possibly foal around 5th March.
Add comment February 19th, 2010
Horse Help
If you live in the Lancashire area and need reliable horse help, see our For Sale page “Other Adverts” for details.
Add comment February 19th, 2010
Countdown to 2010 Foals
Today for the first time, I saw that Foxy is just starting to bag up, which last time she did around 4 weeks prior to foaling. No significant signs yet on the other 3 mares but still it’s time to get the foaling box ready! As advised by our first class mentors at the Dilston Stud, we keep an annual record of each mare and each foaling as it helps to look back and see any trends. Close observation is now the key and we watch for any out of character behaviour prior to foaling which can be small things like laying down more or being alone.
In preparation, we’ve just purchased a flash new dog rug for any early foals - black with silver stars! We use them when they are newly born and the weather is cold.
18 - 20″ seem about the right size for newborns.
As well as having the obvious handy - clean bucket/warm water, mobile phone, vets number, headcollar etc, in our foaling box we keep:
- Tail bandage
- Lubrel lubricant
- Sterilised scissors, cord & string
- Enemas
- Plastic bags / bin bag for afterbirth
- Hand wipes / kitchen roll
- Clean Towels
- Purple spray for foals navel
- Jug for expressing colostrum/milk & feeding bottle
- Large syringe
- Hibiscrub
- Disposable gloves
- Wound powder
- Torch
- Camera & video [though never used video!] - with full charge!
We’ll no doubt realise we’ve forgotten something! With all the best intentions of scrubbing hands with hibiscrub, often there’s little time and events seem to take over with some of the fast foalings we’ve had.
Add comment February 10th, 2010
2010 Foals - Colour Probability
We’ve become quite fascinated by colour genetics, spurred on by Ann, friend and fellow shetland breeder when she visited with her “Horse Colour Explained” [Jeanette Gower] book - which we promptly ordered from Amazon.
With 4 foals due , we’ve calculated the colour probabilities for each foal by taking sire and dam colours and account of whether, in the case of piebald/skewbald [tobiano], the parents are homozygous [always breed broken coloured] or heterozygous [breed broken and solid colour] so here are the foal colour probabilities for each 2010 foal:
Dam: Charlottes Moonlight [black tobiano]
Sire:Â Merriville Prince Charming [black tobiano]
Foal:
70.31% black tobiano
23.44% black
4.69% chestnut tobiano
1.56% chestnut
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Dam: Merriville Emma Jane [chestnut]
Sire: Dilston Piper [chestnut tobiano]
Foal:
50% chestnut tobiano
50% chestnut
——————————————————————————————-
Dam: Applegarth Princess Poppy [chestnut tobiano]
Sire: Dilston Piper [chestnut tobiano]
Foal:
75% chestnut tobiano
25% chestnut
——————————————————————————————-
Dam: Dilston Foxglove [palomino tobiano]
Sire:Â Merriville Prince Charming [black tobiano]
Foal:
12.5% smoky black tobiano
12.5% buckskin tobiano
12.5% black tobiano
12.5% bay tobiano
12.5% palomino tobiano
12.5% chestnut tobiano
4.17% smoky black
4.17% buckskin
4.17% black
4.17% bay
4.17% palomino
4.17% chestnut
——————————————————————————————-
So it’s possible, though not probable, that we could get 4 chestnut foals but, whatever the colour, as long as they’re well that’s what counts!
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1 comment January 28th, 2010
Difficult Decision
It has been a hard decision but we have decided to advertise Little May for sale. Having kept 2 foals from last year, we really weren’t looking to increase numbers so it was a question of who to part with. Despite having had May from a foal, we felt she would be an easy pony to find a good new home for. She is a very friendly pony and it’s just a genuine sale of a very genuine pony. More photos on our for sale page, we will only sell her to a very good, long term home.
Add comment January 25th, 2010