New addition

the other day where I graze my horse one of the mares finally had her foal. she had a little filly. the owner wasn't that impressed as he breeds TB's to sell at the yearling sales or ready to run, two year old sales and he reakons that filly's are to hard to sell. We still have one mare to foal there, and yes tonight is another very average cold rainy night an knowing horses she will probably foal in this horrible weather.

This is the foal, doesn't have a name yet

She wasn't even 24hrs old when I took this photo. Its amazing how quickly they get up and go, this little filly was doing some cute little bucks around the stall, was quite funny.  My mare seems to have a pretty big interest in her as well, she really wants to go over and check her out but of course the Mare won't let her anywhere near her foal, she is a pretty good mum, I think this is her 5th foal.

Tonight I have been trying to look up feeding supplements and types of horse feeds for my mare, I think she is in season and she is definetly at the moment a different horse to what she was a month or so ago. I only brought her in July but her energy is way more than she was when I brought her. She is only totally different grass than what she was on and I am feeding her when the last owner, I think, was to scared to feed her as she really wasn't really looking that great, she was a bit to thin and didn't have that much energy, I don't want that lack of energy back I just want to be able to work with it and that energy become useful and not fizzy, anyway I think I am going to change her feed and will see what happens.Found a websire Hi Form NZ which will do free feeding analysis, so might just send them and email and see hwta they come back with.
I have a Dressage comp on the 10th October, am so looking forward to it, just got to find a babysitter for Holly, Rowan(hubby) has a wedding to do and my inlaws are going away on holiday, I guess thats life with babies.....Just hope for fine weather so I can actually get out and school my mare before the event, not much schooling been done of late more just road riding.

Some other up to day date photos of my foal...Mr Grey...
Below Mr Grey had just been wormed, he stood there like a pro while we put the syringe in his mouth but ended up with a lovely big white lipstick bottom lip, was quite cute

Foals need there feet done

I have to say that, I have not done anything with my foal since his feet were last trimmed 6 weeks ago and I was so pleased with my little fella yesterday. David and I went and caught ur little monsters and led them down the race to the tie up yards. the farrier was nearly 45 mins late so Mr Harris and Mr Grey had to stand and wait for that long and they were so good, I got to give Mr Grey a bit of a brish and he loved me giving him and mane brush. He is nearly a full pony height and he is not quite 11 months old. We did a rough measeurement and looks like he will get to at least 16hh maybe a bit bigger. Anyway the last two times the farriers have been we have given the foals some sedadine its just chills out the foals so that they don't get freaked out by the farrier and because they have not had much done to there feet its better this way then the farrier getting hurt or our foals. Yesterday we didn't give them anything and they were perfect boys for the farrier I was so happy, looks like Mr Grey is going to be a nice horse, next step is to get him gelded, just weather not good enough to get that done yet.

early photo of Autumn

This photo was taken in on August 13th, Am posting it so I can look back at her later on to see how she looks. When I first got Autumn she was a bit thin and needed to fill out quite a bit, being only 4 she still has to mature a lot and grow bit more I would say to at least 16.1hh., by Charles Hahndorf,(hanovarian) out of stationbred mare.

Today is Wed 22 sept, and I actually managed to get a ride in, got up at 6.15am, and the sun was actually just starting to come out so since all we have had for the last few weeks is rain I ceased to opportunity and ran, when I got to her she was lying fast asleep in yes the mud patch by the gate, great!! you would never know that the cover I brought her was only a couple weeks old, anyway I got to ride for only about 20 mins and the sky started to go that lovely black that we have been having and manged to get unsaddled and cover on before the rain hit. At least it was a ride, bugger though she has pulled shoe, not surprised in all this mud.Its now 12.40pm and the sun has managed to come out and the sky is actually a lovely blue. I can now hear my baby she has woken up so best i go get her some lunch...

Another ugly day

Woke up this morning and thought there was a hint of it being a sunny day but no the clouds have rolled right ina gain and its still really windy. Today is Sunday an I haven't been able to ride my horse since last wed. Went down and fed her earlier and you would never know that she has 4 white socks, she was pretty keen to see me as usual with a bucket of food and some hay. My husband went on a boys weekend (started on wed) a very long weekend, and is home tomorrow I can't wait, my little sweetness(holly) is really a good little girl but mother really wants a bit of time out and go for a ride and clean up my horse, she has mud everywhere.  I have been looking after a friends property while they were off overseas on holiday and yay they are back, so I no longer have to feed out to his 7 horse(2 in foal mares, 3 foals and 2x 2yr olds) and the few cows he has. Was starting to get a bit worried as the mares have really bagged up and I couldn't get the foal alarm to work so was hoping they would hold on till the owners came home. I have actually enjoyed doing it, and he has helped me out lots by me being able to keep my horse there. They are great people and they have said my horse can stay on there for a while so I am really stoked with that. 
Well I had really go do some book work for Waiau while Holly is fast asleep, lets hope tomorow brings us some sunshine.

The day the sun came out

Finally we had a nice sunny day so Bungle and Holly made the most of the garden, although bungle wasn't that impressed to keep getting flowers and grass on him, but he handled it. then Holly decided that it was just too hard to crawl on the grass and stopped..as you can see in the photo she didn't want to go any further...What a face!!!!

Finally a day of no rain

The weather here is just terrible at the moment I am sure last winter wasn't as bad as this as in how much its rained, I guess this winter has been warmer than last but the rian, I am so sick of getting soaked through feeding out to the animals and the mud and mess of the paddocks is just terrible. but enough of the moan, we have had a few nice days where we have manged to get a ride in not much but Sally and I found a day and we went for it and took the horses for a big trot up kaipikari Hill, its a mother of a hill so was good to get the horses up it, especially at the moment, spring grass coming through the horses all think they are invincible and grow about 10 inches when something like a leaf flys past them, so was great to blow a few of the cobwebs out of there system...pity its pretty much rained ever since and think i have ridden once since then h well summer is coming.....I think!!???....(Sally on the grey, Maggie, and me on Autumn)

Fathers day

Unfortunately Rowan didn't get his first fathers day with his daughter as he had to work but he made up for it when he got home and him and Holly got to hang and do a bit of a jam session, she loves it when Daddy plays the guitar....

Sunshine at Last

Today we finally had a full day of sunshine, started out just awesome no wind and blue skies but as the day wore on it stayed sunny but the wind got up and there was a bit of a chill in the air, but it was so nice to have that then the constant rain we have been having and the Mud!! drives you insane...Going for a ride and taking endless time time to brush off the mud then pick out the hoofs and once you out them back down they are just full again. Roll on summer!!!...Spring is certainly in the air though and we are all having to stuff outr horses with magnesium, as the grass sure is affecting there wee brains, my horse thinks that small birds are certainly very scarey at the moment and is Autumn is often seen doing a beautiful piaffe or Passage around the paddock at any time she thinks of an excuse to flounce around the paddock.  Today I moved a couple of pregnant mares next door to her and she was like oh please come see me i am really putting on a great show over here come on just look at me!! but to no avail being very heavily pregnant they were more intersted in the new grass in the paddock so she gave up and ate her Hay.  Have to say though, the magnesium is certainly working, she was like a donkey...