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Some of you may have seen that we tried to…

Some of you may have seen that we tried to introduce our two riding Horses with Lady and her Foal. So that it did not become to over bearing for the Foal, we would introduce Breeze first, half an hour later we would try Arnie. It did not work, Breeze being Breeze decided she would show who was in charge, which she is, although she is the smallest of our Horses, being 14.2hh. As soon as she went in the field she started to round Lady and the Foal up, of course Lady did not want Breeze to be to near the Foal and started to run away. The trouble with Breeze is that she wont give up, and immediately it became a chase. When Breeze got to near, Lady gave the sign that she was going to kick out, to stop Breeze. Most Horses would keep their distance, not Breeze, She turned her back to Lady and threw out a couple of threatening kicks towards Lady that could have well hit the Foal. Although immediately we could see that we had to catch Breeze, they were running to hard and fast for us to be able to catch her. The Foal would not have the stamina to run for to long, it could then become very ugly between Lady and Breeze, putting the Foal in a very dangerous position.

Fortunately we got in a position to be able to get in between Lady and Breeze and managed to get a head collar on Lady. Breeze is not silly she knew that we may take Lady out of the field and she made her way to the gate. We had left a Head collar on Breeze, just in case of problems and we were able to get a lead rope on her. Back to her stable she went.

It would have been good for all of the Horses to be out together. As it is Lady and the Foal with Woody are out in the day, Breeze and Arnie of a night. We need to get the two yearlings Bliss and Misty in the field. We know that there will be a chase about with Breeze, but the yearling will be bossed about because of their age, and of course will be faster and more agile to be able to get away from Breeze. We will have to fence part of the field off and put Breeze into the area, so that she will be able to get use to the Foal. We did that last year, but had hoped this year Breeze would have been better. When Breeze gets use to the idea of the Foals she is very good with them and becomes their second mum.

I was hoping to have had a new Swallow camera going today. I found a new nest, one with two eggs. I attached the wires to the camera that were there from two years back but it did not work. The camera is an Internet camera that can pan, tilt and zoom, ideal for the area. I think that the cable must be broken, I do not have any more of the cable left. I will try to put a fixed camera up tomorrow, so at least we can see something until I can get some more of the cable.

The second Scottish Widlife Trust camera could be on tomorrow.

No Karen, we have not managed to round up any more of the sheep. I think that they will be on their way to market very soon. Sheep are just to much work.

Juliet, Woody is eighteen, not over old for a broodmare. Many go on well into their twenty’s. Age was nothing to do with her still born Foal. What ever illness she had/has was the cause.

Yes Elsie, had the first full nights sleep last night, first for nearly a couple of months.
Woody has again been very well today, I must admit I am surprised.

Val, you haven’t been reading the Diary. I did tell you a lot about the two Horses. Their names are Breeze and Arnie. Breeze is a 14.2hh Palomino with Flaxen tail and mane, she is mostly Arab, and a real Barbie Doll Horse. Pretty as a picture but scatty. Arnie is the Dark Bay 17.3hh Dutch Warm blood, gentle giant.

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For as long as I can remember I have had…

For as long as I can remember I have had or been been involved with horses, even when I lived in London I had Driving Horses, stabled in the middle of the East End.

For two years I had an antique Horse Drawn Hearse, that I would hire out to Funeral Directors. The Horses we used where Friesians Stallions, jet black beautiful horses, that originate from Holland. Stallion is the preferred to Mares and Gelding as they stay black most of their working life, Mare and Geldings tend to be a dark bay.

When we moved onto the farm the Friesians came with us, but I was so busy that I never had the time to hire out the Horses and Hearse, so reluctantly I sold the outfit. I had various other antique horse drawn carriages they I exchanged for cattle.

It did not take me long to get more horses, once you have had them, they become an obsession. There is nothing like seeing horses in a field grazing.

At the moment we have nine horses, two of them being our riding horses, Arnie and Breeze. The others being bloodstock (race horses) two of those are Lady and Woody, our broodmares that can be seen foaling on the webcams. Lady is only a couple of weeks away from foaling. The others are mostly Ladies and Woodies foals.

If you see the horses in the fields Arnie is the big dark bay horse, he is a 17.3hh Dutch Warm Blood gelding, a bit of a giant, but really kind and gentle. In all the years we have had him, other than breaking doors and fencing rails when he leans against them, he has never done a thing wrong. Breeze is 14.2hh Palomino Arab mare, she again is very kind and gentle and as pretty as a picture, a real Barbie Doll Horse. She can be a bit skitsey and likes to get her own way. She and Arnie have been together for a long while, we will never part them. Whenever Arnie is doing something he should not do, she lets us know by calling out. Arnie is a bit of a Houdini, he gets out of anywhere, worse still he lets out all the other horses. That is just Arnie.

Breeze is the herd leader although most of the other horse are bigger than her, every now and then she will round them up and even baby sits the foals, but she can have her moments. Some year ago we had tenants in one of the cottages, Gemma the girl had a horse named Cedar that she stabled on the farm. They went away for a cycling holiday in France. On returning Gemma went in to the field that all the horses were in, to give her horse Cedar some treats after returning from holiday. We had an area near the gateway fenced off with a low voltage electric wire, so that it was easier to get a horse in if we needed to. Gemma was on the other side of the fence spoiling Cedar and ignoring and leaving breeze out of the goodies, Breeze wasn’t having any of that, she turned her hind legs on Gemma and kicked her on the buttocks so hard that Gemma went three foot in the air, over the wire and landed face down in the mud, believe me Gemma was a large girl. The only part that really hurt was her pride, although her boyfriend told us that she had two large bruises shaped like Breezes hoofs on her buttocks.