Tag: fillies

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I thought he was a beauty Somebody s prize bull…

I thought he was a beauty.Somebody’s prize bull!.He was near Sumburgh Head in the Shetland islands. Lindsay.

My favourite squirrel. Anjela,Connecticut.

Here are a couiple of photos I took the other evening. Until two days ago, I had NEVER seen a starling in our garden! On Friday evening, Chris looked out and saw a couple on the patio. Yesterday, however, there was a mini invasion of at least 12!! They took over the place! Even the local Robin was looking somewhat shocked, and he is usually quite aggressive towards visitors! I’d put out some meal worms – some dry and some rehydrated on a plate of water and within moments they’d all disappeared! It was quite amazing to watch! They were gathering up maybe six at a time in their beaks! So I put out some more, on the patio and on the bird table along with a scattering of birdseed. And they came back to scoff the lot!! I’ll just have to see whether they stay around! Julia.

Cygnets at Abbotsbury Swannery in Dorset. Lisa, Eastleigh, Hants.

My Penny Farthing Planter that my Son and Daughter -in-law bought me for Christmas. Quite a talking point. Elsie.

We let the two Fillies Willow and Gypsy out into the main Horse field this afternoon. As usual with the young Horses it was like a rodeo with the pair of them bucking, tossing and generally going mad with the excitement of going out into the field after being in for the Winter. Racing about both Fillies slipped over. We saw Gypsy and it wasn’t a bad fall, but Willow went down in one of the hollows in the field and we didn’t see how she fell. From the distance that we were away from Willow, and the way we could see her head and legs rolling about, just over the top of the hollow, it looked as if she had seriously hurt herself. After over a couple of minutes she got up and the two of them started going around the field at full speed again. They eventually came back to the gate. Willow started to flail her legs out in front of her and lifting her head as if she was in a lot of discomfort. She also had a nettle rash over a lot of her body. For getting for over an hour Willow looked in a lot of discomfort. We checked her over and there was no signs of any injury. She has started to show less sign of the discomfort she had been experiencing and it could well be that it was the nettle rash that was causing the problem. She is now grazing with Gypsy and we will put Breeze and Arnie out with the Fillies at about 8.pm. I should think that Breeze will start herding the Fillies around, but they are quick enough to keep out of her way.

Touch wood the Goose and Gosling have managing to stay alive. Of a night time they spend a lot of time on the water, the Gosling staying very close to the Goose as if they are expecting danger. It could be that the Fox is on the prowl and the Goose knows it. The electric fenced off area that we have put on the near bank seems to be helping. That side of the Lake poses the worst danger area, as Fox are able to get very close to the lake in the bushes. On the far side of the Lake the stream gives a lot of protection, and with the gates we have put at right hand end, it hopefully will give the Goose and Goslings the time to get in to the water before they are attacked. The Magpies still are a danger during the daytime.

The USA Osprey webcam is working again. Unfortunately the nest is higher than where the Osprey chicks can be seen. I should think that there are chicks in the nest as the adults were sitting on the eggs before the Locks Ospreys. The Peter in Delaware had left the webcam working whilst he was away on Holiday for a week, but by all accounts there was a Hurricane in the Indian River Bay area whilst he was away. The Hurricane caused a power cut that made the computer to go off.

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There are five new photographs on the Photo page starting…

There are five new photographs on the Photo page, starting from number eleven.

More of the Panda from Elsie.

Here are some photos of the Black Swans at Dawlish yesterday evening. Julia.

This Seal photo was taken at Weymouth Sea Life Center. Rose W’canton.

This is flatform mill I think, (sure the forum ladies will correct me if I am wrong) from the haywain. FF (Rose)

We finally put Willow and Gypsy in the area that we made for them next to the Sheep. As of yet we have had no problems or calling out by either Willow or Lady. Touch wood we may be lucky. It was very easy to get them in to the area, they followed their feed bowls. I thought that we may have had a little bit of a problem as not many animals like to go into a dark area, and we had to take them through our main barn that when you first enter is quite dark. The food in front of them was the enticement. Once they had gone a little way into the barn it lightens up with the large doorways. The area is very large for two Fillies, big enough to have a kick and a buck. We will let them out into a larger area for a few hours every other day or so, but not until we are sure that they have settled in their new surroundings.

We were going to try to leave the Fillies in the large stable that we made for the Mares, once that they had Foaled, but on second thoughts if we had needed the new stable and the Fillies had not wanted to go in to the area we had made for them, it would have meant more work. We weren’t to know that it was going to be as easy as it was. At least now as soon as Emmi has Foaled she will have a lot more room if she need to stay stabled because of bad weather.

Our Mare in Ireland was covered by the Stallion today. A nice early covering, that if the mating was successful will produce a Foal in the first couple of week of 2009. We will need to wait a few week for the Mare to be scanned to see if the mating was successful. We are crossing our fingers. Being one the first few matings that the Stallion has done this year, he will be very high in his fertility, so we are hopeful. There are two downsides of early season matings, one is the Foal is born and will have the first three months or a little more of cold weather. The other is that the Mare would not be able to get the Spring grass. Both are not disasters. Once the Foal is on its feet we can put a rug on it. The goodness that the are will get out of the Spring grass we can make up with extra feed.

I have just looked outside to see what chance we have of Broadcasting the Moon Eclipse tonight. At the Moment the Sky is very clear. If it stayed like it is I would get up to show it and record it. But the forecast is not very good. I spoke to Aurthur the Amateur Astronomer that I know and he gave me the precise times, some how I have mislaid them. The beginning of the Eclipse starts at about 12.30am but you wont see a lot until about 2.45am until 3.30am

The Three Little Pigs sent in by Elsie
Three Little Pigs went out to dinner one night. The waiter came and took their drink order.

“I would like a Sprite,” said the first little piggy.

“I would like a Coke,” said the second little piggy.

“I want beer, lots and lots of beer,” said the third little piggy.

The drinks were brought out and the waiter took their orders for dinner.

“I want a nice big steak,” said the first piggy.

“I would like the salad plate,” said the second piggy.

“I want beer, lots and lots of beer,” said the third little piggy.

The meals were brought out and a while later the waiter approached the table and asked if the piggies would like any dessert.

“I want a banana split,” said the first piggy.

“I want a root beer float,” said the second piggy.
“I want beer, lots and lots of beer,” exclaimed the third little piggy.

“Pardon me for asking,” said the waiter to the third little piggy, but why have you only ordered beer all evening?”

You’re gonna LOVE this….

The third piggy says –
“Well, somebody has to go ‘Wee, wee, wee, all the way home!

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Breaking Bliss and Misty the Fillies is going very well…

Breaking Bliss and Misty the Fillies is going very well. We think that they are enjoying it as there is not a lot of protesting. Bliss is a little sore on the foot that had an infection, a little while back. To get to the infection the Farrier had to cut back the hoof on one side, that is causing the sole of her foot to touch the ground. Normally the outside wall of the hoof is longer than the sole, so it does not come into contact with the ground. We are going to have to get the farrier to put shoes on her front feet on Wednesday. This will be the first time that either of the Fillies will have had shoes fitted, so we could well have a bit of a performance with Bliss. When the farrier cut into the infection, she was very good. Hot shoeing is what most people have, the shoes are made to fit exactly but putting a very hot shoe onto the hoof, this helps the shoe to bed in and also shows any high points, that need to be cut away before the shoes are nailed on. The burning causes a lot of smoke, that may cause a problem, then of course the shoes are nailed on. We will get the farrier to see if Misty also needs shoeing, as both are working on hard surfaces that could soon wear the hoofs back to the soles.

The Fillies are now being taught to walk in a circle on long lead, this will progress to the long leads being attached to the bit, you then are able to walk behind the Fillies steering them by pulling the leads either left or right, the idea is that the Fillies will turn in that direction, pulling back evenly on the leads with a voice command, that should have been taught when they were first walked out with head collars, will get them to stop and stand. A saddle is also put on whilst they are working. Another part of the breaking, that is also done at the time, is to put your weight across the Fillies back by laying over them sideways on the saddle, this gets them use to having weight on them and to teach them for when they are sat on. When you are happy that the Fillies have learnt all this, you can try to mount them. That is just the beginning, there is a lot more for them to learn.

Val asked about the tails on the Sheep. Docking is still practiced, as is castration. Both are done using very small tight rubber bands. We have never docked or castrated. The Sheep we now have, came as you see them. Docking is done to help keep the backsides of the Sheep clean. Castration is a declining practice. Lots of Ram Lambs in a field with Ewe Lambs can be a problem. Castration was also practiced in the belief that the Ram Lambs would put on more weight more quickly. About fifteen years ago it was proved to be the opposite. I should think that it is now practiced more by the older farmers.

Elaine, I am not happy about the blue screen. We had a power cut this afternoon. When the electricity went back on the camera had stopped working. I got it back on, but it must have gone off without me realising. I will try to turn it back on in the morning. Unfortunately it is the Lake, Sheep and Kingfisher Camera. If I have to replace the camera, it may take me a couple of days for me to get the time. Our electricity supplier will be hearing from me in the morning.

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Just before I went to bed last night I checked…

Just before I went to bed last night I checked the valley webcam, I saw the Stag that was in the valley, in the afternoon laying down at the far end of the field. There were two Hinds with him, not one that he had with him a few hours earlier, in the afternoon. The second one was probably in the wood out of sight. Although he wasn’t very old, he was a good Stag, so he may well have more Hinds in his Harem. I will leave the valley webcam on most of tonight, in case the Deer come back.

This is the first year that we have not seen any large herds of Red Deer at Denbury. We regularly saw herds of up to fifteen in the valley, and in the far end field. It is more likely that I have not seen them, rather than them not being here. When I had Cattle I wasn’t best pleased to see large herds of Deer here. I needed the grass they ate for the Cattle, The herds Of Deer would eat as much grass as my Cows, and they would always be there in the Spring when the grass was growing for the silage we made. I didn’t have webcams when I had the Cows, but you could tell that a large herd of Deer had been here, by the grass that had been eaten and the flattened grass where they had been laying down in the field.

We finally started to get Bliss and Misty the Fillies ready for Auction, that they are entered in to at the end of the month. We have left it late. We have just over three weeks to get them ready, and there is so much work that needs to be done with them. Before today we have only ever had head collars on them twice. On both occasions they didn’t like them and pulled away, thinking that the head collars would not follow. Today we put the head collars back on to them to get them walking as we lead them. Quite important really, as they will need to be lead around the auction ring on head collars. Both Fillies were no better or worse than we thought that they would be. They started pulling away from us, as we thought they would. This time they are a lot bigger. When we first put head collars on them they were a lot smaller and we could manage to pull them back. The size they are now, we would have stood no chance of holding on to them. If they had decided to have it away, we could only have watched them go. Fortunately they are very laid back and kind Fillies, so the pulling that they did was half hearted to try to see if they could get away with it.

We soon had them walking with us, not necessarily by our sides, but it was a start. Misty was in front and a lot better than Bliss, which was a bit of a surprise. Initially they danced about on one spot rather than walking, but a little touch on their back ends from one of our Lads, got them walking forward. We kept this first session short, about fifteen to twenty minutes and by the end they were taking to it better. Within a couple of days they should be walking properly on the head collars. I will let you know how they progress.

As from tomorrow I will be feeding the Badgers from 7 to 7.30pm. The nights really are drawing in quick

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I found the nesting site of the Kingfisher today I…

I found the nesting site of the Kingfisher today, I went to the lake to try to get the focus adjusted on the fixed camera that I want to put on the branch that it lands on. As I was trying to adjust the camera, the Kingfisher flew right in front of me, into the area behind the feeders. After one of the holiday quests had told me that he had seen it fly into that area I was hopeful that it was the area of the nesting site. I stood very quietly in between trees in a very small copse, that that surrounds a spring fed pool. It wasn’t long before the metallic blue and orange flash past in front of my eyes, far to fast for me to follow where it had gone. After directing my eyes in various positions around the pool area, I finally saw it fly into a leafy area on a bank, to the back of the pool into a small hole. I watched for another five minutes or so and left so as not to disturb them when I saw one of the Kingfishers leave, for I had been told some while back that Kingfishers will abandon their nests, even with chicks in it, if they feel in danger. Today was only the forth time in fourteen years that I have seen the Kingfishers at Denbury. I see that most of you who have told on the forum, that it is the first Kingfisher that you have seen. We have been the first on a number of occasions of showing different wildlife. Are we the first with the Kingfisher?

Someone mentioned on the forum how big they thought Willow the foal was getting. Who ever you were, you weren’t wrong. I reckon that she is the biggest foal we have had for her age, with it has comes independence. Most of the time she hangs out with the two Fillies. When the Horses are let in of a morning and evening for their feed, we let the Fillies in with Breeze and Arnie. Willow tries to go with the Fillies into their stable area, and what a performance it is to get her to go with Lady for her feed. I am watching Bliss and Misty on the web cams grooming with each other as I am writing tonight diary. Hold on bliss has had enough of that. Both of the Fillies have had a growth spurts and are now nearly as big as Breeze who is 14.2hh. They are going to be getting on for 16hh when fully grown. The best part of all the youngsters is that they are kind. Although Misty has her moments with Bliss. I don’t know if any of you remembered a Colt foal a couple of years back that we showed the birth of on the web cams. From nearly the moment he was born, he was a kicker. We needed to watch what ever we were doing with him. I got a few kicks from him when I pushed him slightly to move him on. Within a days of being born, when I tried to help him find his mothers udder he let one go. You don’t get many like it, mind you, you wouldn’t want many either.