horses Archives - Page 8 of 8 - Farm Holiday Cottages

I have been asked on the forum what signs should…

I have been asked on the forum, what signs should you look for as Lady is going to foal.
Unfortunately there are not any set out signs. If she is constantly looking behind herself, can sometimes be a sign, that tends to be more with first time foaling mares, although it can be a sign with all mares, however many foals they have had. Being very restless, constantly getting up and down, are other sign. It could be that the first sign is the the actual birth, with the head and legs showing through the bag. I look at the nipples on the udder, very often they have a waxy substance on them. I thought I saw that a week ago, but I was mistaken. If I see any signs, and I get the time I will post it on the forum.

Woody, well I just don’t know. Most of the day she has been eating the hay that we put in the paddock, and has looked fine. About an hour before we bring the horses in for the night, she started to look uncomfortable, laid down flat out. When I go to get the horses in, Arnie and Breeze are normally first at the gate, then Woody and lady. As I go to get them in, I always shout to the, come on then, and they are there waiting. Today Woody was still flat out not stirring, as if she was really poorly. As soon as I opened the gate, up she got and trotted out of the gate to her stable, ate her feed and started on her hay, as if she had not been unwell at all. Get a Veterinary out as she is would be a waste of time for him, and a waste of money for his visit.

What does worry us is that she is a month away from foaling, although she has scanned in foal, she does not look very big. This could be the problem, the foal may be lying in the wrong position, and may be causing her pain. She may even have lost the foal, but I cant think how we would have missed it. The stables are mucked out every day, so we would have seen signs there. If she had lost the foal in the fields we would have seen blood or discharge on her. I will have to talk it through with the Veterinary tomorrow.

Just before I posted this entry, Woody had her head over Lady’s stable, being horrible to her. She cant be feeling to ill tonight.

The Ewe who’s lamb died yesterday has settled down, she must now realise that it is not in the flock, she is not now running from lamb to lamb thinking that one may be hers, and that it is not about at all. Portlands unlike most sheep are able to get into lamb twice a year, hopefully for her, she will lamb again later in the year.

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.