As usual, so much has happened around here since my last post and it’s my fault as I don’t get on this blog often enough!
The biggest news, as per the title, is that Prenti Downs Joanna had her foal two weeks ago!! A few days before she foaled, she started dripping milk so we got very excited. I had checked Jo hourly on the first night she started dripping milk but decided to borrow a foaling alarm off a friend the next day, just so I could sleep a bit 
.
That evening, Fred and I went down to put the alarm on her. She was really sweaty and when Fred noticed that, he said he thought she would foal that night. As he was climbing back through the rails, Jo literally went down and started to foal! I raced up to ring Tanya the vet, just incase we needed her, and then went straight back down to check Jo. It took me 6 minutes in total yet when I got back down there was this gorgeous little foal sitting up.
Archie, one day old
Our biggest fear was that, being a recently rescued wild horse, Jo wouldn’t necessarily accept the foal, given what she had been through, how young she is and especially because she had lost her herd. A few rescued mares have foaled and then just walked away from the baby in the past and we were very worried about this and had a foster mare on standby, just incase. We turned the torches off and sat very quietly and soon could hear lots of licking and nickering. Then we knew it would be ok and were able to relax.
Beautiful mum and bub
So…introducing Prenti Downs Archie, the most beautiful little colt. He’s got the most perfect markings, a lovely blaze and four white socks, and I can’t fault his conformation. He’s kind of silver coloured at the moment but he’ll go dark like his mum. I think he’ll be a wonderful ambassador for the brumbies and if we can bare to part with him, we have a special person in mind who will definately get him out and promote him for us.
What is this?...I'll just stomp on it!
Archie is now two weeks old and is so funny. He was in a big yard with Jo for the first week and he was starting to get really cheeky with any horses next door and would put his ears back at them like mum and run at the fence then race away kicking. We put him and mum out into a big paddock last week and have put Jack, the kids pony, in with them for company and so Jack can teach him some manners. Jack is great as he comands respect but won’t actually touch Archie, as in kick or bite him. Plus they do play which is so good for Archie.
Clever Jo helping teach Archie to be light off the halter
Fred strongly believes in early handling with foals and I think Archie is a great example of how easy it can be. Fred has just done 5 to 10 minutes a day with him, starting out at about a minute on the first day he was born and building up. Archie is now catchable, halter broken and very light to lead. He picks up all his feet happily, has had the hobbles on and ties up. Now he’s just being a foal in the paddock and we’re not doing the daily handling with him, but we know that we can go and catch him if we need to, such as if he needs veterinary treatment, and he’ll be fine and won’t be stressed about it. Basically, he’s safe and he has the basics down. For example, Fred had to catch him yesterday to check his eye for a grass seed and he was great to catch and stood quietly while we had a look at his eye and put some ointment in. I can’t imagine how stressful it would be for both mare and foal if he hadn’t had the handling he’s had and we needed to do something like this.
Halter breaking Archie
Archie and the kids
Ok, enough about Archie although I could go on about him for ages . We’ve settled in really well at the new place and Fred and Karla have all the riding trails well sussed. Karla was funny yesterday. She was out riding Lillie, a lovely warmblood breaker on her last week here, and when she came back she said they had had the biggest adventure. One of the neighbours has a new pet donkey who is super friendly and he had seen Karla and Lillie and came running over saying “Well Hi!!! How are yooooooooo???” Karla said Lillie was completely freaked out but was an angel and stood there with her eyes out about a foot from her head. Once they got past the donkey in an orderly fashion, the next neighbour along had two new emus so they had to deal with that, then on the way home they met three camels in a paddock. Plenty of wildlife around here anyway! Great for desensitising and makes for interesting riding for sure.
Dylan and Oakley, two very nice breakers out for a bush ride
The bush next door to us is so handy and I love it as I can just walk down to the fence and take lots of photos, plus Fred has been riding the horses on our property itself as we have a winter creek which makes for some interesting gullys and bridges at this time of year.
Fred and Tanna
Horsey wise, we’ve been super busy and are fully back into the swing of things. We’ve had some lovely horses come and go, nothing super interesting training wise, which is a good thing as it’s means they’re all going well . I’ll add a few photos, just because.
Cappe, a lovely warmblood here for a light start
Bully and Matilda going past on the road
Actually, we do have one horse here at the moment that came to us about 6 months ago for starting. Fred felt there were some hormonal issues, which there were, and after some treatment and time off, the horse is back with us being started again. We’ve noticed a huge difference in the horses attitude, although some of the aggressive behaviour was still there initially. It’s interesting as the behaviour was caused by a hormonal imbalance yet now that that has been resolved, you have to conclude that the behaviour had also become a learned response. Anyway, the horse is now Fred’s absolute favourite and has been a big challenge but is going so well. A very rewarding scenario as at one point, we (and the owner) weren’t sure there was a future for the horse. It’s that old saying ‘Listen to your Horses’ that John O’Leary says all the time and he’s so right. So many people would have had the horse PTS, going on the behaviour, so good on the owner for listening to Fred and taking his advice on. She’ll have a bloody good horse out of it now.
The only other thing I wanted to write about is something I noticed this morning that I see a lot around here. Fred was riding an ‘OTTB’ (off the track thoroughbred) that has been with us for nearly two weeks. The owner was having trouble with the horse bucking, not wanting to go forward and also the occasional rear. Fred re mouthed the horse as the mouth was shocking, taught the horse to leg yield and has since been working through the issues, mostly there due to a lack of confidence from the horse and the owner having no real control due to the terrible mouth. Same as leg restraint training, if you can’t shut the behaviour down when it arises, the horse only increases it’s own fear in what it’s objecting too and loses more confidence over it all and so on and on. A bit of a vicious circle.
Anyway, the horse has been going really well for quite a few days now and the confidence level has been building up, so all going great. Today when Fred was warming the horse up he was a bit full of himself. I then watched Fred work him out the back and when Fred went to canter him, he tried to buck. Fred immediately did a one rein stop to shut him down then asked for the transition again. The next time, the horse grunted and tried again to buck so Fred decided to take him on and ride him through it. The horse copped a crack on the bum, popped his head down and went on to do a lovely canter, all over in about 5 seconds. It just makes me think of all the times where this sort of behaviour arises but people are too afraid to take their horses on and reprimand them for it. The horse was fit and well, knew exactly what was being asked of him but decided to have a go, and I know that most riders would back off at this very crucial moment, therefore making the problem worse. Obviously you need to be a good judge of what is going on but so many people are afraid to take their horses on, including me which is why Karla has my horse . Just an obsevation anyway; the horse went on to finish a lovely session and couldn’t have behaved better.
Fred's full shade roundyard which he loves!
We are constantly working on setting up the new property and Fred is currently building four more yards off a sea container we have here. They will be full steel yards so more suited to some of the unhandled horses we get here and the brumbies and so on. Fred is cementing poles in this weekend and I will help by watching him from the house . Not really, I do help when I have too but HATE this heat with a passion. Infact, Fred reckons I whinge so much, it’s not worth my help which is fine by me. I’m very talented at other jobs around the place .
Some photos of stuff….
Some of the yards
Kiwi and Roy having a canter next door
Fred and Elijah..such a cool horse!
I have to comment on this photo though as it’s one of my favourites! This is Merrick, a gorgeous connemara gelding we had with us just before we moved house. Merrick was lacking a bit of confidence with water when he came. He must have decided it would be better to try and jump the water and I manged to get this great shot of him. How’s his style????
What a jump!!
