Spanish mustangs in brittany's Blog

Spring has sprung!

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:08:22 +0000

I think (sssshh) that Spring has finally arrived, a lot of the trees have leaves on them albeit small ones!, and my vine has a leaf almost out and lots of buds.
Apache Dreamer is now racing round his paddock during the day and thoroughly enjoying life.
Poppy is now starting to develop an udder, so baby no 2 should soon be here.
Unfortunately due to spring being so late we have had to buy yet another two huge bales of hay, we normally manage to stop from March but this year has been incredible, even the farmers are hanging onto what stock they have left to feed their cows, this normally stops here in March too!!!
Yesterday I managed to plant my vegetable seeds, we are using the goat shed as a propagating shed this year as the sun gets it lovely and warm. This year we are hoping to produce leeks, onions, broccolli, tomatoes and of course sweet peas, runner beans and sweetcorn….. we will see how this pans out!!!

Lots of learning done!

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:13:27 +0000

Apache Dreamer is now three days old and learning all the time.
Thank goodness for webcams as we would miss so much of his new talents otherwise.
He had his first experience of “Outside” on Tuesday for an hour. We have fenced off the little grassed area next to the chicken house, so its not too far for him to walk but enough for him to run around mum and she can enjoy some spring grass.
He learnt to climb on some tiny rocks, taste grass, chase chickens and see Aunty Poppy in the field below them.
Twiggy is proving to be a very good mum, after the first 24 hours of having a very sore udder, today she isnt so bothered by his bumping is head on it and vigorously feeding, her tummy is going back nicely and everything seems ok with her which is marvellous.
Yesterday he learnt what electric tape does!!!!! he didnt like the fact it bit him!!! lol but after him going through the tape and panicking mum we felt he needed to learn! now he is respecting it!

For those of you wanting to see his dad here are two pics of him, one was taken last year and the other is of him as a baby in UK

His Mum was born in the USA and this is one of her as a baby.

The First Spanish Mustang to be born in France has arrived!

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 08:37:15 +0000

Apache Dreamer made his appearance at 7.10pm and it was a very normal, simple birth. I only had to help get his head and shoulders out and then Twiggy managed the rest.
He is the image of his dad but has the troubleshooter eyeliner.

we are getting there

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 07:37:27 +0000

Well yesterday there was a marked change in Twiggys temprement and udder.
We moved the 3 amigos onto their spring grazing on the chasse land and then let Twiggy and Pops through onto the land behind the house for some well needed grazing. Twiggy spent a couple of hours on the grass then came home and stood around watching the family harrowing the paddock they were in. She was stamping her hind legs and generally looking unhappy, I didnt even need to headcollar her to bring her in a tea time, she just walked straight on up to her stable.
Her hind legs are now very uncomfortable, they appear to be “weak” but it is normal in some mares for this to happen and it does mean foaling is going to be soon.
This was her udder yesterday morning.

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:32:02 +0000

Twiggy’s udder is forming nicely, this was the udder on 14th March and the other from 27th Feb.

She is very uncomfortable now and although having her feet trimmed on Sunday she still walks carefully, so it is the weight that is causing her discomfort.
She now has a fetish for washing her bucket…. she will spend hours washing it all over, bottom and sides….guess this is the maternal instinct coming out.

Things are progressing nicely

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 07:25:55 +0000

Foaling countdown

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 07:53:05 +0000

Well the time has finally arrived, Prairie Breeze (aka Twiggy) and Poppy are now in the stables at night getting ready for foaling.
Poor old Twiggy is feeling the strain now, she is slow and lethargic and just stands around sleeping alot! Poppy is still the same although now HUGE!
Thanks to our good friend Carl from www.ineedaholidaytoo.com and his wife Jacqui we now have a webcam installed in the stable to watch Twiggy at night without disturbing her but I suspect she will hang on until the weather warms up a bit from the weekend, I hope so anyway as the windchill is still in the minus figures.
She has started to form an udder now which is how we judge the imminence of the foal. We have decided (this could change!) that the new addition to the herd will be called Apache Dreamer…. watch this space as they say.
Meanwhile we have had 3 enquiries for viewings for the property, wouldnt it be so good if we could move to a smaller house with more land for the herd, I love this house and it is perfect for a family with a couple of ponies or horses but not suitable for 10 which is what we will have next winter if the foals havent gone by then!
Watch this blog for regular updates on the mares foalings.
Bye for now.

What a Week!

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 10:32:11 +0000

All the things I wanted to do this week had to be put on hold, this week was one of those “needs to be done!” weeks.
Monday was a Hay run day which was made extremely hard with the snow and slush lying on the back roads, I dont like driving in icy conditions even with a 4 x 4! So 9 small bales were duly collected, this was to get us through until Thursday when we would be collecting 2 HUGE square bales again.
Tuesday was another trip to the Bank in Guingamp yet again to be sent elsewhere by them! The trouble with France is their in-abillity to advise you correctly! One dept sends you one place, they send you to another and so it goes on!

Meanwhile, Twiglet (Prairie Breeze SMR 3754) Is getting fatter and lower, and my goodness can that baby kick! its all happening at the front of her ribcage (underneath) and near her udder, so I guess its the hindlegs and shoulders as it should be lying on his/her back head facing the rear, at least thats where it should be!!!!
I suspect she will foal down around mid March similar to her mother in UK, I have known quite a few mares and their daughters season and foal at similar times.
The Plan is to move Twiggy home shortly and put Tara in with Brave. Once the spring arrives and twiggy’s foal can go out permanently, Brave will come home for his training. I am hoping to back him this year.

Well I finally managed to do a video of the Spanish Mustang History that I have been wanting to do for a while, unfortunately it may have to be re-done as the electricity was playing up and kept tripping so some of the alterations I made didnt save, without me knowing so it has some faults. But it will do for now!

If you are a member of facebook do a search for Horse Archery or look on my profile for them, this is an amazing sport done by amazing people all over the world but this guy is a true Lakota American Indian and an Amazingly talented chap. It would be good if we could support his dream of getting the sport classified as an Olympic Sport.

Thaw then more snow!

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 22:59:08 +0000

Well the thaw lasted for about 2 weeks, enough time for us to forget just how bad it was being snowed in for over a week!
I suppose we should be grateful for the fact that here in Europe we dont get the Snow as badly as the USA and other parts of the world, and, we don’t get the terrible disasters that countries like Haiti had and of course the Tsunami in 2004.

Here in Brittany life continued, albeit with MANY disasters of our own. It must run into the 100′S, the amount of Barn’s/Hangers that collapsed under the weight of the snow last month. Many of which wont be compensated due to their rotted timber and age, Many farmers have “gone under” due to the adverse weather and our heart goes out to them, it is hard enough at the best of times without the pressure of animal and building loss.

On a brighter note, I have noticed we have grass growing in our window boxes and crocuses have Popped their buds and have little yellow flowers poking through the newly fallen snow of today.
The horses are all happily munching through our hay supply, more to be bought tomorrow ( NO MATTER WHAT!) and the foals all seem to be thriving in utero as movement is quite obvious now.

Here is a link to a video I have made from taking photos of the Main herd coming home from the “Chasse Land” which happens every day at around 3.30pm.
Hope you enjoy and do make sure your sound is on.

I have also started writing a monthly article in the Brittany Journal on Horse Sense, so do have a look and comment if you wish.
Salut for now

Still snowed in!

spanishmustangsinbrittany — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:40:08 +0000

Well on Saturday night the conditions worsened and in came more snow!

3ft we ended up with!

Horses were quite happy in these bizarre conditions, we were very worried about the Stallion and Mare just down the road but they were managing nicely munching away on their hay and we trudged twice a day down to give them their hard feed and check their condition, they actually had flattened an area and had uncovered their own hay so all was well.

The guys at home managed to step over their electric tape and walk into the yard, and help themselves to the chaff in the barn whilst we were out at friends for lunch!

Once they were settled back in their area and fed we were safe to tuck ourselves in for the night!

Today is a little better, we have had no snow now for 24 hours and a few of the roofs have melted and we are forecast rain for the next few days….. YES!

Today I managed to sort out my dates for the Equitherapy courses I will hold throughout the year here at the farm (after our sand-school is finished), and posted them onto the website.

These are two nice pictures we took yesterday of me with the SM’s