Time Out

Another beautiful day today, Easter Sunday, to sit on the patio catching up with my blog while the morning dew is still fresh on the grass, the girls are snoozing in their shelter, the furries are arrayed around the garden and the birds are singing. After a week off, I feel myself really starting to relax and enjoy the tranquility of the morning.

We've achieved huge amounts this week: we've put the greenhouse up and sown tomatoes, chillies, pak choi, melon, swet corn and runner beans; we've prepped two seed beds and installed spring onions, chantenay carrots, mixed lettuce, wild rocket and cucmber in one of them, and lots of herbs in another.

We've planted 100 willow trees (!) to develop horse-friendly hedgerows and begin coppicing for firewood as part of the ongoing drive towards sustainability and we've constructed and installed "Chateau Poulet", otherwise known as a fruit cage commandeered for the new chicken pen, complete with paddling pool:

An array of chums have been to visit this week; Chris and Steve followed by Mark, Gina & Estelle with their little JRT, Chester, which has been splendid. We all went tramping around Dering Woods to witness the spectacle of the bluebells and to get lost after going off-piste and spending some considerable time battling our way through the undergrowth in an effort to return to civilisation. The bluebells were truly spectacular!

Horses
Meanwhile Gualter has been growing like a weed and has had his first leading lesson. Given that he's such a feisty little bugger it went remarkably well, so more to follow on that today.

Q is back at work after his time at sexy camp and seems to be enjoying it, and it's good to be having lessons again. I am hoping to get him out to a local yard for a lesson this week while I have time, and there is talk of a clinic with Andrew Murphy for Mandy's clients, so I particularly want to get him to that if possible, and out to that venue beforehand to make sure that we don't spend the entire time getting him used to the place :)

Tigre seems to be doing very well and is spending up to 12 hours a day out at grass in his pen, which keeps him to a pleasant simmer. He and Q have settled back into their daily snorting and breathing contests while grazing peacably the rest of the time.

Next week we have quite a bit more to do: install the rest of the CCTV, lots more planting, connecting up the remaining water tanks, planting more willow trees, irrigating the fields from the water butts, lots of weeding and more work with Littlun. We keep threatening to have a quiet day and invariably end up embarked on some major project that keeps us busy until late. S'good though.

Q is home

Yesterday, the first day of a much anticipated two weeks' holiday, dawned rather earlier than ideal but mitigated by the fact that it was time to go and collect Q from stud. He whinnied as soon as he saw us and I must admit, a glad tear or two were shed in the reunion. He's looking glorious, having been given a bath on Friday and was all shiny and ready to go home, having deposited some 17 doses in the liquid nitrogen tank that constitutes the stud's sperm bank, test thawed and apparently very good quality. I must say that the stud has been absolutely fantastic and I would not hesitate to recommend them.

Upon arrival back at Luso Towers Q did of course strut off the trailer after the fashion of a man who has discovered the joys of sex, albeit with a dummy mare, an AV and several human attendants. The expression on T's face was quite priceless and there followed the inevitable squealing, snorting exchange as they caught up on two weeks' worth of news. We left T in his pen while Q was turned out and there followed quite a glorious display of stallion vitality and joie de vivre as Q pranced around making sure that everything was as it should be and they continued their re-association with a staring contest, more snorting and the throwing of numerous impressive shapes - big trots from Q and repeated caprioles form T, while Knickers and I held our collective breaths and hoped that T would not undo all the work that has gone into his rehab.

Speaking of T's rehab, he has been coping well being out in a small pen made of electric rope in his summer paddock, but we weren't at all sure that this would be viable when Q came back. I therefore decided to conduct the inevitable greeting over the fence in a controlled fashion, keeping T on a long rope. Anticipating an aerial element to the proceedings, I even put on my riot gear (ok, my hat and a glove) but I need not have worried. It was quite civilsed and T was returned to his pen.

Q spent the next hour or so pacing up and down, up and down the fence line, so I decided to put him out in his summer paddock near the other horses , wondering how it would go with he and T sharing a fence line. Well it was ok, T is being surprisingly sensible and Q soon left to graze after coming out with a good few strides of Spanish walk, while I cleaned out the water trough. Next thing I know, the lower line of electric fence started jumping around and I looked up to see Q with a front leg caught in it, on his knees. Argh. This has happened before though so I wasn't too worried, and in short order he freed himself and took off snorting doing the most amazing Spanish trot! It was quite spectacular and I only wish I had a camera with me. Needless to say, a minor fence repair was called for but thereafter they all settled down. Later when I went to bring Q in I noticed him herding the others, neck low and snaking. I've not seen him do that before. Will ride him today and ensure that he remains fully cognisant of his place in the proceedings.

Meanwhile, we've opened up the field shelter in the mares' field and they stayed out for the first time last night. We were a bit cautious as they all piled on their on the first day of Gualter's turn out, and he was cornered and booted by Xacra. Now however things have settled down and all seemed to be well.

We had a fab meal last night to celebrate my birthday: Knickers prepared a fab table and we tucked into a gorgeous Thai feast that Sid made of beef and mushroom salad, cashew chicken and mango & lime fool, with a very nice Margaux to wash it down. Nom. A day to feel very blessed indeed.

A week ago tonight

So our little colt, Gualter, is a week old today. He is a darling little man and we are all quite smitten.There is nothing quite like watching your own little herd enjoying life out in the field, whether charging around or quietly grazing, with Littlun lying in a cute heap at Alfama's feet. We are very excited about him and it's amazing watching him learning to use his body with a range of athletic manoeuvres - levades, caprioles, reinback and a very nice, easy canter as he runs and plays alongside Alfama.

We have had some moments of concern, such as when he got a bit too close to Xacra in a tight space and she booted him - argh. But he seems quite robust and is learning some important lessons about the perils of getitng too close to the alpha mare. Alfama doesn't hesitate to nip him if he suckles too robustly and there's no question he is benefiting from the lessons. From us he is learning that one does not mouth humans and that it's ok to be petted all over. Makes you realise just how easily it would be for orphan foals to turn into brats without this modulating herd influence.

Last night there was a rainbow and we got this pic:

And one of Xacra with her waxing belly, still six weeks or so away from her due date:

Boys
Meanwhile we have been making further adjustments to T's arrangements in an effort to keep him sane. For the last four days he has been happy grazing in a penned off area in his summer paddock, which is marvellous. I'm sure there aren't that many stallions who would be able to be confined by a single strand of electric rope in a small pen in spring with lots of in season mares around, but so far he is one of them. This arrangement, along with the pen outside his stable where he can stand and watch Dan's horses seems to be working. I've ordered the Zilcan from the vitnery just in case.

Report from the stud is that Q's first test freeze went well, so that is good news. We'll do as many freezes as budget alows then hopefully have him home this weekend. Can't wait. It's not the same without him.

The stork has been :)

We are absolutely delighted with the arrival on Tuesday night of Alfama's baby, a beautiful colt! It was a textbook delivery and she was amazing - from waters breaking to delivery in about 20 minutes, normal and unbelievable all at the same time :)

It all began about 9:50pm; I was in bed on account of the pressing urge for an early night when Sid came barrelling up the stairs to inform me that something was definitely occurring - he and Knickers had seen her waters breaking on the CCTV. It's funny how time slows down at these times and it seems to take an age to get dressed and down to the yard but is actually only a few moments. When we arrived we could see the bag and a foot poking out, and within moments she lay down - with her bum right in the corner by the water bucket on the wall. Argh. Luckily we had taken heed from Lotty's experience and built very big banks, which gave the possibility to move a mound of straw out of the way to prepare for the little one's arrival.

That done, down to business. The bag was the right colour so thankfully no signs of dystocia, and a normal presentation with two forelegs quickly followed by a nose. What a gargantuan effort on her part; it felt as though it was taking forever and the urge to break the bag was quite pressing, but I knew she had to pass the shoulders and rib cage before that could be safely done. Passing the shoulders was a huge effort as might be expected, but once the rib cage was out the bag burst on its own, baby took his first breath and they rested for a while before the rest of him was delivered. What a joy to be the first person to touch him, and towel him off. Alfama stayed lying down for a while ensuring the safe transfer of precious nutrient-rich blood before she eventually got up and broke the cord.

It took about 45 minutes (not that we were counting) for him to get to his feet and stagger around the stable, and two hours after he was born he hadn't mastered the art of latching on, so I rang the vet to see how long we should wait before becoming concerned. It was clearly exhausting stuff for him, and Alfama kept lying down, knackered. The vet said to give it another hour and, natch, not 10 minutes had I got off the phone with her than he did finally latch on and get the all-important colostrum. Splendid. We left them to it and soon afterwards she passed the placenta, so back out to wrestle it into a bucket and examine it for any missing bits. I was surprised at how big, heavy and, well, meaty it was, and also relieved that it was quite easy to see that it was whole.

He is a beautiful and surprisingly big strong boy, and fragile all at the same time. He is currently a dun colour with a black mane and tail, though expected to be gret what with mom and dad both being grey, and the most exquisitely soft and new little soul. The whole thing was just awesome.

In the end, after all that emotional upheaval before the event, I found myself cool and almost a bit detached with the need to on hand to attend Alfama; Sid was beside himself and Knickers was weeping freely. For me the emotion of it all really hit home the next morning and perhaps luckily I had the prospect of a presentation with our top boss man in the afternoon to keep me in check. Really Did Not Want to leave the homestead that day, I can tell you.

Meanwhile, every day there is evidence of him getting stronger and h spends his time drinking, sleeping and attempting to frisk. We will take some proper photos and turn them out for the first time this weekend. Can't wait!

Update on the boys

I may have already mentioned that Q took to the dummy as though he'd been doing it all his life, and provided a sample on his very first day. Since then he has repeated this every day and today, day 4, Madeleine rang to tell me that they were able to dispense with the mare and he mounted the dummy straight away. What a boy! We now need to decide how much semen to freeze down; apparently it lasts for 40,000 years, so no danger of it going off.

Meanwhile T was giving me hives early this week as he has destroyed a large part of his stable with repeated caprioles. Argh. We've made a pen for him a little bigger than his stable so he can come and go at will and stand outside to watch Dan's horses on the walker (or T TV as we call it) much more calmly than when confined to barracks, so this is a relief. This combined with leading out to hand graze is keeping him at a pleasant simmer, so hopefully he can start to recover a bit now that the stress is ramped right down.

There has been a lovely sense of serenity on the yard since the boy's birth. Now all we have to do is decide what to call him. In keeping with Portuguese tradition it should begin with G this year and be a Portuguese name, and trust us to have our first foal on the ground when the name selection is quite limited. I like Gaspar or Gregorio whereas Sid is pretty set on Gualter (pronounced gal-tare). I expect Sid's choice to win out but there's always hope that persistence will win out :)

Q goes to stud, and T beats seven bells out of his stable

Yesterday Knickers and I took Q for his first stud visit, where he will stay for approximately 10 days to be trained to the dummy, collected and assessed for post-freezing viability. There are very few occasions where I would be persuaded to take him somewhere **and leave him there without me** but this is one of them. The prospect of Q babies fills my heart with joy.

We had a lesson with Mandy on Saturday; setting aside the fact that I had to resist the urge to pick him up and carry him around the arena myself in an attempt to find a bit more energy, the other notable point was that he was a complete filthmeister. Poo stains galore, wild man hair, the lot. Cro-Magnon Luso. If you've seen Lord of The Rings, the Wild Men of Dunland will give you a good idea of what we were up against. As a result it was decided that he really ought to have a bath to make himself presentable, so afterwards me and Knickers set to with a bottle of shampoo and a lot of elbow grease. The transformation was several colour shades and I don't even want to think about what came out of his mane and tail. Suffice it to say he had a rug on straight away and on it stayed until moments before we loaded him, a glory of shiny white round Luso loveliness with an all new clean and fluffy mane and tail; Shadowfax restored.

The journey was fine; he loaded and travelled well. In our house we seem to have a need to come up with many different names for the same thing and, during one such conversation about his impending activities, Knickers came up with the genius title of "Sexy Camp".

We settled him in, went through the paperwork, unpacked his kit and returned home, trying not to dwell on the last view of him as we pulled away, his head right up and watching the trailer disappearing with that air of "but....!" about him. Argh.

Arrived home to find T caprioling in his stable and making some new hind foot-shaped holes in the wall. Argh. Argh. He was better out hand grazing though and again tonight and understands I think that I want him to stay reasonably still and does respond to requests for same, although finding it difficult to contain himself. I spoke to the vet tonight and the feeling is that ACP at a sufficient dose to have the desired effect presents too much of a risk of penile prolapse, so he is looking into a product called Zilcan, a new one on the market which has been receiving good reviews. Meanwhile Pheel, our hero, came round to measure up and discuss options for enclosing a stable-sized bit outside his box, so I got on the blower to McVeighs this morning and ordered a 15' gate, which he will hopefully come and fix tomorrow evening. I asked what the likely prognosis was if we simply turned him away for a couple of months, if this next idea fails. The most likely outcome is a longer recovery period, so that might be an option, but we will see.

Today has been a shitty one at work but was made considerably brighter by an update from Madeleine to say that Q has been cutting quite the dash at stud, charming everyone with his winsome ways and delighting everyone further by taking to the dummy and AV like a duck to water, jumping straight up and providing a semen sample with no bother at all. Bless his glorious heart! The next few days will be about flushing him out and assessing the semen quality before starting to freeze next week. We have to decide how many straws to freeze down and for that I need to determine (a) how much that is, and (b) how long the straws will last. A quick check on the stallion list should provide this information and then we can make an informed decision.