Wednesday 29 December 2010

Success!

Well, at least I hope so. Today Cindy (Wayward Wind) came into season and Brennan is very pleased, as am I because I was beginning to think it might never happen! Now for Isla to follow suit ...

I'm hoping to hit the road on Friday with my camera to visit a couple of horses either bred by me or by one of my stallions and to meet Brennan's sire and a collection of other Connemaras. This makes me very excited!! (OK, so I have a quiet life!). And now, a couple of photos:





Monday 27 December 2010

Brennan and Breeding Season - Meh!

So far this season has been basically all miss and no hit when it comes to breeding and, to be honest, am feeling a bit over it right now.

Our first AI, an aged (23 years old!) and overweight maiden pony mare, was not scanned post breeding because owner did not want her unduly stressed. Found out this week, about 5 weeks post breeding that she is not in foal. Not really surprised but a bit disappointed that we have not been able to get on to it earlier to try again and now she is contemplating live service so have ANOTHER maiden to look forward to.

Had another outside mare who was bred early in November and has not returned so can only assume she is in foal (yay!) however owner has not been back in touch - will need to make a phone call!

Then there was the mare with foal at foot that I had to send home as she was point blank refusing to cycle and was far too concerned about her foal to even contemplate Brennan's advances. She will be coming back but much later in the season, once her foal is weaned.

Fortunately, to save complete disaster, we did have a wee pony mare come over from Wellington who was scanned in foal two weeks post breeding. Happy owners and a very happy ME!

My own mare, Hooty, was bred on her foal heat (no luck) and then first cycle (again no success) so this week we find out if it was third time a charm. I bloody well hope so! I desperately want this foal and, if I cannot get her in foal, I am not sure what I will do with her.

The two Connemara girls have been here two weeks and are refusing to show to Brennan so I am going to have to have them scanned and, if necessary, chemically manipulated (and possibly sedated) to be bred - very annoying, potentially expensive and, as it is now getting late in the season for us and they are to be re-bred next season, with every day we do not get them bred, pushes next year's breeding further out. I don't really enjoy maidens either and these girls definitely do not want to play the game.

Our only SI customer sent the mare she was going to use back because she decided she was not up to the desired standard (great to see a breeder who puts so much stock in her mares) but she has not found a replacement mare so that is a breeding that is now not going to be happening and I am still waiting to hear back from three other mare owners (4 mares) who have said they definitely wish to use Brennan (AI) but need to get their mares prepared. Does anyone get organised to breed mares before Christmas these days??

And this drought f***ing bites! No leafy hay in my hay paddocks and having to pump my poor old mares with hard feed to keep them looking good.

On a positive note, we have had a lot of interest in Brennan from around the country and a number of breeders saying that they are very keen to use him next season. We have also secured about 3 acres of standing hay in Masterton to cut to boost our very poor harvest this season. It has not rained appreciably in weeks - we got all excited when we had a bit of rain a couple of weeks ago but there was no follow up rain and what little value it added has been blown away in the fierce Norwester that we have been battered with over the last few days. Hard to believe we thought the tap was never going to be turned off only a few short weeks ago and now all I really wanted for Christmas, was rain!

Ah well, onwards and upwards - some photos of the boy who is being an absolute joy as always.

Airtime Brennan style
Handsome boy
And the other direction
Yehar!

Sunday 19 December 2010

Today a slideshow ...

This evening I took a few photos of the mares and foals and am experimenting with a photobucket slideshow. Hopefully this works:

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Droughts etc.

Here in New Zealand, a lot of the country is currently in the grips of a drought. We had a winter deluge and then spring arrived and the rain left, completely! It's not pretty out there. I am frantically trying to buy in extra feed as I know our hay cut is going to be completely inadequate (and that's putting it mildly) and I am desperately thinking of things to try and sell to help fund the extra expense. Talk about going from one weather extreme to the next.

I have some photos of the new Connemara girls and baby Aisling (Maude's foal finally has a name, yay!) and you can see in the photos just how dry we are now. Everyone looks good but I am shovelling the food into them to make sure of it!

If anyone reading this fancies a couple of lovely little 2.5 year old heifer cows - cheap to good home - do let me know.

Isla and Cindy
The girls
Cindy
Cindy being leader
More of Cindy being leader
Running
Aisling






with friend (look closely at her shoulder)

Monday 13 December 2010

The Reindeer Antlers are doing the rounds again ...

It must be that time of the year ...


Saturday 11 December 2010

Today two new ponies were welcomed into the fold

Kohatu Dark Isle (Isla) and Wayward Wind (Cindy - Reg'd name pending) arrived at 9.30 this a.m and are two lovely purebred Connemara mares who I am absolutely thrilled to be able to say have been offered to me on lease for this breeding season. Both will be bred to Crossiebeg Brennan and I will have two purebred Connemara pony foals next season. I can't quite believe it, I might just have to pinch myself! I am so grateful to their owners, Sheila and Vanessa, for letting them come and 'hang out' here at Talisman Farm. It really is an amazing opportunity and they are absolutely gorgeous ponies!

Here are some photos:

Isla
Cindy and Isla
Isla shows a clean pair of heels
Cindy's sweet wee face
Best buddies already (and only met today!)

In other 'news', we had the vet to scan Hooty and Amber and were thrilled to be able to tell Amber's owners that she is now confirmed in foal to Brennan. Sadly Hooty has some fluid and a cyst so no pregnancy for her so it's a couple of days on oxytocin, serving early in the week and then another dose of hormones and then we wait another couple of weeks to see if we have had success.

I am still waiting to hear back from 2 owners as to their status of their mares (1 x AI and 1 x natural service) but both should well and truly have cycled again by now so I have my finger's and toes firmly crossed. We have a few more AI clients yet to service and some outside mares to arrive for breeding so, with a bit of luck and work, Brennan should have about 10 foals on the ground next season. Not a huge number but a nice start for a young boy in his first season.

Thursday 25 November 2010

A new arrival and an adventure

As the last half a dozen times Brennan has been out on the float has been to go to the collection centre, I thought it would be a good idea to take him out a few times to do other things so he doesn't associate a float ride with breeding. Yesterday we had our first fun outing and we went to the river just down the road. As you will see from the photos, I ended up in the river, with Brennan, fully clothed - Not quite the look I was after but we both had heaps of fun!









This morning Maude produced her sixth foal for us - A lovely grey filly (well she is milk chocolate coloured right now but that will change). So now Malteser, Rafferty and Liath have a full sister and Aine and Enya have a half sister. Textbook easy foaling of a healthy baby who has done everything right from the beginning - long may it continue!





Thursday 18 November 2010

Ciara - 17 November, 2010

I took some photos of Ciara for Annika today. She's getting huge now, dear Hooty certainly knows how to feed and grow her babies!