Archive for year: 2016
Always nice to have a break…..
Since we have concentrated on our yearlings over the past few weeks we decided to give Redheart Pascalius a few weeks break. She been grazing 24 / 7 and certainly looks like she has come up in the withers as she slowly grows into her head….Not to mention the “roundness” of her body!
To get back into the swing of showing, we decided to take her to a local show, South Staffs with no pressure. Very surprised to find a few friends had attended which made our day!
Evee was quite “soppy” today!
Maybe something to do with my daughters friend Amelie, who adores Evee.
A quiet and relaxing day, getting our eye back in after a nice break……..
Three Yearling’s, Three Events, Three Wins at Three Counties………
The three B’s….
Blu, Ben and Blanc, our 2016 yearlings experiencing their first shows!
Since weaning, our three yearlings have been under gentle education without knowing it….There is never a right time to take a yearling to its first show, their growth spurts can change over night. One minute they look fantastic and the next bum high and weedy looking!
You can do all the prep work at home but on the day it really can go either way? We try to travel to “local” events and take the day as it unfolds. We always attempt to arrive early enough to allow our yearlings to settle and adjust to their surroundings. So here we are….
DFR Patahas Redheart aka Blu had his début outing at the HOPE Show (Horse Owners and Pony Exhibitors) held at Three Counties Show ground on Sunday 26th June.
He was an absolute dream, all he wanted to do was eat the grass but make no mistake it was a nervous eating that we were fully aware of. So we let him eat, in the ring I believe he was so full he was quite lethargic but none the less he stood for the judge, trotted straight, balanced and generally an absolute star.
Our next début outing was Redheart Regal aka Blanc. This filly as you can imagine took a bit of elbow grease to get clean! Again we entered a local show at Three Counties Show Ground but this time it was an Open Gala Show on the 9th July. Blanc seemed bold and was a bit of a handful at first but as the other horses started to arrive she switched off and ate the grass. She, “honestly”, was adorable, never put a foot wrong although in one class we did struggle to trot past “our grazing area”, a mistake I will not make again! Luckily, our last class was in a different ring, she trotted with absolute perfection so we ended on a very happy note.
The highlight of our day was when Lisa Randle who owns Tamino Warrior the Appaloosa Horse Club UK Performance Champion 2014/15 asked me if I would like to compete Warrior in the Tiddler’s Challenge….it’s been a long time since I have ridden but I rose to the challenge without question! Great fun, thank you Lisa!
Redheart Royale meets Tamino Warrior!
The third début outing was with BEN! Redheart Royale. Throughout the day Ben never did anything wrong in his performance, he stood, trotted and did himself proud. The only thing he did was consistently shout and scream at the Spot Fest Festival held at Three Counties Show Ground on the 16th July. Doesn’t help when horses answer back but one thing we did realise, Ben can smell a filly in season already!
A good start to their showing campaign and a relief in getting our yearlings out, about and home safe.
Three Yearling’s, Three Events, Three Wins at Three Counties…………
Blu, Watching Over His Herd…..
Our future Stallion, watching over his girls as they sleep!
DRF Patahas Redheart
As Seen Through The Ear’s And Eye’s Of Babes…..
From birth, it is a continuous effort to educate the foal’s, as they develop into weaning’s and yearlings they develop their own character and become stronger both mentally and physically. We try very hard to keep on top of their education without them knowing it!
As we prepare for their “outings” as yearlings there is so much preparation that “one” owner might take for granted when buying a “ready-made horse”.
They must tie up, wait and stand! Pick all four feet up (not at the same time though)! Have a “bath”, wear a sheet or rug, walk / trot and stand when asked, allow traffic to pass, walk on and off a lorry / trailer and travel, maybe have a trim around the head? Having their manes /tails pulled? The list goes on…….
We have been extremely busy with our three yearling’s, continuously educating them but our début outings for the Redheart “babies” BEGINS THIS WEEKEND!!!! Are we ready?
We can not see how they view the world, we can only read the signs, encourage and reward when necessary.
Blu is frightened of “nothing”, Blanc’s frightened of “everything” and Ben….well Ben just is happy to have a look!
As seen through my eye’s…….
Colts or Fillies – 60 Day Sex Scans…….
Knowing the gender of a foal before it is born will help us manage several different aspects of our breeding program. In particular, we would like two non-characteristic (NC negative for the LP (Leopard Complex gene)) fillies to continue our breeding programme.
NC fillies will be perfect for our recent imported Stallion DFR Patahas Redheart (Blu) who is homozygous (LP/LP) for the Leopard Complex gene. Thus giving us a characteristic foal (LP/lp) 100% of the time with the advantage of his pedigree and statue.
The mares had their 60 day scans…..
Peyres Catori Cat (Catori) has been inseminated with Kiss My Finest Heart’s (Heart) semen.
Catori and Heart are both LP/lp for the Leopard Complex gene, therefore we have 50% chance of a characteristic foal (LP/lp), 25% chance of few spot or snow cap foal (LP/LP) and 25% chance of a non-characteristic (lp/lp).
Princess Pascale (PP) has been inseminated with Hevans EV Catorrius’s (Reus) semen.
PP is LP/lp and Reus is lp/lp for the Leopard Complex gene, therefore we have 50% chance of a non-characteristic foal (lp/lp) and 50% chance of a characteristic foal (LP/lp).
We have purposely increased our chances of non-characteristic foals this year by not using an LP/LP stallion but we have no control over the gender, it will always be 50 / 50!
The 60-day ultrasound identified both mares are carrying single live fetus which is obviously fantastic news. Eventually, the genital tubercle was located (both mares fetus were quite lively and it took a while to find the view required) didn’t help that both mare’s bladders were full either. The genital tubercle (which eventually will become the penis in a colt and the clitoris in a filly) develops on the midline of the fetus, between the hind legs. At around 55 days, the structure moves toward the umbilicus in a colt and toward the anus in a filly.
So, our wonderful Vet John Campbell (JC) gave us the news we didn’t want to hear….COLT’S!
On a serious note, we are grateful both mares are in foal, we are very grateful both fetus are “single” and “alive” and we only pray the gestation and births follow suit!
The advantage of knowing we might have colts (nothing is 100% guaranteed) is we can prepare to advertise and sell our Stallion (Reus) full brother and his first 100% FPD progeny out of PP. We also are able to either make plans for our NC filly foals in 2018 with the same mating’s or use Blu to create a GAP 6 with 100% success for characteristic foals to sell? Mmmmmm…..
Both mares were inseminated on the 6th May 2016 (“normal” gestation is 335 – 360 days, 342 days average) due date being April 16th 2017.
Let’s hope our news is wrong and those fetus were too quick for JC to accurately identify?
Supporting The Suzanne Entwistle Memorial & 40th Anniversary BApS Northern Show.
There is nothing I need to add here….
Except, Redheart Pascalius and I were proud to be part of the British Appaloosa Society‘s 40th Anniversary.
Early morning….
A clear run on the M1 heading Oop North
5th in a tough class of 13 “Best Conditioned”
3rd in the Most Colourful “Other”
2nd in “two & three-year-old fillies”
Proud to be part of the British Appaloosa Society
Suzanne was watching over and proud of you ALL……
Supporting The Foreign Breeds Society….
The FOREIGN BREED SOCIETY is a showing society for all Foreign Breeds in the UK.
Their shows cater for many different breeds such as Morgan’s, Percheron, Comtois, Lipizzaner, Fjords, Arab’s, Saddlebred’s, Paso Fino, Andalucian’s, Lusitano’s, Friesian’s, Falabella’s, American Miniatures and Shetlands, Icelandic, Haflinger and of course the Appaloosa etc. The Society also include part bred’s so in a “nut shell” the class’s are “open” or can be breed specific and offer something from the inexperienced young stock to the experienced equines covering both in hand or ridden disciplines.
So you can see why these shows appeal to us here at Redheart Appaloosas, not only do we qualify for more than one class, ensuring we gain any opportunity to improve our young horses experience but we get to meet some very interesting participants with some quite rare breeds.
Today we took Redheart Pascalius to Only Equestrian Complex for the Foreign Breeds Society Championship Horse Show. We were placed in all three classes, Foreign Breeds Youngstock, Home Produced and Appaloosa.
We qualified for the Purebred In Hand Championship and with a strong line up.
The Appaloosa took Reserve Champion behind the well deserved Champion Asalla, a Fjord.
Thank you for the photographs and congratulations to Jayne Bowen. x
Purebred In Hand Champion Asalla
Owned by Jayne Bowen.
A wonderful day Supporting The Foreign Breeds Society……..
HAPPY BIRTHDAY Reus, may our journey through life continue together……
13th June 2012 Reus was born, the shock of a non characteristic foal took a while to sink in!
As a late weanling he proved to have an enormous amount of intelligence and was very bold and independent.
As a yearling he proved that confirmation over ruled “colour” as he won his first Appaloosa Horse Club UK Supreme Championship.
As a two-year old, he not only won his first British Appaloosa Society Supreme Championship but gained a 5th place on the Appaloosa Club International points table.
As a three-year old he proved to be healthy, fit, correct and fertile, passing a five stage vetting and obtaining his stallion licences and then successfully storing frozen semen for the UK & Europe.
If he was a human we would be celebrating 20 years but today he is four and I wish him HAPPY BIRTHDAY and thank him for the happiness he has brought us at Redheart Appaloosas!
May our journey through life continue together and continue to exceed all our expectations……
