Keeping Calm, Nothing Stay’s The Same……

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If you have moved house you know the stress levels, if you have moved farms, you know moving house is easy!

The Mares Paddock

Princesse Pascale and her daughter Redheart Pascalius

Peyres Catori Cat and her daughter Redheart Regal

 

 

The Colts Paddock 

Redheart Royal 

DFR Patahas Redheart

The Stallion Paddock

Redheart Catorrius / Hevans EV Catorrius

along with the “lawn mowers”, Catkin & Evan

Back up….

Ruby & Grace, “the security”.

Ink, the “hunter”.

Each paddock has at least two sides if not three surrounded by mature hedging and trees for shelter, the land has a slight gradient which should allow for adequate drainage and hopefully minimize poaching? See what the winter brings?

Just need to Keep Calm as nothing stay’s the same….

A Dream Come True……

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I try to keep the “News” updated with show reports and events at the stud that I think are relevant, along with each horse’s profile as their details change or occur.

We use the Social Media Facebook page “UK Appaloosa Horses” as our sponsored effort to promote the awareness of the rare purebred Appaloosas here in the UK.

The most relevant news, Redheart Appaloosa Stud has moved Counties, from Gloucestershire to Worcestershire. We have a quaint country cottage with enough land to cater for our expanding herd. We are starting with a blank canvas and applying for planning permission for an agricultural barn and stable barn, ensuring we can offer the mares, foals and stallions adequate facilities for breeding.

Until the paddocks are established, our stallion Reus is at a local livery yard, Areion Equestrian. We could not be happier and relieved because many livery yards do not take stallions, due to misunderstanding! The owner Jo, runs this professional livery yard, nothing was compromised during our stay. We would like to say a huge thank you to Jo and her team, what a delightful yard to be part of. Reus was a good boy and we made use of their fantastic facilities before bringing him home, his own paddock away from the mares.

I can now see the horses from my bedroom window, such a precious sight and a dream come true.

Show Season Highlight…….

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One of the main highlights of the show season is the Appaloosa Horses Club UK  National show. A two-day event that caters for every Appaloosa enthusiast.

This year we took our two GAP 5 horses, Redheart Pascalius and DFR Patahas Redheart. I participated with both horses in the Appaloosa Horse Club  classes while Crystal participated both horses in the Appaloosa Horses Club UK classes. On this occasion, backed up by a young lady Amilie,  who has caught the Appaloosa “bug”.

Another wonderful day showing, we both achieved a few awards and congratulate all the other competitors.

Already looking forward to the 2017 National Show……

 

Three Yearling’s, Three Events, Three Wins at Three Counties………

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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…………

As Seen Through The Ear’s And Eye’s Of Babes…..

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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…….

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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.

60-day-scan-catorixheart

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.

60-days-scan-ppxreus

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?

 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Reus, may our journey through life continue together……

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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……