Time passes

Archie By Danilon out of April

Well time passes in a steady routine of our days and with the time the young colts grow, Archie into a long legged gangly youngster, Annie and Amie into elegant pretty fillies and Tufty (or to be precise Charles has now rechristened him Toffee) into a strapping colt foal. And then there is Dolly of course turning into a handsome well balanced filly with a canter like a show hack, she has always lived with the older mares and is expected to behave very well indeed by them!

Our daily routine remains much as every other day - each morning we feed and turn out the youngsters and brood mares and I muck out the stallion before we cook breakfast for our guest. And little by little our youngsters mature and our brood mares grow larger and more careful in their movements, almost without us realising it.

Lizzie will be the next to foal - our Holstein mare, deep bodied and powerful even she is now blowing as she trots past me for her super in the evening. She should foal in ten days or so, followed by Diva a big Thoroughbred mare. Diva will have a holiday after this foal and not return to the stallion until next year. April is enjoying her year off springing about the field with Dolly in her second childhood.

Amie nearest to the camera TB/Iberian and Annie Holstien/Iberian



Tuftee(Toffee) monitoring the footpath that separates him from the big boys - that's Archie!


Dani has spent the winter quietly exercising around the lanes, often meeting other horses and riders as he goes along his routes or stopping to be patted around the villages. Mostly I've hoped to lengthen his neck and stretch and round his back muscles this year; getting him to relax and drop his rib cage. I've worked on the hills to get him to push from behind going up and sit and drop his quarters, bending his hocks going down..............and I've looked over the hedges and enjoyed his company for the rest of the time! And in our daily routine time passes and the horses grow strong.