Foaling News Diary 2007 Latest at the Top

Final Score this year Colts 7 - Fillies 12 and three ordered to go to to the angels.
I hope that you enjoyed this true account of a foaling season at a place where we do everything that we can to ensure good foalings but even we had three losses this year out of 22 foals. If we had not been there at the foalings by our sacrifice of time and cameras we would have lost another 7 foals and maybe a few mares.

News. June 8th 4.40am. Our last pregnant mare Morjoy Nia finally let here new filly out this morning at 3.30am, we were lucky that our swinging foaling monitor alerted Janette that she had lay down flat. We got to Nia quickly and the foal was coming with a red bag or placenta first so we had to move quickly and slit the red bag. I found the legs and pulled it out fast. It was a pretty little piebald filly by Romany Paco. We probably would have lost this one if we had not been there.

June 6th 12.30am. Still waiting, we wondered today if Nia had maybe lost the foal or re-absorbed it because she does not look fat, so I scanned her again. The scan showed that a foal is there with a regular heartbeat. Nia is driving us mad because she acts like she is going to foal every night but it all comes to nothing in the end. I hope that it does not mean that a problem is brewing. All the other ponies are out now on nice grass but Nia is only getting the pleasure of our lawn in the garden when we are there, she is enjoying the personal attention though. I was walking around the edges of our fields on Sunday checking that the grass was not growing onto the electric fencing when I nearly trod on a tiny fox cub, it quietly walked into its hole. I was amazed to see another seven tiny cubs in front of me all curled up in a circle asleep with the warm sun on them. I wished that I had got my camera with me because it was one of those moments in a lifetime that you never forget. I backed off quietly and signaled Janette to come and look, Janette got very close too and they never did notice us. They were so sweet. Some people must think that we are mad to appreciate foxes but we have hundreds of rabbits about so we need something to control them. I just hope that they don't take to horse meat.
June 4th 12.30am. We are still waiting for Nia to foal. Maybe tonight or maybe not.I have put a couple of new videos online tonight so I hope you enjoy.

30th May 12.45am. Sorry for no updates for a few day but I have been busy and Morjoy Nia has still not foaled, she was last, last year and is so again this year.
We spent today splitting up all our mares into groups and put our stallions out, one to each group. It was a hard working day, I must have walked miles and miles today taking all the ponies to the right place one by one or two by two if they had a foal. Tomorrow we need to spend the morning putting up some electric fence so that we dare to put the last stallion out. He is Fairytail Maverick and he is a Maverick, if we did not pen him in with electric fence he would take on any of our other stallions, this is his second year with the mares and we are hoping that he calms down this year because last year he took his new job too seriously.
We are also running our new stallions Fairytail Midas Touch by Fairy Flicker, Fairytail Primo Dominie by Romany Paco and Morjoy Humbug by Romany Paco this year. Romany Paco our main stallion is still the only miniature Shetland pony with the most International winnings time after time and so he and his offspring our special.

I will try to get some updated video and photos soon but the weather needs to be better, it was drizzly today and the stallions all spent there first ten minutes rolling in the mud so it was not worth any video of that. This years foaling news will soon be coming to an end so I hope that you have enjoyed it up to present. Bye for now, going to bed now.

22nd May 2pm. We had another foal this morning at about 2.20am, Morjoy Honey had a skewbald colt by Fairytail Shamrock. It is not very well marked but it is small and correct.
This leaves just Morjoy Nia to foal now which may not be for a few days as she foaled last, last year.

21st May 11.15pm. Bad News to start tonight but good to follow. Luanas foal died this afternoon, we had trouble in getting it latched on to its mum so we tried to do the usual feeding to get its strength up, it was hard as the foal would not swallow anything. We tried everything but we think that this foal had a problem swallowing, we thought that it was getting better today so we put the mare and foal out in the paddock. Janette fed it every two hours today until three o'clock this afternoon, then it was asleep, when Janette tried to wake it it must have been close to death. The life had gone out of its eyes and it was just a floppy sack. It went down hill so fast. We also feel for Luana as she loved her foal. We have left the foal with her for a day or so so that she can mourn. If anyone has a small foal that needs a mother quick please phone on 07976 740196. We think that Luana would accept any foal. Back to tonight at 10.45pm tonight we finally had a foal born to Fairytail Wish Come True and it did, Wish had a lovely tiny piebald filly which was a nice surprise as she lost her first filly foal last year. The foal was by Fairytail Shamrock again.

Fairytail Wish upon a Star 20th May 12.20am. At about 11.50 pm We had a foal born to Donabi Luana, it was a very small chestnut colt which was disappointing for the chestnut but good for the smallness. The father is Fairytail Shamrock. At least Luana now has the joy of a live foal after loosing her first foal last year. I spotted Luana foaling on the cameras and went to wake Janette up, I then rushed into the stable where Luana was and evicted Fairytail Wish and quickly re-arranged the stable, this was all done within about one minute but Luana shot the foal out like a bullet. One moment she was pushing and the next it was there like magic so Janette arrived to see the new born. I sent her back to bed and said I will sort things. I will go to bed at 2am. The last three mares are all in one large stable split by gates but under just one camera now so hopefully the watching will become easier now unless Janette decides to split them up tomorrow.

17th May 11.45pm. All is quite again at the moment, Janette and I were saying tonight that we have had too much luck since losing our first two foals and we must be due some bad luck soon. Of the four mares still to foal three are our smallest mares and two lost foals last year.
Janette and I are at our low point, we are both very tired now all day and all night. We have been watching the mares so intensely for six weeks that we are now getting to the stage where we cannot concentrate for long. It is easy to gaze at the telly for ages and to see nothing because our minds are blank. I went down to the mares and foals to take some video this evening with my tripod. Last time I went the ponies ignored the tripod, this time there were more ponies and it only took one pony to flag danger and all the ponies treated me as an alien. I was so disappointed. I realized tonight why I had managed to get some of the early young foals to be so very friendly so quick, it was because the ground was so dry and I could lie down in the fields patiently at the foals level whilst I got their trust, with some of the new born's I have not yet had a chance to do that. I will have to get into a quiet waterproof suit and go crawling about the fields again. I cannot really complain though because we needed the rain to get the grass growing. The last four ponies are restless tonight so I had better get back to the Truman Show on the pony channel.

15th May 11.15 pm. We have just had a foal born to Fairytail Dream Time at last. The foal is another well marked piebald filly by Fairytail Maverick so Maverick has given us two piebald fillies and a bay and white colt this season which is nice for his first season. I had set up my camera with a spot light last night because I thought that it was going to happen then but it never did. I got a flea in my ear this morning when Janette found that our driving cob Cocoa had spent the whole night cowering in a corner of his stable because this monster of a little spot light was positioned near to his hay rack, he had not touched his hay. After the foaling at 10.45 I went to get my camera and spot light again but the bulb had blown, so I changed it quick but I cannot get it working, I changed the fuse but still no light.
Sorry but I had to give up with the video tonight but here are a few photos instead.

13th May 6.15pm. I got dragged out of bed at about 3am this morning to foal Bulgwyn Taloula, the foal took some pulling out but we got it ok. Taloula had done it well and it is like a two week old foal already. It was a well marked piebald filly by Fairytail Maverick. This is the second foal by Maverick which we only started using last year. The next foal to be born should hopefully be Fairytail Dream Time also by Maverick so we are hoping for something nice.
We finally managed to get Tootsies foal to suckle last night and she has never stopped since, it took a lot of trouble though, we kept having to milk the mare and syringe the milk by lying on the floor and feeding the foal near to mums teats, she did not seem to have the sucking reflex and seemed to have a short tongue, but feeding her by hand this way has enabled her to strengthen up to a point where she finally learnt what to do. We believe that if she had been born out in the field without any attention she would have died. We await the last five foals now from Dream Time, Nia, Wish, Luana and Honey.

12th May 3.20am. Its late, we had a party to go to tonight which we could not get out of so we hired a pony baby sitter called Jackie and put her in charge for the night with instructions that horrified her. However all worked out well and after a fire station break from the party we had a new bay filly foal born at 11.20pm by Romany Paco out of Morjoy Pricila. We are still feeding last mornings foal by hand as it does not know how to suck. That is another story which is very long, I hope we will win in the end. I have taken some photos and video today and hope to show it soon. Please be patient.

11th May 6.40 am. Just had a lovely piebald filly by Bogs Lord Mack out of Morjoy Tootsey born at 6.10am. Tootsie was very powerful at pushing the foal out with contractions every 15 seconds, there was one leg and the head coming which does not work so I had to push the foal right back in again up past my elbow then the other leg popped forward and I could feel two legs. I then left Tootsey to foal it which she did without any trouble then, so I saved this filly which would have certainly died had we not been there.

align=cente class content>Mack did us good this year with six fillies and two colts this year including the one that died at the start.

Janette has just said that Lexie continued to have a bad night, it has taken her until just a few moments ago to cleanse, hopefully she will be better now. Back to bed now for me as I have only had about 4 hours sleep so far. Photos will have to wait till latter.

11th May 12.30 am. We had a piebald colt foal born at 8.15 this evening by Bogs Lord Mack out of Dilston Lexie a grey mare. The foal was well marked. Lexie has had a bad night so far and I have had to give her pain killers, I hope that things get better later. Otherwise I am on red alert again as we have three other mares that could also foal tonight.

May 10th at 9.15 am. We have nine mares still to foal shortly. They are all under surveillance now so we hope that we will get all the foals without disasters happening now. I hope that you have enjoyed the training video of the miniature pony for the guiding of the blind. Janette has said that she would like to train one of our ponies soon if she gets the time.

Check out the video page because I have today put up a lovely video of the training of a miniature horse to be a guide horse for the blind. I know that you will all enjoy that.

7th May 11.30pm. All is quiet at the moment but we have four mares that are well bagged up at the moment two of which lost their foals last year. We are hoping for more good luck this year.

7th May 9.15am. At about 1am this morning Fairy Fortune had a lovely piebald colt by Bogs Lord Mack then at about 8.45am Dudbridge Elegance had a lovely skewbald filly by Fairytail Shamrock.

6th May 7.45pm. A new foal has just been born. We had just sat down for dinner after a busy day, that went back into the oven while we sorted out the foaling. The mare is Bulkgwyn Nicky and the foals dad is Bulkgwyn Humbug. She has had another black colt. It seems to be BLACK COLT DAY. Nicky was the mare that we expected to foal last so foal planning is right out the window now.

6th May 6.30pm. The new foal born last night is ok, it is sucking for England and its mum has sore teats and is right fed up. The foal looks like its three weeks old already.
We have been watching Fairy Fortune this afternoon as she looked like she was going to foal earlier, however we had visitors which disturbed her so she switched off for now, watch this space later.

We had a lovely family visit us today from Oxford with the intention of maybe buying a pony or two. We showed them all the ponies and then the mares with the recently new born foals.
One of the mares that we did not really want to sell chose this family as its next home, its foal took to the family straight away. Janette and I were amazed how these strangers could play with the mare and foal so easily. We have now realized that the breeding program and hard work is really working. Our ponies really are the friendliest ponies. I hope you enjoy.

6th May 1.30pm. NEW FOAL JUST BORN. About 15 minutes ago we had a nice black colt by Fairytail Mr Bo Jangles out of Morjoy Tilly. We were overdue a colt and this one looks strong and correct. I nearly missed the foaling as Tilly was in the open Barn right in the corner and not expected to foal soon. She was having contractions when I spotted her on the cameras. When I got there Tilly had foaled fast and was just getting up. I sorted Tilly and the foal out fast and penned them up with sheep hurdles. Janette will wake up soon with a surprise.

I have taken some video today showing me getting the trust of some of our foals. There are two clips which are un-edited and quite long.

This is a second try at uploading the video of Puffin the other day. I filmed about 46 minutes in one go but to put it on the web I have had to split the video into five pieces to show it all without editing it. This is the first ten minutes above. If you want to continue watching what happens next Click Here and next Click Here

5th May 1.30am. Nothing much happening tonight, getting ready to go to bed soon, Janette can take over then. It is our 23rd Wedding anniversary today. Janette's present is a new saddle for our driving cob Cocoa who has now become a riding cob. It used to be, buy her a new pony but that got a bit boring once we got up to !!!!!! To Many.The foaling video that I took the other day seems to have been edited by Youtube as it now starts after the foaling which is not very useful to our community who I assume would be interested in seeing it in full. I will try to put the original video back again "Whole". If anyone objects to a foaling video being shown please contact me direct on the phone number on the sales page. We do not intend to offend, just to educate with reality. No other video or photos tonight, Sorry been too busy.

3rd May 10.20am. Still quiet this morning.

3rd May 11.30pm. All quiet today so far, I managed to take some nice video of our yearlings today which is at the top of the video page at the moment or Click Here. I also took a lovely photo of the bluebells in our wood.

We expect some more foaling's very soon, maybe tonight as we have seven ponies well bagged up at present. Here is a list of the mares that still due to foal soon.
Morjoy Pricila and Morjoy Nia in foal to Romany Paco.
Fairytail Wish Come True, Donabi Luana, Dudbridge Elegance, Honey (Cant remember her proper name) all in foal to Fairytail Shamrock.
Morjoy Tilly in foal to Fairytail Mr Bo Jangles.
Fairy Fortune, Morjoy Tootsie and Dilston Lexie all in foal to Bogs Lord Mack.
Bulkgwyn Taloula and Fairytail Dances With Dreams in foal to Fairytail Maverick.
Bulkgwyn Nicky in foal to Bulkgwyn Humbug.
Here is a video clip of the mares and foals that I took today with some friends playing with them. If you like any video clips you can click on the corner and go to the Youtube web site and rate my videos and also see the ratings so far, you can also send me messages or send copies of the videos to your friend, the site is very good. Click Here. Please enjoy.

2nd May 4.30pm. Two foals have been born since last night. Janette got me up at about 3am and Morjoy Puffin had a roan colt foal which I have filmed right through the birth, I will put that on later, then at 9.30 this morning Fairytail Hazel had a lovely bay and white filly which I have filmed from about five minutes after the birth.

2nd May 1.15am. My watch. We have been on red alert all day because our lovely mare Morjoy Puffin has been going mad today and still is tonight, the last time we saw this type of behavior it ended in tragedy, with a foal born red bag, dead.

1st May 12.30 am. White Rabbits again, its May and the Stallions are going mad at the moment because some of our mares and fillies must be in season, time flies by faster and faster every year especially when you busy yourself with lots of pets. I am watching the ponies again, its like the Trueman show. Same thing every night. I sometimes think that it is a big waste of the time of my life which is limited but there are rewards sometimes, may be the Shetland Ponies of past will look after me when I get to heaven. Just out of interest my business is situated on an old coal mine site and recently I had a gardener tidy the site and he dug up lots of tiny horse shoes. I was very surprised at how small some of the pit ponies must have been a hundred years or so ago, some of the shoes were as small as our smallest ponies hoofs and they are small. I had once heard that the first and smallest Shetland's that were sold from the Shetland's fetched £1900 a hundred years ago or more, if this is true and anyone knows more about this please contact me and I will share the interesting information.
There are two ponies that I am watching very carefully tonight and they are Fairytail Wish Come True again (Back on Red Alert) and Fairytail Dances with Dreams or Dreamy as we call her, they are both very restless tonight and are at well bagged up. I hope that you enjoyed the video clips that I put online over the weekend. Bye for now.

30th April 07 12.35pm. Still nothing happening yet, maybe something may happen later as some of the mares are very bagged up and restless. Janette and I are very tired today, Janette is running on Red Bull caffeine drink at the moment.

29th April 07 12.20pm. Last night was quiet again and still nothing happening this morning, Janette has gone out for a ride on Cocoa for a change and left me to it. It has been over a month now since we started watching the pregnant mares. We had expected to have more foals by now but the mares don't seem to want to let them out. I wonder if we may have a multiple birthing day soon.
I took some video of Janette yesterday being mugged by all our yearlings, Janette had gone to catch a pony that we had sold and thought that she had best take a bucket of food just incase she could not catch it. Big mistake.

28th April 07 1am. Nothing much happening tonight yet, staying up until 2am again, Janette will take over from then. I will place my socks carefully tonight.

Our latest three arrivals

27th April 10pm. This morning was interesting, I went to bed at 2am after the first foaling then the next thing that I knew was Janette yelling at me, foaling, foaling. It was about 4.30am, I was in a total daze and I could not find one of my socks, it took me a while to work out that I could put another clean sock on by which time Janette had burst into the bedroom again yelling at me to hurry up. I told her that I could not find one of my socks. That did not go down very well with Janette. Out in the barn one the the Mares that had not been bagged up much yet called Morjoy Seline was foaling, It took quite a pull to get the foal out and again we were expecting a colt but we had a lovely surprise with another bay and white filly. The foal is a lovely light colour with a heel stripe at the moment but we assume that it will end up darker. Later this morning I found my missing sock around by the stables, it must have gone down my trouser leg. Janette has not spoken to me much today.
I Have taken some photos and videos this afternoon of the last three foals, I hope you enjoy. The last Bay & White foal is absolutely super friendly.

27th April. 1.30am. Just missed a foaling on my watch by a couple of minutes, luckily it was ok is a piebald filly by our Bogs Lord Mack out of Fairytail Arabella, we had been expecting a colt because she had a filly last year. The mare must have shot it out quickly, thank god that it was alright. We still have five mares on red alert so we will see how the evening progresses. Janette will not be happy with me tomorrow for missing this but i tried. It can happen so quickly.

26th April 12.25am. We have just had our fifth foal this year. It is out of our Fairytail Jasmine by Fairytail Shamrock (I think). It is another pretty bay and white. Is it a colt or a filly, we hoped that it would be a filly but it was a colt, never mind it is still very special.
The foaling was on my watch and I did not miss it "thank god for that". Jasmine was a first timer and so the foal was tight coming out. I had to give the foal a big pull with Janette holding on to Jasmines tail.
We got the foal out ok but we still had an unusual experience, whilst the umbilical cord was still attached to the foal it had ruptured and about half a pint of blood was lost. You will see see the blood on the foal in the video. I tried to limit the loss of blood but I did not know what to do in that split second so I wrapped my hand around the cord where it was spirting blood and pressed only gently because we always like all the blood to flow to the foal before the mare gets up and breaks the link.
I put a halogen spot light on to film the foal this time, I hope that you enjoy the video. If anyone has trouble seeing the video please phone and I will sort it out for you.

25th April 07. Nothing happened yet, still red alert tonight.
I have put a little video on tonight to show our new riding cob Barney with his first companions. See below.

April 23rd 11.20 pm. On Red alert again, Janette is asleep and I am watching three very restless ponies, I hope that I am watching the right ones. Also thanks for the support emails from all you followers, Janette and I will try to respond as soon as we have time. One of the ponies soon due is Fairytail Wish Come True. We nearly lost her when she was a yearling, by being beaten up by her dad Romany Paco, then we tragically lost her first foal last year which was a tiny skewbald filly. We are hoping that things go better this time. Here is another bit of video that I took on Saturday of the first two foals

April 22nd. 10.30am. We are yet again going through a quiet period, the red alerts have all fizzled out.

April 20th 6.45 am. Second news within 8 hours.
This morning at 6 am we had our fourth foal this season, it is by our stallion Bogs Lord Mac out of our lovely friendly first timer Dilston Sky. The foaling was a little awkward and things were a little tight, however with plenty of effort from Sky and a hefty pull from me we eventually managed to get it out. The result being that Sky is now the proud mum of a well marked piebald filly. See photos below.

Thursday 19th April 11.10pm. Miracles do happen. Just 20 minutes ago we had our third foal this season, the birthing went well and our Morjoy Puppet had a lovely bay and white filly which we will call Fairytail Isabella. The foal is by Bogs Lord Mack. Tonight should be interesting as we still have three more red alerts and five yellow alerts.

I hope that you enjoy the photos below, I must have made a record at putting a new foal on the internet in 25 minutes. I hope that Isabella didn't want a private life.

Thursday 19th April 12.30am. I bet some of you think that I am hiding something, but you are wrong. Nothing has happened yet, we still have 21 mares to foal and one in particular is heavily bagged up now so it may ??????? happen soon. We have all the mares under camera surveillance but it is only as good as when we are looking. Three minutes can mean a loss but we can only manage every 20 minutes to keep sane. It is all a gamble.
We have today discovered a new foaling device that works like a mobile phone and detects when the ponies lie down flat but this one is different in that it has a three minute delay so if the pony stays asleep it does not activate but if the pony is contracting and moving about it activates. This should eliminate the very many false alarms that make most of these devises unworkable. We have tried many systems over the years but found that watching is the only sure way. However these people have told me that many Dutch people with miniature ponies use their system and trust it. It costs about £450 per unit though. The Company are letting us test one over the next few days. I will report on its effectiveness. If it works well I will buy a set of six.
When I came home from work today we had dinner and then Janette went for a ride on her horse Cocoa while I followed with our four dogs, I did a short circle for just half an hour to get back to the mares and Jet did a larger circle on her own which she has never done for many years. Janette is carefully trying to get to trust our driving cob at riding out on its own without me being their. Cocoa did OK but Janette said that he was nappy, driving horses like driving and then do not seem to like being ridden again, strange ???. Bye for now. Sel.

Tuesday 17th April 12.15am. The weekend was nice especially on Sunday, we took time out for a couple of drives with Cocoa and Janette had a ride on Cocoa for a change, I walked all four of our dogs for miles. We left my sister in charge of the pony watching for a while. It was like a July summers day on Sunday, the only trouble is that the grass in the fields has not started growing much yet as it is so dry. We would like to put all the young ponies and non pregnant mares out now but we fear that it is a bit to early and that the grass will be ruined if we do. Lets hope that some rain comes soon.

Monday 16th April 12.55am. Still no foals, we are very worried that the foals may all come at once and that if we don't see them we will loose many. We fear the worst but we will try our best, however we are both tired now so we may miss some, I hope that my mum in heaven will help us now.

Saturday 14th 11.15pm. Nine mares bagging up well so far and the others not far behind. Interesting times ahead. I will be moving all my videos over to the You Tube web site over the next few weeks, this will not affect anything other than giving you a chance to rate the videos or share them with friends.

Saturday 14th 1.45am. Everything is still quiet, a bit of tail rubbing. I need to know if everyone is happy with the type of video that I put on the web site last year which requires you to install quick time, if not I will change it to .wmf. Please email me at Selwyn Click Here with a yes or no, thank you.

April 12th 12.30am. Still nothing yet, but I suspect that something will happen soon as we have lots of restless ponies wishing their tails. Janette has received hundreds of emails from people following this diary, all with lovely comments and encouragement for me to continue with a true account of the reality of a foaling season, be it good or bad. Janette and I will try to reply to all the mail as soon as possible but please realize that it is not as big a priority as much as watching the ponies. It has been interesting that lots of people have praised us for being totally honest with what is happening as they feel that most breeders hide the bad bits. Janette is now comfortable with me giving a totally honest account of what happens over the next few weeks.
On another subject I have noticed that there are still no Swallows (Birds)that have arrived, this is late, we usually have swallows by the 7th April in our stables, this is strange considering that the winter has been mild. I have noticed that there are many fewer garden birds this yea,r what do you think.

We took time out tonight to look after our dogs and our big horse, I came home tonight a little earlier than usual an we ate dinner quick and then I took the four dogs out on two extending leads 2 +2 we have two collies and two jack russell's (both types of dogs are the best) Janette had a ride on our driving pony Cocoa, we had an hour of pleasure but risked foaling losses if something had happened while we were out.

April 11th 9.10am. Nothing has happened last night, we shall see what today brings.

April 10th. Easter Monday went without any foals again. Janette has split the ponies into two groups now, the pregnant mares are in the big barn under the camera and the rest have been locked out of the barn to suffer the weather for the next couple of weeks until we let then out in the fields again. We are hoping for a bit if rain and warm weather to get our grass growing.

April 9th Early. Easter sunday was quiet, I started the day by putting the two foals to rest and then spent some of the day tyne harrowing the land with the tractor, this afternoon Janette and I took an hour out for Janette to ride our driving cob Cocoa and I walked our two collie dogs.

April 7th. Bad news. Panache's foal died this afternoon in his sleep, he had started the day still trying to suckle but never hooked on to the right place, we tried feeding him by hand but he just would not swallow when we were holding him. His gums and the whites of his eyes were very yellow and worse than yesterday so we new that he was very ill but kept hoping for the best. He had been a fighter but the fight was waning now. Although Panache tried everything to get him to Suckle it just was not meant to happen. If we could of got it happily suckling a bottle we would have tried to hand rear it but while the mother is so actively trying to get the foal to suckle we had to make the difficult decision to hope it worked, but it did not.

Regrettably moving on, we are watching mainly one pony tonight who is more bagged up than the rest, this is Dilston Sky. There are quite a lot of other mares that have just started bagging up so in a couple of weeks its going to be very interesting. I hope everyone has had a nice easter, it does not seem to have been as hot as the weather men said it would be but its been pleasant.

April 6th. What a day. None of the other ponies are bagging up yet and so we were not expecting any imminent foals, Its Good Friday morning and a lovely day so we decided to take our cob Cocoa for a drive with our trap. Janette got Cocoa ready and then went to fetch the harness and take a last quick check of the mares, one was foaling, all hell broke out because the foal was coming with a red bag (Placenta first) as with the first foal that we lost.

I slit the red bag with a knife and luckily managed to get the foal out quickly. The mare is Fairytail Panache and the foal is a lovely piebald colt by Fairytail Shamrock. The foal was lazy and kept putting its front leg up over its head, we suspected that it had brain damage from oxygen starvation. Janette checked its gums and the whites of its eyes and found that they were yellow. We have seen this once before many years ago and it was jaundiced then and that foal died a few days later, so we were not hopeful for this foal living long. It has had a very quiet day, hardly moving and its mouth was very cold. We milked some colostrum from Panache and gave it to the foal with a tiny syringe to its mouth.

It could hardly hold its head up, we have spent the afternoon waiting for the worst, but this evening we went to check the foal expecting the worst but to our surprise it was much better, it was resting at first so I woke it up and got it to its feet in a last ditch effort to do something. It seemed to spark it into life, it was up on its own and stumbling about and sucking like mad even though it had not got to the teats yet. It was warm and perky, it must be a fighter. We went into action again and milked Panache which was difficult because she was reluctant to let the milk go by hand.

We have fed the foal again and it is getting stronger. When I have put this message online for you to read I will be back out there to check it and feed it again.

Janette is not very happy about me sharing our bad news with everyone but I have told her that I want to give a true account of our real experiences at this time of year so that people who think about breeding these beautiful tiny horses do realize that although they will get incredible pleasure from the breeding and the live foals, there is a negative side to things. This proves that you do not get pleasure without pain. Please email Janette with some support for what I am doing before she stops me continuing. I will keep you informed tomorrow.

April 5th. We had a terrible start to our foaling season today with the loss of our first foal from our grey mare Bombshell who we love, Janette had checked all the ponies at 7.50am this morning but just 20 minutes later Bombshell was in trouble. The foal was coming upside down and did not come quick enough, when we got to it the placenta had come first. This means that the foal could not breath through its mother for maybe five or ten minutes. It was to late, the foal was dead and it was a bay and white filly. This has knocked Janette back tonight and she has not spoken to me at all. I will get over that but I hope our luck improves soon. Sad Times. Happy easter to all.

April 4th Early. It is a historical day today because Sparky the last UK pit pony has died aged 35.

April 3rd. Janette has brought in the first mare because she has started bagging up but also because she had large teats this afternoon which was unusual. We have her under surveillance now. She is Dilston Sky I think. We are expecting many foals to be born in a shorter time span this year because we limited the stallions to just one month with the mares last year in the hope that we had fewer foals this year, the trouble is the stallions seem to have done a good job. Bye for now.

April 2nd. We had the vet out to Tetanus all the ponies that were due this year, it was a large bill but its worth it if it stops even one pony suffering a painfully death. Still no imminent foaling's but it will all start happening soon. We had time today to take all the dogs for a lovely run down the fields and we also had a nice drive with our cob Cocoa.

I forgot to say that two of our ponies featured on a program on channel 4 at 9 pm last Monday 26th March, the program was called Animal Farm.

April 1st 00.00 White Rabbits, Good luck to everyone tonight, we scanned the mares yesterday again and we concluded that 1 maybe wrong and one maybe right so still 23.

30th March sorry but still no news yet.

27th Still nothing yet, I will try to do a video this weekend of the ponies to show the ones that we are watching. I will swap this diary around soon so that the new news is at the top

class="content"> 24th Because of popular demand last year we intend selling a few mares with foals at foot, this will give some lucky people the chance to enjoy the summer watching the young foals grow and play without the worry of foaling them yourselves. See sales page Click Here

Starting from early April 07 we have scanned all the mares and are expecting 21 foals this year, there may be one or two more from ponies that are not talking to the scanner but which are either far too fat or are in foal.

2007 Welcome back if you followed last years foaling news.

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