A huge update on my herd!

Hey all, it's been a very LONG time since I've updated on my herd, the old forum hasn't been active since around 2009! That is a long time...

Tigre (Maryss Tigre) - Tig/Tiggy/Tigger/Tiggles/Loki.

I give him many pet names!

I acquired a new stallion back in September 2011. His name is Tigre, he's 3, coming up 4 in a month or so He is black, and he is the last son of Jardinero X (The horse that was ridden by Mel Gibson in the film, Braveheart)

He is currently 16.1HH, to reach 16.3HH.

He is blind in his left eye. We didn't have him vetted, otherwise we'd have known before purchasing, but, we would have gotten him regardless. He's practically been blind from being a few months old when he had an eye injury (He lived out, as do most of the breeders herd) and he'd had the vet out with drops and such to clear it up, and it did clear, but they had no idea that any damage had been done. I only found out that there was something wrong, when his left eye didn't glow when a light was shone on it, and we had the vet out next day. He was then taken up country to be poked and prodded and have all these dyes in his eye at the age of 2, and he was brilliant. Unfortunately, they said he had no vision in the eye, and there isn't anything there to cause him pain and discomfort.

On that note, he is brilliant. At first, I had my hands full with him, he was bad mannered and he was a bit pushy, especially on his blind side. He'd only started being handled a couple of weeks before we bought him. But, we persevered and got on with it.

We got friendly with a show jumper called Lucy, and she offered to take Tigre and back him and do some in-hand work with him. So he was there for a couple of months, and he came back even better. He should be going back in a few months, once he hits 4, to start being broken in, ready to ride in the summer.

We took him to his first show in September to qualify for SICAB. It was only an in-hand thing, but we went more for the experience. He was brilliant, and I couldn't believe it He looked stunning and I was very proud of him

We're hoping to take him to BAPSH this year!



Luca (Puntal V) - Pookie/Pookie Bear/Thor

Well, he's still as good as ever <3 I miss him a lot right now (I'll explain in a few paragraphs, haha)

He wasn't too impressed with Tigre at first, of course because he is very protective of his mares. So we had to put Luca next door to HIS mare, and Tigre down the other end of the stable block with a mare to interact with (Both as good as gold, you wouldn't think they were stallions) So, we had no trouble with that. Luca was turned out with Willow in one half of the field, and Tigre the other half (We fenced the field in half to be able to turn all 3 stallions out) They did fine, Luca walked the fence a lot for the first few days, but soon settled down.

We put the mares back down on to the other land and had the other field free, so we decided to turn Tigre out there, and give Luca and Willow the full run of the big field.

We then had a very big accident, where we had to call the fire brigade out, it was one of the worst days of my life, and we are very lucky to still have Luca here with us today.

He went missing in the field, and I was searching frantically for him, thinking he'd got into the woodlands, but I couldn't see anything. I turned to walk off, and by chance, I heard him groan. I looked around, and then saw he was on his back, wedged in the stream. I cried my eyes out, shouted for help and jumped in to hold his head above the water. He was cold, and shaking, he'd peed and pooed himself, he was absolutely terrified. He'd also had branches over him, so I managed to move them to see him clearly. I had no idea how long he'd been there, but it was at least an hour and a bit longer. My aunt had heard my screams, and came to find me with Luca, she ran as quickly as she could to the house and got my mum to phone the fire brigade, and all of my brothers who were in work. My dad also came over to the field, and considering he needs a new hip, I couldn't believe how quick he got here. He started crying, my mum was bawling, and my aunt and cousin were running around trying to find shovels and blankets.

My dad got into the stream with Luca to hold his head out of the water, while we waited for the fire brigade. It was over an hour before they got here, we also had our vet with us just incase Luca needed to be sedated. They came with only 3 men, and had to phone to get more, and special services that deal with equines in situations. They said they'd never had a case like this one before, and they were a bit unsure if he was going to make it. But my dad was throwing around orders, while they were telling my dad to be calm and get out of the stream, he refused because with Luca being so weak, he'd have given up. My dad made my brothers start digging, so that we could try and pull Luca up and out. The ground was hard and we needed more than a shovel to do it. So I suggested we ring our farmer, who has a small JCB on tracks, and come up through the other field. Well, it was another half hour before the rest of the firemen turned up, with a specialist team, and they were still assessing the situation! It was another hour then, until they finally decided on trying to pull him out.

Thank god that John arrived with his machine, he went further down to fill in the stream to get across to our side. My dad stayed in the stream, and put a blanket over Luca's head, and John started digging. Luca was so tired at this point, that he didn't thrash around or anything, he couldn't really do anything at all. We managed to do it so that we could pull him without too much difficulty. We had about 10 firemen and specialist team and 4 of my brothers to pull Luca out. I was ready to grab Luca if he got up, and my god, he jumped straight up and ran to me, and I ran him to the middle of the field. He was soaked, freezing and covered in blood from a few small cuts, and the vet said he would be very sore in the morning and that he was glad he didn't have to sedate him.

That ordeal was over, but we then had an accident just minutes later after the vet left with tigger. He'd caught an artery in his foot, and I'd never seen so much blood in my life. We got the vet back out and he bandaged Tigre up to keep pressure on it. It was flowing out, even through the bandage, but eventually stopped with the pressure.
So it was a bad day for us.
Luca was fine after, a bit stiff, but back to his old self.
He's now being schooled by Lucy in Monmouth, as he's always been very choppy in his trot and everything. It was my mums decision to have him go there, I didn't get a say in it, haha. But he started doing a bit of jumping, and now, he's doing dressage! She's getting him ready for BAPSH this year! So will hopefully have him with Tigre there. He's been in Monmouth since September and I only get to visit him every few weeks So I miss him loads. I will be going up this week, to discuss bringing him back home though, so I will be back riding again soon!



Fenda II - FenWen/FendyWendy/Fenna/Fenny


Fenda is turning 17 in March, and she is due to foal in just a few months I think we might retire her after that, but we'll see. We've talked to our vet and he said she seems very healthy and has no complications, so should be fine to have a few more.
She's doing fine though, happily living with the herd. Though they are all stabled at the moment, but will be going back down to the 10 Acres to graze for a few months and live out, depending on how this weather goes, and whether the foal is a filly or colt (We have some shady people around who will steal colts)


Bella (Tralissa Isabella) - Belle/Bellebelle/BlueBelle.


Bella is around 14:3hh's now, and she's steel grey with bits of bay, she will go completely grey in a few years. She is the duplicate of Breeze, and she's quite a nice girl. She is going up for sale in a month or so, as there are a lot of people within the BAPSH group wanting younguns to bring on for the summer.
I'm not sure if any of you have ever seen her. I'll have to get some photos!


Lexxi (Tralissa Alexia) - Lexxi Bee /LeccyBecky.


She is still bay! And she's quite a looker at the moment. She is due to be graded in the next couple of months, and then we're hopefully entering her at BAPSH again. We took her 2 years ago, and she was brilliant, we came 5th out of 12 horses, which was a massive surprise, we even beat one of the big studs, haha. I know it's 5th place and all, but it's still great! She's around 16:hh at the moment, she is huge She's 4 in a few months time


Breeze (Fantasia XCII) - Breezleboss/Breezy/Breezle/Bree-Bree.


Breeze is 15.3hh, dapple grey, and she's turned out to be a stunning girl. I am quite gutted, as in a few months, she won't be mine anymore, but she will still be living with me. My best friend is buying her and I cannot be happier, as she is a brilliant person, and Breeze gets on very well with her, it's lovely to see

Raine (Tralissa Esperanza) - Rainey/Moo-Face/RaineyBoo.


Raine is 15.hh's, and shes got lovely movement. She's quite stocky, but really fast and brilliant for jumping. I would like her to go to someone who will do pony club with her! She will also be going up for sale soon. She was my first foal, but I know she'd do so much better with someone who can give her the time and care she needs. I will miss her tons

Willow - Wilbur/Willy/Wills.


I still have him... And I'm trying my hardest to sell him, even give him away free to a good home, but no one seems to take us up on the offer! I just wanted to get rid of him before Luca comes home, because we want Luca to have a fresh start, and we were thinking about getting a gelding to turn out with him (He's turned out at the moment with a 17.2hh show jumper called Fred and he loves him to bits, haha) And Willow will end up taking chunks out of Luca again (He's not the gentlest of things lol) But we're still trying, we have a few people that work for my dad that might know people, so we just have to wait.



Chase (Chaseford Charisma) - Chaseface/Chasey/Chaseford.



Chase will be 17 in May. Poor girl is looking old She's had a rough year, she ended up with really bad laminitis, and my vet also diagnosed her with cushings (Which I don't think she even has) He coat went very wooly this winter, but it's coming away now, back to the usual light colour she goes in the summer, and her fur isn't curly. She's still a feisty bugger though, and I'm starting to get my cousin riding, so in the summer, she'd be able to ride out with me. I miss jumping Chase, she was the best, and I hope to start riding her again soon myself.



Gypsy (Gypsy Dancer) - Gippy/Gippy-moo/Gippy-poo.


Gypsy is still a greedy guts, haha! She's hard to keep most of her weight off, but she's doing well at the moment and isn't as massive as she used to be. I was always asked if she was pregnant! But she's doing good. She also got very mild laminitis last year, but luckily we caught it in time, and she recovered well (The other reason she had to lose weight) I haven't ridden her for a while. but I will be getting into it this summer, and I'm hoping to stick my boyfriend on her, and see what happens.

Dear lord, I thought I posted a lot! My god. o.O hahaha. I should do an update like this! I have tonnes of news that was just too long to post on Facebook.

Please post some of your pretty pictures!

I love all your horses I agree with Kelly, post some photos!!

Wow, that's crazy about Luca. It's amazing that you were able to get him out (mostly) unharmed; glad to hear he's ok.

Good to hear about the whole herd again - we definitely need pictures!

Wow that was a big update! I'm sorry I haven't read it all but I'm glad to hear you still have your herd and it sounds (from what I read) like they're doing pretty well!

Can't wait to see some pictures!

Thanks girls! Unfortunately I haven't been able to do any photography, because we haven't had a good summer or winter, and so last year I didn't get any pictures. I might have the odd few, but nothing serious! I will have to dig some out, I haven't got pics of everyone, some just haven't been that photogenic lately!

I have some more news though! I've just sold Breeze to my best friend Moneys being transferred sometime this week, and we'll be changing ownership and so on! She'll still be living here with the herd though! So not much will change, apart from the fact I won't ever ride her, well, unless my friend asks me to at some point, but yeah! They are well suited to each other

That's great news! It's nice to find an owner for a horse that they're well suited to and you know that they'll get a long!