ARCHIV 2016

We had a wonderful day at Mrs. Sheila Edwards in Knock today. Mrs. Edwards is a delightful lady with a brilliant sense of humor. She is one of the most prominent Shetland pony breeders, as well as a judge. Her family stud produced over 120 foals with the KNOCK prefix. A large percentage of them have Marshwood blood circling in their veins.

 

In the garden of her house grazes the last of her mares, Knock Good Fortune, lovingly called “Muffin”. She is the mother of our stallion Knock Fortune Maker. Good Fortune is rather old, turning 36 this year. Still she enjoys her peaceful life and POLO peppermints.

 

Ponies born in Mrs. Edwards' stud can be found not only in the UK but in Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and the Czech Republic. Our ace stallion Knock Fortune Maker makes me proud. My thanks to Mrs. Edwards!

 

Muffin as a filly

Last week, Martin and I got the opportunity to visit the Hartside Stud in Cumbria. This stud currently holds circa 70 Shetland ponies, minis as well as standards. The Lowthian family rears their ponies on an area of approximately 100 hectares of land. And the ponies are simply wondrous. They are all of great health, affable, calm, curious and cuddly. This little foal left its mother's side to walk us all the way to the gate.

Several magnificent Marshwood stallions have been owned by this stud. The pillar of the stud was Pilot of Marshwood. Mrs. Janet picked him when he was a colt. He had lived the entirety of his long life in Hartside.

Talking with Mrs. Janet about her shetlands you can clearly see the love. Every day she makes rounds around the pastures on her motorbike, bringing treats to her darlings.

 

We visited Prism in her new home today. She's doing great. Her family spoils her with love.

 

 

Barbucha gave birth to her very first kid today. It's a girl! Barbucha herself was born in spring of 2014.

The little one was suffocating during the childbirth. Her mouth was full of amniotic sac. I quickly cleaned her mouth and nostrils but I had to help her start breathing, too. I thought I was going to lose her, but then she took the first breath on her own. It took more than an hour for her to stand up and another hour and my help to drink milk. Hopefully she will be alright now.

To my joy, Barbucha is showing great maternal instincts. She won't leave her baby girl alone for a second, she keeps cleaning her and stands patiently when the little one is trying to drink. Before the labour she was more of a squirrelly goat. Now she doesn't have a care in the world beyond her baby :)

 

 

Bára gave birth to a set of beautiful strong twins today. The boy weighs 3,70 kg and the girl 3,30 kg. Their father is of the Ještěd line. Their black marking is top-notch, their base colour is very nice too. I'll have them stay with their mother for 3 months and I'll see how well their bone-structures turn out :) Then I decide whether I keep the girl for breeding and sell the boy on the market or not.

 

In the afternoon Terka gave birth to our first kid of this year. A boy, an only child. AGAIN! He weights 3,20 kg. His black marking is beautiful and typical for this breed, the base colour is regretfully rather light. He's unfit for breeding, and therefore will go into the freezer.

 

On Saturday, Renata Markova and her family came to visit from Rosice. They came to see Fortune and Teller in Roudnice. This pasture with a barn is 3 kms away from our house - we have to drive there at least every two days to check up on them. They both seemed to like it there. Fortune isn't frustrated by having mares just out of his reach and he enjoy's Teller's company after a year of solitude.

 

Renata always wondered how come I never send her any good photos of Teller. Now she understood that taking a picture of Teller is an impossible task for one person :) Teller is so curious and cuddly, that he is always too close to the camera. Furthermore, since the pasture is on a slope of a hill it is really hard to get Teller to stand on a contour, so that neither his head nor his butt is lower. In the end we succeeded in taking a few nice photos :)

 

Thanks, Renata, Kaja and Jirka for beautiful photos and a wonderful time.