Today, for the first time this winter, we woke up to lightly dusting of snow. That is, Jill woke up for the 5:00 AM horse check. The verdict - no babies today!
Yesterday morning we were blessed with another colt. A beautiful light buckskin boy out of Caranja, one of our foundation mares. Cara was originally imported from Brazil in-utero, and has been with us since she was a filly. She is 17 years old now, but looks and acts much younger. Jill says that this mare dotes on me and I on her, and I suppose it is true. All our horses are loved, but a few are beloved.
Earlier this season, we celebrated the birth of Thor, who is Caranja’s great-grand son, another wonderful ( yet to be named) Caranja grandson by Tantra (Caranja’s first born) and now this boy, her son. Four generations represented in this birth cohort - now as a committed Lusitano horse breeder, that is pretty cool, and something Jill and I are very proud of. Thor is now sold, and will ship out after weaning to his new home in another Eastern US state.
Our dreams for this foal are large. Let me explain: two years ago we decided to keep another one of Caranja’s sons, named Quartz. This handsome young stallion is now 17 hands (very tall) and I think one of the most spectacular horses we have ever produced. These days, my opportunities to take horse photos is limited, so I have almost no photos of Quartz from this year. However, I dug up two of his baby photos and two of him from last summer/fall.
Needless to say, Quartz and this new boy share the same sire (Jade) and dam (Caranja), and appear to be almost an exact match. So, dreams of a matched pair of dappled, buttermilk-buckskin stallions are dancing through our heads.
We also have in the “back pasture”, a 3/4 buckskin brother, as well as our nine year old senior stallion “Jade” - who leads this merry band of brothers (and sons). All well -matched stallions. Jade is currently showing in Dressage at Prix-St-George and schooling at Grand Prix, which means that his training will finally be finished sometime in the next two years. Right on track where he should be for a properly schooled Lusitano.
Our not so little dream is to one day, years from now, have a string of well- trained, well behaved stallions performing in Dressage and for exhibition. It is a long-term goal, and may never happen given all the turbulence in the world and our lives. But for us- this is one legacy of our farm. Some goals and dreams can take years to come true.
This is how it is with horse breeding. We did not have the money to buy a bunch of beautiful horses all at once, and frankly that approach bypasses the joy and satisfaction that comes with carefully crafting, creating a bloodline which brings to reality a vision of your personal ideal together with the Lusitano breed standard. Year after patient year, through good times and bad. Our Lusitano breeding program is now almost fifteen years old. We purchased our foundation mares slowly, over time. The cost of our senior stallion (Jade) nearly broke our bank account. But we have bred and selected carefully, year after year. Genetics, morphology, personality traits, gaits all must be taken into consideration. We think of our horse’s comfort and security. Every day, every year, we try to improve on what we do and what we are creating.
For instance, industry standard is to have mares birth in a stall. But over the years, we have changed our stance on this. A mare separated from her herd is an unhappy horse. She is anxious about her status in the herd. Is her family safe, and is she safe? Pre-labor in a stall, they pace, they sweat, they are unhappy. AND… we have found that they have more breech births (babies are in the wrong position for birthing). Breech births are a veterinary emergency and can kill mares and baby horses if not dealt with immediately, and even then deaths can happen. We have had our share of breach births in the past, but not for many years now. Knock on wood.
We have found mares in the pastures are calmer, they don’t pace about, labors are shorter and since we have stopped stalling them, we have not had a single breech birth on the farm. Now, we still do night checks and try hard to attend every birth. Caveat - if the weather is horrid, we will put a mare in labor in a stall.
After five years of just letting births happen in the pasture, we have not had a single bad outcome. Best of all, the risk of infection goes way down with pasture births. Sometimes, just letting horses be horses is the right choice. It took trial and error, it took that first “oops” mistake to make us open up to the idea that the veterinarians weren’t right - that there was a better way for horses to bring new life into the world.
In the case of Caranja’s baby, he was born early morning in the pasture. Due to his being “down in the pasterns,” and a bit weak - we brought mama and foal into an oversized (foaling) stall, where they will recluse for a week until the foal gets a little stronger. Caranja was glad to be put in, she is one mare that doesn’t mind being isolated from her herd when she has a newborn. In fact, since she is the alpha mare in her herd, the other mares seem more upset than she is.
So, today - our farm manager came back from her four days off. primed her on the details of the birth and foal. But of course, she had the one important question. You know the one… What is his name?
Good question - so help me out here.
What is his name?
The Lusitano Horse Association (APSL) requires that horses be named with a word that starts with a different letter each year (in alphabetical order). This year is a “T” year. So, we need name suggestions that start with a “T.”
One, two, three - go! What name?
Special points to anyone who figures out names that incorporates stones, rocks or semi-precious stones into their names.
For instance:
Jade (sire)
Quartz CAL (two year son being retained)
Rocha Azul CAL and Rock CAL (one year old sons that we have kept)
Foals at the farm