Farm Girl

Sorry, I've been a bit slack in posting, but school has started again, and there was a lot of preparation and organisation to take care of. I also had a very busy weekend because I was farm sitting out at the horse farm. I also had to help a mother mare feed her foal. That required me to learn the extraordinarily unusual skill of horse milking, which is very much like milking a cow, but with a smaller udder to deal with. I was going to feed the foal all weekend, but ended up only having to do Friday evening. The rest of the weekend I had 16 horses to look after. They had individual feeds twice a day, plus water troughs for each horse to keep topped up. It was very hot, so the horses and I were drinking so much water. There was also poo to keep under control, and horses do remarkable amounts of poo in 24 hours. Some horses can produce a wheelbarrow load in a day. 

While I was farm sitting I also had a flock of gorgeous hens to feed. I loved their enthusiastic welcome, and the way they scrambled over my boots as I poured their food into their tray, chatting away to each other. The warm brown eggs were a treasure to collect daily. The farm hens have a wonderful big area to free range in, and I wouldn't want to have hens unless I had enough land to have an equally expansive area for them to live in. 

Our little filly is going home tomorrow morning, so that will be her first big adventure. Here she is, one day old. 

 You can see her front legs look a little bent. She had contracted front legs following delivery, and required some treatment to straighten out the tendons.

 She was still very wobbly because her legs were more bent on her second day, and had an injection into her leg. Poor wee thing- it must have hurt. Tara wasn't at all pleased about having her foal abducted briefly.

 Here she is a few days old.

 Her markings are absolutely beautiful. We still have no idea what colour she will be eventually.

 Look how straight her front legs are after treatment. She showed me her canter when she was playing. There is still some debate about her name, but it is Aria at the moment (Centaria as her show name). We don't have 100% agreement as yet.

 Now here's my other little friend, not so wee any more! Zanny's filly foal called Fergie. She's a delightful, inquisitive creature.

 Take a look at Fergie's chest. She has patches like this where her first baby coat is coming out in patches, showing her next colour. These dark patches are very much like Zanny's colour, but Fergie's face is still red bay colour, and she has a bit of a browny tinge coming through the dark fur in some places. So I still have no idea what her exact adult colour will be, although I'm guessing she will be bay, and not as dark as Zanny.

 Fergie seems to love the taste of sunblock. She got a bit rough with her licking and when I told her to back off she reared up at  me, so I had to tell her off. You can't let them boss you around at any age, even if they are cute as anything.

 Look how fantastic my girl Zanny looks. Her coat is actually dappled!

 I am so fortunate to have these two divine ladies in my life.