Out of the field......

Yesterday I let Skyfaxa out of the field on her own to wander around and see what was what in the courtyard. She was a bit hesitant at first, but soon settled down to eat some mulberry leaves......Aliénor got the brushes out and groomed her, she seemed quite content to stand there and made no effort to wander off, she obviously enjoys that!

The vet came

This being France, a UK equine passport just won't do so the vet came to do a "signalement" so Skyfaxa can be registered with the National Stud. They have to note down idintifying marks and whorls of hair on the horse, this is normally fairly straightforward but not with an Appaloosa!! The poor vet spent ages drawing her muzzle, can't help thinking it would have been easier to just take a photo!!

She even had to draw the stripes on her hooves......

Researching her pedigree

I spoke to Skyfaxa's breeder the other day to get the details of her breeding. Not a lot for her mother, she's registered with the Gypsy Cob Society simply as "Melba", a white cob. Bit of a dead end.

Much more detail with the stallion though. He is Capitall Hadrian by Capitall Hefin out of Capitall Martha, both Appaloosas.

Capital Hefin

Capitall Hefin's sire was Capitall Cyril (left), he was 15.2 hh.

Capitall Martha was by a Thoroughbred called Paper Cap, he was 16.2 hh, so maybe she'll get bigger than I thought!

Another first

Managed to worm Skyfaxa today, it was surprisingly easy, she didn't object at all, just pulled some funny faces once the stuff was in her mouth (sadly I didn't get the camera out quick enough to photograph them....). Then did a bit more halter training, just a couple of minutes as it was getting dark.

She's getting more confident every day.........

Lots of firsts today for my baby girl. Went out into the field with a headcollar & leadrope in my hands to see how she'd react. Lots of snorting, not really surprising since the last time someone did this she was grabbed, had her nose shoved in and was hauled across the field in England by several burly blokes. She panicked and reared but got absolutely nowhere........I stayed well out of the way at the time because I didn't want her to associate me with that kind of treatment. It wasn't easy to watch.......



Anyway, I wandered around dragging the leadrope behind me (with a cat attacking it from time to time) and she quickly got curious and started sniffing. I picked it up in one hand and scratched her with the other, then rubbed her with the rope for a bit. This was evidently OK. I went away, got a handful of food (another first today, never had hard feed before but she's looking a bit skinny so have bought her some foalie food), she tried a bit, decided it was good, then I very slowly put the headcollar on and did it up as she was munching away.



Then I took a few steps away, she followed, I kept the rope slack all the time like Adam Shereston does, she stopped for a bit, went the other way, I went too very calmly and stopped when she did. Hmmm, she thought, noone's forcing me to do stuff, this is good......I wanted to get her to follow me to the box so I put a tiny bit of pressure on with the rope, you could see her thinking about this, eventually she took one step forward so I immediately released the pressure. She learns quick this girl, I did that a couple more times and she got it!



That was enough for one day, she's only got a little baby brain, don't want to overload it. I took the headcollar off, she didn't immediately run away, I gave her a rub then she wandered off to graze. So I fetched a soft body brush, and another first, she was groomed all over - she even let me brush all down her legs without moving her feet.



Very good start.......then after that I had to go and spend ages redoing all the fences she broke the other night......still, gotta take the rough with the smooth!

Skyfaxa v. electric fence

Well, the trouble has started.......went out to check on them Wednesday night and I'm glad I did as there was electric tape all over the floor and a load of snapped fence posts..... She'd obviously got caught in the electric tape and panicked (yes, the fence was on!!) and snapped off a load of posts - luckily they were only the pine ones and not the heavy acacia ones so they broke easily. Managed to get her & Noisette into the box (so glad I had an extra big one built) and check her over, you can see where she had the tape round her neck but thankfully all her pulling hadn't broken the skin. So now I'm off to buy a load of plastic piquets to redo the fence........!Still, on the plus side she is now terrified of electric tape.......

She's here.....!!!

Skyfaxa has arrived! Finally the wait is over! She came in a HUGE lorry, she was the last one to be delivered and looked very lost in there......

She must be very confused by now, she's gone from running around in a huge field to being confined in a small barn for a week, then several days in the lorry and now she's in the paddock with Noisette.....there's a bit of running around going on, Noisette was initially wary of her but has now decided she's bullyable and in true small pony style has decided she'd like to be in charge.........

Skyfaxa is still wandering around snorting at scary stuff, the worst being the goat, Sugar!! I'm sure she'll realise soon enough that nothing in her new home will do her any harm! I'm going to leave her to settle in and recover from the journey for a few days.

She really is beautiful........

One out and one in.....

Flecha's new owner came to get him on Friday, true to form he ambled into the trailer no problem and immediately started tucking into the haynet she'd brought for him. She phoned later to say he'd arrived after his 2 and a half hour trip as cool as a cucumber, went into the field with his new Shetland friend and they sniffed each other then started eating! He's made friends with the Fjords in the next field too! So no worries there......we'll go up and see them in a couple of weeks and get some pics.

Then on Saturday we went to fetch Noisette, she was a star! She's never been out of the field she was born in 6 years ago, she's never been on her own away from her mother and sister, but it only took about 10 minutes to tempt her into the trailer with a few carrots! She travelled OK (only 10 minutes from my place) and when we lowered the ramp she didn't come out straight away as she was too busy looking for bits of food left on the floor.....she's in the paddock here with the goats and has hardly made any noise, just got on with stuffing her face. She's not too sure about the goats though, she keeps her distance.....but she doesn't seem bothered about the chickens & ducks flapping around. She looks a bit lost to me, hopefully that will change when Skyfaxa arrives!

Friday was not much fun for my poor little horsie. She was happily running about in the field with the herd one minute, then some blokes came and tied something round her face and got her out of the field across the road and into a barn.

Went to see her once she was installed, she's in a reasonably large area with a little paint horse for company and other horses coming and going all the time. She'll be kept there until the transporters come to get her next Friday so will at least have got used to being in a smaller space and having a halter on......I just hope the way they got her in wasn't too traumatic!!