Hellos and Goodbyes

We have had four more foals over June and July! First to arrive in June, a little unexpectedly, was Ernie, a very gangly legged foal, who looks like he's wearing stockings! Then in mid June we had another colt arrive, followed by to fillys in July. These threes guys have yet to be named as we have been so busy elsewhere! 

We said goodbye to Basil, a yearling colt from the main herd of horses last week. He's been packed off to Derbyshire, along with Ruby, a foal who was hand reared by the World Horse Welfare after being abandoned by her mother last summer, to help the wildlife trust manage their sites up there. He had a big week, being castrated first thing Monday morning, then being introduced to Ruby Monday afternoon. Then after a few days getting to know each other they went off on Thursday, leaving us the afternoon to prepare for Friday. Friday was a massive horse moving feat! We moved four geldings from the main breeding herd, onto Verralls Fen. They have been kept separated from the small herd that's already there for the time being so they can get to know each other without actually being able to touch. 

Ewan, our ex-dominant bull had been lame for the last few weeks. We had the vet examine him and, as we were fearing the worst, we were delighted to hear that all he needs is time to make a full recovery! The old boy still has life in him yet!

Foals, foals and more foals!

We've had a very busy couple of months since the weather's turned so nice! The mares have been popping foals out all over the place. First there was Daisy Foal (we already have a cow namedd Daisy, so this poor horse will forever be Daisy Foal, even when she's got her own foals!). She was born to Gracie, at the beginning of April. She is quite independent and tends to wonder off, but one of the stallions, mostly Hanty kept her in check and now she hangs around with the other two foals in her harem. 

The next foal was born about a week later. She has been named Holly Golightly for a very long winded reason involving floppy bottom lips, pouting and film stars! 

A couple of days after that the first colt of the year was born. He is called Bert, and we're waiting for another colt we can call Ernie! He is a bit of a pain at the moment as he just sticks his nose everywhere and likes to give things a nibble, especially backpacks and elbows! He is very playful, and very hard to tell off when he looks up at you with big brown eyes, not really understanding why we wont play like all the other horses! 

The final foal turned up as a surprise on the day of the Royal Wedding! She is her mothers first foal so we werent really sure if and when she would foal. The filly has been called Jess, and has caused quite a stir amoungst the horses and there has been a few changes with the social groupings.

And while all this has been going on, the cows have been quietly plodding along, getting on with the very important job of grazing! 

The grass IS greener!

The cows and horses out on Adventurer's Fen have been given back their whole roaming area again this week. They had been fenced into one half of it, whilst a new fence was built along the footpath. We let them out last week and now they are thoroughly enjoying the long grass that grew while they weren't grazing that area. When we let the fence down we called the cows through using a bucket of food. They have to use new crossing points and we thought if we led the cows through them with a bucket of food, the horses, who are not bucket trained, would soon get jealous and figure out how to get to the field where the grass was defiantly greener. The poor cows girls looked very confused when they reached the new fence! They had cantered down from two fields away, which in itself is an impressive sight (and the most active you will ever see those girls!), and then stopped suddenly when they realised there was a new fence in their way. We had driven the vehicle, along with the bucket of food, across the crossing point, and they looked at us, looked at the fence, looked at us again, looked at the fence again and then looked at each other as much as to say, " has this fence always been here?!". One of them eventually figured it out and then they all came thundering through to find food, though many of them were just as happy with the long, lush grazing on that side of the fence.

Magic Cows!

Its been fairly quiet with all the animals at the fen lately. The fight between the bulls has dropped off. Ewan and Billy seem to have made a new gang, and are avoiding Edmund and the rest of the herd. We are expecting the possibility of three new foals in the next few weeks, the mares having foaled around this time last year, so I shall keep you posted with them.
The only eventful, and slightly frustrating thing to happen is the mystery of the super flexible cows! We have had two troublesome cows find their way through some fencing, where to them, the grass definitely looks greener! They are mother and daughter, but are in different herds, and seem to be able to squeeze through any slightly slack fencing! I have spent a long while cow proofing a lot of fence lines and fighting with a lot of barbed wire and this, thankfully, has stopped them. Though we are at a loss as to how they managed to get through without leaving any hint of passage, or cow shaped holes in the fences! I think they may even have apperated there!  

A New King

We have had major upheaval in our herd of bulls over the last 6 weeks. Before Christmas we had to sedate out dominant bull, Ewan so that we could ear tag a cow that was in season. We left him plenty of time to recover, but while he was still a little disorientated, the next bull down in the hierarchy, Edmund, decided he would have a go at taking him on. I don't know who was more surprised that Edmund won, him or Ewan! So for the last six weeks or so there has been a lot of shouting, a lot of throwing mud, a lot of looking big and a little sparing as well! One of the cows, Megan, came into season in the middle of all this, and as there was no certain dominant male to guard her, she got chased about a bit, poor girl. It seems to have quietened down a little now, and everybody in the herd is still fit and healthy, if a little tired. We are still not sure who has come out on top,we'll just have to wait and see.

The horses are all good. There was a very cute moment today when the herd of horse met the cow herd. The horses, especially the younger males, were very interested in these new hairy creatures they had discovered, even though they must see them every day! The cows on the other hand just seemed to be trying to decided what the horses were, and they weren't that impressed with whatever they decided!