How is it February already? Honestly, this is one of my favourite times of the year. Summer is in full swing, all heat and thunderstorms and green pastures. Once the frustration of trying to get the kids back to lessons before school opens - usually in mid-January - is past, the riding school starts to hit its stride again. Fresh new goals, shows on the horizon... January brims with possibility. (And paying memberships, ugh. But let's not go into that).
We started off the New Year like we always do - staying home and looking after the farm - but on Sunday the 2nd we went on a road trip to this fairytale castle of a stableyard in Douglas, Northern Cape. Douglas is seriously the middle of nowhere, a tiny town deep in the heart of South African diamond country. Kimberly is an hour away - home to the Big Hole, the largest handmade excavation in history, which was a diamond mine. Most of this area is surrounded by game farms, pock-marked by gigantic mine heaps remembering the time when South Africa was by far the largest diamond producer in the world. The world's largest diamond was found here, too, of course, although that was in Cullinan, north of us.
Anyway, we drove down to Douglas to visit Pela Graca Friesians owned by friends of my employers. They own Dries 421, a world champion Friesian stallion, who is the sire of Madam President and also one of the other mares I ride. One of our Friesians had gone down there on trial and was being returned, so we had a nice little breakaway to go and fetch her. It's a seven-hour drive but arriving at Pela Graca was super refreshing. We had this huge guest house to ourselves with a ton of luxuries and everything was just beautiful.
I forgot to take pictures of the horses but we took about 20 of their enormous fluffy dog.
Everything was so pretty. It really felt like sleeping in a castle.
We picked up our Friesian the next morning and took the eight-hour drive home. She was a little restless for the first half-hour, but settled down and traveled like an absolute champ the rest of the way.
Our route took us through the back end of the Free State, where we passed through the tiny village where the beloved was born. We also ended up having a mini-adventure to an even tinier village, Verkeerdevlei (literally "wrong marsh"), to get fuel.
We had expressly stayed home over the Christmas season so that I would be here to catch the two foals due in late December - Wynnie, due the 24th, and a Friesian, due on the 29th. Of course, the Friesian patiently waited until I was hundreds of kilometres away and then produced a gigantic healthy filly on the night of Sunday the 2nd. My poor boss had to handle the whole thing, including the placenta that the mare promptly retained. Nonetheless, mare and foal were happy and healthy. This is a first foal out of a mare that they bred themselves, so she's a very special baby.
Wynnie continued to grow at a rather alarming rate. So did her sass levels.
The first time I met the little filly. She is unbelievably sweet and friendly without the pushiness that some of the very well imprinted foals tend to have. An absolute gem.
The Friesian filly came out all wrinkles. It's too cute.
Wynnie's size, sass and cuteness continued to grow. Over Christmas I spent a lot of time with her. I was super sick on Christmas Eve with some kind of respiratory bug and spent some time that morning stretched out on the grass in her paddock with her fast asleep on her side next to me. It was pretty special. My grooms thought I had lost my mind, the crazy boss in her pink pyjamas, sick as a dog and cuddling her baby horse.
She unfolded so nicely into a really chunky lil lady. And extra sassy. Definitely her mother's daughter.
The dragon ears 💜💜 In early January she had a mild, warm puffiness on her right hock that had me very worried. The vet put her on ten days of antibiotics mixed with probiotics, which she took like a champ with a pinch of sugar. It went away nicely once I moved her from the big barn into one of the foaling boxes, which has a dirt floor - I think she was sleeping on the small concrete section by the water buckets when it was hot, and gave herself a pressure sore more than real joint ill. Silly Wynnie.
Rose growing into a magnificent youngster. I think she will be very big if she carries on like this, judging by the length of her legs next to Rene, who is almost 15.3hh.
Wynnie and her Uncle Lancey. She doesn't baby-mouth for him, just pins her ears and snaps at his nose. Absolute little brat.
My new livery, Red. He was a bit sad-looking when he arrived and truth be told he still hasn't put on weight like I want him to, but we'll get there. He belongs to a very sweet kiddo.
The two old fogies looking wonderful. Legacy (left) is 21, Conspicuous (right) is 25. Old Spics had his teeth done in January, not that there are a whole lot of teeth left.
The old girl continues to thrive on the summer grass. She does seem to have a gap in her teeth on the right side of her mouth, so I occasionally need to pull a few clumps of grass out of there. It doesn't bother her. Nothing much bothers her anymore.
I got to have a few rides on the star of the show at the Friesian stud. This magnificent animal is a Dutch import standing 17.1 and just about ready to go Prix St Georges, trained by Coach J. He is the kindest stallion I've ever met. We'll call him Big Boy for blog purposes. He has another rider now, also a Grand Prix rider, but I enjoy our weekly lunge dates. Madam President is also under the new rider but they are a much better fit and I still get to ride two of the EM horses (including Shy Boy) and a youngster, which suits me so much better. I can give them all lots of attention now.
Wynnie's nose started changing colour.
Erin made time for a visit, fitting in plenty of Wynnie cuddles. Wynnie was quite on board with this. She also saw the farrier for the first time; he didn't actually trim her feet, just lifted them and touched them lightly with the rasp, and she was pretty good about it. She did jump a bit when he lifted the first foot but settled immediately after that.
Thunder came into full work and his body began to change dramatically. I'll do a full post on him after this one.
Our second colt of the season driving his mother insane.
My late afternoon jumping lesson, all SANESA kiddos. The ponies, from left to right: Jamaica, Spirit, Dawn, Flashy and Midas.
My noble old warrior queen 💜
Lassie, Rose and their moms moved out into the big herd and sleep outside now. The foals handled it great - I doubt most other Nooitie foals ever see a stable, to be honest - and the moms are putting on a lot more weight now that they're on pasture 24/7. Of course, these two are best friends. Wynnie will join them a little later when she's a bit bigger.
Thunder's skin 😕😕 It's the worst it's ever been this year. I tried a bunch of different fly sprays but nothing really cleared it up. The only thing that helped the torturous itching and inflammation to an extent was actually Ingrams' hemp oil cream (for people because horse stuff is just so expensive). Now I'm not one to jump onto the CBD train, but it definitely had a soothing effect, more so than the calamine lotion I was using.
Shy Boy and I working up a storm in the blazing heat.
Magic is just doing unbelievably well. It's the time of year now where I throw him in the field and forget about him while he grows fat and feral and chases his friends around and has the time of his life. In a few months we'll be back on seven tiny feeds a day and I am not looking forward to it. Anything for this gentle face, though.
Just look at that happy dude 💜 He is dirty and gross right now but I don't think he cares. He's just living his best life with zero expectations.
We got the garden going in December and as always this little flowerbed brings me so much joy. These are all indigenous Namaqualand flowers - gazanias and vygies. Except for the burst of pink at the far end, that's phlox. Also the random tree in the back is the crazy spinach that's trying to take over the world. And behold the tomato that reseeded itself in the middle of the lawn for some reason.
Lassie and Rose are always super playful in the mornings when I check on them.
It is insane how fast my Wynnie is growing. Arwen is slightly on the skinnier side at the moment, but I'm letting her be. She's not going back into foal this year and she has been frighteningly obese in the past, so I'm sure her feet and joints are appreciating her trimmer weight.
My youngster at the Friesians! I love her to bits. She is the cutest thing on four legs. For some reason K, who is normally fearless, doesn't get along with her at all. Instead I, the scaredy-cat, feel totally comfortable up there. We'll call her Miss Sassy.
Dakota is back! He's covering Rene and Faith again this season, both once again on breeding lease to others. Faith will be having another foal for Dakota's owner and Rene's foal is going to a new breeder in the Western Cape. Those two ladies are looking great and I'm enjoying the whole thing. Rene loves being a broodmare and it's settled Faith down a lot, too.
Summer rides with the kiddos. We struggled to beat the rain in January, especially in the late afternoons.
Dragon love 💜
The same flowerbed by late January. I bought some more vygies and put them in the gaps to fill them up with a mad mess of flowers. My gardening skills are about a 2 out of 10 but I sure enjoy it.
Shy Boy and I closed off the month with the first show of the year, in the pouring rain. I'll post the professional photos sometime as well.
God is good.
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