News

27 January 2008

Nearly February 2008 already!!!

The winter has been fairly pleasant up until the last couple of weeks when the rain snow and muck has arrived!!!

Not a lot of news to report, our Highland foal (or should I say yearling) “Westbank Caledonia” has gone to his new home and seems to have settled in well, he is a very laid back chap and seems to take most things in his stride. The Clydesdale “Westbank Ruby Tuesday” was shown at the Winter Fair at the end of November, but only seemed to be making up the numbers, so the least said about that the better!!

Both Highland mares look as if they have held in foal, but I don’t think we are going to be blessed with the presence of a Clydesdale foal this year. Missie looks empty, but I could be and hope I am wrong!!

The kids pony Charger has been away getting schooled and has come on leaps and bounds and looks like he will make a good childrens pony.

Just to prove we have had some good winter weather here is a picture of Missie and Emperor on a fine crisp winter morning.

07 November 2007

Once again it has been a while since I have up dated the site and there has been a number of things happened since then.

Sheila took part in a couple of One Day Events and a Hunter trial on Oscar and did really well. I must admit he is a game pony as is Sheila for riding him.

The highland foal has been sold; he is heading off to his new owner in December. He also has his proper handle now “Westbank Caledonia”.

Both foals have been weaned, and not taken it too badly, but the highland foal still refuses to come in at night and prefers the company of his mother over the fence!!
We took the Clydesdale foal Ruby out to the North Fife Foal Show last Saturday and were placed 3rd in a class of 7 so were very pleased, particularly as she had only been weaned for a week and had a set of shoes on for 4 days. She did blot her copy book slightly as she went over the breast bar in the trailer (twice) and managed to kick me in the head (twice). It had to come sometime as up until now she has been the quietest foal I have ever had, but I can’t complain as it was her first show on her own.

I think I am going to keep Ruby for breeding so I have given her the honour of a dedicated page on the site.

There isn’t much else going on, just getting things ready for winter, whenever it may begin!

Below is a picture of the two foals grazing happlily after being weaned.

17 September 2007

Sorry it has been a very long time since I updated the site!!

We have had an extremely busy summer, but little of interest to publish. The foals are both doing well and growing like mushrooms. The Clydesdale foal “Westbank Ruby Tuesday” was at Braco & Perth Show, but was tiny compared to the February & March foals that were there, but it was good for her. The Highland foal (as yet unnamed) has not had outing at all. 2007 will be easily forgotten as far as show appearances are concerned. Oscar has been out a couple of times and the children have been at a few shows. Perhaps we will manage a few foal shows in the back end!!!

We have had Rannoch of Rourmerk running with our mares this summer; he is on loan from Joan and Ronnie Alexander. He is a tremendous horse to work with and has settled our mares and two mares from our neighbour George Haggart.

Our Clydesdale mare, Missy, has been covered by Heatherwick Perfection and seems to have settled ok. Roxanne went to the stallion, but did not come back, the stallion owner had someone interested in her so I sold her, I plan to keep the foal, Ruby for breeding, and so two Clydesdales are enough.

Emperor has now been gelded and is now on the market.

Anyway I have up dated the foals and quite a few other pages with some photos so have a look around, I wont leave it so long again!

15 May 2007

Time to sit down and take stock. The past few weeks have gone past in a blur, with some highs and some lows. We have one Clydesdale filly foal and one Highland colt foal on the ground, with one fatality. The loss of the Roxanne’s foal was a bit of a blow, particularly under the circumstances, I have spoken to a number of the old school Clydesdale boys and I have been told that something like that would happen only once in a lifetime, so I hope we don’t see something like it again!

Missy’s foal is doing well and thriving. Missy is back to the stallion; she has been covered by Heatherwick Perfection and will be back home in around a month. It is a pity the mares have to go away so soon after the foal is born as I think the first 3 weeks of a foals life are the most enjoyable to watch.

Roxanne, who I planned to sell with her foal at foot has been sold and is being covered by the same stallion before she goes on to her new home.

Alona’s foal is doing well and looks like an attractive little chap. Alona will be covered by Rannoch of Fourmerk at the foal heat. Abby has been covered by the same stallion and is almost 21 days past her first service, so fingers crossed.

Emperor, our yearling colt who got stuck in a fence at the beginning on April and badly grazed his hock, has made a full recovery; thank goodness we do not have barbed wire! He has not been gelded yet, as we want to see how he turns out, we may geld him in the autumn. We are not actively marketing him at the moment and plan to take him to a few shows, unless someone wants to buy him entire.

So with foaling and lambing over all the plans made for serving mares it will be time to get ready for the showing season. Our first show for 2007 will hopefully be Drymen. Sheila has Oscar back in work and may find some more time for him now things will be slightly less hectic.

I have added a new page for the 2007 foals so you can all see their progress.

Pictures of this years foals

10 May 2007

We had a bit of a surprise today. Alona foaled at 5.30pm!! A foul rainy night. She was not due for another 12 days and there was no sign at 3pm! The colt foal is up and sucking and both mother and son are doing fine.

Pictures of new foal on Alona's page.

04 May 2007

I am sad to say I have to report a disaster. Roxanne foaled in the field on Wednesday afternoon, another good filly foal; I was over the moon, once again up and suckling with no problem. I moved her from the field to the paddock so they could get bonded, I went out to check them an hour later to find the foal dead. The vet carried out a PM and found a hoof mark on her neck and her neck was broken. It looks like the mare stood on her while she was sleeping. The only fortunate thing is that she did not suffer, there are no kick marks on the ground and the vet says she would have died instantly. To say I am disappointed is an under statement!

On a more cheerful note Missy’s foal is thriving and galloping round the field, full of the joys of spring, so here’s hoping we have had our share of bad luck for the season!

01 May 2007

What a difference 6 weeks can make!! Things are dry, all the muck has dried up, the grass is growing and I have decided not to sell all the stock, or at least until it starts raining and forgets to stop again!!

Lambing is all but finished with 2 stragglers left to lamb, with only one dead lamb; so far, the lambing can only be described as being very successful!

Even more exciting was the arrival of our first Clydesdale foal. Missy waxed up on Saturday and eventually decided to give birth to a filly foal at 1 am this morning, with both ticking all the boxes at the moment, foal sucking and mare cleaned. So it is fingers crossed that all goes well. This is the first foal we have had out of a home bred Clydesdale mare for the best part of 50 years, so a bit of a milestone!!

Roxanne, who was due to foal first, is still hanging on. She is gathering milk at a pace, but as yet there is no sign of any wax, but we are preparing for another few sleepless nights!!

Pictures of new foal on Missy's page

06 March 2007

Spring is showing no sign of arriving with us yet. It has been very mild but it is still very very wet. All the stock are being fed at ring feeders with round bale hay and the muck around the feeders refuses to dry up. The feeders are moved to a dry spot and they are as mucky the next day as they were before, not very good. I don’t think I can remember the ground being as wet at this time of year for a long time. Lets just hope it dries up before the ewes start lambing on 24 March?!

The first of our two Clydesdale mares, Roxanne, is due to foal in around six weeks, with Missy due about a week later, if the dates of service I was given are right. They have now started to get some hard feeding. They have both been out all winter and have wintered pretty well so should be in good condition for foaling (all going well). I am beginning to wonder whey I thought it was a good idea to put both the Clydesdales in foal!

Last weekend saw the National Stallion Show in the Perth Mart, traditionally one of the two main Clydesdale Shows in the calendar. There was a good entry, particularly Clydesdales, with the prestigious Cawder Cup going to Felicity Douglas Home with a 2 yo colt Old Greenlaw Lochy, he also lifted the Prince of Wales Perpetual Cup for the overall Champion Clydesdale. The reserve Clydesdale Champion was Hillhouse Flash Girl from Jim & Linzi Kennedy. I thought the 1 and 2 yo Clydesdale colt classes were very strong and hopefully this bodes well for the future of the breed.

The Highland Pony champion was Kestral of Glencree from Tracy Cooper with the reserve being Clover of Mendick from John and Kate Dykes. We did have our yearling colt, Emperor entered, but I am afraid we were too lazy and never gave ourselves enough time to get him ready.

Overall the first major show of 2007 was an excellent day out with some good horses to see and was rounded off by setting the world to rights with some old friends and a few drams!

14 January 2007

Happy New Year to you all!

We ended 2006 with an addition, yet another pony for the children!! This is an older pony that has seen it, done it and got the T shirt. She is a Welsh Section B mare called Kit and has been purchased to give our eldest daughter, Kayleigh, confidence to ride off the lead rein. Kit took a bit of time to settle in but is doing fine now. Link to her picture below.
All the horses (apart from the yearling colt that is coming in at night) are being wintered outside and despite the very foul weather, are doing fine. They are on ad lib hay and are munching their way through around 3 round bales a week. The wet weather is causing the ground to get a bit poached, but as there was a record amount of rain in November and December, it is hardly surprising and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better in January.

The only horses we plan to give hard feeding to are the two Clydesdale mares, Missy & Roxanne, but only when they are closer to foaling. They are both maiden mares and I do not want them to be too fat at foaling time, but I do want them to have plenty of milk.

Kayleigh & Kit

29 November 2006

Last week saw a bit of a disaster, Matilda, our good 2 yo filly had to be put down. She had colic around the end of October, the vet was called, she had the usual injection and recovered well. Around a fortnight later she went downhill and the vet was called again. She had no real signs of illness; her heart rate was fine and no temperature but she was off her food. As result we kept her in and gave her a bit of TLC and she was prescribed some anti inflammatory drugs. She didn’t appear too bad and the vet thought she would recover with out any problem. Unfortunately a week or so later she had a terrible bout of colic and we could do nothing but put her down. The vet organised a post mortem and it transpired that the back third of her gut was very inflamed and parts had died off and she had liver damage. She would never have recovered.

In the cold light of day, when we sat down to think about it, she had always been a bit of a poor doer and unlike most Highland Ponies always required a bit of feeding to get condition on, so it would appear that this condition may been with her for some time. It is extremely sad to have lost such a nice filly and she was to be the brood mare to continue the Westbank bloodline on for another generation, so I am afraid it is on to plan B, what ever that is!?

On a more positive note we have weaned or foal Emperor of Westbank. He is turning into a really nice pony and we are really pleased with him, he has settled down really well since he was deprived his mothers attentions and it didn’t take him long to discover the feed trough! His mother (Abby) doesn’t know it yet, but she is about to get a saddle fitted to her for the first time in five years, she will not know what has hit her.

Matilda of Westbank

22 October 2006

October is almost at an end and the grass is still growing!!

Since I last made any additions to the site we have had a visit from the vet to pregnancy test the mares. Normally we just have a wait & see policy but this year for various reasons we needed to know. I don’t particularly like scanning mares as we have had two scanned in the passed and both mares have slipped the foal, so we decided to get them blood tested. I am assured that it is 100% accurate, but I will tell you in the spring!

Anyway three out of the four mares that went to the stallion are in foal, Clydesdales, Miss Dynamite & Roxanne & Highland Alonadene are all in foal, but unfortunately Abby is empty. That all means that the I know when the mares should foal and I can plan my lambing & the Tup (Ram) goes in on 28 October and lambing should finish before the foaling starts!?

We have always kept a few sheep around the place usually around 35 to 40 ewes. As horses are such bad grazers the sheep clean up behind them & keep the grass in good condition. They also prevent the spread of the dreaded Ragwort, as they eat it when it is at the rosette stage.

With Abby being empty we will not bother weaning her foal yet, you might as well let nature feed him instead of buying feeding. The way the grass is growing there will be plenty of feeding for some considerable time so the hay shed will not be raided for a week or two yet.

01 October 2006

As ever at the end of September there has not been a lot happening among the horses, apart from the usual feet trimming worming etc, as well as trying to get the thin ones fat and the fat ones thin!!.
We have a full compliment of equines again, with the return of Charger, the kids Welsh Pony. He has been away at a friend's, Katie Brisbane, being broken in and children proofed. He seems to have come on by leaps and bounds and is walking and trotting off the lead rein & cantering on the rein with Jane Brisbane in the saddle. His portrait is now on the “Children’s Ponies” page, the link is below.

Children's Ponies

08 September 2006

Well we have done it!! We have been talking about getting a web site going for a while and here it is and I hope you enjoy it. We will add to it over the next few weeks and hopefully let you see all our horses & ponies.