First in a series of pictures, observations and interesting things about foals…
Glendale enters the world
-Foals are born toothless, and first learn to nurse using their gums.
-Most mares from the beginning are instinctively careful not to step on their babies, but some are more careful than others.
-Mares have an instinctive reflex of licking their foals when they arrive; this accelerates the bonding process.
Hi, mom!
-Foals have an instinctive nuzzling/licking/sucking reflex when born; this drives the standing and nursing process.
-A foal can immediately start struggling to rise when he is only a few seconds in the world.
This foal has tried a few times to get up, but hasn’t gotten the co-ordination thing down yet.
-Many people handle the foal as soon as he is delivered; this is called imprinting. It can be minimal or extensive.
SUCCESS!
At two hours, this baby now has it mostly figured out.
-You can see in some of these pictures, the foal’s ankles and feet are very pliable and way overbent. They are almost walking on their fetlock joints– but they straighten out soon.
-The newborn foal once he can stand will seek out dark warm areas to lick and nuzzle; eventually he finds the right spot, and through trial and error he learns how to nurse.
Nursing at 4 hours old
-The very first milk the foal gets from the mare is a substance called “colostrum.” It is his most important meal, containing antibodies the foal needs to stay healthy.
-Glendale’s soft palette was not fully formed or hardened when he was born; the symptom was that right after he nursed then paused, some milk would run out of his nose. The vet said it should heal itself, and it did after a few days.
Willy had to be held still in the beginning for her first foal, Gilford.
-The “maiden” mare (first-time-mother) must learn how to let her foal nurse, and might not stand still for him without some coaxing or intervention.
-Occasionally, a mare–usually a maiden — will not allow her newborn foal to nurse. If this attitude persists, she could reject the foal and this is a life-threatening situation for the baby.
-With human intervention, the unsure mare can be encouraged to stand still for the foal. She might be reassured or restrained by her handler, or a vet might give her a tranquilizer to calm her nervousness. After the first few successful nursings, the mare’s udder pressure is relieved and her hormones get going, and she soon understands her job.
Baby discovers the world, after spending his first day in the stall. By this second day, Willy’s hormones were raging and she had turned into SuperMom!
In the two shots above, she threatens to kick her stablemate Abby through the fence, then herds baby Gil as far away from Abby as they can go.
Inquisitive at 2 days old
-Within the first couple of hours, the foal should pass “meconium” from his bowels, indicating his digestive tract is starting to function.
-A foal learns to walk and run within a few short hours of his birth.
Foal meets dog, Glendale’s life Day 2. Interestingly. the mare didn’t get aggressive towards Peaches.
-At birth, a foal’s feet are soft and the bottoms are fibrous; there are parallel tendrils which remind me of strands of cartilage instead of soles.
-These fibers firm up as they dry out, and within a day or two the hoof walls have hardened and the sole has started to smooth out and solidify.
Glen catches a snooze at 2 days old, already nibbling at grass.
North East Ski Joring Association (NESJA) holds races on January 31 in New London, NH, and on February 14-15 in Newport, NH. Highly recommended to watch if you’ve never seen one, exciting horse fun in wintertime for the hardy! We try to go every year. These guys travel between New England and Canada to compete! Other ski joring orgs. race out west: Montana, Idaho. Colorado…
Fjords in the snow! Bjorn resting his head on Kirsti
Vet:
Now our only experience with a vet has been for our three dogs.
1) We have never taken the dogs in to the vet and walked out with
less than a $400 bill.
2) We have never taken the dogs in to the vet and walked out
without an estimate for $600 more that they need to have “done” right
away.
3) We have never taken the dogs in to the vet and been in the
presence of the actual vet for more than 5 minutes.
Kirsti, who also needed a pregnancy check. Notice the unclipped manes of these fjords, which I’ve never seen before. They are wicked cute this way!
What a surprise it was to experience a visit from an equine vet!
1) Barn visit - $40, Full exam of all three horses’ teeth, vitals,
pregnancy check for Sive and Kirsti - $40… being able to pick her
brain for about 2 hours - priceless!
2) Our vet was very helpful in helping us prioritize what needed
to be done right away, and what could be done at a later time.
3) She took the time to give us helpful hints, encouraged us about
what we had been able to do so far, and never made us feel as if we
were just merely a pit stop before her next patient.
She was very encouraged with the weight gain of all three horses.
Upon their arrival in October, we had given them each a dose of
Ivermectin, and she suggested we use some daily Strongid C for a
couple of months.
October / November weights
Sive - 795 pounds / 1000
Kirsti - 720 pounds / 810
Bjorn - 685 pounds / 757
Sive’s baby belly
Kirsti’s pregnancy check came back negative, but Sive is in fact
pregnant. She is due in March/April. Since Sive is Bjorn’s half-
sister, the vet said the chances of something being wrong with the
foal are less than if they were whole brother/sister, although the
situation is less than ideal. I guess we’re just going to have to
see what happens in the spring and how the foal comes out. The vet
showed us how to feel the foal kicking - amazing!
[ED.NOTE: Bjorn is the sire of Sive's foal.]
The vet’s next visit a few weeks later was for Bjorn’s gelding. We
have been vigilant about the after care, and he is healing up
nicely. At that time, the vet also took out Kirsti’s wolf tooth.
Sive has a broken tooth in the front, but it doesn’t interfere with
her eating, so dealing with that has moved to later on the list.
Next from the vet will be: spring shots and foaling
Farrier:
We were able to squeeze in with a local highly-recommended farrier.
All three horses are shoeless and he said for the most part their
hooves look good. There are some lines, which he thinks could be
from malnutrition, so he is going to keep an eye on it and see if
their better diet improves their hooves in time. Bjorn had a cracked
hoof at one time, and he will be monitoring that as well. All three
horses did really well with the farrier.
This is the second post from FjordNewbies, our newest Guest Writer/Ghost Rider. More about FjordNewbies and our other Ghost Riders is on our Guest Writer’s page…
Ezra home for the holidays took me and his sister Emmie flying in a Piper Warrior. Ez has been in flight school in Florida and now has his commercial licenses for single and multi-engine, including ratings for instrument flight. He has put himself on the fast track to become a commercial pilot, leaving his engineering career behind.
Emmie loved it, she had been wanting a long time to go up, and I let her ride in the front seat. She took several of these pix!
Em’s shot of Ezra getting ready
I sort of look like an aviator in this one! It was a great day for flying but quite cold!
Ezra’s smooth takeoff west out of Laconia airport, then turning back east towards Lake Winnipesaukee.
Gunstock, our local slopes where we go to snowboard!
Having circled above the south end of the Lake, Gunstock Ski area is to our left and Mt. Washington is the white peak off in the distance to our right.
To Have a Horse in Your Life shared with us by E.F.
To have a horse in your life is a gift. In the matter of a few short years, a horse can teach a young girl courage, if she chooses to grab mane and hang on for dear life. Even the smallest of ponies is mightier than the tallest of girls. To conquer the fear of falling off, having one’s toes crushed, or being publicly humiliated at a horse show is an admirable feat for any child. For that, we can be grateful.
Horses teach us responsibility. Unlike a bicycle or a computer, a horse needs regular care and most of it requires that you get dirty and smelly and up off the couch. Choosing to leave your cozy kitchen to break the crust of ice off the water buckets is to choose responsibility. When our horses dip their noses and drink heartily; we know we’ve made the right choice.
Learning to care for a horse is both an art and a science. Some are easy keepers, requiring little more than regular turn-out, a flake of hay, and a trough of clean water. Others will test you: you’ll struggle to keep them from being too fat or too thin. You’ll have their feet shod regularly only to find shoes gone missing. Some are so accident-prone you’ll swear they’re intentionally finding new ways to injure themselves.
If you weren’t raised with horses, you can’t know that they have unique personalities. You’d expect this from dogs, but horses? Indeed, there are clever horses, grumpy horses, and even horses with a sense of humor. Those prone to humor will test you by finding new ways to escape from the barn when you least expect it.
Horses can be timid or brave, lazy or athletic, obstinate or willing. You will hit it off with some horses and others will elude you altogether. There are as many “types” of horses as there are people– which makes the whole partnership thing all the more interesting.
If you’ve never ridden a horse, you probably assume it’s a simple thing you can learn in a weekend. You can, in fact, learn the basics on a Sunday, but to truly ride well takes a lifetime. Working with a living being is far more complex than turning a key in the ignition and putting the car or tractor into “drive.”
In addition to listening to your instructions, your horse will have a few things to say to you as well. On a good day, he’ll be happy to go along with the program and tolerate your mistakes; on a bad day, you’ll swear he’s trying to kill you. Perhaps he’s naughty or perhaps he’s fed up with how slowly you’re learning his language. Regardless, the horse will have an opinion. He may choose to challenge you (which can ultimately make you a better rider) or he may carefully carry you over fences– if it suits him. It all depends on the partnership– and partnership is what it’s all about.
If you face your fears, swallow your pride, and are willing to work at it, you’ll learn lessons in courage, commitment, and compassion in addition to basic survival skills. You’ll discover just how hard you’re willing to work toward a goal, how little you know, and how much you have to learn.
And, while some people think the horse “does all the work”, you’ll be challenged physically as well as mentally. Your horse may humble you completely. Or, you may find that sitting on his back is the closest you’ll get to heaven.
You can choose to intimidate your horse, but do you really want to? The results may come more quickly, but will your work ever be as graceful as that gained through trust? The best partners choose to listen, as well as to tell. When it works, we experience a sweet sense of accomplishment brought about by smarts, hard work, and mutual understanding between horse and rider. These are the days when you know with absolute certainty that your horse is enjoying his work.
If we make it to adulthood with horses still in our lives, most of us have to squeeze riding into our over-saturated schedules, balancing our need for things equine with those of our households and employers. There is never enough time to ride, or to ride as well as we’d like. Hours in the barn are stolen pleasures.
If it is in your blood to love horses, you share your life with them. Our horses know our secrets; we braid our tears into their manes and whisper our hopes into their ears. A barn is a sanctuary in an unsettled world, a sheltered place where life’s true priorities are clear: a warm place to sleep, someone who loves us, and the luxury of regular meals. Some of us need these reminders.
When you step back, it’s not just about horses– it’s about love, life, and learning. On any given day, a friend is celebrating the birth of a foal, a blue ribbon, or recovery from an illness. That same day, there is also loss: a broken limb, a case of colic, a decision to sustain a life or end it gently. As horse people, we share the accelerated life cycle of horses: the hurried rush of life, love, loss, and death that caring for these animals brings us. When our partners pass, it is more than a moment of sorrow.
We mark our loss with words of gratitude for the ways our lives have been blessed. Our memories are of joy, awe, and wonder. Absolute union. We honor our horses for their brave hearts, courage, and willingness to give.
To those outside our circle, it must seem strange. To see us in our muddy boots, who would guess such poetry lives in our hearts? We celebrate our companions with praise worthy of heroes. Indeed, horses have the hearts of warriors and often carry us into and out of fields of battle.
Listen to stories of that once-in-a-lifetime horse; of journeys made and challenges met. The best of horses rise to the challenges we set before them, asking little in return.
Those who know them understand how fully a horse can hold a human heart. Together, we share the pain of sudden loss and the lingering taste of long-term illness. We shoulder the burden of deciding when or whether to end the life of a true companion.
In the end, we’re not certain if God entrusts us to our horses–or our horses to us. Does it matter? We’re grateful God loaned us the horse in the first place.
Author “Unknown”
__________________________ MANY MANY THANKS to horse friend E.F. for sharing this timely New Year’s tribute with fellow horse lovers!!
WELCOME!! This is the first post from FjordNewbies, our newest Guest Writer/Ghost Rider. She and her hubby Mark have recently gone from owning zero horses to owning three and one-half Norwegian Fjords, which they basically rescued from a prior owner who could no longer support them. FjordNewbies’ posts will follow her exciting newbie experiences learning to manage and train unbroke horses and anticipating an upcoming foaling! More about FjordNewbies on our Guest Writer’s page…
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During a Labor Day Weekend canoe/camping trip, we found out from
friends of ours that they knew of a family looking for a new home for
their three Fjord horses. Within the week, we stopped by to look at
them and fell in love! We researched the Fjord breed and felt that
they would be perfect for us to have as first horses. The next week
was spent getting the yard ready for their arrival. We fenced in an
area next to our garage and a large potting shed. The area had
formerly been lawn. Mark expanded the potting shed to house 3 stalls
with removable walls. We cleared out one of the bays in the garage
to store hay, feed, bedding, tack, etc. Then we went shopping! We
have only been buying the things we need for what we are working on
at the time. Our first shopping trip was for bare necessities -
halters, leads, water buckets, rakes, shovels, hay racks, etc. Oh,
and hay!
Never having looked around for hay before, we asked everyone we saw
if they knew a good place to get hay. That late in the season, most
of the leads we got were sold out of horse hay, or only had small
quantities. Plus, we had no place to store it. Plus we had NO idea
how much hay to buy! Thankfully, one of our neighbors heard of our
dilemma and offered to not only sell us hay, but also store it for
us. We only have to go there every month or so and pick up what we
need. We have an enclosed 24′ trailer, so we make a few trips up the
road with the pick-up, and once the trailer is full, we drop a check
off for what we took. This had been a life-saver for us, not only
for space reasons, but also for the budget. Instead of having to
come up with a lump sum for a whole winter’s worth of hay, we have
been able to “ease” into it this year.
By October, within 3 weeks of meeting the horses, they were in their
new home.
Sive - 12 year old mare, 795 pounds, half sister to Kirsti and Bjorn
Kirsti - 5 year old mare, 720 pounds, full sister to Bjorn
Bjorn - 4 year old stallion, 685 pounds, full brother to Kirsti
Kirsti and Bjorn in October, after a month of eating a bale a day apiece! Even so their ribs are still visible…
We began feeding them 3 bales of hay a day to increase their weight
(probably the only Fjord horse owners trying to do so!). [ED.NOTE: That's
for sure, all the fjords I've ever seen were plenty plump!] We started
feeding them all together in the same place, but it became apparent
the first day that Sive was a food hog and pushed Kirsti and Bjorn
away. So Mark put up the stall dividers and the hay racks, and for
October and November we fed them their own hay in their own stall to
ensure that everyone was getting their fair share.
The grassy paddock area worked well for about the first 3 weeks. We
had stopped mowing the lawn when we knew the horses were coming, so
they had quite a treat when they arrived. All went south, though,
the weekend we had a few days of rain in a row. The mud was
unbelievable! So our next project was to figure out what to do about
it. After a few days of research and stopping to talk to other horse
owners about what they use for footing, we decided to get crushed
stone dust. We put down 3 inches of sand, and then 3 inches of the
stone dust on top. We love it! So much easier to pick up manure -
the stone dust just falls through the rake. It took about 2 weeks
for the footing to settle and now they have a level footing that
keeps their hooves dry!
Kirsti, Sive, and Bjorn in December
The stone dust footing also makes it much easier to blow the leaves.
Of course our paddock area is surrounded by red maples and oak
trees. We did not have an opportunity to take the trees down before
the leaves started falling, so each morning and evening we would
spend a few minutes blowing the leaves out of the paddock. Removal
of those trees is our first priority this spring! [ED.NOTE: Wilted red maple
leaves can be toxic to horses-- we're glad FjordNewbies realized that!]
October was spent getting the horses settled. And getting to know
them. Friends of ours have a teenage daughter, Katie, that has
always wanted horses, so she would come over every day after school
and help groom. Typically, Fjords’ manes are trimmed quite short, to
enhance the shape of the neck and show the stripe of black going
through the white mane. All three of them had natural manes, and I
enjoy combing their manes so much, we will probably keep them like
that, unless we ever decide to show them. Mark, Katie and I would
take all three of them on halter/lead for long walks on the trails
behind our house. We learned a lot during those afternoons.
Closeup of Bjorn
Kirsti and Bjorn had not had a lot of grooming experience, cleaning hooves
was a nightmare at first. Kirsti insisted she would fall over if she
were made to stand on 3 legs. Bjorn was fine with his front hooves,
but wanted nothing to do with his back hooves being cleaned. He
would kick. So, we worked slowly with the two of them, did what we
could each day, and by the time the farrier came in November, both of
them would at least tolerate hoof handling. I am proud to announce
that now, in December, both of them willingly give us their
hooves. Mission accomplished!
Kirsti the younger mare, Bjorn’s sister
During our walks we also learned a lot about their personalities.
Kirsti can’t stand to be behind. If Sive and Bjorn get ahead of her,
she freaks out. She is also the biggest bully of the three. She
hasn’t quite learned about “space” issues yet.
Bjorn is low man on the totem pole. Sive, as alpha mare, has
definitely taught him what’s what. He’s the last one allowed at the
salt lick, the last one at the water bucket, and if he gets out of
line, he gets a swift kick.
Sive, the 12 year old mare!
Sive is very mellow. She’s was obviously handled much more than
Kirsti and Bjorn. She does anything you ask her and is a great role
model for the youngsters. The one thing on the back of our minds
though, is a comment that was made when the horses were dropped off.
We were told, “By the way, Sive may be pregnant.”
Coming up… Vet and Farrier visits (November/December 2008)
FjordNewbies says:
As new horse owners, Mark and I are experiencing everything
for the first time. We are trying to filter all the wonderful
information we find regarding raising horses, and we hope our posts
on Connie’s blog can be a help for any other newbies out there. Hope
you enjoy our adventure as much as we do, and feel free to pass along
any suggestions to dragonmctt@mac.com .
These Friesians were in the Novice Rider Open Pleasure Championship class at Deerfield Fair Horse Show in September, and the judge liked them pretty well. One Friesian ridden hunter seat took the Championship and another Friesian placed fourth.
Friesian showing at the trot in Novice Rider Open Pleasure Championship class, in the rain.
The 3 black Friesians are easy to spot among the other horses in the ring. This video shows clearly the difference in gait action and self-carriage between the Friesians and the other horses. All 3 are ridden hunt seat.
Two of the Friesians in the lineup awaiting placings.
Victory pass for the Reserve Champion (placed second) and then the Champion, a Friesian horse in Open Pleasure at Deerfield Fair, NH.
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I must say something about this class placing however… traditional “Hunter Pleasure” showing emphasizes a long-strided and lower-headed way of moving for the horse, which is NOT a Friesian’s natural way to move and is not the way this Friesian moves. I DO have to question the judge’s choice for first place, given what I believe are the criteria for a hunter!
That being said however, since this is a “Novice Rider Open Pleasure” class (open to all breeds and disciplines), perhaps the horse having a pleasurable way of going carries more weight with the judge than discipline-related criteria. And also perhaps the rider’s performance is being judged, in a Novice Rider class…
Emmie did many hunter pleasure classes with our Arabian mare Willy, who also naturally moves with her head held a bit high and with some elevation in her gait. Emmie often placed well in “Open Pleasure” classes but did not generally place well in “Open Hunter” classes, where she competed against thoroughbreds or TB-type quarter horses, who can easily achieve a classic hunter frame because of the way they are naturally built and move. But Em did very well with the mare in “Breed” classes showing hunter (pleasure and equitation) against other Arabians and half-Arabians, where the playing field was more level for that breed.
I was intrigued with this lady performing with her Andalusian stallion at liberty (Equine Affaire, MA. in November). Her demonstration was more like a dance than anything else, a little reminiscent of Cavalia which I had the great good fortune to see in 2005. Apparently she came from a circus background. The horse is trained to visual body-language and verbal cues. She explained many of the concepts behind her training techniques.
The “dance” with her horse… who is “allowed” to be cooperative– or not sometimes– as his personality and desires of the moment are taken into account. This horse could be described as an over-achiever!
Moving away from psychological pressure– using release of pressure as a reward– is explained as a horse training method.
Cute cats, nice mix! The Christmas Cat Diaries from thecatdiaries on Youtube… (you can X out the ad along the bottom to make it go away– google’s been busy.)
