2003 was a bounteous year for Prairie Pond Acres. We had five
foals last year! Dealing with five foals at once presented some
challenges, but we came up with new ways to train and otherwise handle
our foals that make them the most friendly and manageable horses we
have ever raised. Four of these horses are for sale. They
were a bit too young for the sales in the fall, so we decided to winter
them one last time on the pasture with their mother.
The picture above is of them being weaned. Instead of seperating
them from their mothers by taking them immediately to our barn in town,
we segregated them in our round pen with plenty of food. They
could see their mothers, but had to rely on hay and grass until their
mothers dried up. After the mares' milk dried up, we loaded
the foals for the first time into our trailer and took them to our barn
in town. We did it slow and easy, and it worked surprisingly well.
In town, I halter broke them and trained them to come to me when I held
out my hand. Each day I led the foals to individual stalls in our barn,
where I fed them. Each morning and each evening I would pick up
their feet. To this day, one person can clean their hooves
quite well, although I had to get Rosemary to hold them when I trimmed
them.
These are the most well trained and gentle foals we have raised, and I
am proud of them.
Four of the
foals (three fillys and one colt) are from Ivory, our AQHA registered
champagne stud, and they all are well-muscled, intelligent, and have
inherited his champangne color gene.
The other foal we had is a full Arab, and her father was Kephastare. She is
graceful and intelligent, and is one of the most friendly horses I have
ever had. She is bay now, but will turn gray as she matures.
If you want to see more pictures, and you have a fairly high speed line
or a lot of time, here are a bunch more.
more pictures
