Haverlands Appaloosa Horses

 24th May - Well, all my other foals arrived in succession starting with Tweed on 6th May foaling a huge chestnut leopard filly, followed the week after on 12th by Tilly who decided to produce early but then stunned us with the most amazingly marked loud black leopard colt we've bred for ages. The night after, 13th saw me feeling like i'd been there before at 3am when Image foaled a massive and very elegant rich bay filly with all characteristics. Typical of Image foals, she will colour right out quickly and is set to be 16.2hh of pure quality. The old witch is not the prettiest of mares and certainly not the easiest to deal with but goodness she throws fabulous foals without exception!

A long wait then for us until 21st May - When Bronte amazed us even more than we had been by giving birth to another loud leopard colt but this time one with huge knees and hocks and set to be one big horse. He's maybe not as evenly marked as Tilly's son but boy does he turn heads and his spots are bigger and rounder than my first born. I can't wait until I get the two of them out in the field together. Now that's going to be a hell of a sight for sore eyes!

Ember is going from strength to strength now. She's growing and doing really well. She enjoys her nightly exploration of my orchard on the end of a short lunge line. Buffy comes too and Ember chases her and tries to jump on her. She makes me laugh out loud with her antics, rearing up in slow motion on the spot then broncing backwards in play and all the time sqealing like a choirboy on heat. She's full of fun and I love the bones of her.  She'll be 9 weeks old on wednesday and all the hard, tyring work is so worth the effort. I don't think she's missing having a mum. She sees all the other horses all the time and has really befriended Buffy. So far, so good!

23rd April - Ember is doing remarkable well and eating all we put before her. She's drinking plenty of foal milk and eating creep feed. Her jaw never stops munching the haylage and she's as settled as an orphan foal can be. We put her next to Buffy, one of our bobtails who is keeping her company. They keep touching noses.I know you don't want orphan foals to get too people orientated but this one is likley to bark like a dog by weaning. Johanna Vardon is trying her hardest to find us a surrogate mare but it's hard and so sad to wait for dead mens shoes.

18th April - Really tragic news as we lose our beloved Boogie. One the saturday afternoon we watched her and baby out at grass and commented on how well the old bird was looking. She sunbathed with Ember and rolled about in pure pleasure to be out stratching her legs and showing off her lovely baby. The next morning she collaped and died instantly having suffered a heart attack and haemorrhage. Our vet says she would never have felt a thing but unfortunately she leaves us with Ember, not quite 3 weeks old to rear by hand.

1st April - What a date to foal! - Boogie finally foals a clone of herself. Completely solid black filly with no white anywhere. We've called her Ember and I am sure she has been on this earth previously as she's so people friendly and such a sweet natured baby to handle and deal with. Boogie really did us and herself proud!

18th March - )ne week left until Boogie is full term. She's loking as good as she can now and very very round. Feet to be trimmed this afternoon and a nice bigger bed going down tomorrow. She's a creature of habit and I don't expect her to go much over her due dates. She just gets on with it bless her. CCTV all working and correct, new tubes in the lights so it's just wait and see. This will either be solid and very black or black based with lots of spots. Boogie is an all or nothing girl !

13th February 2010 - Our mares are all extremely rotund now. Tweed may just well burst before prodcing what will be her last foal for us. Once this one arrives she will retire from breeding and enjoy a life of love, attention and happy hacking with my oldest friend Lynne Brown

Boogie looks as well as she could do, even at 23 this year. 4 weeks now and counting until we may hear the patter of tiny hooves from her stable. I'm willing a nicely marked filly but what I do know is it will be black based of some sort, whether solid or spotted, black is a certainty with Boogie ! I feel a little merlyn coming on LOL!!

Bronte and Image are both well and content and my little maiden fewspot, Tilly is like a beach ball with legs. She's still keeping Romeo company (and in his place) Last week they were rearing up and play fighting with each other, not bad to say she should foal around 17th May.

Romeo is as gormless as ever. If he were any more laid back he'd be horizontal. So far so good. I'm not entirely sure what to expect come spring and mares in season but I have everything crossed that he remains just as easy to do as he always has been. He'll be 2 on 2nd May and my goal now is to see him established for a few years in a good breeding home where he will be used and appreciated. I am really reluctant to sell him. His temperament is terrific and he's got the makings of a repeat of his father; but I don't really have use for 2 stallions at once and would never part with his nobship. If I could find a home I'm happy with until anything happens to Nobby then I'd much prefer Romeo to remain in my ownership. We'll see what spring brings! 

13th December _ Into a steady routine now all are stabled. Everyone is looking well and round and all the mares are showing well in foal now. Roll on New Year when  we get well passed the shortest day and the nights start slowly to draw out again.. then spring is on the horizon and there will be good and exciting things to look forward to. I'm getting quite excited now about what Tilly may have. This will be her first foal and having had her since she was 4 months means that all my plans will come to fruition hopefully. Time will tell but it's this one foal that keeps my attention for 2010!

28th November - See Flynn completely weaned. Now all three foals have been fully weaned. Weather has taken a turn for the worse so now all are in and stabled. Roll on spring!All 5 mares safely scanned in foal for 2010. Details on the Great Expectations page. I've also taken responsibility forthe daily running of the offical site for the British Appaloosa Society and am trying to sort things out between all three sites now. www.appaloosa.org.uk

2nd August - We had a very nice day out at the British Appaloosa Society National Show in Warwickshire. It was lovely to see Rowan (Haverlands Scenario) and Brodie (Haverlands Rainmaker) competing well on the day. They are both a credit to their owners Debbie Bell and Jess McInnes. Jess recently had a nasty fall from another of her horses and broke her back. She has only been out of hospital for a few weeks but still managed the long journey down with Rowan. He was shown well by her dedicated father. Well done Colin for stepping in to show him. To say it was Colin's first attempt at showing ever! they did rather well in the circumstances!Get well soon Jess, Rowan needs his mum!

27th June - Image and Bronte have both gone beyond their seasons now. I'm fairly confident they have both held in foal but shall be having them scanned shortly to confirm this. Tilly was due back into season today but so far, so good and she's showing no signs. Hopefully I can get all three scanned next week on my days off.  Flynn and mum have joined Indy and Fahren out in the big field and both foals are now enjoying each others company

25th June - Have had Romeo turned out with the mares for some weeks now and they seem to be keeping him in his place. He's a really relaxed guy and happy to be with Tilly at the moment. I took some new pictures of him today and he's bodying up nicely. He's now 13 months old and standing topside of 14.3hh, infact I would say he's slightly taller than Tilly now and very 'bum high'

15th June 2009 - Boogie and Tweed both scanned in foal.

June sees Bronte covered in her foaling heat and Image covered on her second season.  My attentions were then turned to Tilly who is now 4 and having point blank refused last year to have anything to do with my stallion, we decided we must give her another go. After pg' ing her, acp' ing her and a good old twitch we finally got her covered for the first time, follwed by 2 more natural coverings with her completely compliant. Now this foal I can't wait to see next year as I bought Tilly after much research into her breeding and it will prove to me if I was right.

Covering season snuck up on me and we've been madly covering. I was intending to be a bit cautious but that seems to have gone by the wayside. Not knowing the economic climate and how the land lies I thought about reducing my in foal mares but having had Tweed come home to be covered and Boogie covered early after having a year off I then decided to cover Image because this colt is exceptional and remembered I must try Tilly again after the performance with her last year when she completely refused to stand. 

Had an oult of the blue call from Jen Speight with Taz who is now 4. She's just starting to do some competion work and rang me with updates. I'm waiting for pictures as she says he's full up 16.2hh now, still bum high and all horse. He's full brother to Image's foal this year which hopeully gives people insight into what he will turn out like. Can't wait for grown up pictures of him

23rd May, having practically sat up all night sees Bronte foal in 15 minutes flat at 0835hrs this morning. It's an absolutely huge dark bay snowcap Grade B colt who jumped to his feet at 5 minutes old and then thought I was his mum. As if, me dressed in fluffy pink dressing gown (very fetching)

16th May -Still no foal from Bronte yet. This has to be a colt lingering LOL

14th May - Tweed home and covered by Nobby

13th May - Still patiently waiting for Bronte to produce. She looks just about ready but in no rush!

2nd May - After a long wait for Image to decide to foal, the wait was over when she foaled yesterday morning at 0830hrs. He's a typical Nobby child, laid back, lots of bone and very tall. He's about the size of Indy's foal now. It's proving a very spotty year so far!

14th April - Indy foals a delightful near leopard filly by the Grade A imported Stallion, Drea Yakima Firshado. Mum and baby doing well

28th March 2009 - Our foal watch calender is about to go up. 3 weeks and a bit to the first arrival (hopefully) The weather finally looks set to have turned and at last we are mud free and have hard ground again. Romeo is growing by the day. I think he's had his hooves in a bucket of miracle grow. Karys is coming on well with my friend Hilary and has just been backed and we were delighted to see new pictures of Harvey showing how much he's grown and bloomed. Can't wait to see him out at shows this season.

Mother and son

March 2009 - We were chuffed to bits to see Braid take the foal class in the BApS photoshow and I sneaked one of her in and got placed in the action shot

4th January - Website updated and christmas theme removed. All horses are comfortably stabled and doing well. Romeo is growing tall and remains well behaved. We look forward to spring and the imminent arrival of new life. Harvey has now been weaned and is to be kept entire (hopefully)

 21st December - A quiet time. All foals now weaned and the mares and Nobby are all stabled for the remainder of winter (with turnout of course) We are looking forward to spring and the arrival of new life and are most excited about what we get from the mating with Indy and Fire. Romeo has grown and has had his first rug experience this week. He looks really dapper in his 'porn star' purple stable rug. Santa definitely won't pass him by as it's almost illuminous! Santa brought Boogie a new rainbow stable rug too and she's snuggly in rug heaven at the moment too.

 6th October - Romeo's turn now for weaning. I brought him in this afternoon and he's screamed the place down. Left him digging down to autralia!

3rd October- Braid is fully weaned. She's been so easy to do. She now happily stands with the top door open watching the world go by. She's leading fine and eating like a little porky pig. Don't think I've had one this chilled out for a while!

26th September - Final scan day and now all four mares confirmed well in foal. I've got 2 due in early to mid april and one due at the end of that month or certainly a few days into may!

25th Septmeber - Braid is coming on great guns now. She's done nothing more than call. The day after parting her from Bronte I managed to get the water bucket and haynet back into to her stable and she's eating like an adult horse. We're into a 5 day course of panacur guard and have started her vaccinations. She's being such a good girl. Maybe the calm before the storm, or just that she is a good girl after all! Hope the others take note for their turns!

20th September - After a nice and calm time lapse it,s now weaning time proper. Braid was 5 months exactly on 19th and has just been brought in for weaning to begin. I always aim to wean at dusk so that darkness helps to calm the situation. So far so good! 

26th August - Sees all the mares and foals out at grass and very content. kary's foal is coming on leaps and bounds and becoming very cheeky!

22nd July - Karys foaled during the late evening tonight.  She's cloned herself and produced a 'mini me' colt. Very pretty little boy, very leggy and should be tall

 13th July - Sees Bronte well passed the time should should have come back into season. It just remains for us to book all the scans to confirm now. Watch this space.

Bloxham Karysma has arrived with us heavily in foal. She's due to give birth at the end of July so night watch is to begin again very soon.

11th June - Bronte now finally in season following her foaling heat and has been covered with      Nobby, so fingers crossed

8th June - Image not yet back season. Looking good so far

5th June - Indy scanned in foal to Drea Yakima Firshado and Boogie not returned in after being covered by Nobby

19th May.. Image covered by Nobby

15th May.. Boogie covered in her foaling heat and Indy taken to Driffield and covered by the grade A imported stallion Drea Yakima Firshado (aka Fire)

 8th May .. Boogie, not wanting to be outdone has cloned herself and given birth to a solid black colt

 7th May ... Sees Tweed foal a long awaited black near leopard colt. Born on my OH's 60th Birthday so quite a mile stone !

2nd May .... Bloxham Tiger Delight foals a superb extended blanket filly. Foaling was straight forward and easy and the filly is set to be fantastic. We are delighted