Banner & Alanna move to the other pasture

Alanna and Banner have joined Maggie & Brian and Grania & Aoife in the pasture down the road. There was a lot of running around and neighing but they had all settled down again by the time we left them.

Blarney

I have to confess that I spend very little to no time on The Blarney these days. Therefore, I almost missed the neat little story by Vicki Buckrop and her herd which includes some Pearls. I'm embarrassed to admit that I had to be told that it was in there. I dug it out of the pile I had placed it in and sure enough just looking at the cover I hit my forehead and said "duh". I knew that Bruce and Vicki went out west riding but I wasn't aware of just how wonderfully picturesque it was. I'm really pleased that they shared their adventures. Their purebred ID Moose looked right at home with the cattle. Versatility? You bet!

Footwear

Okay folks. Contrary to the rumors, I was not barefooted when I parted with my toenail. But I wasn't wearing steel toed boots either.

Moving to the rented pasture

Bruce and I decided to transfer the mares to the pasture yesterday. Grania and Aoife were both very cooperative -- the jumped into the trailer enthusiastically. We tried Portia and Calum next. Portia was in one of her pissy thoroughbred moods and wouldn't load even with Calum already in the trailer. She and I had a disagreement which resulted in a cut ankle for her and I had a toenail ripped off. It was a delightful couple of hours. She is being extremely sweet today of course. Grrrrrrrrrrr. It was late in the day at this point but we didn't want to leave Grania and Aoife alone so we popped Maggie and Brian in the trailer and deposited them with the other two. Bruce worked today and it's going to rain tomorrow so Alanna and Banner are still here. They will go down the road as well at the first opportunity. I had originally planned to keep Maggie and Brian here at home (there's only room for 3 mares and foals in the pasture) but Portia needs medication and wrapping for awhile so she gets to stay at home. Alas -- the best laid plans.

Here's a few photos of Aoife showing off her fabulous engine and Brian looking sharp.

More Mountain Dove thoughts

In the last post I neglected to mention a few things. Mountain Dove was bred by Elizabeth Deane of County Cork Ireland. The photo of her as a grey late term pregnant mare was taken by Kitty Kabatt. The other two photos of her were courtesy of John Lyons. I must mention that I was particularly impressed by her Elm Hill filly. She was most definitely her best offspring up to this point anyway.

RID mares

The recent deaths of Opium Poppy and my Rachel got me thinking about Irish Draught mares. One mare that immediately came to mind is Mountain Dove. She came to the USA from Elizabeth Deane's place and is currently in John Lyons' hands. She is by Mountain View and out of a Dove II mare called Grey Dove and was born in 1991. When I start looking at pedigrees, I always lament the paucity of mare photos. Or maybe it's not a paucity but simply that photos are unavailable. What did Grey Dove look like? I'll include a few photos that I have of Mountain Dove. None of the photos really do her justice but she definitely has some really good Irish Draught characteristics. I am a sucker for the short cannon bones and a deep heartgirth. Ideally, she would have longer ears. She has a great outlook and I suspect her eyes are large and gentle. She is a substantial quality mare, a type that you are unlikely to see in the Irish Draught shows.

A few happy thoughts

I received the IDHS NA registration booklets for my 2007 and 2008 stock! They are a very nice quality, an upgrade from the previous booklets. It was a really nice surprise. My only wish is that the IDHS NA would decide to make serving their membership a top priority. If they vowed to have registrations out in 5 to 6 weeks instead of the 5 1/2 to 16 months that I had to wait, it would be a huge step forward in improving the public face of the organization.

Also, Fox Hollow is again able to lease the pasture down the road for the summer. We had lost it a few years back. I'm thrilled. It has plenty of room for wandering, a creek and a steep hill for the babies to strengthen their bones and muscles. It's a lovely spot - ideal for young'uns. Yeeeee haw!

Equine color genetics

I told myself that the next time I got to Ireland I was going to visit John McCarthy and have a long, long talk with him. I wanted to here him talk about the Irish Draught and what it was and what he thought the future for the breed was -- just anything I could get him to talk about. Unfortunately, Mr. McCarthy died before I got to Ireland again and I've bee kicking myself ever since then. What does this have to do with color genetics you ask? Good question! Actually very little as you shall see.

The topic of Cork Arthur and his color(s) has been on my mind a good 10 to 15 years. I know a lot of other people have conjectured about what dilution genes he might or might not have. The palomino foal that I know that he sired was out of Killawalla Blondie so I was pretty sure that the cream gene came from the mare. However, there have been a number of odd colored horses by him -- buttermilk color and the like so I felt that it certainly was possible as a long shot. I got to thinking that the way I was going, Cork Arthur would be dead and gone before I got around to finding the truth out so I kicked myself into gear. I had him tested for the cream dilution and the pearl dilution but not the champagne dilution. There was no evidence at all that the Irish Draught has the champagne dilution. The new pearl dilution was a possibility since the origins of the ID include the Spanish breeds. I did not test him for dun zygosity because you need hair from one or both parents and I was relatively sure that he only had one dun gene.

I obtained hair from Cork Arthur and sent it to the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Laboratory for testing. Here we go...

Cork Arthur is:

Red factor e/e - Only the red factor detected. Basic color is sorrel or chestnut in the absence of other modifying genes

Agouti A/A - Black pigment distributed in points pattern. Basic color is bay or brown in the absence of other modifying genes

Cream dilution N/N - No evidence for the Cream dilution altered sequence detected. Basic color is sorrel or chestnut, bay or black in the absence of other modifying genes

Pearl dilution N/N - No evidence of altered sequence detected


So we all know now. That subject can be put to rest now.

Portia's boy

Portia's little boy has not cooperated yet in posing nicely for photos. He is much nicer than any photo I've taken of him show. Let's hope things improve in the near future. He doe have a name now though. His name is Calum. It seems to fit him very well

Heathercombe Cousin Rachel 1999-2009

Rachel's condition was worsening rather quickly and she was suffering so I decided that it was time for her to go to pastures that are always green and the sky is always blue. It was a very painful decision but it was without a doubt a good one.

Rachel came to us as a yearling. She was from Heathercombe Irish Draughts in Somerset England. As I recall she was very brash, pushy and opinionated. She was not always pleasant to be around. As she matured her true self came through and she grew up to be the most dedicated and sweet horse I think I've been around. She always had a nicker and a nuzzle when you arrived. She adored motherhood -- she was at her best with a foal by her side. When she didn't have a foal and Alanna did then she would protect Alanna and her foal from the big ole' meany Maggie et al. When neither she or Alanna were with a foal, Rachel determined that it was her job to keep everyone away from Alanna and clear her way.

Rachel is survived by her daughter Pearls of Faith and her son Padi's Colman Select both sired by Mountain Pearl and by all of us who grieve for her here at Fox Hollow. Farewell Sweet Rachel.

Here's Rachel one year apart -- a familiar pose early on.

Versatility

I got to thinking. Things are really working out well. Having Jess work with Tristan shows that good riders are good riders regardless of the discipline. The horsemanship part of it and the basics are the same. We all have more similarities than differences. The goal is to learn and improve ourselves and our relationship with our horses. I think it also is an excellent example of the versatility of the Irish Draught. Before her surgery, Sarah had done his early ground work and was preparing to mount. Her surgery interfered and Jess could just take up where Sarah had ended. I think it's really amazing.

Weekend

It was a great weekend. Weather was fabulous (still a little muddy from rains during the week). Pat visited on Saturday and we spent time helping the yearlings shed their winter coats. Their hair was finally letting go. We managed to remove the mud balls that had collected on their bellies and got lots & lots of hair off. We did'nt swallow too terribly much of it. They are still not camera ready but look so much better.

Sunday I was able to watch Jess ride Tristan. The last time was from the video that I managed to put up on here a few days ago. Mr. Tristan is progressing very nicely. I'm very pleased. Sarah was also there and she was also very pleased with the progress.