My new project...

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ekitteridge

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Introducing Bounty (Lady Bountiful) my new project. She is 3 1/2 years old and is a Darley foster foal. She has been a companion for weanlings for the past 3 years and has had minimal handling over that time. She's Cob/TB cross, currently standing at 15.2hh but is still bum high so I am hoping she will make 16hh.

I was actually planning to get a Welsh section D (black or brown with no white legs!!) youngster in the spring, but she popped up through word of mouth, I went along to see her, and bought her home the following week. I have had her a month, and so far have bitted her, she has had a pad and roller on and we have just started lunging. It's been a steep learning curve for her and me, but thankfully I have alot of help, both professional and friendly support!!

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Little update on Lady B...

I have finally managed to get a bit in her mouth without the aid of a humungous carrot - Actually have the bit attached to a head piece rather than the headcollar, and put on in the normal way over her ears rather than threading it through her mouth from one side to the other - a major achievement considering that I could not get any where near her ears when I first got her 2 months ago!!

We have been lunging her and initially it was hair raising - her moves put the Spanish riding school to shame!! but she is improving all the time and is now really getting the voice commands, and mostly behaves herself, apart from when she is startled when she tends to over-react, but thankfully settles down very quickly and gets on with the job. We are taking her slowly in order to get her less reactive. She has had a saddle on and didn't bat an eyelid, and has been lunged in the saddle - next step is to not anchor the saddle flaps down so that they flap a bit when she is moving, then move on to having stirrups on the saddle...

Practising her moves...

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Not sure if this link works, but its a little video of her lunging on Saturday.

https://www.facebook.com/353713821719850/videos/372022819888950/
 
Love her face and her halt (strange thing to like I know), sounds like you're going to have lots of fun ahead with her
 
Little update on Bounty....

We have been working hard and she is now being lunged in the saddle with stirrups dangling, and apart from a few bucks to start off with, has not bothered about them at all....and on to the best bit.... We started leaning over her, and this week we have had someone on her. She has been so good I can't quite believe it. I was not expecting to have some one on her back as soon as this - was thinking a few weeks time!!

She has now had some on on her 3 times now and the last time (Christmas Eve!) we had feet in stirrups and using leg and voice aids for walk on and stand. She is nowhere near ready to have anyone on her back in the arena just yet as she is just too reactive, but in the enclosed safety of the yard she is pretty chilled. Thrilled with my pocket rocket so far.

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great progress, you will be riding her in the summer......will you give her some time off over the rest of the winter? i did with my mare and she didnt forget anything she had learned and seemed to be further forward after having some time to think about things and was calmer. good luck and keep us posted...
 
Ooh she's lovely. Welcome to the secret club of owning a Darley nurse mare foal! There are a fair few of them about and they are generally very useful all-round riding club type horses with heights from 15.2-17.2 depending on the sire and dam.

My skewbald lad Tom is now rising 8, he's 15.2 and by Scarlet (the little teaser cob) out of Rocket (TB mare). My passport says breeding unknown but I contacted the stud secretary to ask if they could tell me a bit more about his sire and dam which she kindly did. My friend has a massive 17.2hh with Red Adair on the sire side. Her Darley boy has competed at national riding club dressage.

Good luck with yours!
 
Chinchilla said:
Being a bit naive but what is a nurse mare foal/darley foster foal? Whatever they are though Bounty is lovely!
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Nursemare foals are foals born to mares who are very good mothers who are either kept by studs or kept for availability for use by studs in case an expensive, highly bred new foal loses its mother or its mother can't feed it so a foster mother is needed. Foster mothers need milk, hence a nurse mare must have had her own foal in order to have milk. She won't be able to feed two foals though. In which case the nurse mare is paired up with the motherless expensive foal to ensure its milk/mothering is met, and the nurse mare foal is then motherless and is raised on bucketed milk pellet feeds. The nursemares and foals may live as a herd, and if none of them are needed, then they and their real foals get to stay together until normal weaning time (my Tom was with his mother until normal weaning time as she wasn't needed). The nurse mare industry is an industry which supports high end horse breeding (of all types, not just racehorses), and the nurse mare foals are a byproduct of that industry.

Darley is one stud who use nurse mares, so do many other studs in all aspects of horse breeding. Some studs keep their own nurse mares. Others have arrangements with independent people who keep a herd of potential nurse mares in foal just in case.

The good nursemare setups ensure the nurse mare foals are wormed, handled, grow together in herds with nannies if their own mothers are taken away, and in the first place that they are bred by useful stallions being put to their very good nurse mare mothers in order that the nurse mare foal has the same potential as any other foal to be a useful, well-conformationed, well-temperamented, healthy horse. the Darley nurse mare foals are renowned locally by horse owners as being really nice riding club type horses, good temperaments and able to turn their hooves to all sorts of activities.

The nurse mare foals are sold at weaning and with the best nurse mare operations there are long waiting lists and almost closed-shop environments to try and buy such weanlings, and then the mares are put into foal again ready for the following year.
 
Suechoccy said:
Nursemare foals are foals born to mares who are very good mothers who are either kept by studs or kept for availability for use by studs in case an expensive, highly bred new foal loses its mother or its mother can't feed it so a foster mother is needed. Foster mothers need milk, hence a nurse mare must have had her own foal in order to have milk. She won't be able to feed two foals though. In which case the nurse mare is paired up with the motherless expensive foal to ensure its milk/mothering is met, and the nurse mare foal is then motherless and is raised on bucketed milk pellet feeds. The nursemares and foals may live as a herd, and if none of them are needed, then they and their real foals get to stay together until normal weaning time (my Tom was with his mother until normal weaning time as she wasn't needed). The nurse mare industry is an industry which supports high end horse breeding (of all types, not just racehorses), and the nurse mare foals are a byproduct of that industry.

Darley is one stud who use nurse mares, so do many other studs in all aspects of horse breeding. Some studs keep their own nurse mares. Others have arrangements with independent people who keep a herd of potential nurse mares in foal just in case.

The good nursemare setups ensure the nurse mare foals are wormed, handled, grow together in herds with nannies if their own mothers are taken away, and in the first place that they are bred by useful stallions being put to their very good nurse mare mothers in order that the nurse mare foal has the same potential as any other foal to be a useful, well-conformationed, well-temperamented, healthy horse. the Darley nurse mare foals are renowned locally by horse owners as being really nice riding club type horses, good temperaments and able to turn their hooves to all sorts of activities.

The nurse mare foals are sold at weaning and with the best nurse mare operations there are long waiting lists and almost closed-shop environments to try and buy such weanlings, and then the mares are put into foal again ready for the following year.
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Thank you! I Google and found a video by godolphin - i had no idea this happened. Thanks for the info :)
 
Bounty is by Adair (TB) out of Anna (cob). There are a fair few Adair foster foals and they all seem to end up being good sorts. There is a Darley foster foal group on facebook which is great as you can see all their full and half brothers and sisters at all ages.
 
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