A new year has begun. The start of the year is always marked by the breeding season, inspections, training young horses, and this year, in particular, preparations for the Haflinger World Show.

January.

In January, the judges inspected all the horses signed up for the World Show. I had signed up all my mares. I didn’t have to bring them all, but this way they could all be inspected, and we’d see how it went. Before the jury arrived, we heard that we were allowed to bring a maximum of two horses because so many applications had been received. I decided that I wouldn’t show Ilaysha and Infinity, but only Issy, Impressive, and Incredible. Issy and Press were signed up as broodmares, since they were both supposed to be with foals. I already had my doubts about Press, though. Credi was entered in the 2-year-old mare class.

After I had shown my mares, the judges decided to select Credi in any case, and I was allowed to choose between Issy and Press. I decided to go with Press, with or without a foal; she was already the better choice in terms of points, but probably also easier to prepare for the inspection than Issy. Issy is always difficult to feed when she has a foal, and I could already see that she wouldn’t be in good feeding condition.

However, the jury had also expressed doubts about whether Press was actually pregnant or not. I had to confirm this now because I would then have to enter her either in the category for breeding mares or for non-pregnant mares.

I had the vet come over, and we did an ultrasound from the outside. Unfortunately, this confirmed the doubts, and we found out that she had lost her foal somewhere along the way. Probably very early on, since I never found anything.

February.

This month hasn’t been particularly exciting, but we’re slowly getting closer to the breeding season. Issy is getting a little thicker and we’re getting closer to her due date, which is March 11. Ilaysha will have her first ultrasound on February 17. That will help us estimate when she’ll come into heat. It should be in about a week. I’ll also have a swab test done on Impressive that day. This is a mandatory test because she doesn’t have a foal and isn’t a 3-year-old mare. We also do an ultrasound and discover that she is already starting to come into heat. She has a 3.5 cm follicle.

March, April & May.

These three months are somewhat intertwined due to the breeding season and everything surrounding it. That’s why I’m covering it all here. The weather gradually improved in March, so we were able to resume training the horses. Ilaysha turned 3 this year, so it was time to train for her studbook registration and slowly start breaking her in. She turned out to be a wonderful horse to work with and cooperated perfectly. A bit, a lunging girth, a saddle—no problem at all!

Incredible and Impressive also had to get to work to get in shape for the world show. Incredible is a powerful mare, and she certainly shows it. She moves well and occasionally really picks up speed on the lunge line.

The breeding season starts on March 1. This year, I want to give Issy a break; this will be her 10th foal, and I think she’s earned it. So I’ve decided to breed Ilaysha and Impressive. For both of them, I’ve chosen the stallion Stratos. I’m also going to try to breed Jazz with Star—after all, that’s why I bought him.

Ilaysha.

On February 28, I notice that Ilaysha is in heat. It’s still a bit early in her cycle, so on March 2, I take her to Ebbs. She has four coverings, and I’m allowed to pick her up again on March 11. On March 27, she’s 18 days into her cycle, so we do an ultrasound. Unfortunately... she isn’t pregnant. But it’s not a disaster; she’s already in heat again and has a 4.4 cm follicle, so she can go back to Ebbs the next day.

This time she only has two attempts, and I’m able to pick her up again as early as April 1. On April 22, the vet comes by again. Ilaysha is now 21 days into her cycle and is scanned as pregnant!

Jola.

While Ilaysha is in Ebbs for the first time, Star’s first mare is arriving at my stable. Jola, Jazz’s mother, is in heat and will be bred by my stallion. She’ll be brought in on March 5. I decide to breed her every day; since it’s Star’s first time, a little routine won’t hurt. Jola is picked up again on March 13. After 18 days, she turns out to be pregnant.

Impressive.

After the ultrasound in February, I knew roughly when her heat would start in March. She went into heat on March 10, and on March 11 I took her to Ebbs. This year was going to be a bit nerve-wracking for Press. She had already miscarried her previous foal early on, and when I first bred her, it took four tries before she conceived. This year, the goal was to ensure she would stay pregnant. The fact that Press doesn’t get pregnant easily is likely largely due to the fact that she builds up a tremendous amount of stress and sometimes spontaneously stops being in heat when the stallion is present.

During this heat, she was covered twice. On March 16, I was able to pick her up again. On April 2, the ultrasound showed she was 17 days pregnant. On April 22, I did another ultrasound; by then she was 37 days along, but unfortunately not pregnant. She had miscarried again. We decided to give her an injection to bring her back into heat. On April 26, I took her back to Ebbs. I had made a plan with the vet: as soon as she returned from breeding, we would start her on Regumate. This is a hormonal medication used for mares that do not produce enough progesterone on their own. It supports early or high-risk pregnancies and helps prevent miscarriage. On May 19, Press was 19 days along, and thankfully, she was pregnant! Now we just had to wait until 30 days—or better yet, 7 weeks—to get through the high-risk period.

Jazz.

On April 26, Jazz finally starts showing signs of being in heat. After many attempts, the time has finally come. But unfortunately, things aren’t going so smoothly with Jazz either. While Star showed a lot of interest in Jola, he doesn’t seem very interested in Jazz. From April 27 to 28, I decide to put them together in the pasture so they can figure things out on their own. On the evening of April 28, I have Star jump in hand and then put them back together in the pasture. She’s in heat for quite a while, and eventually I have two “successful” jumps in hand. Whether it’s actually successful remains to be seen. In early May, she’s in heat again, so it turns out it wasn’t that successful. We’ll give it another try—this time three jumps in hand—and now we’ll just have to wait and see.

The Birth

Toward the end of March, the time finally came for Issy. On March 20, there were drops of milk on her udder. So that meant a night full of alarm clocks!

Around 12:30 a.m., Issy gave birth to a colt, sired by Wotan. So this year, for a change, a name starting with W. He was a beautiful, big colt with a broad blaze.

Normally, the placenta should have been expelled after about 2.5 to 3 hours. That wasn’t the case, so at 4:30 p.m. I decided it had gone on long enough and called the vet. He removed the placenta by hand and explained that it was still very firmly attached and would never have come out on its own. So I was glad I had called. Other than that, the mother and foal were doing well, so I was able to get a little more sleep!

Two days later, he was officially named WYLANO.

Studbook Registration.

The studbook registration was scheduled for April 5. So, after washing her and packing up, we headed to Ebbs. Ilaysha was ready; we had practiced well, she looked great, and she presented herself exceptionally well. Unfortunately, the judges were extremely strict today, and several mares received quite low scores. Ilaysha was no exception; we were awarded 7.36 points. I knew we wouldn’t become Elite, but I had still expected a bit more.

Fotoshoot.

I also had an intern these past few months. She had to complete an assignment for school, and as part of that assignment, we decided to take some nice photos of all my horses for the website. The results turned out beautifully—I’m so happy with these photos!

The young horses.

The training continued with Ilaysha. She picked everything up quickly, so I was soon able to move on to hanging and even sitting on her. Once that went well, I tried a few steps and a trot on the lunge line. She also did very well when moving freely in a circle.

After a few times, she froze and reared up on all four legs. This was a sign that we were moving a bit too fast, so she got a short break. After the break, we took a step back to then build up again slowly. We’re in no rush!

I had also resumed training Sevimli by then. I had already started training him last year, but realized it was too much for him, so I gave him a break over the winter. Now I could tell he was much more confident—or rather, steady on his feet—so I was able to really get back into it. He really enjoyed getting back to work, so I was soon able to ride him off-lead as well. Now I could slowly start looking for a new home for him again.

World Show.

The World Show will take place from May 28 to June 1. You can read more about it in the separate blog post about the World Show. Incredible and Impressive are ready to go! And my trailer has also been updated! Now we’re ready to make a great impression!

Love, Fabiënne