Education should be fun for foals and what ever we do is slow, repetitive and rewarding. The foals are now learning about pressure with ropes and they’re responding well.
Relentless is the eldest, so he’s the more advanced foal at 5 months old he’s learning to move his hind quarters away from the pressure applied with the rope, quick learner and a well deserved scratch was the reward.
Every day is a school day here at the stud, not only for the foals but me too.. Reading a horse is a gift and I try to read the outcome of a situation before it happens!
Teaching a foal to tie up takes time, we aim for stress free lessons with a positive result.
Here are our four foals at just over 16 weeks old, all happy and content being tied up!
Have a look just how chilled these foals are, videos on our Face Book Page.
These pictures are before we turned the mares and foals back to their paddock, but what was waiting outside was two air balloons, I don’t think the foals would have tied up after this event, great pictures with the sunset, they soon settled but they were all quite frightened by the noise of the burners!
Our 2019 foals by DRF Patahas Redheart have all now reached the milestone of 4 months, their characters are shinning through and they are developing very nicely.
Only by photographs do you appreciate and realise how far we have come in just 16 weeks!
We continue quietly and slowly with their education, using ropes around them, teaching them to lead, tie and stand.
We never leave head collars on without supervision, after our evening lessons (approximately 5 minutes each), we’ve left their head collars on and regroup for a lesson in standing still together, they completed the task which was quite entertaining, here’s a photo but videos are available on the Face Book page, quite sweet!
Whilst the foals are still black and white, here’s some pictures before the change begins on Revelation!
When it comes to Appaloosas and you have a Stallion that can pass his cream gene on to his off spring, we do not take for granted what we see before us, we have to test.
The cream when inherited does not show on black, it’s quite obvious on a new-born bay’s as it turns the red pigment into a golden colour, evidently known as buckskin.
Our two bay foals Rookie (left) and Reflection (right) are both EE Aa and both have inherited the cream gene, making them buckskins.
Our two black and white foals Revelation (left) and Relentless (right), look black and white! You can not tell if they have inherited the cream gene. They are both homozygous black (EE aa).
Only genetically testing has confirmed our filly Revelation has inherited the cream gene, our colt, Relentless has not inherited the cram gene.
Revelation’s black markings will eventually turn a beautiful blue/grey colour whilst Relentless will stay with that sharp black and white appearance.
Sometimes black and white is not always black and white…
15th July
Redheart Relentless – 3 months old today!
Homozygous black (EE aa) few spot (LP/LP) colt with one copy of the Pattern gene (PATN1/patn1).
Peyres Catori Cat x DRF Patahas Redheart
Eligible ApHC – 97% FPD, BApS GRADE A, and ApHC UK – A Register, not eligible with FAHR @ 72.0704%
21st July
Redheart Rookie – 3 months old today!
Bay (EE Aa) with one copy of Cream (CR/cr) making her a Buckskin, she’s a few spot (LP/LP) with one copy of the Pattern gene (PATN1/patn1).
Princesse Pascale x DRF Patahas Redheart
Eligible ApHC 100% FPD & GAP 5, BApS – GRADE A, APHC UK – A – Register and FAHR – 83.5937%
26th July
Redheart Revelation – 3 months old today!
Homozygous black (EE aa) with one copy of the cream gene (CR/cr) making her a smoky black near leopard filly. Heterozygous Leopard Print (LP/lp) and heterozygous Pattern (PATN1/patn1).
Redheart Pascalius x DFR Patahas Redheart
Eligible ApHC 100% FPD & GAP 6, BApS – GRADE A, ApHC UK – A Register and FAHR 82.4951%
29th July
Redheart Reflection – 3 months old today!
Bay (EE Aa) with one copy of cream (CR/cr) making him a buckskin leopard. He’s heterozygous for Leopard Print (LP/lp) and homozygous pattern (PATN1/PATN1) with one copy of nd1 for primitive markings.
Caricks Redheart x DFR Patahas Redheart
Eligible ApHC – 100% FPD, BApS – GRADE A and ApHC UK – A Register, not eligible with FAHR @ 67.8711%
The Boys play…
Relentless & Reflection
The Girls talk about it…
Rookie & Revelation
Two months have past since we met our 2019 foals, they are all doing very well and their individual characters are beginning to shine.
Rookie
Revelation
Relentless
Reflection
We all know a foal inherits 50% of its genetic make up from the sire and the dam, we constantly post about the foals and occasionally about the mares, I suppose because the foals are funny, unique and very NEW!
But, let us not forget our stallion DFR Patahas Redheart.
We have come a long way with Blu, from Switzerland at 6 months old in fact 🙂
Since his arrival Blu has been so easy to do, he’s kind and gentle, he has the most affectionate personality and that’s just a tiny contribute to his qualities as a stallion. His genetic make up is perfect for breeding and his one copy of cream adds the 50/50 chance of his foals being Buckskin or Smoky Black, not to mention his performance record in the ring!
His 2018 foal Ru has already won her first Championship and his 2019 crop are just quality with the same high level of intelligence with that soppy affectionate trait.
Blu was broken to ride earlier this year, although he turned 4 in January he needed something to focus on after the long winter, he was ridden away and took every day of learning as expected, not a bother or care in the world. None the less that doesn’t mean we are heading off in the ring under saddle, we like to give our horses time and time is what he shall have.
Out by day and in at night Blu is very chilled and enjoying a year off, time to grow mentally and physically.
He’s slightly run up at the moment in my eyes probably due to all the mares recently coming into season, we anticipate this cycle to continue unfortunately, well until our new paddocks are available, its a constant working progress here at Redheart Appaloosa Stud.
We are not breeding with him this year, we are a small stud that breed quality not quantity and we certainly don’t want a herd of young stock while the supply and demand is very unbalanced!
We are not allowed in the orchard with the horses, only for photo shoots 🙂
DRF PATAHAS REDHEART Sunday 23rd June 2019
If you work with animals and children then you will know you have to go with the flow…
They have their own minds and don’t necessarily understand what you want from them, so you have to wait and wait and wait!
So we waited, all we wanted was one picture of all four foals together.
Within an hour (that’s amazing) we got not what we asked for but for what we hoped for, four foals in a line.
Boom… The Redheart 2019 foals, not only in a line but in age order! Priceless
I’m not a photographer, I don’t pretend to be a photographer but I do like to capture images of my horses that speak volumes to the equine world!
