The 2019 Foals – Content to Tie Up

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!

 


Frozen Appaloosa Semen

There are many reasons for storing your stallions semen but our main reason, to make sure if anything should happen to our Stallion DFR Patahas Redheart (God forbid), then his blood line will live on. We plan to take more than required to enable us to offer his frozen semen for sale within the UK and Europe, after all his GAP 5 pedigree and genetics – homozygous black (with a copy of cream), homozygous pattern and homozygous leopard pattern gene make him surely a desirable stallion prospect,  not exceeding his adorable personality.

Blu is already dummy trained and accepts the artificial vagina so all we needed to do is comply with the paper work involved.

We made contact with Stallion AI early last month to get the ball rolling, this establishment is familiar to us, not only from an educational point of view but also business. We experienced an exceptional service when Hevans EV Catorrius arrived there in 2016, we have his semen stored there and we’ve also enjoyed a few CPD events since 2016.

We arranged all the relevant appointments with our vets to comply with the EU Pre-Entry health tests, EIA, EVA, strangles, Flu and CEM. All test are negative and Blu’s holiday confirmed!

On arrival, Blu was professionally examined from ears to tail and instantly settled in his grand stable, we completed the paper work and said our good byes!

When the required amount of semen is stored, Blu will return home and again be subject to the Post-Collection Testing before we can confirm his semen will be for sale.

Blu at Stallion AI

           

 

Our 2019 Foals – Four Months Old…

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!

 

The Appaloosa and the CREAM Gene!!!

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…

 

 

 

 

The 2019 Appaloosa Foals – Three Months Old

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%

Don’t Forget About The Stallion…

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

A Day Showing At Royal Three Counties 2019

We adore agricultural shows, so much to see, so much to do and the prize money is very generous 🙂

Entries for these big shows close months before and as every horse owner knows, anything can happen, one day your horse looks amazing and the next day it looks like a completely different horse!

We entered Redheart Reality in the Main Registered class and Redheart Regent in the Part bred class, but it was the night before the show that Reality was the chosen one.

The Appaloosa Classes at Royal Three Counties are usually affiliated to BApS, the support has slowly declined and with the risk of losing the Appaloosa Classes all together someone did something about it…This year they opened the affiliation to REGISTERED APPALOOSAS (BApS and ApHC UK) & BRITISH SPOTTED PONIES, so we had a right mixture, which was rather a spectacle but a tough one for the Judge!

All the Redheart Appaloosa’s are registered with BApS & ApHC UK so, I get to choose if we go English style (plaited with bridle) or American style (braided with halter). Given the choice, especially at County level its always great to dress up different, we attract a lot of interest from the public and I believe it represents the true history our Appaloosas (it’s also easier and quicker to braid than plait) 🙂

With all the recent rain it was no surprise for a tractor to meet and greet us, credit due, the work force at the show did an exceptional job giving the conditions they were working in. We experienced a slight hick up with our entries, the computer experienced a glitch which messed up my entries but thankfully with the downloaded email confirmation on my phone it was easily rectified and we continued the day, we accept these things happen and is all taken as “A Day Showing”.

Reality was pretty shocked by the donkeys in the ring adjacent, he was pretty scared when a horse flipped over in the ring parallel to us and I struggled to run in the deep conditions but he won his young stock class, his performance was exceptional. This horse could trot around the ring on his own, stop and back up and line up on voice command, I’m sure of it!

 

The Championship, Redheart Reality put in another outstanding performance, placed as Reserve Champion to Desired Edition and Megan Share,  we have been Reserve to Desired Edition many times and we are proud to stand next to Megan and her beautiful horse.

All In A Day’s Showing…

 

The 2019 Foals Genetic Results…Surprise Gene!

When breeding Appaloosas, part of the registration is parentage DNA testing. It involves pulling mane or tail hairs (with roots) and sending to an Animal Genetics Lab, the certificate is then sent with the registration documents and the results clarified with the dam and sire’s DNA on the breed association database.

For our own satisfaction, we like to know “for a fact” what Appaloosa genetics our foals have inherited. We requested the combination panel of Leopard Complex, Pattern gene, Base Colour, Cream and we decided this year to check for Dun!!!

So here are the results…

Redheart Relentless

Homozygous black (EE aa) few spot (LP/LP) colt with one copy of the Pattern gene (PATN1/patn1).

Redheart Rookie

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).

Redheart Revelation

Homozygous black (EE aa) with one copy of the cream gene (CR/cr) making her a smokey black near leopard filly. Heterozygous Leopard Print (LP/lp) and heterozygous Pattern  (PATN1/patn1).

Redheart Reflection

Bay (EE Aa) with one copy of cream (CR/cr) making him a buckskin leopard. He’s heterozygous  Leopard Print (LP/lp) and homozygous pattern (PATN1/PATN1). Reflection is the reason we chose to test for the Dun gene, his phenotype is quite unique in my mind and as it is with Appaloosas, they always surprise you!  Very much curiosity but the results proved his dam Caricks Redheart carries the gene nd1, a gene found in Dun’s that can show primitive markings (nd1/nd2) not to be confused with the Dun gene that affects colour dilution.

Now that’s a surprise!