Dungarron Highland Ponies

Not a special day or anything, just one i happened to have my camera with me.

Brrr. Winter is well and truly here and it's brought rain and fog and frost and on occasion sun.

Yesterday started with fog and frost ...an almighty frost (infact it looked like it'd snowed in places.) Creeks and small dams were frozen and troughs all had to be broken into to get to the water within.

We're just starting to calve at the moment, so a quick cruise around the paddocks checking on the girls forund this red girl who seemed quite sure she was not going to put any new calf of hers down on any old icy paddock ...

but after a cup of tea, feeding the ponies, cleaning out yards and the round yard where the foals are confined at the moment (long story involving a nearly yearling colt and several apparently unchallenging barbed wire topped fences that stood in the way of a boy who just wanted to see his Mum before she headed back to Melbourne) and while i wasn't really taking any notice the sun came out and shone down beautifully.

I walked over to the creek paddock to check on the mob in there. All are looking terrific, and taking advantage of the warmth while it's around.

And from there i could see the red cow back up in the front paddock sitting down, so i thought i'd best shoot u there again just to make sure she was ok. She was

Well done red cow!

Not a lot of news. Work continues, some days are sunny, some cloudy. We have even been getting rain here and there. Dams are not full, but are in better shape that they have been at this time of year for a long time.

I've had pleurisy, again. No pneumonia this year though, so i suppose i should be thankful for that.

Most of the motorbike events that the club we are involved in, Holbrook Motorcycle Sports Club, that have been hosted locally have now been run, and we only have a bout half a dozen away events to go to / officiate at. Means we get a few weekends to ourselves, which then means we usually start building something. This time it is two new yards down next to the round yard. One wall of the yards will eventually be an end wall to my 'arena' area. Having yards near the round yard will be handy when working young ones.

Some pics of the foalies.

and a nice one of Millie who was in the paddock the week before the foals were allowed in there.

Two posts in a week. It must be cold outside! Well, there's been lots of frost, and this week fog. Love a good foggy morning (could do without fogs like the one a couple of weeks ago that stayed all day) Sunrise through the fog yesterday, turned the world gold for a while. Was worth being rugged up and outside for.

The small white dog has made himself at home and is a definate stayer.

He's really an enormous dog trapped in a smaller body.

You should hear the bark that comes out of him. A Newfie would quiver at the sound of it!

He's a sweet boy and we are thankful to have found him.

Here he  is visiting McLeod as we go and throw some hay out before i had to jump in the car

and drive to Avanel to meet Morgan and pick up some new music equiment 

that Connor bought on his visit to Melbourne.

Home at 4pm to see the fog creeping back over the hills from the river valley to the south.

Looked amazing. The day to day changes in our landscape will never cease to amaze me.

As much as i whinge. I truly love it here.

...and finally a special one from up on the Christie's hill when i dropped

Connor off for band paractise at 4.30pm

Oh yeah ... new pictures of Ghillie on the For Sale page.

Hairy ponies everywhere.

Shedding autumn's short hard coats, growing in winter's long protective outer coat over short, downy undercoat.

The babies are weaned and have been in the yards, but got put back out in the paddock before yesterday's icy winter blast. I very rarely rug anyone other than Gypsy, and certainly don't have any baby pony size rugs, so Ghillie and Kez were better off out where they could tuck themselves in behind a tree lot to stay out of the freezing southerly winds. The photo's above are a couple of weeks old now (were for the last update that got eaten) Dull, overcast wintery days have put photo taking into the background at the moment.

Flora's bump is looking promising. She was never scanned, so we are crossing fingers. What do you reckon?

This photo is from 23 May 2010

This one 2nd June

She's such a lovely mare. I'm so excited about the prospect of a Jag / Flora baby. VERY early baby for us. I usually wait until Late Sept. /October before considering babies on the ground, but we have contingency plans even if we do not have stables - just in case we get a proper cold and wet winter.

I did actually write a long and entertaining update today, including lots of pictures, but once i clicked 'publish' a combination of sucky server and even suckier Telstra internet, the line dropped out, the page timed out and everythig was eaten.

So, as dinner is almost ready, and i'm not feeling half as entertaining as i was this afternoon, i'll not re-do my post just yet BUT i will let you know about the 2010 Highland Pony Photo Show.

Have a look here  http://highlandphotoshow.webs.com/

The schedule and entry form are on the front page. Lots of classes including Highland, AHL, Novelty and even M & M.

International judges.

Prizes to 3r d place

Rosettes for Champion, Reserve and Supreme Champion.

Enty is $2 per photo.

Heaps of entries allready, have a look then go have a dig around in your photos and get entering!

Here we are at the end of April already. Talk about flown. Last week for the foalies to play together with their Mum's. This week is the big week. Weaning time. Both have grown beautifully and i'm really pleased with where they are at. The mares are at the stage where they need to concentrate on growing the foals inside them, and i'm pretty sure they are well and truly ready for Ghillie and Keziah to head onwards towards independence.

The AGM went well and as always it was great to get together with fellow Highland people for a chat. Lots was discussed, and no doubt the outcomes will be shared in the next Highland Hoofprints Newsletter. Become a Society member for $25 and get 4 copies of the newsletter annually. It's always a great read and a great way to keep in touch with fellow Highland Pony people. I'd like to encourage all people intersted in Highland's - whether you own a Higland or not - to join the Society and support your chosen pony breed.

How did that happen?

Poor ponies have been neglected a little time-wise in the past couple of weeks, but are coming along well. Hairy coats are growing in with amazing speed - just in time too considering how cold it is today. We've been out cutting firewood, and the boys will be splitting it up today.

They'll all have something new to test their mettle tomorrow afternoon. We've adopted a 12 mnth old Irish Wolfhound X  pup from Pet's Haven Animal Shelter down near Melbourne. He'll be coming home tomorrow. He's big and he's white and the i'm looking forward to seeing the ponies reactions. At the moment his name is Teddy. Unfortunately that's not doing it for me, so he may end up as Fionn i think.

Last weekend was yet another trip to Melbourne. This time to my lovely cousin Katelyn's wedding out at Coldstream. Got to Melbourne after lunch on Saturday and we all tumbled out at Tam's (Thank's Tam for putting up with us YET again. Love you!) Taking turns getting ready, alternating with sitting out on the deck trying to get some air. It was still and humid, and something was brewing over the city. We watched the clouds getting blacker and blacker, but it was 3pm and we had to head out to Coldstream, and as we backed out of the drive the scary looking clouds were driving in over the suburbs with terrifying speed.

The little black Alfa flew us out and around the foothills of the Dandenong's, we watched a solid wall of rain chase us while dodging tree limbs crashing over the road. A series of texts and a phone call from Amanda informed us that they would be late as the whole city had been closed because of torrential rain and hail ... little did we know just how big the storm really was! We got to the winery and parked where we thought the car would be most protected, and we watched as it all headed towards us. Poor Katie & Kyle, what a way to get married! But the ceremony was moved inside, but now with the very dramatic backdrop of storm clouds annd lightening over the Yarra Valley behind them. And it was a lovely ceremony, and gorgeous little Kate arrived on her Dad's arm wearing the most beautiful dress, with a stunning bouquet made by her step-mum Kez and all 18 months of little man Chase wearing a three piece suit and tie (and Kyle looked pretty schmick too) I don't think one person noticed the rain or the thunder and lightening.

Katelyn & Kyle Hadland.

Photo pinched from Aunty Tamaris because i didn't take my camera. Doh!

It wasn't a late night, but it was a thoroughly enjoyable one, and a rare chance to catch up with many people we don't get to see nearly enough.

Got home late, no major damage to Tam's house or garden, we all headed in for cups of tea (Nana's that we are) and bed. Up at 9, after listening to rain on the roof most of the night (such a lovely sound) Packed up, hugs all round, off to have breaky with Morgan before heading home to muster and sort cattle for sale. Parked near the cafe in Ivanhoe, Muzz points to car and says "Did you notice that?" "Notice what?" and then i wanted to cry a bit ... poor hi-lux ... dints every where. Orange-peel like dints all over the bonnet, all over the roof ... aaaawwwwnnooo.

"Hello, NRMA? I need to make a claim ...my car was in Melbourne on Saturday March 6th..."

By the time we hit Broadmedows it was sunshiney and humid and the air-con was on. By the time we headed down the big hill at Glenrowan, it was black to the north and obviously raining. Hmmm. Raining at Chiltern. Raining at Wodonga. Still black to the North, raining at home?? Pissing with rain! Yay .. not so fun for mustering cattle though. Made the decision to put it off til monday .. until on a quick look around we found the cow having trouble calving .. so we mustered, drafted and pulled a big, live, heifer calf - all in the pouring rain. And i was more than happy to come in a couple of hours later well and truly soaked to the skin!

Can you make that out? It says 72mm! add that to the 16mm tipped out on Friday,

which makes the best rain we've had for about 10 years!

The Ten Mile Creek - flowing.

Amazing (and i hope it keeps flowing too.)

This is the first time in all of Romi's 3 years that she's had an opportunity to wade through the creek!

You can not imaginge how much time i have spent smiling today. And there is not one new photo of the foals to be seen, because i was just having too nice a time looking at the green and the water. And i am grateful, so very grateful for the opportunity to just look and feel happy, because it's been a long time since i have been able to do that. Thank you Universe.

Hard at work ... sleeping;

McLeod (Cloud) on the left, Harris (Harry) on the right.

It's looking a bit dry ... again, but from Harry's appaloosa impression

you can see we did actually have a shower of rain pass over.