Dungarron Highland Ponies

Our bucket baby is doing well. 

I'm not quite at a point where i can talk about our loss of Akira just yet. It was really, really hard.

He's ten weeks old now, these photos are of Budz at 8 weeks.

I always do our genetic colour testing through Paractical Horse Genetics in Sydney,

On Friday i got DG Journeyman's colour results back. Lucky i LOVE yellow duns, because that is exactly what he is.

Test results:

Agouti: A a (one copy bay factor, one copy non-bay)

Red/black: E e (one copy black, one copy red)

Champagne: n n (negative for champagne)

Dun/nd1: D n (positive for dun, one copy)

Pearl: n n (negative for pearl)

MCOA/silver: n n (negative for silver)

Cream: nn (negative for cream)

Unfrtunately Buddy missed out on his Dad's silver gene. Lucky he's a handsome devil anyway! I love him just the way he is.

On Tuesday 2nd February we welcomed Buddy to the Dungarron mob.

Out of Currie Park Akira (who is by Maverickdene. Our beautiful stallion CC MacAdie was also by Mav.) by Sue Jarman's beautiful imported stallion, Gillean of Liosmor (known as Silver)

Tail hairs will be sent off this week to determine his colour. He's a very 'brown' looking yellow dun with pangare and a lot of cream guard hairs in his mane and tail. I honestly don't know if he got the silver gene from his sire. These silver dilutes are new to all of us.

Either way, he's a gorgeous boy and we're glad to have him here.

Harry

3 October 2005 - 9 January 2021

Dam: Benacre Mill Buie

Sire: Barrymoor Dorian

As the result of a snakebite.

Best mate of Cloud, beloved cuddler and paddock ornament. Best swimmer and mud monster. 

Finally updated the links page and fixed broken links.

Added links to Australian Studs that have moved from web pages to Facebook pages.

New pony pictures coming soon!

Happy to say all of the registrations for the 2019 foal drop are now completed. Woohoo.

We've had some rain, winter coats are coming in thick and fast. You can feel winter coming. We're still feeding lots of hay, because although we look green it's mostly weeds and not-great grasses. The dams haven't filled, but there's water in the tanks and creeks.

Floyd looking more and more grown up.

Wish and Ruby

Sqwaaaark!!

Jiggi

Wish

Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a gorgeous Christmas with your family and friends. We certainly did. We had family out to the farm and despite the heat had a delicious outdoor lunch (thanks to some shade cloth and an industrial fan)

I missed the update for the start of December, but January's update couldn't be more different to November's photos. It's been hot, exceptionally hot, and we've had virtually no rain - i think there was 7 ml at the start of December and that's it. The farm has really suffered. Out of 8 dams at the front of the property only three have any water in, and those are drying up quickly. Muzz has devised emergency trough filling stratagies and we had an excavator come in and dig through the base of the Ten Mile Creek to find the underground water, so we effectively have a dam in the bed of the creek. 

On New Years day there was a lightening strike in the bush near Talmalmo from a dry storm that went through. The super heated northerly winds coming from central Australia saw temps climb to 46.6°C and wind gusts reag 49km/hr. That lightning strike became the huge Green Valley fire. A week later the fire is still burning both in NSW and Victoria. It's burnt over 180,000 hectares and just today has merged with both the Ournie and Dunn's Rd fires. I've documented our experience both on Facebook and Instagram (@dungarron) if you're interested to see.

We are not in any immediate danger, though we are are ready to exacuate if necessary and have a plan for both our cattle and the ponies. As a precaution we have moved all our important personal things out, but even though the western fire front is only 15km away, it is well in control at this stage. My husband is heavily involved in the RFS as a Group Officer and has been acting as a divisional commander since day one. If he tells me to organise to go, plans will be enacted and we'll be out of here. Because of the water situation we have no way to defend our home. Thanks drought. We'd really like you and fire to piss off now!

Anyway. Here's some pony photos. We've been smoked in for three days. Vision is down to about 100m. I couldn't see the mare mob on the creek, so i had to call them up for hay. The smoke is so thick and damaging i have been trying to do absolutely nothing to cause any kind of stress, so having them all come galloping wasn't ideal. But they did, and as always it's a beautiful sight. Despite having to squint through the smoke!

I went for a walk yesterday afternoon to see how the mares and foals were getting on. They're in a large paddock with varying terrain - well as varying as you can have when you live on the floor of a valley. We finally had some rain after six months of barely any.

The feed in the paddock is sparse but holding, and the mares and foals are doing really well on it (in fact the mares could all be mistaken as being in foal again! They're not!) The foals are growing beautifully. I really couldn't ask for more (Well, i could ask for more rain. Please. And lots of it. Please.) The creek is running again after scaring me last week by running dry except for two small pools on our southern boundary. Muzz dug a hole in the creek closer to home without finding any water in the sand under the creek bed. Even in the drought of  early 2000's we could dig and find water. I fear we will be in water trouble again sooner rather than later.

We've two more semis of rolls of pasture hay ordered, and i've got 200 small bales of grassy lucerne due to be delivered any day. God bless who ever invented the Bale Baron. A machine that neatly stacks and ties 21 smale bales into one good size, easy to handle with the tractor,large bale. Makes loading and unloading a truck and stacking in the shed a breeze. My back says thank you. We should be right for hay for a while.

Anyway, enough gas-bagging. Photos from yesterday. The light was fading and the sky started to look threatening again (we did get a shower with a further 2mm) Most everyone got a picture taken. 

I'll start with Ruby, Dungarron Roisin. Born very late July, she's the oldest and is now about 3 and a half months old. She's honestly one of the nicest ponies i've ever bred. I wish she's hurry up and lose her foal coat so everyone can see how beautiful she is. She has a huge beard that just won't shift that's hiding her gorgeous head. She's so friendly and easy to work with. She's going to make someone and amazing partner. She'll be available to a new home on weaning.

Next is Maggie. Dungarron McNeill. She's shedding out the most delicious golden colour. She's out of Rosedene (Steffiedene (Imp., Dec.) x Fyfedene (Imp., Dec.)) by my beautiful Croftcnoc MacAdie (Dec.) (Maverickdene (Imp) x Croftcnoc Butterscotch) I've had people comment on her blaze, which is technically a no-no in HIghland ponies, saying "Where on earth did THAT come from?" Well, look at those incredible, 75% recently imported bloodlines. You tell me where they might have come from. Maggie likes a bum scrath but isn't keen on much else yet. That's ok. She gets braver everytime we hang out. She's just over two and a half months old now. She's a keeper, and will be staying here at Dungarron.

Our third foal is Dungarron Caiseal, nicknamed Cash. As the only colt he gets to annoy everyone, mares and fillies alike, and get away with it. He's a paddock favourite. He's shedding out a gorgeous mouse dun, with a nearly black face-mask. I can't wait to see him when he slicks out. He has two small rear socks. Lucky he's a part-bred! These are another no-no in purebred Highland ponies. Cash is about six weeks old now. Cash will be available to a new home once he's gelded and weaned.

Finally, the little princess, Wish. Dungarron Earrach. Wish is exactly what i was looking for when i added a paint mare to the breeding program. Little did i know that whispering "red dun with bling, please." into River's ear was never going to work. But while i wasn't looking, her naughty son Tain was planning to give me just what i was asking for. Wish's Dam, Jiggi, is the biggest Highland mare we have, magnificently in proportion and very feminine. Wish takes after her Mum, and will also be a big girl, especially seeing she's just five weeks old. Wish currently looks like the cutest teddy bear ever, but as the weather warms up, they're all starting to rub their foal coats out. Unfortunately Wish has started with her face, and she looks a little like the Joker at the moment. Wish is a keeper, and will be staying here at Dungarron.

Just some photos of the mares and foals. They're getting so big so quickly.

I post a lot of photos on the Highland Ponies In Australia and Highland Ponies NSW Facebook pages. Even more on my personal page (Angela Cook) Feel free to send me a friend request if you want to see more pony photos (or email me, email addy can be found on most of the pages/ contact page on this website) I also post photos - more personal / farm / travel / food photos on Instagram as @dungarron.