From the Hoof

 Last month I told you about my mare, Milly. Well just after I got married I decided to put Milly in foal.  I like to show jump and therefore chose a stallion who was a good jumper and had good bloodlines called Carnival Drum.  He was a Registered British Warmblood and had good bone too, by which I mean the circumference around his cannon bone. When he moved he floated across the ground. Most important he had a wonderful temperament and could jump. 

 I sent Milly off to Stud in Fair Oak, Hampshire (which is Southern England). Once scanned in foal she returned to the stables (barn) that I boarded her at to a relaxing life of a mum to be! I did compete her at one show but my mental state was not on the competition but Milly's foal and as it was her first, decided not to compete anymore in case she might miscarry. Horses are pregnant for 11 months and it was to be my first owned foal. I heard horror stories of how some horses had trouble foaling and owners had found foals hanging dead from mares, or they had been born stillborn and of course there are plenty that have successful foalings but the English being on the negative side tend to fill your head with these worries. 

 Not wanting anything like this to happen to Milly and her foal I returned her to stud to have her foal.  On 8th May 1996 a chestnut colt was born. I rushed up to the stud to see Milly's firstborn. He was lying down and was so small he looked like Bambi! He was beautiful and was very friendly and inquisitive. His name had to begin with the first letter of his sire's name. Therefore his name had to begin with C  -  I was going to name him Carnival Trumpet as his sire was Carnival Drum but my husband has a passion for red wine and some friends agreed he should be called Cabernet Shiraz and that is what we called him.

 I had always wanted a big bay horse and Milly stayed at stud to be put in foal again. This time to a bay Holstien Stallion called Carousel.

 When I bought Milly and Cabernet home from stud I was able to keep them in the field adjacent to our house. I had many visitors to see him and as you can guess some were just to see what he was like and able to give some snide comment. 

 Cabernet had no white on him and therefore was deemed a good horse for showing as the judges like horses without white. The barn where I had boarded Milly prior to her foal had a mare who'd just foaled a chestnut colt also but he had white socks and a blaze. As they were keen on showing and he was a good sized colt his white markings did not make them happy.  They had to come and see Cabernet and made comments about his size. I was not interested in showing and ignored them. Unfortunately these type of people make us lose confidence in our riding and our horses and that is why I choose to keep my horses at home without any interference. 

 Having a foal is precious, and just like children they grow up so fast. I have many wonderful years bringing up Cabernet. He was a two-years-old when he was flown over from England to the US. He was excellent to break and train which I did myself whilst bringing up my sons. He is Liver Chestnut and is now 10 years old and 16 hh. He's narrower than my other two horses and I have to feed him well as he is hard to keep his weight on.  I've been giving him weight builder, a supplement to increase his weight and have just started to add Guiness to his feed too. Guiness is high in calories and in the old days people put Guiness or Stout beer to increase a horses weight.