Cria Season!

Well, Cria season is officially over and the girls are back hme to settle in for the upcoming winter, with babies at side.

Despite the dog attacks last fall, we only had two reabsorptions, resulting in seven babies in total on the ground. Athena was the first to drop, giving us a fantastic little fawn male out of our newest herdisre Nero-- and man, is Apollo a stunning little guy! He is an absolute doll to work with, with a fantastic personality and fibre to match-- he is going to be one to look out for in the rings, we are sure of it!

Next was Serenity and Flora, both decided to drop on the same day. First was Serenity, in the early morning gracing us with a blindingly bright beige female whom we have decided to call Virtue. Virtue will have been sired by our brown male Prudence, making her his first baby on the ground, and she too is a looker! Her fibre is very, very dense, and very, very soft, doing both her parents justice.

Flora went into labour soon after Virtue had started attempting to walk, although she unfortunately needed some assistance, as Remus had one foreleg bent, which needed repositioning before poor Flora could continue with the birth. Thankfully, both Mum and baby were fine and healthy, with Remus being a sturdy, quite large cria. He too is out of Nero, and is a rich fawn colour with soft, crimpy fleece more remniscent of the older-style that Flora has.

Paz was next to drop, having a pretty easy birth, considering she was a maiden. She gave us a handsome bay black male who would have been out of Triton-- Poseidon could have been a contender for the show circuit, as he was unbelievably dense and soft. However, he died about a month later after being killed by an intruder who had broken into the pen on an ATV. 

Asteria gave us a little white male whom we have called Cuzco. He has a very inquisitive personality and is full of energy-- despite the hiccup that was his birth (Not only was is pouring outside, but Asteria had confused Cuzco with Remus, and believed that Remus was her baby instead!) However with a little coaxing and some quality mother/son bonding time, his road had smoothed out considerably, and he is growing like a weed!

Tulip was the last to drop, giving us a dainty little brown girl we have named Akatiri. She is unbelievably soft, and very bright, with a very pretty, feminine phenotype. She should be gorgeous looking as she ages.

We had the good fortune of adding some new members to the herd as well, with the addition of three new females and their babies. We welcomed Angel, Armelia and Shahkell to the family this fall, with many thanks to Ernie and Denise Gamroth who were so kind as to give us the opportunity to get our hands on such lovely, quality coloured females! These girls all came with babies at side, all three of which are just stunning! Angel's daughter Angelica is a fawn girl out of Ernie and Denise's Rum Runner, who is already a proven male at producing award-winning offspring. Looking at Angelica, we see no reason why she too isn't going to be a spot-light stealer in the ring as well. Armelia brought with her a beautiful little Amber Tucker son, Chaz. Chaz is a friendly little bay-black boy who is nearly inseparable from his buddy Alto, who happens to be Shahkell's son. Alto is a gorgeous little appaloosa boy (with hints of grey everywhere!) out of BR Law & Order, another one of Ernie and Denise's absolutely fantastic herdsires.

We have seriously high hopes for this years cria crop-- it is amazing to see what our own animals are capable of pruducing, with this being the largest group breeding we have ever done. This gave us the opportunity to see just what our maidens could produce, and gave us a great opportunity to test out prospective herdsires as well.

Speaking of future herdsires, Asher was inducted into the breeding males "inner circle" this summer, with his first experience settling females all on his own. He was given his own girl who he managed to settle all by himself first try, so we are hoping that he was successful in his attempts. If he was, we can hopefully expect to see a baby out of Vi next year. While this was going on, Nero had Samantha and Saharah all to himself for several breedings, and Prudence was allowed to breed Hespera in hopes of producing another gorgeous baby next year.