I may not want to go into all the details on every blog post, so here’s potted life-histories and some pix for each of the creatures who live at Cairnorchies. Check back if someone new arrives in the blog and you want to know more!
Horses by Age:
Fleurr, aka Poppy
Poppy’s a rising-12 year old pure-bred Arab broodmare. She’s always been a broodmare so she’s good at foals, but she doesn’t know much else. I don’t plan on breeding any more foals from her so once she weans Dancer, her current foal, I’ll start introducing her to other things for a horse to do…. riding, driving, agility and so on. It’ll be an interesting scheme for both of us, to see how well she adapts and learns, in her own time and at her own pace, and given her relatively advanced age for the process of ‘starting’ as a ridden or driven horse! Poppy’s highly intelligent, very sweet and loving, but hasn’t experienced a lot of concentrated human attention, I suspect, since everyone tends to look past the quiet bay mare to the flashy cute foals! She’s always shyly delighted to have me pay attention to her rather than Dancer (Dancer, on the other hand, is always cross about it!)
Abe
Abe is the Wicked Uncle. He’s a pure-bred Arab gelding, born in 2012, and while he’s had a lot of handling and has attended a clicker training clinic and a show (where he placed second in his class, being beaten by an older and more experienced horse), he’s not yet backed. I’m waiting for his spine to be sufficiently calcified and hard to carry weight – but in the meantime we do agility together, he long-reins under saddle or in driving harness very competently, and he’s learning Spanish Walk at liberty and finding interesting ways to adapt it to new purposes…. like poking a human in the bum with his hoof for attention! Abe is mischievous, intelligent, loves attention and humans, and will pull anyone’s leg. Or tail.
Station House Sir George, aka George
George is my Troubled Teenager, he was foaled in 2016 and by 2019 was already a whopping almost-17 hands and heading rapidly over 800kg in weight. He’s a pure-bred Suffolk Punch gelding and will eventually mature about or just over a metric ton in weight, and I suspect about 17.2 hands. He’s picked up some objectionable habits in his life, namely his habit of biting people when he’s cross or scared, and he also suffers from the usual young-horse problems of impatience and pushiness as he explores his boundaries, but he’s the love of my life and such a handsome boy! When he’s interested and learning something new, he’s a dream to handle – brave, confident, sensible and loving. Then again, when he’s bored and hungry, he’s a nightmare!
Parlakis Flower Dancer, aka Dancer.
(Photo next to mum Poppy above)
Dancer was born in July 2018 and is Poppy’s youngest foal. She’s about 85% Arab, the rest being Sport Horse and Warmblood, and is palomino. She gained her name, Dancer, because she moves like a ballerina, all poise and lightness and grace! I suspect she may mature slightly bigger than Poppy, who’s around 15 hands, and I think she’ll be a bit chunkier in build, too. She’s cheeky, intelligent, quite scatty and nervous of new things (which is normal for a young foal still exploring the big bad world!) but loves attention and will happily let me handle her all over, pick up some of her hooves and put her headcollar on and off, and she leads very well after, next to or in front of her mum.
The Dogs:
Mistress Mischief, aka Wicket (the Wicked Whippet)
Wicket is a black and white whippet bitch aged 6 – on her father’s side she’s from the famous Mallyfield stud, sired by Mallyfield Dream Mover (Sagar to his friends) who’s both a superb working dog and a show winner. She’s very well bred on her mother’s side as well, with show and racing champions there. She knows she’s beautiful and has been adored her entire life (she knows that too) so she’s just a tiny bit conceited – but she’s friendly, fairly obedient, loves walks, camping and sleeping on furniture, and tries to bully her younger cousin Rocket in a mild way when she thinks I’m not looking. She has the fastest food-gobbling technique I’ve ever seen in a dog!
Royal Lady, aka (the Pocket) Rocket
Rocket is 6 months younger and a couple of kilos lighter than her elder cousin Wicket, and she’s the brains of the outfit. She can think rings round poor Wicket! She’s a blue brindle whippet bitch from Tonypandy in Wales, where her mother chases foxes and hares, and her father wins racing and showing classes.
The Rabbits:
Copper – one of the stud bucks, Copper is harlequin Standard Rex and 3 years old. He’s smaller and has a deeper colour than my other buck, Dexter. Copper is very tame and confiding, and currently lives with Nightshade
Dexter – my second stud buck, Dexter is also harlequin Standard Rex and one of my own breeding. He’s quite shy and quiet. I had sold him to a friend locally but bought him back when I had a disastrous disease outbreak in January 2018 that wiped out almost all my rabbits in just a few days. Dexter has now left the croft to be a pet bunny with a friend of mine.
Nightshade – a black Standard Rex doe, Nightshade came to me from a Facebook acquaintance in England and is show-bred. She’s very friendly and calm, and lives with Copper.
Tiger – Tiger was orphaned at just ten days old when her mother fell victim to an outbreak of disease in the rabbitry, and I had to attempt to hand-rear the litter. Tiger’s the only survivor, but is now a healthy adult harlequin Standard Rex doe, very confident around humans and quite pushy with other rabbits!
Dottie – Dottie Dimples is another harlequin Standard Rex doe, the second generation of my own breeding. Like Dexter, she was sold to a breeder at three months old but I bought her back in March 2018. Alas, she developed a respiratory infection in September 2019 and I had to put her down.
The Quail don’t have individual names.
The Geese: Hannibal and Lucy
Hannibal (on the left, with more white) and his mate Lucy (on the right with more grey!) are fairly young geese – Hannibal’s about 3 and Lucy’s just coming up on 2 years old, so they have (hopefully) many productive years mowing the lawn and honking at the horses ahead of them!
The Ferrets:
Bane – Bane’s my oldest ferret, I think (though I’m not sure how old Angus is). He came to me with his brother Joker (sadly now deceased) in 2017 from the SSPCA, where they’d been taken for rehoming after their original owner died. He’s a poley ferret, meaning he’s brown with a mask, black tail and feet, and he’s a beautifully cuddly, loving lad. He also suffered from hate at first sight since Angus arrived and attacks poor Angus at any opportunity.
Ajax and Achilles – the Golden Boys.
Ajax and Achilles were kits in 2017, they’re sandy ferrets, being a lovely golden-yellow shade with white faces and tan-coloured paws and tails. They live with Bane and form a business (group of ferrets) usually referred to as ‘the boys’.
Angus – another rehomed ferret, Angus came to me in 2017 as a bite-to-the-bone hard case.
He was found straying in Angus, picked up by someone and popped in a cage with two female ferrets who subsequently died, and fed on cat food and bread-and-milk (the worst thing you can feed a ferret as a long-term diet!) He was then rescued from there by a ferret breeder who got him onto a proper ferret diet (meat) and also de-flea’d, de-ticked, de-loused and de-mited him before looking for a forever home for him. After a few months with me he gradually re-learned trust in humans, stopped biting and has become, a year and more on, a cheerful, playful, sweet and loving little ferret. He’s albino and yes, he really was asleep hanging half out of his nest with his nose on the ground!
Holly and Ivy – the Wombles!
Holly and Ivy are 7/8ths Angora ferrets, both black sable, and the only way to tell which is which is that Ivy’s face mask has a little less white in it! They’re now in their second year and are a pair of delightful mischiefs (the albino they’re sleeping on here is a very snug and happy Angus!) They were born in 2017.
Cairnorchies Chronicles 