News 2008
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Articles
Orphan foals - Short article on my experience of rearing an orphan foal
June 2008
28th June Another manic week in which we have not stopped! However, I am pleased to say that several more mares have been
scanned in foal, the last of the mares have been covered and best of all Taraco Fiasco has come home! He is still very poorly and can barely walk but he is now well enough
to travel to my vets for more specialist tests. Thank you to everyone for all the ongoing messages, calls, emails and texts offering your support and kind thoughts about Fiasco.
I am far from giving up on the 'wonkey donkey' as he is affectionately known and have everything crossed that we can pull him through no matter how long it takes! After
unsuccessfully trying to get Heiland Esmerelda in foal for the past 3 months we have finally conceded defeat and she will be coming home on Monday. Thank you to Michelle and all
at Sorrelcourt Stud for looking after Esme and for trying so hard to persuade her to hold to Buddy, who knows maybe a miracle will happen and our last attempt will work!
This years foals are maturing into some beautiful ponies and cobs and I cannot believe how lucky I am. Three fillies have been retained (Taraco Karina, Taraco Echo and
Taraco Rosetta) with Taraco Fiorenza sold at just a few hours old to Amber in Holland. Regrettably the two welsh cob colts, Taraco Bendigo and Taraco Fireblade will be offered
for sale at weaning.
8th June After a rollercoaster ride of a Spring I am pleased to announce that the 'invalids' are both making a
good recovery at the moment. Taraco Fiasco is very slowly recovering from an unknown illness or injury and I hope he will be home this month.
My ongoing thanks to Justin for nursing him through this horrendous few months and to my vets for putting up with endless questions and debates
about his mysterious symptoms and condition whilst I try and manage things long distance! Keisha is also slowly recovering from her very rare and
unusual pelvic bleed and resultant haematomas. All of the mares have been covered by some absolutely fantastic stallions for next year so we are now
just awaiting scan days to see who has held for 2009. Most of the mares have only be served on one single occassion so it will be interesting to see
who holds! My biggest thanks go to all the stallion owners for letting me use their lovely boys - it is a real privilige to be able to use such world-class
stallions and I hope it pays off again with some lovely foals in 2009. This is the first year I have covered a homebred filly and it was after a great deal
of research that I asked Clare at Dycott Stud if they would consider taking Taraco Louisiana to their superb little section A driving stallion Teifi Frankie
Flanagan. This striking young stallion has already won the RWAS in harness and I am eagerly waiting to see if Lulu has held so fingers crossed!
May 2008 30th May I am absolutely thrilled, ecstatic, delighted and amazed to announce the safe arrival of Taraco Fireblade.
This lovely strong colt foal is by Supreme Champion Watling Welsh Magic (Thorneyside The Terminator x Watling Welsh Maid by Geraint Brynawelon) and out of
Danaway Fantasy. Bought at a few days old, his dam is now 8 years old and having had a stillborn foal in 2005 this is her first live foal. Her favourite hobby
is usually terrorising the other foals so it was with great trepidation that she was covered but once she overcame the shock of an intruder in her stable she
has surpassed herself as a mum. 19th May Yet more good and bad news....! My big native type coloured broodmare Keisha foaled a beautiful black and
white traditional type filly (Taraco Karina) first thing this morning - Taraco Karina is a lovely chunky lady with a great personality and is the 3rd stunning
coloured foal that Keisha has had for me. Unfortunately Keisha has suffered a very rare pelvic bleed and resultant inoperable haematoma so it is wait and see.
She is bright in herself and we are hoping that it continues to heal and not re-rupture. It is yet another 'one of those things' unaviodable, unpredictable and
untreatable. But hopefully we can get her through this. Her filly is fine and Keisha is a fantastic mum and probably very garteful for having a delightful,
gentle considerate filly nuzzling her not a bruiser of a colt head butting her! Photos on www.coloured-horses.co.uk. 7th May Well it seems bad things really do come
in threes - or is it fours? So far this year one of the mares needed major surgery on an old hock injury, Sally had a stillborn colt foal and just when we thought
things couldnt get even worse Fiasco went down with some strange neurological problem rendering him recumbent for the best part of a week and he is still very poorly
now and far from in the clear, the diagnosis not yet known - possibly a spinal injury but unfortunately we cannot yet travel him for his desperately needed x-rays and
scans. I think the general veterinary opinion is that the prognosis is not good but on the bright side he is standing at the moment and eating and drinking and bright
in himself. My thanks go to Justin for looking after him through this difficult time. Never before has Wales seemed so far away from Kent. So it has been a very difficult
and a very busy few weeks - in amongst the trips to Wales and countless calls to vets and specialists, Terackie Golden Beauty foaled on 29 April (chestnut colt called
Taraco Bendigo) and then Danaway Cherimarie had a lovely palomino filly on 6 May. Thank you to everyone for all the kind messages and support. April 2008 20th April Well it was an exhausting but fun weekend as Simon and I trekked off to Wales for the Lampeter Stallion Show. We went for a long overdue visit to my friends Jackie and Terry at the Terackie Stud which was great fun. Thank you to Jackie, Terry and their kids Ben and Lisa for their wonderful hospitality (the cakes were GORGEOUS thank you Lisa) and a great tour of the new pintabian horses. Lampeter was freezing cold and I think Fiasco objected to being in his Summer coat whilst the windchill took the temps plummeting to freezing and he wasn't too amused! It was our first trip to Lampeter so a great weekend out! COngrats to everyone on their various successes - Vervale Galileo was champion section A and Danaway cobs took the 2 and 3 year old colt classes.Now it is back to the 'real world' and Beauty and Cherimarie are both due fairly shortly..... Blanche Glisten has foaled a lovely colt for Centannials Stud in Holland so huge congrats to them on their new arrival. 15th April I am pleased to say that Cleo was very obliging and waxed up precisely 24 hours before she foaled at 6.30am this morning! Very civilised - only one sleepless night, a few worries (it was a very big filly) and I am pleased to say that she had a beautiful WPB black and white filly. Touch wood mum and baby are both doing well and I will upload some photos to the photo gallery shortly. 14th April It is all go here this week - Farchynys Cristal was due on 31 March and has finally started to inch her way towards foaling day. Having lost a foal in tragic circumstances already this year, I cannot help but start to fret about her and her foal but fingers crossed she will foal safely sometime this week. Fingers, legs and toes crossed! 13th April Well after such a horrendous week, as you can imagine I was feeling really flat and dispirited. However, I had a very unexpected surprise this weekend when out of the blue Fiasco's producer, Justin Walters, called me to say did I fancy a trip to Newbury as he was thinking he may take Taraco Fiasco to Southern Counties Spring Show for a run out! Chaos ensued at home to try and arrange everything at such short notice; alarm clock's were set and off we went! It was absolutely brilliant to see Fiasco who was looking fantastic and his usual chilled out self both on the box and in the ring. Well worth the chaos to get here and it was a great warm up to the season as well, with Fiasco winning his class and going on to stand reserve youngstock champion to a beautiful Drogeda filly shown by Mattie Attrell (jnr) - congratulations to her owner Rob Allen and to Mattie for showing her so well. Congratulations also to Jean Smith (Jebeth Stud) for winning the section D broodmare class and to Justin Walters for winning the section C filly class and section C championship. Not the quiet Sunday at home we had expected but a great day out never the less, so thank you to Justin for giving me a well needed distraction after a horrid week! Congratulations to everyone else for their successes today and apologies for not having the time to organise to catch up with you all. Please visit the photo gallery to see photos of Fiasco and the few other horses I managed to catch on camera! 9th April Pendam Sally foaled this morning but unfortunately, after such a long wait, it was a stillborn colt (the first and much awaited foal by Danaway Desert Storm) and despite intervention from myself and then the vet we were unable to save him. Thank you so much to everyone for the lovely texts and emails, and of course to my vet for coming straight out as soon as I called despite the fact I called the vet that wasn't meant to be on call this morning! Thanks to Jean (Jebeth Stud) for being on the end of the phone whilst I battled with the usual what ifs and whys. Doesn't matter how many foals you breed, or what the official statistics say, nothing makes you feel any better at a time like this. I know its just one of those things but I still feel lousy :o( 7th April OK - its official. I give up. I know absolutely nothing about breeding horses. Sally is now on day 7 of proper wax - all my 'textbooks' say this is a good indicator of foal within 24 hours. But ohhhhh nooooo not for Sally! As predicted by the weathermen (or should that be weatherpeople in these days of political correctness gone mad?!) Kent was covered by up to 8cm of snow this weekend so gave Sally the perfect excuse to hang on even longer! Taraco Rosetta wasn't too sure about the 'white stuff' but soon got used to it! 4th April Yawn.. yawn.. yawn.... Pendam Sally remains waxed up and ready to go but still no foal 4 days later! She was due on 19th March so is well and truly late (chestnut colt here we come!). I wasn't alone as both Larapinta Stud and Runshaw Stud had been waiting a while but both their mares have now foaled - so congrats to both Helen and Janice on their smart new arrivals (both chestnut colts). I SAID that only chestnut colts could be rude enough to keep us all waiting so long!!!!!!! Watch this space.... Chestnut colt here we come! Given that it was April Fool's Day when Sally first waxed up (usually a warning of imminent foal within 24 hours) I should have guessed it would be a longer than average wait! :o) March 2008 24th March 15th March As I am now (im)patiently waiting for my foals (and Glisten!!) to arrive I though that I would update the photo pages with some old but fun photos to fill the gaps until Spring is here and I can start to take some more photos. In the meantime I am enjoying the last few nights of sleep before the first foal watch nights cause the alarm clock to go off every 2 hours! Vervale Rara is now nearly fully bagged up and very close to foaling so l ooks like she will definitely beat Pendam Sally and Farchynys Cristal. Their due dates have Sally first, then Cleo and then Rara but my money is on Rara, then Sally, then Cleo... but who knows! They do like to keep us guessing! 14th March My lovely coloured filly Heiland Esmerelda has now gone to Sorrel Court Stud for the Spring where she will be covered by the lovely traditional stallion Tuckers Traveller's Gift. Thank you to Michelle for accepting her nomination to Buddy and for having her to stay! It has taken a long time to find the right stallion for Esme, herself a coloured national champion the only time she has been shown, and I am thrilled to have found such a perfect little stallion to cover her with! Ironically, having searched the length and breadth of the country for the right stallion, I then called her breeders to see what she thought of my choice, only to find that they had just bought a traditional filly foal by the same stallion to cross back to Esme's dad, Commanche Ace!! 10th March I am absolutely thrilled to announce a new arrival for 2008 - later on this year Blanche Glisten will be joining me from the Centannial Stud in Holland. This beautiful mare is by the renowned stallion Breachwood Marwyn (Supreme Champion RWAS 1989) and out of the fantastic producer Springbourne Gemma. A chance email to Jan Hazeleger saw a 5 year search for a mare of this calibre and breeding come to an end as I was able to persuade Jan to let Glisten return to England. Centannial Stud will be retaining her foal this year and then she will travel to England after her foal is weaned this Autumn. To say the next 6 months will go very slowly is an understatement but hopefully this year's foals will start arriving soon to distract me! Thank you so much to Jan for letting me buy her and to Simon for forgiving me for wanting to add another 'small grey pony' to my herd! February 2008 28th February Well I am now getting very excited and expecting the 'foal fairy' to arrive soon - the first foals due in March and early April are Vervale Rara, Pendam Sally and Farchynys Cristal and Rara is bagging up very rapidly at the moment! It's all go already on planning next year's foals and the first mares are off to stud soon with Paith Magical Rockset and my coloured filly Heiland Esmerelda leaving in the next two weeks to visit their future husbands. Dissappointingly Danaway Ribbon has not held again for this year but has been checked over by the vets and it seems it is just one of those things so we will be choosing her new husband shortly and hopefully she will approve of this one! On the plus side, Ringstead Charming Lass my foundation mare who has failed to hold to her last two coverings decided she clearly like Ringstead Major and it looks very likely that she has held to one covering from him so is hopefully due in July 2008. This will be a precious foal as Charm is now in her 21 so any foalies she has are even more special than usual. The very difficult decision to sell Craigdorne Celeste to reduce numbers (albeit slightly!) was made all the easier by her going to an absolutely smashing home - so congratulations to her new owners and good luck for a lovely foal this May. 26th February Well it is a big year for birthdays this year as well so ... February brings the first of the BIG birthdays .... so a massive happy 40th birthday to my friend Mark and thank you to Heidi for organising such a great birthday party. Here is hoping the next 40 years are as great as the first! 10th February Well its been a busy few weeks or so and some of the horses heading off for pastures new and some new arrivals. Taraco Kimba and Taraco Montana are now safely with their new owners Nuno and Julie in Cornwall and the yard is now very quiet without them. Congratulations to Nuno and Julie on getting these two fantastic cobs. I also finally plucked up the courage to send Taraco Fiasco all the way off to Wales to be shown again this year. Thank you to Justin for having him again and putting up with my daily calls. Watch this space for information on his show results this year - he had such a fantastic season as a yearling I cannot believe that a shaggy cob from Taraco will manage to repeat that success but I'm sure he will give it his best shot and I will just be thrilled to see him out (that is if my nerves stand it)! Lastly, but not least, Lapstone Paragon (the lovely Springbourne Boy Blue son) has joined me again at Taraco to cover Vervale Rara. Thank you to Shan for letting me borrow him again this year. 2 nominations will be available to this great little stallion. January 2008 29th January Well we've finally had a few days sunshine and the daffodils are coming through and the ponies are starting to shed their coats! Hopefully that means that they know something we don't and this wet horrible winter is on the way out and Spring is on the way. The first foal is due mid March and if I didn't know better I would say that the ladies look very in foal. 6th January 2 nominations available to section A stallion Ringstead Major. This smashing little stallion has everything you could ask and has been dubbed 'Prince Charming' by everyone that knows him! 3rd January Well another year rolls in.... 10 years since 1998 when I established Taraco Stud and I never thought that in 10 years I would have bred Royal of England winners and multiple champion children's ponies let alone to be expecting 10 foals 10 years later in 2008! However, the mares are all looking fantastic and look very in foal so I am optimistic that Pendam Sally, Danaway Fantasy, Danaway Ribbon, Danaway Cherimarie, Terackie Golden Beauty, Keisha, Farchynys Crystal, Craigdorne Celeste and Vervale Rara are all in foal, Ringstead Charming Lass is keeping us all guessing! I am now very excited about this year's foals which include some wonderful welsh cobs, ponies and coloureds! Pendam Sally Section D foal by Danaway Desert Storm due March 2008 STUD REDUCTION As I am hoping to retain a couple of this year's foals, a small selection of high quality coloureds, As and Ds may be for sale to exceptional homes this Spring/ Summer and may include broodmares, colts and fillies. Please watch the website for details and photos. List could include top quality coloured mare Keisha, 2 year old buckskin welsh cob colt (Taraco Fernando), cremello welsh section A broodmare covered by top chestnut stallion for an April 2009 foal plus others. Please email me at taracostud@hotmail.com if you would like to know more about these. Genuine enquiries only please - no timewasters, withheld numbers or window shoppers! The annual thank you to everyone who helped me get through 2007: to the behind the scenes team of vets, farriers, friends and family for all their help and support; to the Mitchell Family for being such superstars in keeping an eye on the
monsters; to Stephanie for letting me use Demetrius; to Shan for letting me borrow Paragon; Huw and Ann for leasing me Sally; Nobby for
covering Fantasy with Teddy; to Simon for traipsing round the lanes moving my shaggy monsters, for planting trees, moving hay and being the water king (!); to all the
ponies breeders for breeding such little superstars; to everyone that owns
a Taraco pony or cob – I hope they bring you as much pleasure as mine do
me; and to all the people who continually share their expertise,
knowledge, laughter and friendship. As usual the biggest thank you must go to all
my friends and family for putting up with me, and the constant excuses for
my muddy car, messy flat, scruffy clothes and inability to go away for
long! Wishing everyone the best for 2008! And of course thanks to my amazing mum for getting me into horses in the first place!!!
Paith Magical Rockset has been covered by the Danaway Flash Jack son, Danaway Desert Storm. Scanned in foal.
Pendam Sally has been covered by Supreme Champion and RWAS winner Danaway Flash Jack. Scanned in foal.
Terackie Golden Beauty has been covered by Supreme Champion Trevallion Valentino.
Danaway Cherimarie has been covered by Supreme Champion and RWAS winner Danaway Flash Jack.
Danaway Fantasy has been covered by Supreme Champion and RWAS winner Danaway Tango.
Danaway Ribbon has been covered by Supreme Champion and RWAS winner Gwynfaes Cullhwch.
Taraco Louisiana has been covered by RWAS driving winner Teifi Frankie Flanagan.
Vervale Rara has been covered by the prizewnning Springbourne Boy Blue son Lapstone Paragon.
Blanche Glisten has been covered by the sale topping stallion Frairs Superman.
Heiland Esmerelda has been covered by the top graded coloured traditional Tuckers Travellers Gift.
30th March Taraco Crossfire flies the flag for the Taraco welsh mountain ponies - at just four years old he went to his first big riding club show and won a large M&M in hand class, before going on to win the Overall In-hand Championship with owner Emma-Jane. Partnered by Emma-Jane's 5 year old son, Dylan, he then entered and won the LR class in style, before giving Dylan his first experience of 'handy pony' in which they came a very credible 5th out of 10! Congratulations to Emma-Jane, Meghan, Richard and Dylan on a(nother) great day out with Charlie. Taraco Crossfire was the first ever mountain pony bred here at Taraco Stud and is out of my foundation mare, Ringstead Charming lass and by Supreme Champion Larapinta Oystercatcher. Sold to Emma-Jane at weaning as a future family allrounder they could have fun with in hand and under saddle he has so far lived up to all their expectations and has now been shown by Emma-Jane, her partner Richard, daughter Meghan and now winning under saddle for son Dylan as well. Big congratulations to you all and thank you for always keeping in touch it is so lovely to know how he is doing! (Photo by kind permission of Paul Sands Photography) 
I am thrilled to say that after giving me 2 sleepless nights Vervale Rara foaled, 2 weeks early, at 8pm this evening. It is a beautiful chestnut (may go grey) filly, 4 long stockings and a pretty blaze. Unusually for me she was born indoors (my mares normally foal outside) so I was even more worried than normal (yes it IS possible!!!!) but given the snow, sleet and sub zero temperatures we didnt have much choice! Having checked her at 5pm I was pretty certain she was close so went back at 7.30pm for the next check, at which point Rara just looked round, sighed and lay down to give birth! Proud dad, Lapstone Paragon, would not stop neighing from the minute she arrived - how he knew I do not know but he certainly seemed to! Touch wood mum and baby doing fine and I am off to catch up on some much needed sleep and hope I don't dream about alarm clocks going off every 2-3 hours! "Baby Ra" has now been officially named Taraco Rosetta although she spends most of her life with her little tail stuck vertically in the air and is rapidly earning the nickname of 'bog brush' - lets hope that doesnt stick! Regularly updated photos on the photo gallery!
Vervale Rara Section A foal by Lapstone Paragon due April 2008
Craigdorne Celeste Section A foal by Ringstead Major due May 2008
Terackie Golden Beauty Section D foal by Yswain Demetrius due May 2008
Danaway Ribbon Section D foal by Yswain Demetrius due May 2008
Danaway Cherimarie Section D foal by Yswain Demetrius due June 2008
Danaway Fantasy Section D foal by Watling Welsh Magic due June 2008
Ringstead Charming Lass Section A foal by Ringstead Major due July 2008
Farchynys Cristal WPB coloured foal by Shorty due April 2008
Keisha Coloured foal by Shorty due May 2008
Taraco Stud, Canterbury, Kent
A small stud specialising in breeding for colour without compromising on quality