2013 Sept - Stud beginnings

September 2013 a whole new chapter started in my life with horses with the acquisition of the bulk of Impendulo Stud. Due to drought in the Eastern Cape, they were in very bad shape. Most either suckling or pregnant (unknown to me at that stage). I honestly thought I would probably lose a few just from the exertion of the 900km journey from Kirkwood to Piketberg.

I bought the herd on account of this mare and foal. Breivilo Sanna and Impendulo True Blue. This is how this is how they looked when they first arrived

This is Sanna and True Blue in November of that year. Sanna was a few weeks away from foaling down with spook.

I thought I would be buying a herd of mainly broodmares and a few youngsters, 13 in total, not an unmanageable amount. Well to my consternation they were almost all pregnant, wild as bats and if I knew how much work would need to go into them I would probably not have bought them.

Well God opened the door and I had the faith to walk through it. I prayed alot about buying the stud, mainly I prayed that He should close this door if it does not serve Him. Now I realise I was probably these horses' saviour from the slaughterhouse or worse, starvation. In turn they have brought me many hours of joy and personal development. They were my sanity when going through difficult times and they are the reason I strive to do the best by each horse when selecting their new owners.

So they were loaded in two batches... transported more than halfway across SA and they arrived in a lush green landscape. They quickly put on condition, but were heavy on the mineral licks. When they started looking less scragly, I noticed suspicous bulges and that October to November I was blessed with 5 foals. 13 turned into 18 pretty darn quickly!

Initially my main objective was just to get them in better condition. Ontop of the grazing, they were fed oathay twice a day and when the foals were born, lusern as well. Due to the starvation and sudden onset of good grazing and extra hay Miemie was born with contracted tendons. Luckily the foals born in November had no issues

Miemie Born with slightly contracted tendons

My second objective was to get them all at least halter trained. I spent hours making friends, just following the herd around, pretending to mosey around like them, grazing. Sonlig at least were haltertrained but very sceptical of people. Pastel was inquisitive, but not overly trusting either. The foals were all pretty much easy to convince I'm not the devil, except for TrueBlue (aka Tubby).

They were so skinny when they just arrived, and to top it we had a terrible cold snap that September.

Januarie2014. Healthy, fat and happy.