A sad sad day yesterday with the beautiful shire mare Dimity Pearl passing just hours after of giving birth to her filly foal, Toora Cocking Pearl, (Amber), with tragic news received today advising Amber died her poor little body just couldn’t cope. I am still bursting into tears every time I think about this shocking news and my heart goes out to Terry and John who I can only imagine are immobilised with grief for their two beuatiful horses… more tears as I think of how hard this time is for them both.

Our Pearl is due in 3 weeks and with each harrowing story we hear, we are more fearful of how her 5th foaling will go. Pearl has birthed all previous foals without any problems that we know of, the last one (Rebel) was over in 5mins, so we wish and wish for the same effortless birth for this one but we will be prepared with the vet on standby and all possible aids and implements to hand should we need to assist.

Pearl nearly there

Our little world here at Deacons Gate Shires has thankfully only had minor happenings to report, Duchess has injured herself (I know I know …. again!….) she’s torn another patch on her neck… who knows on what and with this being a high movement area the vet wasn’t too keen to stitch but on inspection (it was raining of course) decided to give it a go and see how the stitches hold. Another round of needles of course comes with such things and exclusion from other horses to ensure no further injury but the site is healing beautifully, no swelling, no pulling, no infection or issues as far as I can tell. I am beginning to wonder if she does this to provide stories for our blog.

Duchess was however rather peeved that I have kept Rebel in his own paddock for the past week to ensure their playing doesn’t create more issues. Despite all the worry she causes us, amazingly she heals just as quickly as she damages herself and just a note… being pregnant hasn’t curbed her silliness in any way……

Yesterday I let all three out into the house yard to play and surprise surprise none of them were interested – there was just too much to eat, rain this past week has given us a flush of soft sweet grass to munch on.

We’ve finally finished off the stable by installing the polymer wall lining fabric, with the assistance from our handyman guru, Harold,. and the horses love having their access back and spend most of their days enjoying rolling in the cool sand and snoozing in the shade. We plan to use the stable to enclose Pearl for the birth but I suspect she’ll surprise us with an early delivery as she is so big waddling about. She has slowed down considerably this week only moving past a walk when she absolutely has to. Her itch hasn’t got any worse but the spots persist and she just dies to have the areas scratched to the point of dribbling… such a horrible condition and being so pregnant her body is under so much stress I can’t shift the bloody affliction .. I am hoping once the foal is born we can get the itch sorted and see if we can get her mane back as the hair shafts have broken and fallen out.
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Rebel too has a few itchy spots that persist on his ears poor luv and no amount of product seems to shift them.  All three are regularly coated with repellent and I bathe their spots daily… and wash weekly, hopefully the change in season will bring relief.  Duchess is seemingly immune to the affliction but we keep her in the routine none the less.

In our positions as committee members of the CHHFD an artist wishing to be involved with the Field Days has contacted.  His works are amazing and sold world wide.  They are very good, have a look and follow the link if interested further. http://www.kevnlee.com

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