My First Holiday In Mozambique

Last Saturday, Cules, Jess and I left the farm for our  holiday in Mozambique. Jess and Tarien had already been there. Tarien chose to save her leave for December when she and her two friends are going to Kwa Zulu Natal. She came to stay on the farm to look after Minki for us. Jess wanted to see her cousin and niece from the Cape again and also celebrated her real 21st birthday on the beach with us.We all left with mixed feelings,I bawled my eyes out as I had to leave Minki behind and have never been away from her for such a long time,Cules found his sheep ewes started lambing season  in full swing with 15 new lambs just two days before leaving!  Jess was hartsore for having to leave the boyfriend behind with a hunting safari....Saturday night we stayed over in Baberton with my long time horsey friend,Jean Fick. Sunday morning the whole family left from Baberton through Swaziland to Mozambique. It was the first time ever I left South African soil and got to move through both Swaziland and Mozambique border posts in one day. Finally my passport has foreign stamps in it!

 

The friendly staff at the Swaziland border made a breeze of the paperwork..

The toilets had free supplies of condoms and Cules stuffed a handful in his Mom's purse without her knowing...until she fished in there for a tissue......

 

 

The moment when Gran pulled out a condom from her handbag.....

 

 

 The road up until this point in Mozambique was horrendous to say the least....

We were all VERY tired at this point....

 

Break of day in the land of rice fields,sand dunes,sea,coral reefs,coconut palms and the Portugese language...

 

 

The post office in Xai Xai.

It felt so strange to be greeted "Ola" by the natives...I thought I was in Portugal or Spain...it wasn't very long before we all caught up and "Ola'd" every one!

 

The bridge on our way to Xai Xai..

 

Rice fields..

 

 

Construction going on, on one of the bridges

 

It felt good to be a Senorita!!!

 

 

The coolest Ultra City eva!!

 

Negotiating the outskirts of Maputo was a jaw dropping event,nerve wrecking to say the least...this little car whizzed by us at neck breaking speed!

 

Yes folks,only a few years ago there was a war going on here! This poor beautiful old house looks like it was used for target practise...

We had a awesome time there with the family,I got to snorkel for the first time in my life and it was the most incredible feeling swimming along the reef with the most stunning array of fish!

Beach pics to follow next time when my sister-in-law have mailed me some...I never once took my camera with me to the beach...perhaps a blessing in disguise as my other sis-in-law,dropped hers in the ocean!

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Jessica's 21st Birthday Bash-In-The-Bush.

Jessica had her 21st birthday party this weekend,although her birthday is only in June,she decided to have it now as they will be away with hunting clients during that time.

 

We supplied a prime lamb for the barbecue and the youngsters immediately set to splitting it open and fastening it on to the roast.

 

Cules closely watched  the whole procedure....

Not that he needed to,these young farmers know how to barbecue a whole lamb..... 

The party was held on Jessica's boyfriend's Game Farm...

He owns a stunning piece of Africa....

Our view to the right...

 

Jess took me down to see the river immediately when we arrived....

Minki went down to investigate ahead of us...

The river is called the Selati river,the same one we went tubing down a while ago.

It is very shallow at this time of year with no crocs or hippos as it is only ankle deep mostly...

 

 

Wow Mummy!!!

Minki was so tired after spending the whole day down by the river!!

Our view to the left from our side of the river,the land across the river belongs to Jess' boyfriend's parents...

 

 

Jess calling her little sister away from the river as we were going back up to the party....

We decided to have a "girls only" down at the river for a while....

We ended up sitting IN the river for about 4 hours chatting endlessly!!

It was Jess' party after all so she could do anything she wanted!!!!

 

 

Jess said they had the steps specially dug for the party..,they got rather difficult to negotiate as the day got on...

Minki always listen when Jess speaks!!!

 

 

She ran and jumped a LOT that day!

The stage was all set for a fantabulous 21st birthday bash-in-the-bush!!

 

Jess's boyfriend Charl offering me some chips....

He had a twinkle in his eyes,so I politely refused......

You never know with these youngsters!!!

That's his Dad sitting in front of him and Jess to the right.

 

 

Everyone had a whale of a time with lots and lots of laughter all around.

 

Some of the girls started moving down to the river...

 

..and that's where we stayed until darkness made sitting in the river a little creepy!

Standing up,my beautiful Jess.

 

 

A friendly train driver honked and hooted a greeting to us and someone actually had the camera at the ready!!

 

 

The guys came down to the river every now and again and just stood there talking and watching us..it was like they knew no guys were allowed down by the river...even though no-one ever said such a thing!

 

 

Even Minki's new boyfriend stayed up with the guys!!!

There was a whole group of American Veterinary students visiting and by nightfall they got to make some stick breads for themselves.....

They were all from Texas,,,Austin or Dallas I think...

What a lovely bunch of youngsters!

 

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Equine Dentist Visit For Bo Jest.

Yesterday morning at 6 ticks sharp,the Equine Dentist arrived here to help 20 year old Bo Jest,my daughter's now retired show jumping pony. The pony had been losing a bit of weight and "quidding" quite a bit. I thought that he had sharp points on his molars or something,but he is "shelling" a lot. Something older horses apparently do, shedding the layers of enamel on his teeth. So,from now on his teff/lucern will be chopped too, over and above his concentrates being fed dampened..(sloshy...like slush puppy-ish) He was being amazingly polite to the Wayne(the dentist) when he put the gag on to open his mouth...I think he was under the impression that he was going to be fed a humongous burger with double fries and extra cheese...he looked a bit sheepish when everything was over and done with and people had stuck their hands in his mouth and felt around and he couldn't eat their hands...not the he didn't try...

 

 Wayne rasping the old man's teeth....

 

Wazzit..Where's my hamburger...??

 

 

Of course ...Cules just had to also put his arm up Bo Jest's mouth...!

Wayne will only be coming up in September again,so he just wanted to make sure everything feels OK in there.. Another thing,there was a faintly disturbing smell coming from Bo Jest's mouth,but Wayne concluded that it was food stuck in the pony's gums gone sour..he couldn't find any sign of an abscess anywhere. I will be keeping a close eye on him to make sure about that one..

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We Have Been Invaded By Welsh Aliens!!

Did anyone wonder why I have been so quiet lately?? Well,I sure hope some of you missed me a bit!! They have finally arrived,a whole truckfull of them...What???...you ask??  Remember last year I aquired my first two Welsh sec B mares and a young colt? Well, my plan was to build my stud up to ten of the best pure bred mares I could possibly find (afford), and seeing as these ponies don't come very cheap,I thought it would take me a couple of years sourcing them...BUT...I have been extremely blessed to have found myself  a couple of VERY valuable mares after spending way too much time and energy on the internet and telephone researching bloodlines etc. Then...last week Thursday,it was time...I decided to let a horse transporter bring all the ponies for us from Johannesburg. One breeder sent along a surprise for
 me..She will not be breeding pure bred sec B's anymore and told me about this superb young colt she didn't want to geld. He is by an imported stallion, Waxwing Talisman (Sec A) and a little on the small side. She knew I was more concerned with concentrating on my base stock of pure breds than breeding up to height ponies. In South Africa the height limit for Sec B's is 13.2hh.He is a registered Sec B and so I totally trusted her opinion of him and bought him sight unseen... He is picture perfect,the most magnificent pony I have ever laid eyes on!! He has a most animated trot that is too beautiful too describe.He has the "Look of Eagles" in his eyes and that special X Factor....the jaw drop thingy... He will be trained to harness and hopefully become a well known figure locally trotting his way through the orange orchards...


My heart skipped a whole lot of beats as the horse transporter opened up the ramp for us,and I saw this...Look at the joy on Cules' face!!

 

Well,hallo there...Vintage Vanilla Sky....

 

The Second most important mare I bought is by Pendock Foresight (imported from the UK) .

Sadly,he passed away at the age of 33 peacefully at his home in Kwa-Zulu-Natal last month.

R.I.P beautiful Pendock Foresight.

 

This is possibly the best part bred daughter he ever had. Rowan Yours Truly. She is a Part Bred as her Dam was a Thoroughbred.

She is a legend in the South African Showing world and has a list of winnings as long as my arm!

She forms a very,very important part in my plans for the future foundation of my Part bred programme...

 

 

Then,during my search for mares,I found Galway Emerald Pippet. The last remaining pure bred daughter In the world!!!..... (as far as we could establish) of another imported stallion called Rotherwood Pirate King,who is a direct son of the infamous Keston Royal Occasion,described as being the most influential stallion for the breed world wide!! Her dam was also a multichampion mare in England and exported to South Africa. After one phone call,she was mine! I plan to freeze embryos from this mare. Anyone want to buy some embryos??

 

Rotherwood Pirate King (UK Import)

 

Skellorn Aderyn Du (Imported from the UK)

Dam of Galway Emerald Pippit while she was still in England.

I also have four more pure bred mares to fetch in the Cape and then I have achieved my objective of about 10 pure bred mares,a few part breds and two stallions from totally different bloodlines. Most of my mares is by imported stock and out of proven champions and champions themselves,so lets hope this is the start of many good things to come!

Here's to Stonecroft Welsh Sec B stud !!

xxx

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Pinkie Has Fully Recovered!

Thank you everyone for your prayers and positive thoughts! Pinkie has fully recovered from the dreaded AHS. The swelling above her eyes has dropped totally,temps and colour normal,heave line gone. She is eating up again and actually played in her paddock yesterday...wish I had my camera on me! A lot of the times when horses get sick with AHS and their immune system is down,they also get biliary...I was very worried and check for signs all the time,but thankfully we escaped that one...

In the meantime.., I have employed a groom to help with the horses for the first time ever in my life. He is from Zimbabwe and worked with Polo horses there.. He is excellent! He knows his way around horses to say the least. He backs my young horses for me,trains and schools the youngsters and played a huge part in caring for Pinkie when she was sick..even getting up at night to check her temperature etc..Apart from the fact that he knows how to teach a horse to do flying changes correctly,his biggest virtue must be the fact that he is incredibly patient with the horses. He is the guy holding the horses in the picture. The other guy works for my daughters' boyfriend and spent 3 weeks here learning the basic aspects of horse mastership with our groom. He also learned to ride on old Bo Jest,Jessica's old CA showjumping pony. He is in retirement now but taught this would be groom the ropes with a twinkle in his eye and a cink in his tail...if you get my drift...

Another thing that makes me happy is the fact that we got the vegetable garden planted again as the worst of the hot weather is so to say over with...

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Valiant Princess Still Bravely Battling On.

Just a short note to say a big THANK YOU! to everybody for all your prayers out there. Pinkie's temp dropped to 39.1 oC this morning. Her eyes are still swollen and her appetite is slightly down, but she did squeel at me as I rubbed her stomach this morning..good job girl! I had the more hits on yesterdays post, than I ever had on any other post...lots of people Googling AHS at this time of year perhaps? Whatever the case I know a lot of prayers went out for her and I am so thankful. Today is day 6 of her battle..,hopefully she will get over this soon now. I am totally exhausted by all this worrying,lord knows how Pinkie must feel! We are not out of the woods yet by a long shot as anything can still happen,but I am being as positive as I can under these circumstances...

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African Horse Sickness

That dreaded disease hit us again for the first time in many years. 45 horses have died in the Gauteng area in a very short time. There is no cure for this disease. There is a vaccine available but it is not effective against all strains of this disease. My supreme champion Welsh Section B mare, Lemal Valiant Princess,first showed signs on Friday at lunchtime. The vet prescribed treatment including Lasix,Phynadene and pennicillen. She had a very high fever of 40-4.3 o C. Late yesterday afternoon het temp dropped to 38.3. This morning it plummeted to 36.8oC and a light sweating on the neck and she started to go cold... I put a blanket on her and now we have to wait it out. Throughout her ordeal thus far she didn't break out in a sweat until this morning. The tell tale swelling of the eyes have been present since the onset of the disease although her whole head and neck thankfully diddn't swell up yet. Her breathing is laboured today due to fluid on the lungs. Horses with AHS normally drown because of fluids in the lungs. Until this morning I was hoping she had only a light case of it...now I am scared for her...She has been fully vaccinated against the disease every year of her life by a vet and has it fully recorded on her passport,even so,lots of horses still die..I can only pray that she makes it now...

Whatever you do,do not let a horse with AHS go cold...This morning was the first time Princess showed signs of growing cold since the onset of the disease on Friday...

The tell tale swelling above the eyes.

To top off all of this,last week we had a terrible storm here,causing the electricity to go out for 14 hours and then the following day again for 12 hours while repaires were being done. In the total dark of night the python struck again...This time attacking both my whippet pups where they were sleeping in the outside laundry room. One got away with no damage the other got a chunk bitten out of its side..

Amazingly,After he got over the initial shock of the attack,Duke is none the worse for wear and running around,playing with his brother!

I hope this week will be better.

Calling on all my Blogger friends to send out prayers for Pinkie...

The End