Ailbhe's home and Tempi's eye

Summer was delivered to her new home over the weekend which means that Ailbhe's buddy duties are no longer required so we went and collected him this morning. Bless his heart, he walked straight into the trailer without blinking an eye, traveled so quietly you would not even have thought he was on board and then offloaded sensibly when we got home. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE this little horse?!

As the weather has deteriorated somewhat over recent weeks, I have gone soft and rugged most of the horses and it would be wrong to leave Ailbhe out, right? Of course it would! So I popped a cover on him before putting him in his paddock. Last winter I think I had him in a 3'9" cover - this winter he's gone up to a 4'9! I only covered him last winter because he came home looking a bit compromised and run down after his  rather extensive travels (I generally don't cover foals/weanlings unless there is a good reason, like illness). I was expecting him to go into a 4'6" this winter but that was too small so he's wearing a 4'9"! He's 20 months old now and has grown an amazing amount in the last 12 months. I don't care - there is just more of him to love!

I wandered out this afternoon with Tempi's antibiotics dose (she is on Bromo TMPS for a lung infection - she was quite poorly earlier in the week but is already, thanks to my awesome friend and vet Louisa, much much better!) and took the camera with me to get some photos of him and his new/old paddock mates. I have him grazing with his mum Hooty and his sister/cousin (not as incestuous as it sounds!), Tempi. When I was taking photos of Tempi, Ailbhe was standing behind me with his chin on my shoulder, breathing down my neck. It was very cute (and rather warm). He's just such a smoochy wee man. Here are the resulting photos, including some of Tempi's eye (and her sporting her very first cover). Enjoy!

Ailbhe looking a lot like his Dad

 But just a bit bigger, now filling out a 4'9" cover

 Another of Ailbhe looking like his Dad

Sweet, soft Ailbhe 

 Ailbhe's vertical double whorls

 Tempi's horizontal double whorls

 Tempi modelling her first cover

Hooty standing over 'her' baby

 Tempi's eye 110 days post injury

Thanks for tuning in, until next time, Au Revoir :)

TF Temperance Brennan

Tempi was bred to sell but I think she has other ideas. Tempi is by Crossiebeg Brennan and out of Rei-Huia Bernadette. Bernie belongs to a friend who was kind and generous enough to lease her to me to breed her first foal. She had a short but impressive competition record before injury sent her to the broodmare paddock and then to me. Bernie was bred to Brennan and produced the most gorgeous and perfect chestnut filly last season.

When Tempi was a couple of months old she had a little whoopsie in the paddock which resulted in a rather nasty eye injury. I was terrified she was going to lose the eye as it really was quite a mess. I haven't blogged about this because, well lets face it, I haven't actually blogged a lot full stop recently so, today being a public holiday and a rare day off for me, I am taking the opportunity to get it out in the blogosphere.

Here's the photo diary. The first few photos were taken with the camera on my phone, hence the poor quality. As a testament to her temperament, Tempi was being medicated up to six times a day for many weeks and also had to wear a face mask with eye patch to keep her eye in the dark for a not insignificant period of time. Over this entire period she never once complained about her treatment, indeed we were able to go out and put in her eye drops without even needing to halter her. She just stood patiently and quietly and let us do it. Such a good baby. Problem now of course is that I have allowed myself to fall head over heels in love with her and thoughts of selling her in the future are rapidly heading south. 

 Day 1

 Day 2

 Day 3

 day 4

 Day 8

 Day 11

 day 12

 Day 14

 Day 19

 Day 31

 Day 32

 Day 56

And the healing continues (I should really get another photo as we are now 108 days from date of injury). By the time she is a year old, the cloudiness should be gone and, by the time she is an adult, there should be nothing but a tiny star shaped scar that will only be visible upon close examination. The best news is that her eyesight has not been compromised.

Yesterday we delivered Summer to her new home and she has settled beautifully with Enya and Ailbhe. We will be bringing Ailbhe home next week and I can't wait to have him back here with me. He's only been 10 km away and I have visited him lots but it's just not the same as having him here with me. I'm lucky Anita only has 3 acres as I don't think I would be getting him back if she had the room to keep all three of them! Ailbhe will winter with Tempi and Hooty - Dear Hooty gets her darling boy back and Tempi will have a big brother to play with.

Summer in her new home with new friends