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22nd
February.
Shuilie decided to foal two months early on one of thre worst nights
of the year but could not give birth as the foal was breech. She has has plenty
of TLC and is now back in with the herd and is o.k. Velvet produced a lovely foal
on the 13th February. She is Troy's first filly. Mum and babe are doing well.
August 2nd
Radiant produced a lovely filly foal in the last day of July. We have had her up at home for three months to make sure she does not go down with laminitis. She is so proud of her baby.
At the end of June we had to have our first colt foal put to sleep. He had swallowed a stone and it was lodged in his oesophagus. We tried all day to get it out and decided to put him to sleep before he came round from the anaesthetic. We left his body with Velvet over night and the next morning turned her out with her friends and she did not seem to be too upset.
A few more foals are due but not quite sure when.
April 16th.
3 fillies and 2 colts so far! Gambler was born last night. It was a very difficult birth but both Mum and baby are doing well.
March 12th .
Kare bagged up in three days and produced a black filly after a hard struggle. Both are doing well now. Velvet produced a lovely cheatnut colt on the 10th and he is the firstoff spring of Netherways Troy. I'm exhausted now after only two foals!!.
5th October 2006.
Whoops! Yet another filly foal born in September even though the dam was mated by Judge in May of this year!!
30th August 2006.
I have just finished foaling at long last. Have finished with three lovely fillies and have had no disasters.
5th July.
The foals seem slow to arrive this year. I am not too impressed with their colours but they are all healthy.
24th April.
After having three Welsh colt foals, my first shetland foal arrived last week. Yet another Colt! I must not grumble because they are all lovely and healthy.
4th January.
Velvet surprised us with an early colt foal on the 2nd January. He is a good strong lad who is so far doing well. All the other ponies are wintering well and the 2005 foals are settling into life without Mum.
News at Top Rock Stud in 2005
29th July.
Foaling has now finished so I can now enjoy some sleep!!
17th April 2005.
I have had three Welsh filly foals this year. Velvet produced her first foal in January and that is growing well. Nerine had a black filly foal that took a bit of getting going but she seems to be well on the way now, even though she still prefers her mother to humans!. Calamity had the most delightful bay foal who is so friendly. She is only three week old and already loves to be halter led. I think she has been on this earth before!
Yesterday was one of the saddest days of my life; I had to have Hays Hill Golden Emperor put to sleep. I have had him for thirteen years and he has been an absolute star in every way. I retired him from showing and driving in the year 2000. Since then he has run with a few mares and had a peaceful last few years although I had hoped he would have had far more years in retirement. I noticed last year when I walked him about mile on the road when I was taking him to a fresh field that he became very out of breath but never thought any more about it. He worked well with his mares last summer and all of them are in foal for this year. He has wintered out and has been ready waiting at the gate every morning for his food up till about ten days ago when he did not bother to come to the gate. I walked down the field with his food and thought that he would start to come up to meet me but he stayed still and waited till I reached him. I put his food on the ground and stood back and looked at him. He looked O.K. and he ate in his normal way. I popped back at midday to have a look at him and he had moved and seemed to be happily grazing. The next morning we went through the same procedure; I had to take food to him. I smiled to myself as I walked down the field because I thought that this pony was making a mug out of me. He knew I would take the food to him!! The following day was dreadful; it was so cold and wet all day and Empie had most of his winter coat out already. The following day I noticed that his breathing was very shallow and noisy and thought that he had a chill from that awful weather we had had. I dosed him with antibiotics and because he seemed very stiff I started him on Cortaflex. A few days on medication and he had not improved so I realised that things were far more serious than I had thought. The vet arrived and had nothing but bad news. Empie was suffering from COPD, and I would very probably soon find him dead in the field. He was given a massive dose of Ventipulin to help open up his airways so that he could get more oxygen through his system and I was to dose him twice a day with ventipulin crystals. The next day he seemed slightly improved and my hopes were raised that he might see the summer out. On Saturday morning 16th April Empie was lying down in the container in his field and I had a job to get him to stand. When he did get up he was very wobbly but still ate his corn. I left him in the container while I finished the rounds of looking at the other ponies. Before going home I went back to see him; he had finished his food but had not moved. I stood behind him and slowly urged him to go out side to graze. He continually shook his head and yawned and was not interested in grass. I went home for breakfast and returned to find him in a very distressed state so I rang the vet and asked her to come. I persuaded him to go into the trailer with his lady friend and I drove him home. The vet arrived; John led his lady friend out of the trailer and I held his head in my arms and cuddled him close to me while the vet did her work. I dropped to the floor with him and I held him close till the life had gone from him. My darling Empie was dead. 24.04.83-16.04.05.
October 2003
I have sold 140 ponies this year and I now feel that the stud is a manageable size. I have time to enjoy myself riding Danny, my Welsh Cob. I still have some lovely ponies left if anyone is interested.
19th June 2003
This
news update is more than overdue but so far this year has not been a good one.
We lost a Welsh mare a few hours after foaling and so have had a foal to rear
by hand which has been more than time consuming. Top Rock Violetta has been named
after her mother and she is now about two months old and has at last decided that
she can eat! She still enjoys her bottle in the day but has learnt to drink from
a bucket during the night. We have tried to wean her on to a mare who lost her
foal; the mare was willing to accept her but Violetta decided that her mother
has two legs, not four and that her milk comes out of the microwave! I love her
to bits but she trashes the kitchen in seconds!!
We have almost come to the end of foaling. If you want to see them click here.
18th July 2002
Nearly
at the end of foaling now: Two to go!!!!! I must apologise that the photos are
so out of date. I shall do my best to update them this next month.
29th April 2002
Foals are popping out now that the sun is shining and the total is now nine!
15th April 2002
Hooray!
My first live filly foal arrived on April 6th.
30th March 2002
I thought 2001 was a bad year but this one hasn't had a very good start either. I have had two mare with hyperlipaemia; both have lost their foals and unfortuately Brandon Stardust died. The other mare Kensons Vicky responded well to treatrment and is now doing well.
15th. October 2001
I
am proud to tell the world that two of my young stock, Top Rock Dainty and Top
Rock Daisy have gone to Jordan to live with one of the Princesses there. I hope
she enjoys them as much as I do.
Foaling is now coming to the end and I
am busy sorting the ponies into their winter quarters.
26 June 2001
There has been only one foal this week.
Our 30th foal arrived Saturd2th.jpg" width="133" height="100" align="left">I am proud to tell the world that two of my young stock, Top Rock Dainty and Top Rock Daisy have gone to Jordan to live with one of the Princesses there. I hope she enjoys them as much as I do.
Foaling is now coming to the end and I
am busy sorting the ponies into their winter quarters.
26 June 2001
There has been only one foal this week.
Our 30th foal arrived Saturday evening and we are now at 16 colt to 14 fillies!!
At
last the grass has started to grow after a good dose of Nitram. Here we have 3
ladies in waiting.
2nd May 2001
Up
to the end of April we have had seventeen foals, about half way through I think!
Black Leg is already thinking about next year on our behalf, at the age of 22
!!!
23 rd April 2001.
After a break of two months foaling recommenced on the 8th April with a vengeance! Photos will follow, I promise as soon as I have caught up with my sleep!
8th February 2001
Our
first foal arrived this evening. A good birth and a lovely foal who is very friendly.
Unfortunately he is unable to go out because the weather is so wet.
8th January 2001.
Happy New Year to everyone. How exciting to have snow last
week but oh dear what hard work it was.
A few foals, or should I call them yearlings now, have gone off to new homes and I am busy weaning the others.
I am also busy preparing this years foaling list as the first one is due very soon.
Eric and I have now got to get a move on and update the ponies to their right age group on this site. That is a very time consuming occupation!
1st December 2000.
I attended an annual N.C.P.A dinner last week and had a wonderful evening. My ponies won all the six shetland awards; the Champion and Reserve Champion Mountain and Moorland trophy; the best stud award and the best newcomer!.
8th November 2000
I was very pleased to welcome back into the fold last week Top Rock Bleep and Top Rock Mork; two colt I sold to a gentleman 20 years ago. Bleep has been gelded and Mork has a stallion license and I am looking forward to using him next year with a few miniature fillies. Both ponies are by Bogs Glen but Bleep is out of Top Rock Bumbalina. Both lads are settling in well but Mork is very agitated because he has caught site of some females! Both boys are well known in the local press in Liverpool. I hope to include some of the paper cuttings soon.
With
the show season over I find myself very busy with the foals. They are now all
coming home for handling and halter breaking and I am about half way through them
now.
My Coloured Catalogue is now available. Please email me your address, if you require one.
Foaling has now finished, thank goodness!! Also the show session is coming to an end. Just ready for the winter session to arrive, with the dark nights. It has been a good year with the arrival and the continued development of my web site - keep watching this space and please sign the guestbook.
I have had twenty seven foals so far this year. The ratio is 14 colts to 13 fillies.
All of Louis' foals were very late, so I think, last year it was his first time
running with the herd and I think he must have spent the first two months rounding
up his wives before he really started to work!.
I have two dun foals
this year, a colt and a filly. The foals are out of black mares by Emperor my
cream stallion. It has taken me a long time to breed that colour.
The
majority of ponies seem very slow at shedding their winter coats. It's not really
surprising though, because the weather has been so changeable.
Jen Derricott