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History of Epiphany Bay Farm 2009
December 2009
Snow
and Horse Care.
December 26, 2009: Starting in
the evening of December 18, as in most of the East
Coast, snow began falling. By the time the snow
stopped falling during the morning of December 20, the
snow on our farm had reached a depth of 20 inches, with
drifting up to four feet. The snow, if you don't
have to care for livestock, is beautiful. In
our case, eight of our twelve horses were indoors during
the storm, which meant increased work load in cleaning
stalls, feeding, watering, etc. The four
horses which live outdoors year round, handled the storm
quite well. They have a run-in shed, a new round
bale of hay, an automatic waterer and heavy winter
coats...all of which kept them in good stead.
Yesterday,
Christmas Day, it started raining in the afternoon and
by this morning much of the snow was gone.
Visiting, again, the total rainfall to date, we are now
at 4.95 inches for the month of December.
This does not count the 20 inches of snow!
Below, is a
photo I took at the Cleveland Bay Hunt, held in
November 2009. The photo is of Idlehour Yorktown,
who is the sire of our mare, BellaDonna Mahogany.
Rain,
Rain, Snow, Rain, Rain.
December 13, 2009: From August 1,
2009 through November 30, 2009 our area has had 13.32
inches of precipitation. From August 1, 2008
through November 30, 2008 our area had 4.99 inches of
precipitation. December 1, 2009 through today.
which has been hard rain all day, we have had 3.31
inches of precipitation and the month is not even half
over!!! December 2008 had 2.48 inches of
precipitation. Not counting December, we
have had 8.33 inches of precipitation more than the same
time last year!!! This equals MUD!!! and more
MUD!!! I haven't taken many pictures lately as our
camera lens has not yet arrived back from repairs and
the horses are.....you guessed it!....COVERED IN MUD!!!.
Below is a photo that was taken just the other day of
Hamilton laying on some dropped hay next to the Bale
Buddy with his
pasture mates nearby....in the MUD!!!!
Raining Cats and Dogs!
December 16, 2009:
Well, not really cats and dogs. Adding in
the rain we received on Sunday, we are at 3.95 inches of
rain, to date, for December. The weather forecast
is for sunny, yet cold, until Saturday, when the
forecast is for snow/rain.
On a different note, I saw the Sharp
Shinned Hawk again. It was flying over our fields.
Seems the hawk may be wintering here.
Uneventful Weaning and Sharp-Shin Hawk.
December 3, 2009:
Over the Thanksgiving Holiday we weaned all three
fillies. We had been weaning them over the past
month gradually increasing the amount of time they were
separated from their mothers. The first 24 hours
they were apart, there was the typical calling to each
other along with anxiety for everyone. Yet, the
mare which last year was incredibly upset by weaning,
was , relatively speaking, quite calm about the process
this year. She is the reason we decided to use the
gradual weaning process for this year. With such a
positive outcome and an uneventful weaning, we will
continue using the process with future foals.
Today, for the
first time, we saw a hawk which we had never seen around
here. This hawk flew into our pastures and sat
atop a fence post for quite some time, while we viewed
it through the binoculars. Unfortunately the long
lens for our camera has been sent out for repair, so I
could not obtain any photos. After an online
search, we identified the hawk as a Sharp-Shin Hawk.
This hawk is remarkably colorful with yellow legs,
rust (nearly orange) chest and a black and white banded
tail. This hawk winters in Virginia. We will
be curious to know whether we will see this hawk again.
With the camera
out of commission for a bit, the below photo is from our
archives: Horses and Hounds at the Cleveland Bay
Invitational Hunt 11/22/09 New Market - Middletown
Valley Hunt.
November 2009
CLEVELAND BAYS GALORE. November 25, 2009:
This past weekend, November 20-22, we attended the
Cleveland Bay Horse
Society of North America's Annual General Meeting (CBHSNA
AGM) held
in Leesburg, Virginia. On Friday afternoon, we
attended the Cleveland Bay Performance Demonstration and
Marketing Strategies presentation. Many lovely
purebred and partbred Cleveland Bays were brought and
ridden for evaluation by the panel of
distinguished horse professionals. There were over 60 people
in attendance for this presentation. On Saturday, the meeting portion of the weekend
was held, followed by
dinner and a silent auction fundraiser, all of which
were well attended.
On Sunday, the New
Market - Middletown Valley Hunt graciously held an
invitational Cleveland Bay Hunt. There were 18
Cleveland Bays participating in a hunt field of
approximately 60 horses and riders. Guests
from the United Kingdom, who were attending the CBHSNA AGM,
felt that this was the most Cleveland Bays they had ever
seen at a single hunt, not only in North America, but
also in the United Kingdom. The photos below are of the line
up of Cleveland Bays prior to the start of the hunt.
As they would not all fit into one photograph for me, I
took multiple photos in order to include everyone
present. Click on each photo to view a larger
image.
HEIRLOOM OLD-ROSES.
November 17, 2009: November
has been a particularly busy month, yet not with horse
related activities. I've primarily been busy with
the gardens of the farm, doing the fall labor of love
preparing them for the winter and creating some new
gardens. The perennials needed dividing and
placing into new garden beds. The most
significant change is the addition of Heirloom Old-Roses to the farm.
I've always loved fragrant roses, especially the kind
with the "traditional rose fragrance". A neighbor
has started a rose nursery specializing in Heirloom
Old-Roses. These are not the hybrids sold in
commercial nurseries, which most often are not fragrant.
I spent an entire afternoon wandering through her parent
rose plants and fell in love with the incredible scents,
wide array of colors and variety of rose types. I
started by purchasing two plants,
Souvenir
d'Un Ami originating in 1846 and Comtesse Riza du
Parc originating in 1876. These roses are
now bedded down for the winter in their new location.
They will be joined by more Heirloom Old-Roses in the
spring.
WEANING TIME. The fillies are growing, having reached four months of
age. We are trying a new weaning strategy this
year, which is working well to date. We began with
leading each mare and foal separately when taking them
in and out each day. Then in the evening, we began
leaving the fillies out in the pasture by themselves
until the mares have finished their evening feed.
Gradually, we increased the amount of time the fillies
were separated from their mothers. At first, there
was much whinnying and calling between mare and foal.
Within a day or two the amount of calling to each other
had decreased to almost nothing. Now, the fillies
are in a separate paddock during the day which is next
to the field with their mothers. They eat their
hay, play together and occasionally whinny for their
mothers. The mares walk by the paddock every few
hours to check on the fillies, otherwise they seem
unconcerned about being separated from their foals.
At night, the fillies are back in the stalls with their
mothers. We are aiming to completely wean the
fillies over the Thanksgiving holiday.
HEIRLOOM TOMATOES.
November 2, 2009: I find it unusual
that I am still picking tomatoes from the garden on the
first day of November. Each year I try a new vegetable
or a new variety of a vegetable in the garden. This
year I chose to plant Heirloom Tomatoes. The plants sat
outside in their little pots for weeks as I became busy
with preparing Epiphanybay Celebration and Epiphanybay
Hamilton for the upcoming show in Upperville; along with
waiting for the garden to dry out enough from spring
rains. The little tomato plants began turning yellow in
their little pots. In an effort to salvage a few
plants, I stuck them into several small garden areas
around the barns about the first of July. At least the
plants would be watered when I emptied the horse’s water
buckets!
Understandably, the plants were off to a slow start.
Generally speaking, tomato plants like hot weather, yet
this year our summer temperatures were quite mild.
Then, August into September became quite dry. The
tomato plants had just started setting a small amount of
fruit near the end of September and I resigned myself
that there would be no tomatoes from the garden this
year. In the past, my tomato plants had always stopped
producing by this time. October was a rainy, cool month
and I did not pay any attention to the tomato plants.
I just had not taken the time to pull them from the
ground. About two weeks ago, I noticed a glimpse of red
from under the abundant leaves of the tomato plants.
Upon closer inspection, I found not only one ripening
tomato, but an abundant array of large green tomatoes,
all beginning to ripen!
The flavor of
these tomatoes is a bit tangier than the hybridized
tomatoes, which I have always planted. They have a
heavy flesh, with a good tomato flavor. Now, I am
curious how well these Heirloom Tomatoes, will tolerate
a light frost which is sure to arrive within the next
few weeks. I will be planting Heirloom Tomatoes again
next year in the small gardens around the barns,
although hopefully a bit earlier in the year!
October 2009
CHICKENS AND RACING, BUT NOT CHICKEN RACING.
October 18, 2009:
On October 3rd, we attended the Virginia Fall Races in
Middleburg, Virginia. An absolutely gorgeous fall
day to watch the horses run and people watch.
Lavish tailgates abounded, tables set with silver,
crystal, stunning centerpieces along with abundant food
and spirits. Quite the social event for those
intimately involved with steeple chase racing.
Following the
races, we visited our good friends, Anna and Daniel
along with their daughters. Dinner was a
scrumptious Shepherd's Pie followed by a delectable
Skillet Apple Pie. We had been considering for
quite some time whether to add a few chickens to our
farm. Anna and Daniel graciously offered to give
us a few of their older chickens to give the chicken
addition to our farm a trial run. We left their
place with five hens to start our Chicken Retirement
Home.
The chickens
settled in fairly quickly. We allow them to roam
the farm during the day in hopes that they will help
with the degradation of the horse manure which is
deposited daily in localized sections of the pastures by
our horses. However, the chickens haven't figured
out that this is their main job. They prefer
instead to spend their time under the manure spreader or
behind the hay barn. We'll give this project some
more time. Meanwhile, the chickens have provided
us with a few eggs.
September 2009
BEAUTIFUL AUTUMN DAY
September 29, 2009:
The weather today has been absolutely perfect in every
way. In the low 70's with a soft breeze and lots
of sunshine. A few days ago, we received a much
needed rain. It is amazing to watch the pastures
turn green within a few hours of a good rain. The
horses were turned out in a rested field to graze on the
new growth of grass.
As I returned home from work, I
found Netami performing his new duty of watching over
the fillies. Two fillies were flat out on their
sides sleeping in the warm sun and the third was dozing
standing up. In the middle of all three stood
Netami, resting his hind leg, yet maintaining a watchful
eye. The three mothers were all off in a different
area of the pasture, apparently with no concern over the
whereabouts of their foals.
I believe that Netami, now 35
years old, is happy to have the responsibility of
watching over the foals. Over the years, when I
boarded him at farms with young horses, he would always
be concerned with what was happening to the youngsters.
In addition to being my faithful companion, he is a
valuable member of the herd. I am hopeful that his
health will remain good as we head into the winter
season.
September 27, 2009:
Please visit the
Cleveland Bay Horses Offered for Sale
page as this has been updated with the addition of one
of the 2009 fillies.
September 20, 2009: It seems
the month of September has just flown by. So much
so, that I did not realize as much time had passed since
I made updates to the website. Since the Warrenton
Horse Show, we have been busy with fall farm chores,
getting ready for the change in seasons with plans to
fertilize and over seed our pastures.
I've changed quite a few areas of the website, hoping
that the site will be more efficient to navigate.
September 7, 2009:
Yesterday, the Cleveland Bay classes were held at
the Warrenton Horse Show. The number of Cleveland
Bay horses present along with their owners and riders
was impressive. The photo at the top of the
page I took at the end of the Cleveland Bay Hunter Hack
class...quite a large group!
We took EB Celebration and EB
Hamilton as planned. With this being the
third time shown this year, they seemed to be settling
into the horse show environment.
During their class, Cleveland Bay Part-bred In Hand,
they stood still for the judge's inspection, along with
walking and trotting calmly down the line while they
were judged. EB Hamiltion placed 6th and EB
Celebration placed 7th. Quite a successful day for
all.
September 3, 2009:
The weather has felt like fall for the past several
days. Certainly a pleasant change from the heat
and dryness from just a few weeks ago. The horses
are enjoying the change spending more time grazing and
less time in the run-in sheds.
On Sunday, September 6, we will be taking EB Hamilton
and EB Celebration to the Cleveland Bay classes at the
Warrenton Horse Show. We are looking forward to
seeing our CB friends there. If anyone is
interested in seeing Cleveland Bays, consider
attending the show. The show will be held at the
Warrenton Horse Show grounds with the Cleveland classes
starting at 8:30 AM. For directions, go to the
Warrenton
Horse Show website.
September 1, 2009:
I have updated the Foals of 2009 page, along
with the pages for each filly.
August 2009
August 31, 2009: This evening
the three broodmares with their foals were turned out
into a larger field. Having my
camera at hand, I started taking pictures as they romped
and played. When I stopped, I had taken over 600
pictures of the mares and foals. I'll be posting
the best photos over the next several days. The
above photo is of OD Epona and EB Constance. The below
photo is of the three fillies.
August 30, 2009: Abigail and
Penny had their feet trimmed this week. Penny took
the foot trimming in stride. Abigail did great
with three feet being trimmed. When the farrier
reached for the fourth foot, Abigail was out of
patience. With some coaxing, she did have all four
feet trimmed.
August 25, 2009: Over the past
several days, we finally had enough rain to help the
pastures. It is amazing how one good, soaking rain
can green up the pastures within a matter of hours!
Constance had her feet trimmed on Saturday. She
did great! Standing still and letting her feet be
rasped, she seemed unconcerned about the entire process.
Her sisters will have their feet trimmed tomorrow.
Hopefully, they will be as relaxed as Constance was
about feet trimming.
August 21, 2009: The weather has
continued to be hot and dry. The rain is skipping
around our farm and we have yet to get any of the rain
showers which have been passing through.
Hopefully, today we will get some rain. Without
rain we will need to start feeding round bales quite
soon.
August 19, 2009: We have received
an excellent response to the article written about our
farm in The Free Lance Star, our local newspaper.
We have received numerous requests from people
interested in touring our farm. If you are
visiting our site after reading the article, Thank You.
If you have not read the article, please copy this link
into your browser to view the article:
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2009/082009/08172009/486646.
Thank you Laura Moyer and Robert Martin for an
excellent article.
August 5 to August 16, 2009:
Wow!! What a busy ten days. The fillies have been
growing by leaps and bounds. At the one month mark
for EB Constance and EB Abigail, each one has put on
nearly 100 pounds. EB Constance gained 136 pounds
to weigh in at 268 pounds. She grew 5 inches to
11.1 hands. Her bone measurement increased from
6.0 inches to 6.75 inches. The bone measurement is
taken around the cannon bone just below the knee.
Purebred Cleveland Bays are know for good bone
structure. This measurement is a guide related to
the amount of bone.
EB Abigail gained 98 pounds to weigh in at 218
pounds. She grew 4 inches to 11.1 hands. Her
bone measurement increased from 5.5 inches to 6.25
inches. EB Abigail is a Cleveland Bay/Thoroughbred
Sport Horse. Her bone measurement increased the
same amount as EB Constance's, which is an indication
that Cleveland Bays pass on their good bone structure.
On August 4, we were interviewed by a reporter from
The Free Lance Star, our local newspaper. On
August 12 the photographer from The Free Lance Star was
here for our photo shoot. The article will appear
in the Life Section of The Free Lance Star on Monday,
August 17, 2009. The article is about our farm,
Cleveland Bays and will include website information for
our farm, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of North
America and the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.
The website for the Cleveland Bay Horse Society in the
United Kingdom, which maintains the Stud Book for
Cleveland Bays, is www.clevelandbay.com.
August 10 and 11 were spent getting ready for and
attending the Cleveland Bay Hunter Show at the Howard
County Fair in Maryland.
Click here
for further information.
The past three days have been spent clearing the
weeds from the fence lines, putting conduit under the
remaining four gates to run electric wire under the
gates to complete the circuit for the electric fence.
Now, all of our fields have active electric fencing.
This allowed us to put the mares and fillies in a
pasture which has not been recently grazed. Our
weather has recently become dry, with a significant
decrease in the amount of available grazing. We
are hoping for rain, although, the weather forecast for
the next week is hot and dry.
August 4, 2009: Penny is 1 month
old today. I'll be measuring her growth (height,
weight, bone).
I measured Penny this afternoon and found that she
has gained 95 pounds since birth, now weighing 205
pounds. She grew 1 1/2 inches to stand at 10.2 1/2
hands and her bone increased by 1/2 inch to 6 1/2
inches. I'll be curious to find out how much the
other fillies will have grown when they reach their one
month mark.
August 3, 2009: Penny, with her
independent spirit, went on adventure this evening.
The mares and foals had been turned out into their
pasture, with the fillies frolicking about as usual.
The fillies have been trying out the "greener grass" on
the other side of the fence. Penny decided that
just putting her head through was not enough and
pushed her way through the fence into the next pasture.
Trotting about gleefully, grabbing mouthfuls of the
longer grass, Penny was not concerned that she was
alone. Her mom, Princess, who has become less
concerned about Penny's independent spirit, did not
notice at first that Penny was in another field.
Penny was less than thrilled when we led her back to her
pasture, while her Mom was now calling frantically for
her. Suffering only a small scrape on her leg,
Penny's feelings were hurt most by having her adventure
curtailed.
August 1, 2009: Our farm has had
quite a few visitors this week. Everyone came to
meet the new fillies, who greet their visitors with
curiosity expecting scratches of their itchy spots in
return.
Today, the three broodmares had their beauty
makeovers in anticipation of a visitor who will be here
next week. After a long pregnancy, ending in the
heat of summer, the three ladies deserve some special
attention!
July 2009
July 27, 2009: Yesterday, a group of
young horse enthusiasts and their parents from the
Spotsylvania County 4-H program visited our farm.
With the exception of one adult, none had ever seen a
purebred Cleveland Bay or a Cleveland Bay Sport Horse.
The three young fillies stole the show as everyone loves
foals. We shared with the group the history and
the future of the Cleveland Bay, along with the focus of
our breeding goals.
July 11, 2009: Announcing
the Arrival of Epiphanybay Constance!!
OldDominion Epona surprised us by foaling 10 days
early. Within a few hours she went from no visible
signs of foaling to being waxed up. She started
with contractions at 9:30 pm and her filly was delivered
at 9:50 pm. This filly is a full sister to
Epiphanybay Independence.
July 14, 2009: Announcing
the Arrival of Epiphanybay Abigail!!
Kisses, one of our TB mares, finally showed signs of
being ready to deliver after several weeks of gradual
changes. Kisses delivered her filly at 2:50 am
within a matter of 10 minutes.
JULY 4, 2009:
Announcing the arrival of
EpiphanybayIndependence!!!
Penny, as she will be known, was born at 6:30 am
today. She is our first purebred Cleveland Bay
born on our farm, as well as, being an embryo transfer
foal. Our TB mare, Princess, is her surrogate mom.
Both mare and foal are doing well. Penny is out of
our mare, OldDominion Epona and by Penrhyn Bayswater.
Below are pictures taken on July 4.
July 1, 2009: Sully has quickly
graduated from Mike's Boot Camp. Sully learns
quickly and then wants to make his own game with the new
task. We had out a hula-hoop, a large exercise
ball and a savvy stick with a plastic bag tied on the
end. Sully was not concerned in the least about
any of these items. He promptly put the plastic
bag in his mouth which had to be quickly retrieved.
Then he picked up the hula-hoop, shaking it up and down.
The hula hoop contains beads which make noise when
shaken. By coincidence, I suspect, he then dropped
the hula-hoop over the ball. It was comical to
watch him figure out how to move the ball to retrieve
the hula-hoop. Very smart boy!
June 2009
June 23, 2009: I have made some
changes to the website and am hopeful that the webpage
will load faster when viewed.
June 22, 2009: Today, EB Celebration, aka
"Sully" has started his rotation through Mike's Boot Camp.
He will learn to bond with people along with learning to go
through, over, and under obstacles. He will build upon
skills he already knows such as standing quietly on the
cross-ties. Below is a photo of Sully going through the
"blowing ribbon" curtain. Additional photos are of the
three very pregnant broodmares.
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