All the King's Horses

08/18/2025

Corwynn is a great chore assistant. He loves the ponies and they love him!

In other news, Jenga is shedding out sooooo gorgeous 😍

08/17/2025

Uno enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon nap :)

Someone claim this snuggly boy!

08/15/2025

I always find it so refreshing to move home to our weaning/winter farm at the end of the summer. It's so peaceful and quiet and a great transition to the slower pace of our fall season after running like crazy through foaling, breeding, hay making , and farm care ever since March. There are definitely advantages to life at the breeding farm- vet access and being close to family top the list- but I also always appreciate the change at the end of the season. Hard to believe it's that time of year again already!

08/12/2025

Jenga showing off while we moved fields tonight :)

08/08/2025

Breeding season at AKH is finally wrapped up and to be honest it's been a rough one. I started the year with 15 mares to breed. Unfortunately, this photo represents 5 that are still open at the end of the season :(

The funny thing is, things started out really well with every single horse taking on the first try. Where things started to get sticky was at 30 and 45 day pregnancy checks, where I had four come up open! I managed to rebreed two of them but the other two did not get in foal again. Things can be challenging when they slip at that 30 to 45 day mark because some horses never even cycle again for the season. Others, like mine, cycled but did really wonky things. In addition to the losses, we had a few of our later girls who, for timing reasons, had only one or two shots at breeding and it was in the middle of some awful heat waves so those just were not very successful attempts.

We've brainstormed a multitude of possible causes for the bad year but nothing sticks out as a likely reason that we would have multiple losses or mares coming up open in the same season. We will continue to investigate over the winter but the reality is we have had amazing success the past several years and this may have just been our year to struggle. I've heard similar stories from others I've talked to and while you never wish ill on others, it's also helpful to know that we are not alone.

In the end, although 10 babies for 2026 is on the low end of what we want in a season I am just thankful for each of those pregnancies and hope that we can have a positive foaling experience and get each of those babies safely to weaning. In the meantime, we have done some testing on our open girls and we'll try to have them set up for best success early next season. Here's hoping next year is much more successful than this year!

08/06/2025

Another round of youngsters moved to the weaning farm! Somehow I missed snapping a photo of Jenga but these four are now getting acclimated and adjusted to life at the new farm before we start the weaning process towards the end of the month...

08/05/2025

Check out the most recent EBRA podcast about the value of Brabant crosses for a trail outfitter in Wyoming. Super cool use of the Brabant breed and insight into what makes them so special.

In honor of the EBRA's recently recorded 100th Appendix Brabant registration, CAB Ayia (AR0100), which is owned by Castagno Brabants, we thought we'd share t...

08/01/2025

Chestnut and Sequoia are our herd leaders and it's super fun to see their foals interacting. Uno and Domino are BFFs

07/29/2025

Full sisters Meliae (2023) and Maple (2025). The Ash x Magnolia pairing is one of my favorites!

Please excuse the horrible camera angle... It's hard to get these two standing together long enough to snap a photo since one or both always wants to come investigate what I'm up to ;)

07/26/2025

Matched team alert! I can't believe how similar Uno and trouble are turning out to be... Right down to a smidge of white on the back left coronet band! These half-brothers are sired by Kyro and will be big, strong, bay roan boys.

Trouble was under contract but sadly his new family had to back out for personal reasons, so now is the perfect time if someone wants to snag a team :) Or pick your favorite for a working horse or future herd sire. We are so excited to watch Kyro's first foals mature and see what is in store for these cuties.

07/26/2025

Ooohhh Yahtzee I love how you're maturing! She's finally lost most of her summer scruff and is really showing off her blue color now. Just a couple more weeks and we'll start the weaning process and her formal baby lessons.