HORSES

Horses have been a big part of our lives for more than thirty years , beginning as a childhood passion.We have owned many types of horses including a few ponies along the way but the absolute fulfillment of our dreams was the breeding of our own foals, having hands on from the beginning caring for our mares watching for oestrus ,traveling to and from our veterinarian for ultrasound scans then whisking our mares off to the stallion and then back later to the vet for further scans to confirm pregnancy before the next eleven months waiting and caring in anticipation for the many sleepless nights to be with our mares during foaling.

What a rewarding life experience to help deliver our own foals invoking a flood of emotions in such a short time .. worry, fright , adoration ,exhilaration ,fulfillment - truly amazing ! so much power and beauty in such a small package.

As with many of our life adventures together we have pioneered a lot of things we thought were only in the remit of the extremely wealthy and privileged , however by "grasping the Nettle" and going all out to achieve what we wanted on a less grand scale we managed to import semen into Ireland from World Class Stallions and engage a specialist equine veterinarian to administer the Artificial Insemination ( A. I.) to produce quality Hanoverian and Trakehner foals.We also were first to use a new electronic foaling monitor on our mares in Northern Ireland .

We bred , broke , schooled and competed our own horses firstly showing our mares in hand, then our mares and their foals in hand following on into yearling show classes then two year olds and three year olds .Riding our own produced horses as four and five year olds gave us many months and years of anguish and joy before finding new competition homes in disciplines of dressage ,three day eventing and show jumping where they went on to have successful careers ......

e.mail khanthavmaltese@btinternet.com