The weather has been cold recently and we have some bright sunny days which the animals have been enjoying. The ground has been frozen solid for days and we have started feeding the sheep hay but on the plus side the horses have been spotless when they come in at night and we don't have to scrape any mud off them. Here are some recent photos taken in the winter sun.

MORNING FOG BURNING OFF

CRYSTAL, JACK, TIM, PEARL, CORI and LOCKIE

THE SHEEP ENJOYING THEIR HAY

DOUGAL LOOKING FOR FOOD

PEARL SHOWING HER BUMP, DUE IN APRIL

Brackenbrae Lucent travelled south to her new home near Halifax on Friday. She travelled well and we passed her on to her new family who we hope will have lots of fun with her. We hope to meet them all again at The Great Yorkshire Show where they intend to show her this summer

Alison and I took advantage of the dry but cold weather today to hack out on Sky and Lizzie. We manage to get quite close to two separate herds of Roe deer, one of eleven and the other of seven. Its amazing how close you can get on a horse compared to on foot.

Skysail and Lizzie out stalking Roe deer

Brackenbrae Ultimate went out without his mother for the first time. He went for a long walk around the fields, down to the river, and up to the road to look at the traffic with his two big sisters and behaved very well, striding out ahead when he could. His mother Crystal took the separation quite well, she wasn't worried about him leaving the field until he disappeared from sight, then shouted for him for a bit, then grazed distractedly while keeping an eye out for him passing up and down the road. Uncle Jack, with far less excuse, made a ridiculous fuss, shouting all the time that they were away, while Uncle Lockie calmly made the most of the situation by quietly polishing off everybody's afternoon hay!

Cori, Tim and Lucent at the start of their walk

The wet weather has arrived and the fields are getting saturated. I suppose the weather has been exceptional for most of the year so in the words of Joe Walsh "I can't complain but sometimes I still do"

We took Brackenbrae Crystal, her foal Brackenbrae Ultimate (Tim) and A Kind of Magic out for a walk today to get the foal some more practise at being out and about. We thought we had a gap in the rain but it turned out not to be so.

CRYSTAL, TIM AND LIZZIE

The new chicks continue to thrive though it will be a while before they are big enough to be allowed out of the horse stall.

MOTHER AND CHICKS DOING WELL, 8 TUCKED IN THERE.

It has been a busy few weeks. On the way down to Yorkshire for the Cleveland Bay Horse Society AGM we stopped off to visit Warlord's owner and Skysail's second son Brackenbrae Somerled. Somerled has had a successful start to his career as a stallion and is looking well. On the Sunday after the AGM we called in to visit Skysail's fourth son Brackenbrae Ragnald, who has been in Yorkshire since July. He has settled in well and has a new stablemate Luca.

Rags and Luca

We also visited Springlea Saracen at his livery with an interesting flock of mixed sheep and goats

Sara and Saracen

Last weekend we took Crystal and Brackenbrae Ultimate to the Scottish Smallholders Festival at Forfar Mart. It was Tim's first time on the stand meeting the public and he seemed to enjoy himself, even leading his mum in the trot around the ring in the parade. We came home with more livestock than we brought, four young ducks to join the flock.

The new ducks immediately settled in with the others.

Autumn has arrived at Brackenbrae and with it lots of stubble fields for the horses to explore and lose a bit of their summer grass bellies. We have been riding out and exercising them and most are showing the benefit apart from Lockie who seems resistant to dieting and exercise but we will keep trying. Lizzie is getting fit and enjoys her days out trotting and even cantering about the area. Recently Coruscation came back to us and is settling in at home, we are letting her get used to us again and gently upping her training. We have been keeping a special eye on Warlord as he is showing signs of instability in his back legs, age related degeneration according to the vet. He is 24 but is still looking good and still enjoying himself.

Lizzie, Jack and Skysail

Lockie

Coruscation and Lucent

Sky "enjoying" being lunged

Brackenbrae Ultimate (Tim) going for his evening training trot

Warlord looking good but feeling his age