Quality Draft and Draft-Cross Horses for Driving and Riding
Our Horses
Discover a bit about the horses that are part of our family.
Charlie
The star of the farm is our young Shire-cross stallion, Charlie. For information on him, please see his At Stud page.
2012 Colt
On the morning of March 27, 2012, our mare Isabelle delivered a colt out of our stallion Charlie. He is a big boy and looks a lot like Charlie with a bald face, four white socks and a flaxen tail. At one month old, he already measures 43 inches.
Here he is just a few hours old...
His first day outside...
Happiness is a nap in the sun...
Eliron Nietzsche
A recent addition to our farm is a 10 year old registered Arabian stallion named Nietzsche (say neet-shuh). He is of Polish/Egyptian breeding and stands 15.0hh.
Niet is a very handsome and athletic guy who we have now started driving. We expect to show him during 2012, and are breeding him to our Eliron Exquisite in spring 2012.
Nietzsche has lines from the famous Kossack Stud farm, Zuiderweg 21, 1461GB, of Zuidoostbeemster, Netherlands. On his grand dam's side is the Tersk Arabian Stud of Piatygorsk, Russia.
Examine his full bloodlines at All Breed Registry.
Nietzsche carries Arab Horse Registration 598692.
Lefty (2011 Colt)
Happy birthday to Lefty, who is now one year old!
Lefty measures 13.2 hands at his first birthday!
An exciting addition to our farm is our first foal to arrive out of our stallion Charlie. He arrived on April 11, 2011 at about 11pm in a 'textbook' delivery. He is maturing to be a dark bay with several white socks and an irregular blaze in the shape of a left-pointing arrow (from our perspective).
He is light on his feet and seems to have a great blend of Charlie's easy-going temperament and his mother's sweet personality. We are very excited to see him grow and mature. We are calling him "Lefty", with show name CWF Left of Center.
Lefty loves casual dining with Mom!
Lefty is looking like a fine young man:
Isabelle
Isabelle is our "schoolmaster" driving horse. She is a Clydesdale cross who stands 15.2 hands and weighs 1400 pounds. We refer to her as a "handy-sized" Clydesdale. She is 18 years old this spring (2012). She has been trained and shown in Dressage (under saddle), Combined Driving, and Pleasure Driving, including a lot of miles as wheeler of our Tandem Pair.. She is ridden quite often for pleasure on trails and has been known to safely take very green riders along with our gang!
Due to her outstanding temperament and friendliness, Isabelle was bred to our stallion Charlie in 2011 (see info on their 2012 foal above). Isabelle had one previous foal by an Irish Draught stallion. That get, Shamus, turned out to be an excellent fox hunter.
Isabelle was supposedly "retired" from showing in late 2009, until Tanya decided to drive her in a tandem hitch with Charlie in the spring of 2010. She's also been shown quite a bit recently by our driving student. It was a short retirement, sweetheart!
Sarah
Sarah is a very pretty 14 year old registered Arab mare who was rescued via the Pennsylvania SPCA in Philadelphia. Arriving in fairly poor condition in the spring of 2010, Sarah was rehabilitated at our farm. Despite past neglect, she is gentle and friendly with a very sweet disposition and loves her people.
Thanks to Scott's continued efforts rehabbing her feet, Sarah is now reasonably sound and comfortable for normal life.
Eliron Exquisite
Added to our farm in August 2011, Eliron Exquisite is a 17 year old Arab mare bred to 'classic' Arabian standards. She has foaled twice in the past. Despite a lack of much recent handling, she is generally quiet and well behaved and figures out what's expected of her quickly. She and Sarah seem happy to have 'light horse' company on the farm.
We acquired Quiz from a herd reduction at a long-time Arab breeder in New Jersey. Numerous other horses from the farm are looking for good homes soon; visit Arabian Rescue Mission if interested.
You may view full bloodlines for Quiz at All Breed Registry.
She has a beautiful floaty trot, so we'll be trying to post a video clip here soon.
We got Quizzit into proper weight and condition and then started her driving in late 2011.
Late in 2011, Quiz works up a sweat on a ride and drive. She now drives nicely on road or in field.
We are breeding Quiz to our stallion Eliron Nietzsche, spring 2012.
Matilda
Matilda is a diminutive mini donkey who become part of our farm in June 2010. She is estimated about 5 years old (spring 2012). When we acquired Matilda, she was neglected and very untrusting of people. Now she is in good physical condition, likes people, and has learned new skills and how to cope with scary situations. Originally we weren't sure we were going to keep her, but now that's she's been promoted to editor of our News page, she's not going anywhere unless she leaks our diplomatic cables to the media.
Standing a whopping 8.1 hands tall, Matilda is so small she wears a dog blanket when she is cold. Her big ears must provide room for extra smarts, because she learns very quickly. With a tiny cart and harness borrowed from Amish neighbors, she has learned the basics of driving.
In November 2010, Matilda got a fancy new betathane harness from Yonie's Harness Shop! Doesn't she look excited?
Matilda's small size does limit the distance she can be driven. We can't quite do our normal 8-10 miles with her. So we are thinking maybe an arena sport would suit her better, like show jumping...
If that doesn't work out, we could give her a bath and send her off to the circus...
But more likely, we will just feed her carrots and give her hugs and belly rubs!
Raga Muffin
Congratulations to Muffin!
As of April 12, it appears Muffin is going to be a mother this spring!
Muffin is a handsome Spotted Ass that came to live with us at the start of 2012. She is learning to be more friendly with people and will be trained to drive.
Muffin is a standard size donkey (47 inches) and our dentist estimates spring 2012 is her third year growing her ears.
Our friend Paul first saw the flashy equid last fall in a field near his mother's in western Pennsylvania, and thought "that is a handsome donkey!". He even took a picture with his phone and showed it to Mom. The donkey showed up for sale on the internet and now she's here with us... Donkey Karma!
So why Raga Muffin? A term from East Indian music, raga literally means 'color' or 'hue', but also means 'beauty' and 'melody'. She while Muffin arrived a bit dirty and disreputable as a ragamuffin, we mean for her to be beautiful, melodic, colorful Raga Muffin!
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