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The first baby of the year, born on 2nd May 2019, a little solid white girl – Ashtonelle Etcetera – aka Ettie/Etta, weighing in at 10 kg. Mum Charlotte as relaxed and competent as always.

Etta
Being inspected by the herd

Second to arrive, and provide a much needed play mate, is little Emoji. A few weeks premature he weighed in at 7 kg on his arrival in the early evening of the 15th May. As with all our black animals photography proves difficult but here he is just after birth, and then a few weeks later – putting on weight at an amazing rate.

Etta and Emoji – just ahead of their evening run.
Me and my shadow!


Phoebe finally became a mother on 3rd June – dear Phoebe who had a still birth last year. She produced the most adorable baby – named Lusi, short for Ashtonelle Elusive. Unfortunately, and with a heavy heart I’m devastated to report that Lusi died just 11 days later. She hadn’t been gaining weight and Phoebe didn’t appear to have much milk. Despite supplementing her feed with a bottle she just was too weak. I’m pleased to report that Phoebe has settled now – she was terribly stressed for a couple of days which really added to the terrible upset and grief for us all. We’ve been so lucky with really no problems at all with all our animals and cria that this really did hit us hard.

Lusi – sadly missed.

On a brighter note – Fourteen known to produce whoppers (and only boys) had her baby in the evening sun of the 10th June. A massive 10.2 kg he has been named EB – Ashtonelle Eebygum. A light light boy we are really looking forward to following his progress.

Welcome little (not so little) EB

A bit of a wait for our next cria – born 31st July 2019. Mind you, she was still a bit early but Harley gave birth to a bay black female late afternoon and as for last year she was fiercely protective. Little Ember weighed in at 7.2 kg and has been growing a pace since. She’s an inquisitive little girl – though she was quite shy until the arrival of another baby girl. On 6th August Saffron gave birth to a beautiful fawn girl, as yet she is unnamed. Together these two cria have been having so much fun already. Very excited to watch these two – Ember is full sister to our homebred grey champion, Ashtonelle Delaney while ‘unnamed’ is full sister to Ashtonelle Dandelion, light champion and judge’s choice at Armagh Show in 2019.

Ember at a few days old
Saffron’s baby girl

We were delaying naming Baby Saffron as we were hoping for babies from both Sorrel and Bridget – both who had been behaving as if pregnant. But it turns out they were just fat! No babies, boo! They will have to go on a diet for mating in 2020 and we’re so glad we invested in a Preg-tone ultrasound scanner to reduce such disappointments in the future. Anyway, baby Saffron is very very cheeky and she is now known as ‘Pinky’ – a play on her registered name “Ashtonelle Efficacious”. The connection is a famous song from the Seventies by The Scaffold!