Rocco makes history too!

The week before last witnessed the writing of another page in the History of the Horse.

The indomitable Yeats, an 8 year old stallion from Ballydoyle in Ireland, became the first horse ever , in 207 years, to win The Gold Cup at Royal Ascot for the 4th time. Despite going off at odds of 6-4, nobody - not even his trainer - really believed he would do it but he travelled comfortably through the race and, when asked for a little more effort 3 furlongs out, he opened up his stride and set sail for the winning post with almost contemptuous ease.

Everyone who witnessed it knew they had seen the stuff of dreams and history in the making.

Will any stallion ever better him? It is unlikely in our lifetime.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, our own equine superstar has been busy and making his little bit of history too! In his guise as AKA Madonna's Child, Rocco last weekend came first and second (for the first time ever) in the open class at a local dressage competition.

And he picked up a third rosette in the same class for being the Best Turned Out. Which just goes to prove that all the time spent polishing and plaiting the pony does pay off!

And to prove that he's not just a pretty face, we turned out for a long distance (c. 20 mile) Pleasure Ride on the Sunday and picked up a rosette for completing that too!

What a Star! The first two pictures show him enjoying a well earned rest in the shade with Ritz and Max.

The 'stable' birds also continue to be busy.

Max's brood of swallows have now left their nest above his water drinker and are perched on the beam alongside. Which is very nice..... except that they excrete so much guano that they have made it impossible for him to use his drinker and he has had to resort to a bucket of water until they leave 'home' in a few days' time!

The blackbird in the 'towerblock' nest in Rocco's stable has hatched her third brood this week too.

Usually it's possible to see a row of little beaks above the rim of the nest but this one is now so deep that their presence is manifested only by the noise they make as their parents flit in and out with food.

It will be a few more days before they plop out onto the floor to start learning to fly and then, again, we will have the problem of protecting them from over zealous retrievers until they are able to get off the ground! Oh, the stresses of country living........

All is revealed....

The Lincolnshire Curly Coat Breed Society was formed in 1906. By 1948 it had 71 members and 32 boars were registered. The Lincoln Show (which this years takes place today and tomorrow) of 1911 saw 123 Curly coats entered and Class 25 featured 5 entries for "three clean wash Lincoln Hog fleeces".

In 1957 there were just 12 Curly Coats at the show. The following year only 8 boars were registered and the Breed Society had just 20 members. The Lincoln Show discontinued classes in 1959, the Breed Society closed in 1960 and by 1972 the breed was extinct.

The answer to question 1 of the quiz is revealed above: the picture shows a pig's fleece. More precisely, it shows some of Samson's fleece collected by grooming him (with a standard wire dog brush!). He just loves it - as the picture here shows.... as soon as he feels the brush on his back he rolls over on his side like a puppy and doesn't move till minutes after the brushing stops!

Since Samson is still in the process of moulting, we don't yet know how much fleece we shall collect; however.... the answer to question 2 .. the quiz picture shows 3.7 oz which was the result of one day's grooming session. So far we have collected about 10 oz and, as the picture above shows, there is still a fair way to go. By comparison, Precious, in the foreground, has already completely moulted and is resplendent in her summer coat. Now she looks more like a wild boar, particularly with her bushy mane. The wool will begin to grow over the coming months and by the end of November she will have a full curly coat again.

This is the first year that we have made an effort to collect the pigs' wool having just let it 'fall out' in the past. What's changed? Well, that takes us back to 1911. Then, the fleece from the pigs had a value on its own and would have been woven into textiles to be made into winter waistcoats and jackets. 10 oz - or even 30 - probably wouldn't make a waistcoat for anything bigger than a garden gnome. HOWEVER, there is a market today for fishing flies. And pig's wool is used (along with, for instance, badger hair and feathers) to make, inter alia, a 'mayfly'. This we know from a UTube video showing a pair of man's hands making said 'mayfly'. And this we know courtesy of a customer in America who enquired after, and is now buying, our pigs' fleece for that very purpose! Courtesy of Samson and Precious we have fulfilled our very first export order!!! Delila, being red, is a little slower getting into her moult...(as you can see in the second picture); her wool is also a good deal more coarse than that of the Blonde pigs.

Thus, the answer to the third question. The value. This is somewhat sentimental and, hence, inestimable. The original Lincolnshire Curly Coat pig went from Boom to Bust in just over 60 years; it has been extinct for almost half that length of time. Now, however, the Mangalitza Curly Coat is gradually gaining in popularity and here in Lincolnshire we currently have 4 breeders. RectoryReserve is producing an ever broadening range of products - from just sausages, pate and pies a year ago to almost 'everything but the squeak' today. Finding a market for fleece is the icing on the cake! The Big Boss has always said that without saleable products, the future of the Curly Coat could not be secured. And we would like to think that these pigs will be around for a great deal longer than the next 60 years.

So the value, to us, of the fleece is that it provides another platform on which to build a future for these amazing creatures.

Fishing flies today: gold plated trotters for stalking sticks tomorrow? Who knows?

A little quiz...

Three little questions:

1 What is this?

2 What does it weigh?

3 What is it worth?

The first correct answer to arrive will win a special prize.

And the answers, together with the full story, will be revealed next time!

Mix 'n Match

"Hey - what's the little guy doing" wondered the Three Tots as, bold as brass, one of Ginger's latest pride & joys strolled across their pen.

"Hi, you lot, caught the scent of some dinner going begging over here...... thought I'd come and see for myself if that's alright with you?"

Sherry and Baileys came over to check and, sure enough, there was plenty to go round! Didn't even mind the little one having to stand in the bowl to reach............... friendly bunch.

Having spent a couple of days snout to snout through the fence, some of Ginger's brood- still only three and a half weeks old - decided there was no harm going through and mucking about with their cousins and have been happily trotting back and forth over the past couple of days! Caused The Big Boss some consternation. Afraid the weanlings - now over 8 weeks old - would bully the little ones, he decided to block up the 'hole' in the fence where they were squeezing through. But then they couldn't get back so we had to unblock it again! There was quite a bit of playful pushing and shoving which, if anything, the little ones were mostly responsible for. But when Ginger called "Milk bar now opening" it was clear where their priorities lay and they quickly scampered back to their own pen.

Not surprisingly, JD, Baileys and Sherry appear quite contented in their new surroundings.................. They still have a tendency to dash behind their house whenever they see us............... probably need a little more time to forget the indignities associated with weaning. However, they show no sign whatsoever of missing Delila. And she, quite distracted by Samson's attentions, shows no sign of missing them......

Drinking in the air!

It took four of us just 20 minutes to catch, ear-tag, inject and move the three remaining Little Tots from the stalls to the outside world on Saturday afternoon.

They were all most indignant about the first three operations but the fourth completely made up for everything else! Although they were a little shy at first, it was not long before they discovered Grandma Ginger and her brood next door and that was it really, they spent the rest of the afternoon sticking their noses through the fence and catching up on the news. The combination of gossip and fresh air was so intoxicating that they finally collapsed in their new 'house' without even touching their dinner. Absolute bliss to be outside in the fresh air after their spell in the Stalls!

Leaving the nest

The first swallow fledgelings of the summer left their nest in the roof above Ritz's stable in the middle of last week. After a day or two of flying lessons they now only come 'home' to sleep and, in a few days's time, they won't even be doing that.
It's interesting to watch the parents teaching the young ones to leave the security of the beam: they fly in as usual with food but, instead of passing it to the little ones, they fly past and straight out again. Eventually the fledgelings realise the only way they are going to get anything to eat is to follow... and before they know it, they are out in the big wide world! Isn't nature wonderful....
The second brood hatched in the roof of Rocco's stable on Friday and are still at the early stage of being fed in their nest every few minutes. Rocco complains that they wake up and start chittering for food too early and are disturbing his beauty sleep - him being a film star and all...
Meanwhile, the blackbird in his stable is on her third brood; between each 'family' she refurbishes her nest - which is now assuming 'high rise' proportions ! I happened to be mucking out one day when she was doing this: I could hear her sucking and spitting as, presumably, she secured each new piece of nest material.
I can't work out whether she is a very tenacious, or a very stupid, bird. Her fledgelings invariably fall out of their nest on to Rocco's bedding where they spend a couple of days - if they are lucky - hopping around, being fed by mum whilst they gradually learn to fly.
If they are unlucky, which is the majority, the Bestest Gundog in all the World retrieves them when I am not looking and, though they are usually still alive when he brings them to me, their mother gives up on them as soon as they have left home........ or maybe she refuses to recognise them if they smell of something other than bird! The survival rate, therefore, is not high!

Meanwhile, two more of Delila's brood left us for their new homes last Thursday. Brandy and Whiskey have gone to Sacrewell Farm & Country Centre (http://www.sacrewell.org.uk/). They are too young to appreciate it, but they are pioneers in a way, being the first RectoryReserve curly coats to go out of the county! In fact, Whiskey decided it was all too much and buried her head under Brandy and in the corner!

The Farm is well established and specialises in catering to school parties so the piglets will not lack for visitors or attention. I doubt she'll keep her head buried for long!

We delivered them in the back of the car on Friday, just in time to be one of the "New" attractions for the Annual Open Day this weekend. For the first few weeks they're going to be living in a lovely old pole barn but eventually they'll be outside with the other animals - notably a large number of Shire horses, but also goats and sheep and ducks and chickens and peacocks and a couple of mature saddleback pigs...... whose peace will be shattered when these little diggers move in........ This old lady doesn't realise it, but she'd best get as much sleep as she can before that happy day.....

Sound.. Camera... Action!

"My left profile is definitely the best....Or maybe you'd like to see the right? Actually I do a mean 'looking into the distance' face? Not that? Well, look, how about I just give you a nuzzle and you tell me what you want?"

"No, I don't get it...... you can't really mean you came to film those squat, pokey nosed guys with the curly coats? Yeah. I know they're cute and friendly but - hell's bells - horses are just so much more interesting- after all there are millions of us in the country and only a couple of hundred of those little guys........." And so he went on, but no matter what Rocco thought or tried to do to grab the limelight, the fact was that it was Ginger and her mini movie stars who were the main attraction, with the other curly coats as supporting cast.

The film crew were here all day: Dan the director and Danny his go-for (which he did cheerfully and charmingly all day long - teas, coffees, water, apples for Ginger - nothing too much for him)and Daniel the camera man and Dave (how'd he get in?) the sound man.....then there was the Expert on Pigs and The Big Name Lady (who doesn't suffer fools and speaks her mind and had everyone just slightly in awe)...... and they filmed pigs and views and 'mood' shots and all the other creatures and interviewed The Big Boss ("Very interesting, but can you condense all that history into just a few sound bites?" said Director Dan) and, at the end of the day, filmed him feeding all the pigs. Totally exhausted he was by the end of it all. Normally it takes about 20-30 minutes to do the feed round: do it with the whole crew positioning and testing and re-taking and it goes on for three times as long! They loved the sound effects though - pigs at feeding time get really vocal and utterly animated........

The weather was mostly perfect for filming - warmish but slightly overcast, though the sun did come out from behind the clouds for most of the afternoon and there were a couple of relaxing breaks for lunch - a quick one with the Big Name Lady (she only 'does' 8 hour days so with travelling up from the smoke and then having to get back she had only a couple of hours here so each minute was very precious...... not for her, but for the 'crew'!) and a more relaxing one after she'd left....... The Cook spent all morning preparing tasty morsels for their delectation - 4 types of sausage, 2 types of ham, quiches with our own bacon (natch), home grown salads (and some that weren't) etc etc. The Big Name Lady even purchased some victuals to take home, and she wasn't the only one.....

All agreed that Ginger had been a real star: being an old hand now at dealing with camera crews she posed and obliged and performed and orchestrated her little brood to the delight of all: when she'd had enough she herded the babes into the ark for a drink but she was happy later to suckle them in full view :

"And she wouldn't have done that if she were not relaxed about it all" said the Boss.

The single No Go was picking up piglets. Director Dan wanted that shot of Big Name Lady holding piglet: Expert tried to persuade Ginger to let her pick one up... and she tried for an age .. distracting Ginger with Apples might work, she thought, but somehow Movie Queen got the apples and Expert didn't get her piglets......Eventually, "OK, guys perhaps we'll leave that for another day" said Director Dan.... "Told you so" muttered Linda quietly to herself (almost)!

By the end of the day everyone was tired but happy and agreed that they probably had enough good 'stuff' to make into five minutes of real film!

Even Rocco might get a single second of fame!

And before he left Dan showed us the edited version of 'the birth of the piglets' which he'd captured live on film. Totally and utterly incredible. I don't suppose anyone has ever captured such amazing footage............. No wonder he got promoted (on the strength of it, we suggested)!

Crewyard Clearance Squad

Tuesday dawned bright and sunny...again....for the first two weanlings to leave for their new home.

Since they're still quite young - just over 6 weeks - they are small enough to go in the back of the car - with a few modifications - rather than rattling around in the trailer.... which makes life a lot simpler.

Although we'd allowed an hour to catch, ear tag, inject and load the two piglets it all went so smoothly that they were in their cage within 20 minutes.

"Proves that planning pays" said the Boss, who'd worked out the process of one (person) to catch, one to hold and one to inject.

And then they were off to their new custodian in the North of the County. Where they have serious work to do..... The Wicked Stepmother (check out http://www.wickedstepmothersworld.co.uk/) lives on a glorious farm with an ancient but rather lovely crewyard - which is well and truly overgrown at the moment. Although it may look a mess to us, to a pig it is paradise.......and Malibu and Bacardi have the enviable job of clearing it over the coming summer months.

They will just love that ----- but I do think they need to grow a little more before tackling some of the nettles. By the time we go to collect them in the autumn that crewyard will be all clean and tidy....... well, ok, cleared and dug over!

What a wonderful way to spend the summer............ and spoiled within an inch of their lives by the Wicked Stepmother and her family................. could they ask for more?

The piglets just don't know the lengths we go to in order to find such ideal homes for them!

Peace restored

"So, what's the game plan?" we asked The Big Boss on Friday afternoon.

"We'll just pick them up and carry them down from the woods to the stalls" he replied nonchalently. For some reason the rest of us didn't think it would be quite that simple so we wasted a bit of time reviewing the options - loading piglets into trailer/loading Delila and piglets into trailer and separating them at the other end - and then agreed that we'd try the Boss's way as it seemed simpler --- if it worked.

And his ideas usually work.

Later in the afternoon we all convened in the woods.For once it was glorious weather for weaning piglets. Hot and sunny and not too quaggy underfoot in their pen. By the time I got there Linda had already bagged her first Little Tot: grabbed it whilst it was feeding and handed it over the gate to The Boss; within moments she'd done the same with the second, handing it over to Con and I caught up with the pair of them just outside the Stalls. The piglets were put down calmly on their welcoming clean bedding when there was a sudden cry of "Shut that door - Quick!" as they promptly scooted under the hurdle. They would have been out of that door like rockets and back to mum if Con hadn't followed instructions so promptly!

Delila and the remaining 5 piglets had got wise by now. It took increasingly longer to get hold of the little ones but Linda was well into her stride and totally focused on little legs.....! At one point she lunged across the mud in a manner that would have impressed the English Rugby Team selectors...... disregarding her liberal coating of muck still she got her pig! The only 'no go' area proved to be when Delila herded the final two into the ark and positioned herself in the doorway with fangs flashing! But she was tempted out with a large juicy tomato and eventually the final two piglets were reunited with their siblings in the stalls.

Mission accomplished: a few people liberally covered with muck but all pigs successfully in the right place.

Delila was a little distressed for half an hour or so but seemed truly relieved to be able to eat her tea in peace and quiet - she's 'done' her brood so well that she herself is almost sylph-like and needs a bit of feeding up. By the time I gave her some grass at dusk she'd calmed down and on Saturday morning it was :

"Piglets? What piglets?"

They too, although a little confused by their strange surroundings, seemed quite happy to sleep and sleep and eat ... and sleep...... although they are a little mistrustful of us! They'll perk up when they see their new homes later in the week........