Our youngsters' presentation
In Stable Tunis, we are often blessed with our foals’ births, and we are very proud of them, so we decided to dedicate an article to our youngsters.
Let us talk to you a bit about our baby horses, as we very recently had a new birth from our dear lady Christmas (photo below) !
Gentle neighing from the boxes, dusty clouds stirring up in the air, hilarious jumping through the stable lanes and little horse legs running through the corners – it’s time to introduce to you our youngest members of the stable: our foals.
Seeing the light of the day for the first time is an exciting moment for all of us and we like to support the new mothers and their kids from the first second on. After having arrived into the world, a gentle and natural adaption to the new environment begins and it’s a pleasure to watch how the foals discover the world, learn from the elders and become day by day more independent! Having their strong bound of trust in their mothers at the beginning and seeing them one day chasing each other and playing around is also a unique lesson for everybody when it comes to trust and letting go. A lot of cuddling, jumping, playing, chasing and discovering is the daily program of our youngsters, so come and see by yourself, you will find out the magic of the stable family!
We are using a very natural way to educate our foals. We leave them, sometimes completely free, in the middle of the stables with their mothers, and when they get older enough, before starting any riding work with them, we leave them between youngsters, in some small paddock, to enjoy some teenagers’ fun together. When they are old enough, we start working with them to be able to ride them. The age depends on the maturity of the young one, physically and mentally speaking ! As we know them since they are born, we know when is the right time or not. We also get them used to human being since the very beginning, so that our presence can be felt very normal for them but, be careful, giving them space to be a horse, just with their mother, is also very important !
Sometimes, having births can be difficult. Some mothers can have complications, or for example some births happening in the middle of the summer can be dangerous for the mother and the new born, because of summer diseases and the heat mostly. We always do our best to time our births, if possible, and also to avoid any kind of problems, as much as we can, with the methods we know and the means we have !
But now, we really need to introduce you a bit more the functioning of our stables !
So, in our stables, we mix every kind of horses, meaning that we have stallions, geldings and mares.
As a quick reminder: stallions are not castrated male horses, meaning they are very strong, tempered, and their natural instincts have to be controlled. It is a lot of training to control a stallion, so that he respects his human friends as equals, and also other horses around him.
We also have geldings, so horses we had to castrate, mostly because their stallion behavior could have been dangerous. It is not in the Egyptian, Arab or Muslim culture to castrate animals, mostly horses, very well esteemed in the culture and religion, but sometimes it is for the best, regarding people’s safety and horses’ safety.
To finish, we also have mares, so female horses, which is why we can produce babies !
So, you got it: we are a mixed stable, which requires a lot of training from our staff with all the horses, to be able to get along together, regardless of their sex mostly. We take some time to check any kind of new horse’s behavior before allowing clients to touch him or ride him, because we have to know our horses before working with them. This is even more true concerning stallions. New stallions are observed and tested, their behavior is checked, toward human beings and other horses, before being able to be approached or ridden by our clients. Animal natural instinct is so incredible and fascinating…
Indeed, stallions have the natural instinct to fight with other stallions: in their natural habitat, stallions are the protectors of the herd, and only one stallion can be the protector of one herd, composed of mares and young horses, being male or female. Thus, it is a lot of training to make stallions get along together, but it is possible with patience, respect and sometimes severity, like with children… but be careful, we are talking here about very proud children ! This is, in our opinion, what makes stallions that special: their strong pride. If you come to visit us, and have never seen a stallion before, you’ll understand what we are talking about… you’ll be impressed, and fall in love with them, their pride, elegance and beauty. To get the affection of a stallion, is really something special… to cherish.
Otherwise, stallions have, of course, a strong reproduction instinct ! So, we always have to be careful when they are close to mares. Again, training is the key, and respect between riders and horses. Actually, mares also have to be controlled, as they also have the reproduction instinct in their natural animal heats’ moments…
To manage a stable composed of all kind of horses requires a lot of experience, which we clearly gained through the years with experience.
Now that we correctly explained to you the functioning of our stables, you can easily understand that, for sure, we can produce babies… And we are actually very proud to be able to get babies from our beloved own mares and stallions!
It is a great satisfaction to be able to raise your own horses. Raising your own foals means you know their parents, the behavior and physical aspects of their parents, which can be reflected in the babies, and you also live with them. You don’t buy a new horse without knowing his/her past, which can be sometimes tricky. Raising your own foals is like raising your own babies… It is something we are, again, very proud of, and that we cherish deeply. Our babies will, most of them, always stay with us in our stables, they won’t be for sales, unless the buyers are family or friends around Egypt !
Welcome to Stable Tunis and our adventures!
