Cascade Stud

Cascade Stud Breeding great minded horses that will be pleasure horses suitable for the whole family, with the bonus of colour. Call me, Wendy, on 027 733 2252

Available for lessons in natural horsemanship, foal handling and education, float loading training.

OK, day 5 of weaning, it is getting to be the same each day now. The girls udders are slack and just warm, they are seei...
11/06/2026

OK, day 5 of weaning, it is getting to be the same each day now. The girls udders are slack and just warm, they are seeing their babies but not concerned about them being in the next paddock and the babies are that way too. Utah does a wee call out from time to time, but that's it. I can almost exhale now as we are over the worst of it. Topaz goes to her new home on Sat, so she'll be in great shape to be leaving her boy Utah. I'll finish updates here now, and do some more when the next girls are weaning their boys

This is the other away mob, with Tex (the stallion) and the 3 mares that are in foal to him (all due in Dec). Devon and ...
11/06/2026

This is the other away mob, with Tex (the stallion) and the 3 mares that are in foal to him (all due in Dec). Devon and Tex are best mates and hang around together a lot of the time, and Flute & Tuppy tend to spend a bit of time together. They are all doing well, and the girls are growing nice baby tummies. I find it interesting how they all hold their babies differently. Flute doesn't look that heavily in foal and she is due first, on the 7th of Dec. She is quite a roomy mare and she doesn't particularly stick out or down a lot, just a bit of each. Devon looks like she has triplets on board and she is due last of the 3, on the 24th of Dec. She carries high and VERY round and sticky outy (it's a proper description, really lol). Then there is Tuppy, she's due on the 17th of Dec. The 2 foals that I have bred from her where both 2 weeks early, so if she keeps to that, she'll foal before Flute, but time will tell. But, to the way she carries her foal, she goes down a lot and out a bit. All different! I shifted them to the next paddock and that earned a yehah hoon, and then to the serious business of head down and eating ha ha ha. I think that they might have enough grass there!!!

Day 4 of weaning, and all is going well. Both mares are very slack in their udders, and absolutely no heat there, so tha...
10/06/2026

Day 4 of weaning, and all is going well. Both mares are very slack in their udders, and absolutely no heat there, so that's really great news. They are also very relaxed about their foals being on the other side of the fence, so that is really great. I really believe that the emotional side of weaning is just as important, if not more important, than making sure the mares don't have too much grass that would lead to making milk when they're not having it being drunk by their bubbas. That is the reason I wean the way I do, so they can all see each other and they know all is well with their foal and mum, they just can't keep drinking. Utah seems to spend a bit more time hanging with his mumma than Tango does, while she's happily in the big herd. Boys and their mums aye lol. With it being warmer today the big herd weren't that interested in hay and they hadn't finished all their hay from yesterday, so that is good news. I gave them more hay and they all had a chew and moved off to eat grass.

When I visited the "away" mobs (the ones grazing off the home block because I have too many horses oops) today, I made t...
10/06/2026

When I visited the "away" mobs (the ones grazing off the home block because I have too many horses oops) today, I made time to take photos of them (which I often forget duh!). Here are some of the juvenile herd, and the "old" girl of the herd is Dora, and she is a big 3 years old lol. She is my friends full Clydesdale, then there are 2 x 2year old's and a yearling. The first photos of them individually is in the paddock they've been in for a few days but there is minimum sun there with the big trees, so I let them through to the other side of the trees and quite a bit of sun (and Dora managed to go into the shade again ha ha ha) and a lot of grass, and they went exploring.

Day 3 of weaning, and all is quiet on the western front lol. Both Topaz & Blondie have slack udders this morning and no ...
08/06/2026

Day 3 of weaning, and all is quiet on the western front lol. Both Topaz & Blondie have slack udders this morning and no heat, so tracking really well. The big crew told me they wanted hay today, so back out I went and fed them too.

Day 2 of weaning, the middle fence didn't survive the night but everyone did whew. The big herd have more room than inte...
08/06/2026

Day 2 of weaning, the middle fence didn't survive the night but everyone did whew. The big herd have more room than intended this soon and Topaz had an opinion about it, but settled with hay, accepting that I'd heard her opinion lol. Topaz & Blondie have tight udders as to be expected, but not too tight and not hot, so that's all good. We have got to day 2 in good shape. In another few weeks it will be time for Maple & Woody to be weaned, and we go through this again - can't wait, yeah right lol. Any time after the 22nd of June I'll be looking to see how often Woody is away from his mum to see if he's ready to cut the string or not. He's always been a mummy's boy (boys seem to be more close to their mums, and mums to their boys, Topaz being a shining example of that. She didn't mind as much when Promise was weaned, her last foal and a filly)

Today was day one of weaning Topaz & Utah and Blondie & Tango. I put up a few extra electric tape fences for safety. One...
07/06/2026

Today was day one of weaning Topaz & Utah and Blondie & Tango. I put up a few extra electric tape fences for safety. One along the fence between them, and one out a ways in the new paddock so the foals couldn't stray too far away from their mums. I put Topaz, Blondie & Acacia in the area next to the water trough in their existing paddock (that they've pretty much eaten out from last week when they were all put in there), and closed the gate to the rest of the herd. I learned many years ago that horses don't consider it to be a herd until there is 3 horses, so Acacia is the 3rd wheel and stabilising influence, as she isn't weaning a baby. I gave the 3 girls some hay to keep them occupied in their space, then opened the gate to the new big paddock of grass for the rest of the herd and they didn't do a lot of running around because there was too much grass to ignore lol. I reopened the gate to the rest of the paddock for the 3 girls, and shifted their hay down to there. I purposefully have them in the paddock that has been eaten out so that they have the best chance to dry up their milk supply without heaps of green grass. There was a bit of excitement (brief running around) especially from Topaz & Utah, with a little bit from Blondie & Tango, then they all decided that food was trumps. Here are some photos of them in their new digs. Blondie spent a little bit of time looking over the fence wistfully at the grass and Tango, and then sighed and ate her hay. She even let Topaz share her hay with her, as a second choice to sharing it with Tango. Blondie usually pushes Topaz off, but not straight away today. With Blondie being a maiden mare this is her first experience of weaning a foal, the only other one being her own weaning. I am very impressed with her, she was very level headed and sensible, a really good girl. I expected some movement from Topaz as she is an extrovert, but she was very good too. It is her third weaning as Utah is her third foal. I don't know how the first weaning was set up, but it is her second one with me, so it isn't her first experience of doing it this way. I hope it is still as calm tomorrow morning when I go out and see them again.

It is nearly weaning time for Tango & Utah. They were born 5 days apart in Oct, so they are over 7 months old and as su...
03/06/2026

It is nearly weaning time for Tango & Utah. They were born 5 days apart in Oct, so they are over 7 months old and as such I am happy to wean them any time soon. It is getting close for Woody too as he'll be 7 months old this month, and Vino isn't 7 months old till July, and Scully isn't 7 months old till October. This weekend I merged the 2 mares and foals herds to make weaning more straight forward. With the exception of Acacia (the new girl on the block and the only one without a foal) who has been living with Freda, her foal Scully, Blondie & her foal Tango, they have all met before (oh and Scully hadn't met the rest of the mares and foals either). Introducing them was very uneventful, just how I like it. I put them into a new paddock of grass and they basically just all put their heads down and ate. Freda is the boss over all and Maple has had to take the 2IC slot reluctantly. There were no f***y cuffs to get the hierarchy sorted, Maple remembered all too well when Freda looked at her THAT way lol. The mares are holding their weight well and the foals have all grown well and have their full winter fluff sorted. Weather permitting I'll wean Tango & Utah this weekend.

Poppy (Cascades Ebony) is looking for her new home. She is an adorable young lady with beautiful paces and a really crui...
10/05/2026

Poppy (Cascades Ebony) is looking for her new home. She is an adorable young lady with beautiful paces and a really cruisy nature and is a true black. Poppy is rising 3 years old (born 31 Dec 2023) and out of a black TB mare and by Diego (P&R Royal Print), an Appaloosa (sadly not registerable). She looks to be on track to be 15.2hh at maturity, currently standing at a smidge under 15hh (home measured). Poppy has an amazing attitude to life is interested in everything going on around her and takes it all in her stride. She is great to lead, trim, worm, float, and learning to hard tie now (I leave teaching tying them till their bones are more formed), and has had her teeth checked by the dentist (and is all good in there).
A genuine and outstanding young lady that will be able to turn a hoof to anything you desire – she is suited to both Western & English pursuits!
Please feel free to ask any questions or make a time to meet her, she is in Drury, South Auck.

It's the 10th of March, and my last post was last month, how slack am I!!! I do have very exciting news though, Vino has...
10/03/2026

It's the 10th of March, and my last post was last month, how slack am I!!! I do have very exciting news though, Vino has a new home to go to when he is weaned and settled in his new life of no milk bar. He'll be going to the middle of the North Island in early August and have a great forever home there. I have attached a photo of the stunning boy here, although he has grown heaps since then. I need to get some more recent photos, maybe I'll get that done on the weekend - life is a busy thing, but I'll get there in the fullness of time lol

Address

263 Fitzgerald Road
Drury
2577

Telephone

+64277332252

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