Nannies Not Nursing
Often when we have been driving through the Hunter Valley we have encountered the charming, but rather unusual sight of a huge Clydesdale 
mare with a petite Thoroughbred foal at foot. More than likely the mare is one of the Hunter Nursing Nannies.
“In times of peace”, commented Lisa Randle of Hunter Nursing Nannies, we offer a fostering service predominantly for orphan foals. There are also other calls on the foster mothers, for instance if the mare is lamanitic, post surgery or has to go to stud and they do not want to put the foal through the stress of traveling. So it is a lot more than just orphans, to the point that last year we fostered 75 foals.
“Mostly we have Clydesdale or Clydesdale cross mares, because they have such good temperaments. People think we have the Clydes because they produce more milk, but the milk flow regulates to
demand. So it is nothing to do with milk production.
“We put a lot of thought into the breeding of the foster mothers, as all the foals must have a place in this world. We have a Clydesdale stallion here, but the young mares are put in foal to a Thoroughbred. We breed three quarter Thoroughbred, quarter Clydesdale horses, which make good eventing and sport horses, a lot of which are sold through Horse Deals. We hand rear the foals like poddy calves, poddy foals in fact. They do very well reared like that.
“The flu has basically shut us down and out nanny mares are our sole source of income and at this time of year we put three extra people on. But because of the restriction on movement we cannot foster a foal. We have had about 20 calls for foster mothers since the restrictions began. Every time we have applied for a permit we have been knocked back until today. We have been given a permit to take a foster mother to a stud close to us.
“There is a little light at the end of the tunnel for us as Thoroughbred
Breeders of Australia president, John Messara, is putting a proposal to the government to establish a Purple Zone for movement between Scone, Singleton and Muswellbrook. If that happens we can move the foster mares to where they are needed. That will add to the risk of infection, but the cure is worse than the disease. We have employed strict bio-security with cars driving through lime, foot baths and bio-security plastic suits etc, but containment is not going to solve our problem, we need to vaccinate”.
Read more about Hunter Nursing Nannies.
mare with a petite Thoroughbred foal at foot. More than likely the mare is one of the Hunter Nursing Nannies.“In times of peace”, commented Lisa Randle of Hunter Nursing Nannies, we offer a fostering service predominantly for orphan foals. There are also other calls on the foster mothers, for instance if the mare is lamanitic, post surgery or has to go to stud and they do not want to put the foal through the stress of traveling. So it is a lot more than just orphans, to the point that last year we fostered 75 foals.
“Mostly we have Clydesdale or Clydesdale cross mares, because they have such good temperaments. People think we have the Clydes because they produce more milk, but the milk flow regulates to
demand. So it is nothing to do with milk production.“We put a lot of thought into the breeding of the foster mothers, as all the foals must have a place in this world. We have a Clydesdale stallion here, but the young mares are put in foal to a Thoroughbred. We breed three quarter Thoroughbred, quarter Clydesdale horses, which make good eventing and sport horses, a lot of which are sold through Horse Deals. We hand rear the foals like poddy calves, poddy foals in fact. They do very well reared like that.
“The flu has basically shut us down and out nanny mares are our sole source of income and at this time of year we put three extra people on. But because of the restriction on movement we cannot foster a foal. We have had about 20 calls for foster mothers since the restrictions began. Every time we have applied for a permit we have been knocked back until today. We have been given a permit to take a foster mother to a stud close to us.
“There is a little light at the end of the tunnel for us as Thoroughbred
Breeders of Australia president, John Messara, is putting a proposal to the government to establish a Purple Zone for movement between Scone, Singleton and Muswellbrook. If that happens we can move the foster mares to where they are needed. That will add to the risk of infection, but the cure is worse than the disease. We have employed strict bio-security with cars driving through lime, foot baths and bio-security plastic suits etc, but containment is not going to solve our problem, we need to vaccinate”.Read more about Hunter Nursing Nannies.
posted by Horse Deals at
12:43 pm
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