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| Sorraias in Austria at Aktivstal Mauerbach (photo: C. Radbauer) |
Last week Monday, Claudia Radbauer sent me an email with the grand news that Levada (Altamiro x Sovina's Zorita) had given birth to her second foal, just a handful of hours after Alegria (Interessado x Levada) had delivered her very first foal. Levada was born here at the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve and went to Austria while pregnant with Alegria, along with Tocara (Altamiro x Belina) to become part of the Aktivstal Mauerbach farm's Sorraia preservation effort.
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| Alegria and her filly, Amaluna by Grelo (photo: C. Radbauer) |
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| Levada and her colt, Icarus by Grelo (photo: C. Radbauer) |
Claudia has put together a wonderful group of mares of which we are happy to have our lovely female equine friends be a part of. In addition to the Ravenseyrie born mares, Tocara and Levada (both part Portuguese Sorraia and part North American Sorraia Mustang) Claudia has also in her herd a Pryor Mountain Mustang of Sorraia type (Annie), an Iberian crossbred of Sorraia type (Baïka), and a purebred Sorraia (Boavista). And of course also Alegria who's sire is one of Altamiro's sons out of our Kiger mare of Sorraia type (Ciente). An all star line up, I'd say!
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| Very pregnant, Boavista, of the Aktivstall Mauerbach Sorraia preserve, Austria (photo: C. Radbauer) |
Claudia obtained from the Vale de Zebro Sorraia preserve in Portugal, a wonderful two year old Sorraia colt named Grelo and after some initial habituation turned him out last spring to live with the mares. Like our Altamiro, Grelo got right to work and Claudia is expecting foals from all but Baïka this year.
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| Sorraia stallion, Grelo aims to impress Tocara (formerly of Ravenseyrie) at Aktivstall Mauerbach in Austria (photo: C. Radbauer) |
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| Grelo watches over Levada as Icarus searches for a place on mom to nurse. (photo: C. Radbauer) |
You can be sure I miss seeing foals born here at Ravenseyrie, but it's Claudia's turn now... What an exciting spring this will be for Claudia and staff! I will post photos of each new arrival, but if you wish to see more about the Aktivstall Mauerbach's preservation efforts, you can visit Claudia's website and Facebook page (click the links).
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| Kevin Droski with a load of breakfast hay for the bachelor equines of the Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve. |
While spring may have arrived in the Vienna Woods, here on Manitoulin Island, our spring is not quite so evident, though one can feel the shift toward less wintry extremes.
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| Kevin hands out cookies to the Sorraia colts on the Ravenseyrie preserve |
Patches of ground have begun to show and temperatures are no longer dipping to minus thirty. Both groups of horses, the bachelors and the ladies have wintered much better this year than last.
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| Ravenseyrie Sorraia mares on the Twinravens range |
Think of how PHENOMENA come trooping
out of the desert of non-existence
into this materiality.
Morning and night,
they arrive in a long line and take over
from each other, "It's my turn now. Get out!"
A son comes of age, and the father packs up.
This place of phenomena is a wide exchange
of highways, with everything going all sorts
of different ways.
We seem to be sitting still,
but we're actually moving, and the fantasies
of phenomena are sliding through us
like ideas through curtains.
They go to the well
of deep love inside each of us.
They fill their jars there, and they leave.
There is a source they come from,
and a fountain inside here.
Be generous.
Be grateful. Confess when you're not.
We can't know
what the divine intelligence
has in mind!
Who am I,
standing in the midst of this
thought-traffic?
--Rumi, excerpted from The Long String
I confess I mourn...missing elements of what once was, when a family band of wild-living Sorraias galloped as one across the Ravenseyrie landscape...But I am also immensely grateful to have had that opportunity (which is now Claudia's) to have a family band to interact with, to witness a foal's first suckle on its mom, to delight its first mad tangle run on spindly legs, to admire its quick maturation into young adulthood...
sigh...
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| Ravenseyrie Sorraia Mustang Preserve, Manitoulin Island, Ontario Canada |
The view from here is still amazing...
and anyhow, "We can't know what the divine intelligence has in mind"...
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| Magical light on a spring evening at Ravenseyrie |
