We are pleased to welcome the latest addition to the creche! This little filly was born last night and is daughter to our thoroughbred stallion, and a mare called ‘Bienvenida’ which means ‘welcome’. Both mum and baby are doing well!
Humi has recently bought 9 new polo horses for the estancia for the season, and they start their training today. We have the first Los Potreros tournament the first weekend in November, and then Kevin and Humi are representing the estancia in a local tournament the following weekend . . .Kevin will need to go into training as much as the horses!
With our round corral nearly finished, our new horse-breaker has wasted no time putting some of our youngsters through their paces.
Luis joined us several months ago to primarily focus on our young horses (we have about 12 ready for breaking in!). Luis is a keen advocate, like Humi, of ‘Doma Racional’, or natural horsemanship as it has become more widely known. We have built a viewing platform on our round pen and Luis is excited about sharing some of his skills and knowledge with our guests.
The horse he is riding here is called ‘China’ (pronounced cheena) which is the Argentine term for the girlfriend of a gaucho. She is the last to be bred from one of our great mares, Dina, who has produced the most fabulous horses on the farm over her lifespan. She is now happily retired and munching grass out in one of our fields. This was China’s first outing with someone on her back, and Luis tells me she was the perfect student . . .which is lucky as Kevin has his eye on her as his next riding horse!
“Los Potreros should be on the front section of ‘1000 things to do before you die’. High quality in every sense; horses, ambience, hospitality and humour!! Sorry but I will return!”
“A huge thank-you to you all for looking after us so well and for very nearly turning us into gauchos!”
“This is an amazing place! Great horses! Kevin, I hope you finally get to nap without 24 or tea! Lou, I´m sure there is some undiscovered animal you can add to the farm. Antonia is wonderful, good luck to all! We´ll be back!”
“Thank-you for a really wonderful time. This part of our honeymoon I know we will never forget! Beautiful horses, labradors and delicious food.”
. . .so Daisy went exploring at the waterfall today instead . . .
This is a pic of our other foal born last week who took a few days to get the strength up in his legs. He is now out in the field with his mum and little friend, and charging around full of the joys of spring. He has been nicknamed ‘Payaso’ which means ´clown´in Spanish, as for quite some time his legs went one way, whilst his body went the other!
Kevin and Lou are pleased to announce that they have become grandparents!
Menta (aka Fluffy) the cat, yesterday proudly gave birth to four healthy kittens on the end of the bed! Given their mixed parentage (fluffy, ginger, grey and white mum - noisy Siamese dad) we were slightly concerned what they were going to look like, but there are two pretty tortoiseshells and two black and whites . . . one of whom came out complaining loudly like his Dad!
For any of you that know Los Pots we don’t need much of an excuse to break out the champagne and so we will be toasting the new arrivals this evening . . .
We were very sad to say goodbye this weekend to Sam (aka ‘precioso’). Sam joined us for 3 months as a guide, having originally visited us as a guest some 5 years ago. Despite trying his best to kill Kevin on the polo field several times, Sam was a huge success with guests and staff alike . . .in particular the girls in the kitchen!
We would like to thank him for his hard work and humour, not to mention all the fires he kept going, and we wish him well for his final year at university. Good luck Sam!
Well actually . . .comes two foals . . .one to a mare called ´Luna Nueva´ (new moon) and one to a mare called ´Media Luna’ (half moon) . . .quite a coincidence!
Both foals are doing well . . .Media Luna’s was born a day or two early, and so is a bit wobbly on his legs. He is a full Paso Peruano and so has very long pasterns which doesn’t help his walking efforts. Luna Nueva’s foal is daughter to our thoroughbred stallion, Record Boy, and by the size of her hocks and her knees is going to take after her dad . . .she is already quite cheeky (pic below). As with tradition here, they won’t get named until they are older and their characters have developed. Only 18 to go . . .!
