During the first and last week of April, I spent my time in Blandford yard, which is home to unvaccinated mares and foals.
The first week of April we had lots of mares entering the yard, both newborns coming from the foaling unit and mares with older foals coming to stay until they are covered here at the INS. This made for a very busy week with lots of vet work, treatments, farrier work and turning all mares and foals out and bringing them back into the boxes at the end of the day.
With such a large mix of young and older foals coming from all over the country, biosecurity is really important in this yard. Ensuring to keep the INS foaled mares and foals together and the outside mares and foals together helps to contain and control any infection or disease. Lots of small measures need to be put in place and maintained to ensure this yard runs smoothly.
During the last week of April things in Blandford yard were winding down. With the warm weather finally beginning to settle in we have been able to turn out older mares and foals that have been covered and scanned positive for pregnancy. Lots of the outside mares and foals had been covered and gone back to their farms.
The last week of April is the week of Punchestown National Hunt racing. 40 races including 12 G.1 contests and a total prize pot of just over 3.5 million euro. I attended two days of racing in Punchestown and had an amazing time watching/experiencing the National hunt atmosphere for the first time. To celebrate the Punchestown festival here at the INS we have our three legends out and on display for the public to come meet, take photos and feed carrots. Our legends Beef or Salmon (28), Hurricane Fly (20), and Faugheen (16) were spoiled rotten and had a great outing meeting all the tourists.
After my first week in Blandford, I went into Maddenstown which is the dry mare yard. This week I was the teasing student. Being the teasing student in this yard consists of composing teasing and vet lists, organizing horses needing to stay in or go out and also assisting more closely with vet work. Michelle and Eimear were great at teaching me how they do things over here and after they had shown me how to do it the ‘Irish way’ on Monday they threw me in the deep end and let me organize everything I listed above for the rest of the week. It gave me more confidence and is a skill I will be able to bring home with me. It also made me realize all of the hard work, knowledge and experience you need to be able to carry out these tasks effectively and efficiently.
From here I went on my third round of night shifts from Monday-Thursday. We had a total of 8 foals over these nights. After night shifts had finished a few other international students as well as myself had the weekend off so we decided to head over to Galway and explore Ireland a little bit more. Galway is a really beautiful city with amazing nightlife. It was beautiful and warm there and probably my favourite place I have visited in Ireland so far.
This week we also had our first exam on Equine Breeding. I was really happy with how I went in this exam and have started studying for the next one at the end of the month. Next week I will be working in Sun Chariot, I am looking forward to spending some more time with the newborn mares and foals.
