Everything that has been added to the site — newest first. If you come back here, this is the page that shows you what you have not read yet.
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What is happening on the farmSeptember 2026
Zuza and Steiger grazing in the garden. This is our arrival paddock, the place for horses who are new here. We are now extending it by another piece of land, still overgrown for the moment. It has to be cleared and…
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Steiger15 September 2026: on the new pasture
Today we grazed Steiger and Zuza on a piece of pasture that we are adding to the arrival paddock. For Steiger the most important thing about it is space. In the enclosure where he stood until now there simply wasn't…
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Zuza4 September 2026: a new water trough and hooves, how she is today
Zuza has a new water trough: a stainless steel tub. Until then we used a plastic mortar bucket, and we stopped liking it: it is made of recycled plastic, it smells, and nobody knows what leaches from it into the…
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Zuza15 September 2026: first time on the new pasture
Today we grazed Zuza with Steiger on a piece of pasture that we are adding to the arrival paddock. Tall dry grass and soft ground. Exactly what does her hooves good. On concrete Zuza walks carefully; here she doesn't.
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The herdSeptember 2026
It is more than a year since the herd lost its lead mare. It was Lucinka. She came to the farm first, and over time the herd grew around her. Luca was dominant by nature, so everyone new had to submit to her. She…
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The herd23 September 2026
It was a sunny day, so in the afternoon we let the work go for a while and went out to the meadow to take it easy near the herd. We have an old log bench there, falling apart by now. I often lie on it and there is…
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The herdSeptember 2026
We have started taking one of our rescued Alsatians out to the horses with us. The moment the geldings spotted him, three of them lined up side by side at attention and set off to drive him away. Who knows what they…
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What is happening on the farmAugust 2026
Our vet came to do the horses' teeth. It is something that often gets forgotten — and yet a horse with sore teeth eats badly, loses weight and tends to be edgy. A check once a year saves a great deal of misery.
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What is happening on the farmJuly – August 2026
For the past month we have been building a new hay barn with a stable. We need somewhere for the hay to stay dry and the horses to be under a roof in winter.
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AgoAugust 2026
Ago is twelve and has been in the herd since 2022. He has a problem with his front legs that cannot be cured — only kept from getting worse. That is exactly what pasture is better for than a stable: the horse walks…
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BalkoAugust 2026
Balko is five and has turned into a capable gelding. He has his place in the herd — not on the edge of it, but among his own.
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BuroAugust 2026 — Buro has a new home
Buro's owner has found him a new home. With the people whose five mares Buro used to go and cover. They have paddocks and pasture there — and Buro can be out with the mares, not alone behind a fence.
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ČilkoAugust 2026
Čilko is three. He is healthy, he has his place in the herd and we want nothing from him yet — at this age a horse should still be growing, not working.
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MajaAugust 2026
In a herd every mare has her place. The dominant mare is the queen — she leads and she decides. Right behind her comes the second mare, the princess: she keeps close to the queen, circles around her, watches over her…
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Steiger3 August 2026: the first day
Steiger arrived at our farm today. The first thing we did was take the shoe off the problem leg : the one he couldn't put weight on. We contacted our vet straight away and arranged an X-ray.
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Steiger4–5 August 2026
For the first three days we soaked his leg in a solution of Epsom salt. The medicine worked quickly: within twenty-four hours his breathing calmed down and he began to put more weight on the leg. By the second or…
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Steiger12 August 2026
After a few days it was the turn of the other hind hoof. We take his shoes off gradually, not all at once. A horse that has walked in iron for years has legs set to the shoe, and if we took all four off in one day,…
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Steiger13 August 2026
That day we were out on the meadow together for the first time. He and Zuza are already friends: a nine-year-old gelding who has done his share of work, and an old mare who has been through plenty too.
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Steiger21 August 2026: out to the garden for grass
Since we took Steiger's front shoes off, he had been walking terribly tenderly; you could see it in his front legs at every step. After a few days he began to walk it off a little.
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Steiger21–22 August 2026: he wants to play
Yesterday I was playing with Steiger. I had my head leaning against his, and he was scratching my arm with his lips. But when I put my hand beside his head, on his cheek, he pulls a face a little and wants to bite…
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Zuza3 August 2026: Steiger arrived
Zuza was joined by Steiger. And then she came fully alive: she probably hadn't seen a friend of her own kind for years.
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Zuza6 August 2026: teeth
When the horses' teeth were being done here on the farm, Zuza's were done too. They were in a catastrophic state. The equine dentist did what could be done.
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Zuza12–13 August 2026: in the arrival paddock
These days Zuza is taking it easy with Steiger in the arrival paddock, which is right under our windows, so that we are close to them. She is content and full of life.
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Zuza21 August 2026: a guide horse
These last days Zuza has been going out to graze with Steiger again. For now only in the garden, as much as both of them can manage. Steiger has just had his shoes taken off and hard ground still hurts him; how he is…
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Zuza21 August 2026: she lay down
Zuza lay down. In the middle of the paddock, stretched out, and Steiger was standing a little way from her.
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The herdend of August 2026
I went out at night for a walk to the herd. I found them on the newly fenced meadow; it was just before midnight. Up there on the top there is a nice flat stretch.
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What is happening on the farmJuly 2026
A television crew came to film for Farmárska revue, a Slovak farming programme. Originally the filming was to be about the problems of draught horses from a veterinary point of view — and that was the subject we had…
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What is happening on the farmSummer 2026
The hay season is in full swing. We make our own feed — it is a whole summer's work, but it is what lets us feed a herd we could not otherwise support.
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RubínMay 2026: keeping watch over the herd
They graze together at sunset and Rubín tends to stay at the back. Now and then he lifts his head and checks the herd to see whether anyone has wandered off.
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Steiger1 October 2026 — an abscess in the hoof
A few days ago Steiger started limping on his left front leg. Not a little. So badly that he could not put it down at all.
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Zuza14–15 July 2026: the first days
The first thing we did was take her shoes off. By our estimate she had had the front shoes on for a year. And those shoes were the worst part: while they are on the hoof, the horn has nowhere to break off. So it kept…
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Zuza15–20 July 2026: she didn't respond
On the first day Zuza just stood in the shelter and stared at the wall. Exactly as she had been used to in recent years. We were afraid she wouldn't even want to live; she didn't respond to us at all.
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Zuza25 July 2026: out to graze
From the first days we have been going out with her to the pasture several times a day to graze. And that is when Zuza began to come back to life.
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Rubín15 February 2025: X-ray of the hind leg
His hind leg was very swollen at that time. From the outside you couldn't tell what was going on inside, and with a leg like that you can't guess: we needed to see inside.
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RubínApril 2025: resting by the stable
His legs still hurt sometimes. So he calmly lies down on the ground by the stable and rests.
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RubínSeptember 2024: the first days
This is what Rubín's legs looked like at the beginning, when we were still going to look after him at his owner's place. He still had shoes on then.
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