Both Sugar and Spice have been adopted by Tara and Pat who are treating them like absolute princesses.

Sadly, Sugar was neglected by the person who initally adopted her which is heartbreaking, thankfully Tara & Pat have taken her on and have done a wonderful job with getting her weight back up to a healthy condition, they have since found out that Sugar is pregnant again and due late 2007. Tara and Pat have been maintaining a wonderful level of care and are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Sugar's new foal.

Spice has been weaned and is doing exceptionally well. She's is fat, fluffy and still her usual happy, friendly self. Tara tells us that Spice is very affectionate and is growing into a lovely young horse which is great news.

All of us here at Horses With Hope would like to say a huge thankyou to Tara and Pat for being such caring people.

(we have sent Tara & Pat off a new canvas rug for Sugar to wear thru winter and a few all wormer pastes for them both).

Spice - May 2007 - approx 9 months old (below) -

PICTURE OF SUGAR ON THE WAY...... JUST NEED TO DOWNLOAD IT FROM MY EMAIL SYSTEM

The time has come where I need to look at re-homing Sugar & Spice so that I can make room for more needy horses. As hard as this is, I feel that now is the right time. I'm sure whoever is lucky enough to adopt these 2 beautiful girls will be delighted.

Sugar is an aged mare (approx 20-25 years), she is approx 13.2/13.3hh, and a lovely evenly marked pinto. She has been with us for a year now and has proved to be a lovely sweet natured lady. Sugar was ridden by us lightly in the early stages of her pregnancy  (lead-rein only) and was great at wandering along trails and riding in traffic. She is not spooky - isn't scared or anything!! Delight to float and a pleasure to have around. We used her a lead-rein for a 6yr old beginner. Sugar was caught, brushed, and led around the place by this young girl and never put a foot wrong. The only thing I have found to be an issue with sugar is that she can be a little bit touchy around her back legs - its only if you pick them up - she's fine for rugging and brushing etc....  She isn't showing any signs of arthritis and apart from being a bit light in condition from lactating, she is in great nick for an oldie. I'm sure she'd enjoy spending her time either having another bub, or even teaching youngsters to ride on the lead. (Off the lead she hasn't been ridden much by us I can cannot advise her suitability for offlead riding).

Spice is a 2 month old filly who is presently bay in colour but appears to be greying out.... time will tell as to what colour she'll end up but at this stage I'm guessing she'll be a grey. Spice's life is documented in the below updates. She is halter broken and leads and ties up very well. She picks up all her feet and is a super friendly foal. She is lovely and solid and has a very quiet nature. She will one day make an exceptional kids pony. She loves dogs and plays with them all time. She still drinks from her mum and will do for approx another 3-4 months. Unfortunately we do not know anything about the stallion so can't estimate a height that she'll grow to, but looking at her long legs, I'm guessing she'll grow taller than her mum.

Sugar and Spice are being offered for sale a package with an adoption price of $350

Located in Lyndhurst, Victoria - which is the dandenong area.

Please call Bree on 0419 118 840 or email HORSESwithHOPE@yahoo.com.au

Sugar is the horse on the left -

Sugar is the one on the right - (below)

Ain't she gorgeous!!!!! She loves to sleep in her mum's hay, or in our lilly garden. What a beautiful picture!

Our baby girl is growing up soooo quickly. Here are some happy snaps taken this morning. Spice is growing like a weed and getting bigger everyday. She is always full of beans and loves running around the paddock with our dog Zoe. She has a lovely nature and is quiet happy to come up and turn her bum to you for a scratch - probably won't be so cute when she's bigger but you can't help but laugh. She actually started to rear up to me the last few days wanting to play but I had to knock the on the head straight away as that can't be tolerated.

I have just started to halter train her and she is going well. She has only wore it twice now but after the inital shock and pull back attempt, she stopped and though about it and seemed to accept it. It will take time no doubt but I'm sure that by starting her young, she'll learn good ground manners. I plan to work on keeping her light and responsive and will start to teach her this from a very early age.

Isn't she just the cutest little thing!! 

Spice loves playing with anything and everything!! Buckets included!! -

Sugar was finding it quite tough in the cold weather. Especially since she's feeding and that she's old. She needed a rug but I had to make sure it wouldnt restrict Spice from feeding. I managed to adapt her rug in an odd way so that she can wear it, and so that Spice can still drink. So far so good. Hopefully it'll help Sugar keep her condition up. She's getting 4 feeds per day at the moment as she's struggling to keep condition on.

Our beautiful baby girl has officially been named "SPICE".  We love the sound of "Sugar & Spice" - verrrry cute!!

Her nickname is "Engergiser Bunny" though as she is full of beans, its incredible. She hoons around the paddock bucking and running flat out all the time. She certainly is growing quickly. Its only been a few days and already she looks to have filled out and gained some muscle tone. She's a real stunner!

Here is a new video link to view Spice running laps of her mum and strutting her stuff - check it out - its Oh So Cute! :

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/HORSESwithHOPE/?action=view&current=spicerunningbucking3daysold.flv

Here she is at the grand old age of 2 days!! - Its very tiring being a baby - Luckily mum's hoof makes a nice pillow -

And here is a recent picture of her (3 days old) with her playmate Zoe (10 months old) -

Well yesterday was the day. At approx 5pm Aug 24th 2006 Sugar gave birth to a beautiful baby filly.

At 5pm the foaling alarm went off, luckily my mum was there to hear it. She called me up from down the back and by the time I ran up to the paddock (only about 15 seconds), the bub was there! Mum said Sugar was laying down (alarm went off), she then stood up and bub plopped onto the ground. It was a soft landing though as it was on a bed of old pine needs which acted like a bed of straw. Baby came out in the sac and was still encased when I approached. I torn open the sac and cleared the muck from the nostrils to ensure the foal to breathe and thankfully she took her first few breaths with ease. As far as I know, most foals actually break the sac with their front feet as the come out but as bub arrived in such a hurry it didn't happen this time. Luckily for the foaling alarm going off I knew what was underway and was able to tear open the sac to ensure the foal didn't suffocate which can happen if it doesn't open up soon enough.

Mum spent a lot of time licking her newly born bub to clean her, warm her and bond with her, what a wonderful thing to see!!

Here is a video link to see this unfolding:

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/HORSESwithHOPE/?action=view&current=IMGP1075.flv

And another link of her out of the sac and trying to stand:

http://s14.photobucket.com/albums/a347/HORSESwithHOPE/?action=view&current=tryingtostandoutofsac.flv

Approx 45 minutes after the birth, bubs managed to stand - albeit very wobbly, then after a few seconds took her first steps. I have this on video too but its very dark so not sure if it'll be viewable but I'll work on that too. The vet said if bubs wasn't standing within approx an hour, it might be a good idea to help her up but she's a strong little filly and didn't require my help.

Approx 2 hours after the birth - at around 7pm she finally managed to get the suckling thing down pat. She spent approx 30 minutes circling mum and sniffing around her udder but not acutally latching on but after much amusement on our part, she finally got it sorted and suckled on and off for the next 30 minutes.

Sugar had a feed at approx 9.30pm to help re-energise her and then it was time for some well earned rest.

What a lovely ending to the day.... Stay tuned for regular updates on our new foal's life.

If anyone has any idea's for names, please let us know - email to us or leave them in the guestbook!! Ideally I'd like to keep something similar to Sugar - such as Toffee (made of Sugar), or Spice (Sugar & Spice), Brandy (cos' of her looks) etc....

After having such lovely weather for the past few weeks, I can't believe that Sugar had to give birth on the coldest, wettest day of the month!! it had been raining for hours, it was pretty cold and it was just a miserable day in general. This didn't bother our girl and when bub's is ready I guess there's no stopping it!! 

And one taken today - 25th August at approx 1pm - she is only 20 hours old here: -

The belly has dropped even more and you can clearly see how her shape has changed.

Her udder has further developed and she's doing a lot of standing around in the one spot looking rather uncomfortable.

The birth is drawing near....... AND I CAN'T WAIT !!!!

Sugar is HUGE!! She has the biggest belly goin' round and looks rather funny as she is quite small in stature but has such a big "baby belly". The vet initally expected her to be due late Sept / early Oct but I have a gut feeling that she'll go earlier. It looks as if the foal as 'dropped' in position and I can see that she is starting to bag up (udder development).

“Sugar” is our lovely old mare that was rescued in December 05. She was at the saleyards and looked pretty ordinary. She had a fungal skin infection and missing lots of hair. Sugar underwent a thorough bathing and after a few months her skin was much better.

She always had a bit of a grass belly and we never thought much of it as she’s aged and often older mares that have been used for breeding have a bit of a droopy belly. The previous owner said she had not been served this season so would not be in foal. But a few months passed and Sugar’s belly kept growing – just little increases but I had a sneaking suspicion that it wasn’t just a fat belly…. We decided to get her preg tested with Honey a couple of months ago and sure enough, Sugar is confirmed as Pregnant!! What a nice surprise!!

She’s due approx late September / early October this year (2006). We think the stallion was a paint stallion as the previous owner said she’s always bred Sugar to a paint so we can only assume this foal would be to the same stallion. Fingers crossed she’ll throw a coloured foal – that would be a nice surprise, but no matter what it looks like I’m sure we’ll fall in love instantly!!

I hope to be present for the birth and take photos, but as her due date is a bit unknown, I can only hope that I can catch her at the right moment!! Stay tuned to meet our baby soon….

Sugar is approx 6 months pregnant here (May 06). Sugar had been in our care for 5 mnths.

This picture is rather deceiving. She looks much better than she actually was.