Lusitano Mare Tantra CAL and How She Came to be.

They never forget. They remember. They remember kindness and they remember unkindness. So please be mindful.

Today’s substack is a little different. A break from the COVIDcrisis, news and propaganda war narratives. It is the story of our 11 year old mare Haute Tantra CAL. From her birth, to her life-changing injury as a weanling to her vaulted status of broodmare.

This will be a two-part essay. The final section will be published on May 1, which happens to be Tantra’s eleventh birthday. Tantra was our first-born full blood Lusitano. Before her came many Percheron colts and fillies, and after her many, many Lusitano foals. But you never forget your first, and Tantra has had quite a journey.

When we started breeding Lusitanos, quality Portuguese registered (APSL) Lusitanos were very hard to find in the USA. Tantra’s dam, “Caranja”, was imported in utero from Brazil, and raised in a stall. Carefully “sheltered” for her first two years, she was an angry young mare who just wanted out of her cage to run and be a horse, but as often happens with “valuable” horses, she was stall raised. Her anger expressed itself in repeatedly kicking the stall walls, resulting in bone spurs in her legs (at two years old). Fortunately, this was detected on pre-purchase inspection by a veterinarian, we negotiated a favorable price that we could afford, and we acquired our foundation Lusitano mare. We carefully selected an APSL registered stallion located in Texas that had been imported from Portugal, purchased shipped semen, had artificial insemination performed, and our Lusitano breeding program began. A year later, we had our first highly-anticipated full blood Lusitano foal. Experienced Percheron breeders, we had high hopes that all would go along well, but we did not anticipate that a Lusitano foal can jump a five foot fence (if motivated) from a standing start. These days, we approach weaning very differently with our Lusitano foals, because we have come to respect their ability to jump fences and gates from a very early age.

This is mostly told by Jill, as she has journaled extensively about our horses and farm over the years, historically on Facebook where she used to run the world’s largest Lusitano group (in English) until it was deplatformed by Facebook because of complaints from members of a competing group (at the time, horse sales are not allowed on Facebook (thanks PETA who lobbied Facebook for that rule), so if any member of the group posted a horse sales, the whole group would be de-platformed. Yes, we have years of experience with social media censorship and the nasty ways of jealous gangstalking/crowdstalking.

Tantra’s story begins with her birth in 2012. From Jill’s journals - enjoy!

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May 1, 2012

Lusitano filly born this afternoon! Black with a tiny star! Gorgeous. Mama and baby are doing great. I am exhausted and thrilled! We got a keeper!!!! Her name is Haute Tantra CAL

Tantra as a foal and her dam, Caranja.

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December 8, 2012

The "babies" got weaned today- much unhappiness in mudville. Tantra’s nose positively quivered with indignation at the outrage of being stalled with the her Percheron filly friend Chakra and without her mommy.

But then Chakra and Tantra got grain, our stallion Zara got brought in to a stall across the aisle to keep the babies company, classical music is playing to drown out neighs of sorrow being overhead from the mares outside and life is ok...not perfect but ok.

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December 10, 2012 (from Jill’s journaling)

Sometimes nothing goes as planned or why I hate frogs in December.

Frogs in December?

OK…I should have known something was up when there were banana slugs on my walkway Friday night. I mean slugs in mid-December? Really? I hate slugs.

But I should start with the faulty weather report. For that is the beginning.

The weather report read that the rain would end by 2:00 PM on Saturday. So, based on the weather report, we decided to wean the foals this weekend. We separated the foals (Chakra and Tantra) from their dams on Saturday morning. The fillies went into in a huge stall together and the mares went into a pasture.

Now, two days later –the water has been unrelenting. The temporary rain has turned into a nasty, three-day tropical storm. Perfect weather for weaning…not.

The fillies in the barn are going stir crazy as it has rained and rained and rained.

At the first hint of stopping this afternoon, I have the bright idea that I will get the fillies out of the stalls and into a paddock at the opposite end of the farm from their dams.

Now I just have to get the foals out. No problems, right? They are halter broken, haven’t seen their mamas in two days (who are far away on the other end of the farm). I usually don’t have an issue walking foals together –as we kind of move along in a group. I know what I am doing. Yeh, right...

Somewhere between the stall door and the barn entrance, Chakra (900 pound, seven month old gorilla –um, Percheron (that means BIG teenager) decides to run. Tantra (Lusitano foal) decides on a different tactic. She goes for the “aires” and rears up before trying to run. Lead ropes are fast becoming tangled. At this point, we are walking past our collection of horse carriages with lots of spiky parts that look like they are going to hurt –as I am being pushed in that general direction. I decide (not my brightest bulb moment) or maybe it just happened, to let go of both lead lines and protect my 52 year old ass. Those naughty fillies are out of the barn like bats out of hell.

They race through mud and rain (yes, is it raining again), dragging their lead ropes over to the four Percheron mares (not their mommies) grazing in the field. This is a goodly distance of about ten acres from where I am standing. Luckily, those mares pretty much ignore the babies and after much “are you my mommy?” behavior, the fillies decide to run again- just as I am almost caught up with them. They take off again, toward the barn, with me doing my best to catch up. At this point, Tantra hears her mommy in the distance and runs for the back of the farm. Chakra missed the mommy train and missed where Tantra ran too. So she wanders around over to my direction. I nab her and get her in a paddock, where she immediately begins neighing and running around too. One down, one to go (or so I think).

Now I run to the back of the farm. Tantra (Lusitano filly) is running the fence line with her mammas - on the other side. All three horses are frantic and covered in mud. I grab Tantra and she pretty much runs me over as her mother runs the opposite direction in the paddock. I grab her again, she rears. I hold on –she is frantic and contemplating jumping the fence to get to her mother. Oh good!…not. This is NOT working. At this point, I am covered in mud. There is mud in my hair, my hands, clothes and my boots. I am slimed with Georgia clay. Time to stop digging.

So, I unclip Tantra and take another tact. I go in with the mares and catch Tantra’s dam, Caranja. I get her out, leaving the 2400 pound Percheron mare (“Glory”) in the paddock stomping around like an elephant. I walk Caranja to the paddock where the Chakra filly foal is. Tantra follows along like a little lamb. I get all three horses in one paddock and then remove the dam from the paddock. Whew! Babies together and Cananja (Tantra’s dam) is being a doll. All is well in mudville. Now, to get Caranja back with Glory in the mommy paddock. The feeling of Success! I can taste it (along with a whole lot of mud). I am singing hallelujah. I am going to have that glass of wine and a hot bath soon!

Except. Except. Except.

I hear a loud cracking sound and turn around. Tantra filly has flung herself over the four board fence and lands on her back in the mud! My imagination runs wild. I have visions of a broken neck, torn flesh and terrible damage. But Tantra gets up and sprints to her mama’s side again. No visible damage done. Oh man… I am so lucky.

At this point in time –forget the bath, I just need a drink.

Time to change tactics again. I lead mama Caranja into the barn with Tantra following quietly along. In the barn, I manage to get Tantra in a stall and Caranja in another. Much crying ensues from Tantra, as she proceeds to throw herself against the wall –but the stalls are bomb proof (errr Percheron proof). I am not giving in -these fillies have to be weaned.

Glory, the other dam is crying piteously in the paddock, as well as stomping through the mud. When I get to her, she is shaking from being separated from everyone. Back in the barn, Chakra, the other foal is also neighing. There are lots of unhappy horses in mudville.

I bring in Chakra and put her in a stall.

I bring in Glory and put her in another stall.

Glory looks at the foals across the aisle, and settles. Caranja dam is already settled. The foals look at their mommies and think that this arrangement sucks but is better than nothing.

Everyone, including me is covered in mud from head to hoof.

I go get hay. The sound of four giant jaws masticating fills the air.

I am a nervous wreck. This fierce battle between fillies, dams and myself has taken over an hour…

As I begin to shut the barn door, I look down as a huge frog is crawling between the barn door and the concrete. Eewww…. Frogs in December, it just isn’t right. I rescue the frog and here I am... now for that glass of wine.

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(RWM - The “big” girls - Chakra and Tantra, after weaning. We have always believed that the best way to raise horses is with lots of exposure to novelty early on. So, dogs, humans, walks and lots of play. Learning good manners from the beginning - it is all good. It is our job to guide them into being well adjusted horses.)

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January 21, 2013 (over a month later)

So, silly Tantra Filly ran through another fence on Monday night and broke her hip. Not a mark on her but her hip is damaged. We don’t know the extent of the injury because it turns out you can’t radiograph a hip….

When it first happened, she could't move. But when she is standing, she is now able to walk. The problem is that when she goes does down, she can’t get up –due to pain. Dr. Walker (DVM) thinks her prognosis is guarded… She is not out of the woods yet. Sometime early this morning she laid down. When Robert and I found her this AM, we spent the morning hoisting, pulling, pushing, cajoling, setting up pulleys, yelling, even whacking her –she was not getting up. We worked our butts off until we were exhausted. Horses have to stand up to live.

In the meantime, Robert has to travel out of state all week. His plane was delayed due to the storms last night and got in at 2:00 AM this morning –we got home at 3:00 AM. He has business and clients screaming at him with deadlines. He has a scheduled conference call in the afternoon that are critical.

So, by 1:00 PM. I am freaked out. He is freaked out. We are thinking we are going to lose this little girl. We can’t get her up. He has to get to work with clients lined up all afternoon, with important deadlines. I am very sad that I don’t know a few strong people to help me lift her 700 pounds up. But I put the call out for help to find a rescue sling on Facebook. I call a couple of rescues and… and…and… I can not believe the outpouring of help.

Within an hour -A nearby rescue lent me their rescue sling, which is basically a set of nylon webbings that are put under a horse that can’t get up or due to old age, injuries or accidents (often due to falling in ditches, etc) and then they attach to a front loader (bucker) on a tractor to lift the horse up. My saviors also came with a load of volunteers and we managed to get the sling under Tantra and get her up.

(RWM - At first, we had to pick up Tantra about four times a day, but soon she no longer wanted to lay down and that decreased to only one or two times a day. Due to my travel schedule, Jill taught Tantra to help her get the sling on and she would lift her up most times by herself).

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May 8, 2013

Our nine month old filly probably fractured her pelvis five weeks ago. When she lays down, she can't get back up. So, whenever she has been down for a while and ready to get up, I have to hoist her up with the tractor. This video is dull as dirt but this is how I do it and it is an example of what I love about the Lusitano breed of horse. They are SO level headed, trusting and helpful. Note: She now is walking normally - anyway, here is what I do at night to get her up (usually around 4:30 in the mornin).

(RWM - From here - the video tells the story of her recovery. All our horses are loved, but some become beloved. Twelve years later and Tantra is still Jill’s baby to this day. to relieve the boredom of Tantra living alone in the barn for months on end, Jill taught Tantra a number of tricks - which she still remembers). BTW - it is cold out (and in the barn) as Jill is working here. Still winter in the mountains of Georgia. Jill was determined to pull this girl through. So, she found a way to lift this girl up by herself, due to my travel schedule. )

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(RWM -Tantra about four months after her injury, now a yearling).

Thus ends this initial chapter of the sad tale of Tantra’s youth. A story of perseverance, hope, hard work, and gaining the trust of a young horse.

Part Two: The Story of a Broodmare, will be published on Monday.

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(RWM -A few more photos below of Jill and her beloved Tantra, as a yearling)

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