ENGLISH TEXTS
or bucket without companions. The bucket is preferable because it can be set down and you can walk away. With a bottle, foals end up seeing the human as their mother.” Bénédicte Barrier observes a transformation in foals as soon as they are adopted:“ Before that they wait for their bottle, sleep and are not very active. But as soon as we place them with a mare they wake up, bucking and galloping around their new mother in the box. It’ s systematic! Suddenly we are nothing to them. It’ s truly a tragedy to raise a foal without a nurse mare.”
HOW MUCH DOES IT COST?
At Haras de la Cauvelière, the adoption package is billed at € 2,700 including VAT. Additional costs may apply if the foal requires specific care. At Haras de la Cour du Chasseur, an adoption is billed at € 3,200 excluding VAT by Equitechnic, plus € 45 per day for the foal’ s keep.
10 % At the start of its life, a foal must drink the equivalent of at least 10 % of its body weight every 24 hours— 6 to 8 litres for a newborn— divided into 500 to 700 ml every two hours, day and night.
Support Platforms Various websites and social media accounts help put breeders seeking a nurse mare in touch with those who have one available. All of the above services are free of charge.
RECIPE
A PROMISING MONTUS
BY MATHILDE HULOT-TINON
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It’ s not too late! Unstable winter temperatures call for a good tannic red, ready to warm both body and mind after a solid outdoor walk. Head for the South-West of France, south of Bordeaux, to an appellation renowned for its great reds: Madiran. It also happens to be on the way to the ski slopes. Driving down toward the Pyrenees on the D935, you can easily spot, on your right between Aire-sur-l’ Adour and Tarbes, just after Cahuzac, the cellars of Châteaux Montus and Bouscassé. A stop is a must: not only are some truly great wines made here, but visitors are also warmly welcomed year-round, whatever their tastes. Vineyard tour, cellar visit, the Château Montus( listed as a historic monument), and the gardens. And if you feel like going further: tastings and pairings with bite-sized local delicacies. This Montus 2020 is the beating heart of both estates, the timeless icon— the one that shook up Bordeaux’ s great wines in the mid-1980s. It is a dark wine, almost black with violet highlights, with refined tannins, notes of blackberry and blackcurrant, great smoothness on the palate, a velvety texture reminiscent of the softness of the hair beneath a horse’ s chest, still very young in beauty, like a two-year-old full of promise. Drink now or cellar in a good wine cellar. And for those ready to break the piggy bank, the bottles to treat yourself to are Montus Prestige, La Tyre, or XL, the estate’ s top cuvées.
A wine by whom? Alain Brumont is a visionary. He raised the Madiran appellation to a level of quality and international stature. He tamed tannat, a fiery grape variety, tough, hard to handle, as full-bodied as you could wish, and softened it by aging it in large foudres, demi-muids and barrels. Because time and patience are what shape great wines. Now at the age of reason( nearly 80), Madiran’ s visionary has passed the torch with elegance to his son-in-law, Alain Veiry, a talented guy who trained in the best cellars before returning to his father-in-law’ s estate. The manager, just as fiery as his tannat, faces every challenge, especially climate-related ones. To soothe the sun’ s burn, shade canopies have been planted: trees to cast shade over the vines.
The crazy pairing A tannic grape variety from Béarn, tannat would naturally seem drawn to a dish in
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