Creating the Next Letter

The farm has been a sanctuary of noise for the past couple days because The Silva Project has started to put the mares in foal. Of the three stallions that are at the farm, we plan to have at least seven mares be pregnant before the winter. As of now, a black stallion named Vangellis has been paired with a brown mare named Stacy, but just the presence of a male near all of the ladies has caused quite a commotion! Throughout the night and day, the slightly unsettling sounds of the mare squealing at the stallions (and vice versa) pierce the humid air. Horses in paddocks on either side of the “brooding paddock” also flock to the fence that they share to flirt and wail at the stallion as well.

However, Stacy is having nothing to do with Vangellis at the moment. It is slightly reminiscent of “Gone with the Wind” (which I watched for the first time this week!), because Stacy, like Scarlett, puts on airs and struts over to Vangellis to woo him. When he finally notices her, she promptly turns around, kicks him in the face, and trots away. Vangellis, being the persistent gentleman that he is, simply waits until Stacy figures out that she loves him, but not before being distracted by all of the other mares that would be throwing themselves at him if there were not a fence.

This is an exciting time because The Silva Project did not produce any foals for the past year and a half due to lack of space to house them. Hopefully in a little more than a year, there will be new babies that will perpetuate the goals of The Silva Project. A poster on the wall of the barn serves as a constant reminder of the progress the project has made so far, and of the progress that is yet to be made. At the top of the chart are the original mares that stared at the Villa Silva, all named after gemstones. Second on the list are the three stallions, and then the rest of the list are all of the babies that have been born since The Silva Project began in 1998—the names of the babies produced every couple years correspond with letters in the name of The Silva Project. The list is the following:

First Mares: Lapis, Ruby, Pearly, Rose, Emily, Erato, and Sapphire

Stallions: Leonidas, Vangellis, Ikaros

Babies produced since then:

S—Sam, Shaun, Samantha, Sandra, Silverstar, Sophie, Stacey, Sunshine

I—Ianthi, Indi, Ioli, Iris, Isabella, Ivor, Iggy

L—Linda, Loukas

V—Vamoos, Velvet, Victorus

A—Allie, Angel, Aeolos, Alfie

The word “Project” is yet to have names corresponding to it, but I am already thinking of names that start with “P” (Penelope, Plato, Philip, Pegasus, Page, Pam, Paris…) in hopes that we will have all seven to name by this time next year! I’m excited to see the beginning of a new generation of Skyrian ponies!