The Emperor's new clothes

Brennan modeling his first cover - Thought I would spoil the boy and rug him over the winter. He hardly needs a rug but if he is going to be broken in then I suspect it would be useful if he was also covered. That's my excuse and I am sticking to it! Please excuse piles of poo in photos - Brennan is a very tidy boy.

The shed is progressing nicely. The builders won't be back until late next week now so there is a lull in proceedings. I just hope the weather doesn't deteriorate too soon. It's looking good!! I'll do a shed blog in the next couple of days.

In other news (that always sounds so naff!), Missy has been scanned and confirmed in foal to Robbie (Woot!) although when that happened, I have no idea. This mare has twice now completely slipped under the radar with me. She clearly silent heats but the stallion who knows just covers her at night or when no-one is looking. Not going to complain, at least she is in foal.

The pink pony (Twinkle) went home yesterday. Unfortunately not in foal. She has fluid in her uterus so will need a good flush out pre-breeding this coming spring. Her owner has promised she will be back. I was not expecting her to be in foal so it came as no surprise really. She is an older mare and it was just so late in the season - Yes, it is a shame that Brennan will not have anything on the ground next season now but that's the way the cookie crumbles. I have had a couple of opportunities to do late breedings with him myself but have elected just to wait until early spring and get started then. No point in rushing things really and I already have enough mares to foal next season. He's a long term proposition and good things, as they say, take time.

Rox the orphan then and now ...

From this:

To this:
Doesn't she look great!

Rafferty

Rafferty is Maude's second foal by Hamish. He's now 5 years old and has been living in Wellington since he left us as a rising two year old. His human mum adores him so much that she has purchased his full brother/sister who is currently residing in utero. When I went to Wellington last week I stopped in to visit Rafferty and to see him under saddle for the first time. He was broken in quite late (as a R5yo) by Gavin Morison and has been under saddle a few months. His mum Claire is 30 weeks pregnant so Raff is being ridden a few times a week by Claire's friend/neighbour Jo.

Horse of the Year 2010

This year I went to The Horse of the Year show with a cyber buddy that I have 'known' for nearly 14 years yet only actually met for the first time last Wednesday. It was totally awesome!!!

It's a funny show because every year I go with every intention of total equine immersion yet I inevitably seem to spend more time chatting with the people I bump into and shopping than actually watching horses! We were there for all of Friday (9am until 11pm - and we slept in my Landcruiser in the carpark, lol!) and a good portion of Saturday. I managed to see the classes I really wanted to see which were the Clydesdale classes on the Saturday morning and I am now all enthusiastic about taking Meg along next year. Pretty sure we can definitely more than hold our own in the ridden section, although the in-hand section would be anyone's guess as that is very much down to the judge of the day and his/her preference for type. In particular I did enjoy watching tiny Emily Stroobant and Erewhon Bert together - Utterly gorgeous! The low light of the show was learning that one of the mares being shown had lost her foal to colic overnight. I think I spent about an hour in tears, especially whilst watching the mare and foal class and seeing the owner reduced to tears when the announcer explained the reason the mare was being shown with no foal at foot and watching the beautiful sweet mare as she watched and nickered to the foal that the other competitor in the class was showing - It was just complete tear your heart out stuff.

I took a few hundred photos and will share a random selection ...

Shetland Pony Grand National