Welcome and all that Jazz

Well as I am hoping that Ness is the only one that will find her way to this blog it will be a rather tongue in cheek effort of my first year as a stallion owner/grazing owner.

On the early hours of sunday morning a few weeks ago I was thrust into the world of horse grazing ownership with a rather large wake up call. I went from having 2 lovely TB geldings (with huge amounts of issues) to having 13 horses shoved onto me over a period of a few days. First came a pile of SB broodies and a few added extras and then the colt and wee gelding and another racehorse THEN another couple of TB mares from chch arrived. So as the land doesnt go through until the 31st of this month (which is a whole nother story) we had to juggle horses around to fit everyone I am just lucky that the owner of the horses was pretty cool about the whole situation.

So in my tribe I now have Blake and Felix (my 2 "special" geldings) my pride and joy
Brecon Bach Paladin
Perlino Section a welsh colt

Flying Dynasty
By Flying Pegasus
Out of Dynex
A TB mare she is 6yo and although not the prettiest she is lovely to handle and a sweetie in the paddock and she is of a very nice build. We should get a buckskin baby out of her when we bred her early in the 2009/10 season.

KC, Who I am inclined to call Keep Calm as thats just what we need to do with her
By Asti Bay
Out if Ten Pages
KC Is a 10yo TB mare that was basically unhandled until her last owner got her and her dam at 8yo and she is now a cool mare to have around but very much a baby type needing alot of quiet time and handling for her to get her confidence up. I am looking forward to what she gives me as she is a lovely mare to look at and has great conformation and movement and she should give us another buckskin when served early in the season.

Majestic Rose
By His Royal Highness
Out of Roses Forever
She is another 6yo TB mare and is just lovely. She is nothing WOW but she is again a lovely horse to have in the paddock and is one of the first to come up and say a big HI she is of rather stocky build so hoping to get a dilute solid foal out of her when she is bred.

Highbridge Times Two
By It's about time (GP SJ)
Out of Isis (Intermediate Eventer sold to Tahiti, Stationbred/TB)
Pep is a 2yo filly that is the most lovely horse to have around she is approx 15.1 now and has the most beautiful head, sadly as an 18mth old she sustained an injury to her fetlock and has got some rather nasty looking scarring that sadly would put paid to her "showing" days which is a shame as she is lovely. I am debating what to do with her as she is partly broken in so I am hoping to finish the job and see how she goes. Eventually she will be put in foal to Binky however I am going to get her out under saddle first. As a sport horse she has lovely breeding and both her parents a phenominal jumpers in their own rights.

I also managed to pick up for Aaliyah and her friends a wee old SB mare. She is 29 yo and she is reg as Rain Hall. She has spent alot of her years as a trekking pony and is ready now to take things slowly and just cruise. She is super quiet and loves the little ones and I am hoping that she will be able to teach Aaliyah a few things about how to act around horses. She will spend her last years here at Willowdown and when Aaliyah starts on Toby Mecca will be retired to be the nana of the youngstock that we will have gracing the paddocks. As she has a wonderful nature but yet will still put the other youngsters in their place.

I also managed to aquire (read BRIBE) a stunning (In my opinion anyways) Black Section A welsh gelding. The owner really didnt want to sell it so we have done a deal. The catch phrase of the week is "Have I got a deal for you" and when I hear that I am in two minds on whether to listen or run for the hills. Listening has proved rather beneficial to us so far so best I start listening a bit more huh.

Toby (the wee welsh fellow) will be Aaliyahs pony once he is finished getting broken in and I cant wait to take him and the colt out inhand and see if others like them as much as I do. Toby is by Llanfairbryn Best Man (imp) out of a nice mare Lorien Flowergirl who is by Glynmawr Elderberry. He is bred by the lovely folk at Verona Lodge so I am hoping that he does big things that wee man.

We have our first show with Binky (Brecon Bach Paladin) and Toby at Nelson breeders show on the 15th Feb 09. I went down to the paddocks yesterday to give them a big tidy up and pulled the young boys manes, I am really needing to get myself sorted on this showing welshies thing as they are shown au naturelle however I dislike long manes so much. Even the SB broodies that arrived have all had their manes cut off I just lacked the shearing comb at the time to finish them off so they look rather rude at the mo cut off.

Binky is lovely to handle which I am pleased about no fire breathing stallion here as yet. He loves having a brush though is quite keen on knowing where his mare is. However when told to stand his rather happy to stand there and be brushed and messed around with.

I was rather concerned about this learning the breeding game however I have been reading alot on the net and I have spoken to a few people who I regard rather highly in the breeding game and I am feeling confident that we can make a real go out of the breeding side of things. We will only have 2-3 mares foaling this season but next season its all go with the serving side of things and I am very keen to see what Binky will produce as we know he is tested to produce Buckskin. Pally and smokey black to mares that he serves so I am hoping that he will attract a good book of mares.