October 2005

What a year it has been for us

We spent five weeks in Europe during April and May.  We saw some amazing sights (including the Fairytale castle of King Ludwig, Neuschwanstein), were present at a historical event (we were sitting in St Peters Square when the new Pope was elected), met some amazing people, visited some significant, and sobering, historical sites (Anzac Cove at Gallipoli,  Dachau Concentration Camp just outside Munich and Berlin) and beautiful cities (Rome, The Vatican, Florence, Barcelona. Paris, Prague, Zurich, Lucerne, Venice, Athens and Istanbul) and finished with a couple of days in Singapore where we got to handle and fly some birds of prey.  So first the obligatory holiday snaps ...

Once the holiday was over and we had settled back in at home we decided we needed to start thinking about the future of our breeding program.  After careful consideration we have decided that as we have a number of his daughters in our herd and as some are about to enter the broodmare paddock it is time for our much loved stallion, Overture, to be moved on to new pastures. Therefore the search for a suitable replacement commenced.  

Having set our criteria, (type, pedigree and preferably bloodlines that weren't already represented in New Zealand) Carolyn spent many hours trawling the internet until we finally got down to a short list of six stallions, all located in the USA.  After careful evaluation we made the decision to purchase ERL Reflection of Revenge who will be with us late November.  This young stallion's pedigree is exceptional and includes some of the greats of the American Miniature Horse World.  Since purchasing Reflection he has attended the AMHR National Show (nearly 1700 horses) and comes to New Zealand as the AMHR 2005 National Champion Yearling Stallion.

Reflection may be standing at stud by private treaty to a limited number of outside mares this season.

Just after having committed to purchase Reflection the opportunity presented itself for us to add a yearling filly to the herd, Bluegables Wizards Moonbeam.  Moonbeam comes from a maternal line that has been very successful in the show ring in both New Zealand and Australia and via her dam, Meridians Desert Moon (Imp. USA), brings some new blood into our breeding program.  Watch for her in the show ring this season.

On the sales side we welcome Jessie Waite as an owner of an Arcadia horse with her purchase of Arcadia Knight Raider and wish her all the best with her new friend, Kit.

It hasn't all been about purchasing or selling new horses:

With the show season rapidly approaching the prospective show team has been in for some time, we have been spending time evaluating who will make the team and who will get to stay home.  Rough clips have been done to see what is underneath the winter coats (its a bit like unwrapping a present!) and the feed regime adjusted in consideration of each horses condition.

Foaling is nearly upon us.  We don't have any foals on the ground as yet, unfortunately Dee (Little Miss Daisy) slipped her foal - a well marked pinto colt to Monarch.  Thankfully she appears to have come through it okay. These things happen but they don't seem to get any easier to deal with.  Cameo, our first mare due, is now showing signs so the foaling alarm has gone on her.  Its also breeding time so we have been spending time deciding who will be going to which stallion, teasing mares as well as working with the stallions. 

We lost a dear friend, Ebony, our Samoyed, in the middle of September.  She had been with us for nearly seventeen years so had had a good innings - this didn't make it any easier to deal with though.

Remember if you are in our part of the world you are always welcome, it doesn't take much to get us to put the kettle on.

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