News
November
16th, Zoe has taken on Baby as a riding horse. Lets hope they have a lot of happy years together.
October
13th, Started to prepare Winnie and Gerry for the foal sales.
17th, Buck went through the sales. Unfortunately he didn't sell.
23rd, Finally, our last foal of the year is born. It is a colt and he is completely black except for white hairs inside his ears. We have named him Guinness, his registered name will be Guinness Tops.
31st, Arnie went through the sales. He sold. He has gone to join 2 of his sisters in a jumping yard.
September,
1st, We start to prepare Arnie for the sales. He is in a later sale at Tattersalls than Buck.
11th, Billy ran again. This time at Great Leighs. Unfortunately he finished last. But it was to short a trip and he didin't like all the kick back in his face, (and I don't blame him 1 little bit).
16th, We weaned Shebaan and Gerry. It is a little early, but Gerry is entered in the foal sales at Tattersalls with Winnie, and he must have enough time to get over the weaning before we start to prepare him for the sales. He took it really well.
27th, Billy ran for the last time this year. He ran at Wolverhampton. This time it was over a mile. Unfortunately another horse broke the start tape and it ended up wrapped around Billy's legs, so he got very upset, but the jockey got him back and he ended up running a brilliant race and finished 2nd. After all he had been through we couldn't have asked for more. All in all Billy has done us really proud this year,.He has done everything we have asked of him and done it very well.
30th, Billy comes home for a very well earned holiday. He will have the winter off, and then we will start again with him next year. Watch this space we have high hopes for him next season.
August
4th, Sherman went home.
We weaned Winnie from Loz. It went very well.
7th, Summer comes home. she has been away working. She was a companion to an orphaned foal on another stud.
18th, We start preparing Buck for the October yearling sales at Tattersalls.
We also start re-breaking Charlie. We are going to get a syndicate together, and put Charlie into training. If anyone is interested in joining the syndicate, please get in touch with me and I will let you know all the details.
27th, We weaned K.P. and Little Miss, again it went really well.
July
4th, Polly Pocket went back to france, home.
13th, It was a sad day as one of our owners lost their Mare through colic. She left behind an orphaned foal. We had actually delivered the foal earlier in the year and we named her Tye.
So Tye came back to us as our 5th orphan.
20th, Billy ran for the second time, This time it was at Newbury in a group 2 race, so it was a huge step up in class for him, but we just wanted him to have a good experience and run well.
Well he shocked and amazed us by finishing 2nd. we were so proud of him. Well done Billy.
June
13th, Baby comes home for a couple of months, so she can have some time to grow and mature.
14th, Penny foaled, she had a chesnut colt, (although we think he may go grey). Linda (who is the owner), her son Charlie has named the foal Indiana Jones, although I think he will get called Indie for short.
22nd, this is a first for Lynn and me. We give a lecture at Rossdale Equine Hospital on fostering the orphan foal. It went really well, although very nerve racking. We took KP and Missy to demonstrate on, Sherman came so people could meet a very well mannered orphan.
28th, Billy ran for the first time. he ran at hereford and finished 7th out of 10, which doesn't sound very good, but we were very pleased with him. It was his first run, the distance was to far and he ran very green.
May
2nd, Shebaan finally foaled 18 days late! She had a full brother to Baby, He is chesnut and we have named him Gerry.
3rd, Polly sanned in foal.
6th, Loz scanned in foal.
9th, This is a very, very sad day for us. Taz had to go to hospital to have her legs and joints scanned. They were in a very bad way and she must have been in so much pain, so we made one of the hardest decisions out. We had her put down. She will be greatly missed.
24th, our 4th orphan came in to be hand reared. She is a bay filly who we have named Polly Pocket.
28th, Penny (Palace Pett) came in to become one of our growing number of permanent boarders. She is in foal to an 1/2 irish draught stallion called Primative Star.
April
8th, we made the decision to retire K.P. She red bagged this year and then had a uterine infection, so all in all she had a bit of a rough time, so she will now become our nanny for the orphan foals that we get in, and hopefully enjoy her retirement which she thoroughly deserves.
17th, Polly gets covered by Doyen.
20th, Loz gets covered by Where or When.
28th, Billy goes back into training. Here's hoping.
30th, Alfie goes home.
March
9th, Summer got covered by Danny (he is the teaser at New England Stud). Summer is a pony, she was the first orphan which we hand reared and we have kept her so she can become a foster mare for us in the future.
19th, we turned Summer out with Alfie as a nanny, she was excellent. Hopefully this should mean she will make a brilliant foster mare in the future.
21st, our 3rd orphan Sherman came in. (there must be a thing for bay colts this year). We are hand rearing him.
24th, our first mare for AI comes in.
I don`t normally mention our seasonal boarders, but Tamalain has become one of our special regulars.
Last year when she foaled as a maiden, she rejected her foal. The foal was sent to us to be hand-reared; which we did for 2 weeks, then a foster mare became available so we fostered her on successfully.
Tamalain`s owner, Pauline asked us if we would foal her down this year, as we have had some success at getting mare`s to accept their foal`s after rejecting the previous year.
25th, Tamalain went into labour. When her waters broke I put my arm inside to discover the foal was lying upside down, now normally this problem will rectify itself, by the mare keep getting up and down and by the foal moving. It soon became apparent that this was not going to happen, so we called our vet Charlie. Charlie soon assessed the situation and then it was a mad dash to Rossdale`s Equine Hospital.
They we marvellous there, and under Charlie`s lead they soon got the foal out without having to go to surgery. That was such a relief for us all.
Now the hard work started. 2 hours after delivering her foal (although she was unconcious at the time, so was unaware of the birth) with the help of Lynn we introduced Tammy to her foal, named Blondie. After several hours of working with them Lynn and I left them happily together as mother and daughter. It was such an amazing outcome, not only did we get a live mare and foal, but Tammy accepted Blondie and loves her to bits.
26th, Tamalain & Blondie come home.
K.P. foaled, She had another brown filly who we have named Missy.
28th, Summer scanned in foal.
February
3rd, Treacle came home for a holiday, she has been doing really well, but we felt a break until the warmer weather comes would do her good, she is such a big filly that time won't go a miss either, it will give her chance to grow some more.
8th, our 1st orphan Chris Cross, a bay colt comes in to be fostered. The foster mare we are using is Lilly, we actually foaled her down last year and we told her owners we thought she would make an excellent foster mare, so they have loaned her to Newmarket Foster Mare Company. Lilly took to her new job with flying colours and her and Chris are getting on really well.
10th, our 1st foal of the year is born, he is a bay colt named Rabbit. Everything went well. It is nice to get the first one of the year out of the way.
12th, our 2nd orphan Alfie, yet another bay colt comes in, we are hand rearing him.
18th, Baby (Spanish Princess) goes into training with Jeff Pearce, here's hoping she does well.
22nd, Lilly and Chris leave, to go back to his stud up in Yorkshire.
25th, Loz foaled, she had a bay filly, which we have named Winnie
January 2008
2nd, Malcolm joined the team & what a great asset he is. I have know him for many years and he is excellent at the job and a great help.
5th, Billy came home for a working holiday. We are using him as our teaser as well as him having a break from training.
16th our first seasonal boarder arrives, she is in foal. Lets hope the 1st of many.
2007
Well another year is over! It was a mixed year really, we had some highs and we had some lows. Here are a few of the things that happened.
In 2007 we hand reared 10 orphans, carried out 3 successful fosterings, and delivered 22 healthy foals.
Taz had to be retired from racing because of her knees.
Treacle has gone into training and is showing alot of promise. Hopefully she will be running in the near future.
Billy, our arab teaser has been broken in over the winter and is doing really well, although at the moment we have brought him home for a holiday. He will go back into training in April to hopefully run in June or July.
Timmy (Pridie's foal) got sold at Tattersalls, while we decided to keep Buck (Loz's foal) & Arnie (Polly's foal) and sell them as yearlings at the end of 2008.
Charlie, who is K.P.'s 2yr old is being broken in at the moment by us, we will get him going then give him the summer off. Then in the autumn we will bring him back into work with a view to selling him off the track.
As for K.P.'s yearling, Precious, we have not made a decision about her yet, time will tell.
On a sadder note we lost 1 of our permanent boarders. Paris Tapis unfortunately got colic. The upside is her foal has done really well. She is called Pannie and is the spitting image of her mum, so we will always be reminded of Paris. Another 1 of our permanent boarders is Spanish Princess, (although we all call her Baby). She is a yearling out of Shebaan, (a permanent mare); has just been broken in by us over the winter and will be going into training at the end of January.
We have 2 of our own mares & 2 permanent boarder mares in foal for 2008, so we eagerly await the arrival of their foals.
Our eldest daughter, Zoe, has now left school, she is doing an apprenticeship course at the National Stud. She has done a 9 week course there and now has to do a 10 month placement which is being done at New England Stud. Hopefully in a few years she will be able to come home and run the Stud with us.
So lets hope we have a better 2008, please keep reading, I will try & up date more often with all our highs & lows. (Hopefully not to many lows this year).
In 2006 we sucessfully hand reared 6 orphans and carried out 2 sucessful fosterings.