January 2010

Well a rare month for us all, we are under deep snow and temperatures have dropped as low as -9c, all of our water pipes have frozen up, we are having to keep heaters on 24 hours a day in the tackroom to keep one tap running so we can fill the water troughs and bowls to all the barns and stables, this has added an extra 3 hours to our day's work, with my groom being off for the Christmas/New Year holiday, then her daughter at home ill and then Sarah herself off ill, it makes it a long day's work for me.

Sad to say but so far our high light has been the contractors coming in to trim all the high hedges which has really smartened the place up, and given us a glimmer of spring !!! Hmmm.... a long way off yet.

At long last the snow has gone and we can start lungeing the stallions again, our out door sand school has gone from being an ice rink to a pond ! so we can't do a lot with them.  At least the farrier can safely get to us now, so with several visits a week booked we should soon catch up with all the trims, and get on with repairs to burst pipes and split connectors, damaged stable doors, and do some more work on the partitions for the new barn. All in all quite an exhausting month.

February 2010

Thankfully the month has started with my groom Sarah back to work, she was missed very much, so we have rolled up our sleeves and got straight to work with our rising 3 year olds, lungeing, grooming, leading, picking up feet ready for the farriers visit, with extra help from Natalie, they have been well handled by several different people and good with everyone, they have all been measured so we can start to plan which will go forward to be graded as brood mares or stallions later this year.

Regular visitors to the stud will remember our older dog Bruce, he very sadly and suddenley passed away on Saturday 7th Feb. he is a great loss, he often appeared on many of my photographs as he never left my side ..God bless him.

Another cold spell of minus temperatures has prompted us to ship in another 6 tons of hard feed, enough shavings to clear a forest, and enough straw to bed down all the barns for several months, so bring on the cold spell we are well prepared !.

I have sold one of our stallions "MaceteroIX" to Bozena Bienkowska, to stand at stud in Glasgow, I just new this was a perfect match when I contacted Bozena to see if she would be interested in him, I am very choosey when it comes to selling a stallion, but this would be love at first sight for both horse and owner, we still have foals due by him for this year, and I am happy to report that the boy has settled into his new home extreamly well, and having the time of his life, and enjoying being ridden again.

Another frosty spell has given us the chance to do a bit of muck spreading, I appologise to our visitors as this has put muck and mud trails through the yard, along with all the snow that's due to thaw, not a pretty sight.  We are on a roll and now had our rising 2 year olds stabled for a week, to practice their lungeing, leading, and get lot's of grooming and handling done with them and have their hooves trimmed by our farrier, they are all growing very well and look fabulous, they have proved very rewarding to work with, and have all tried very hard and learnt a lot from their lessons.

I have also be trying out extra grooms to help out during the foaling season, so we can have someone on the yard to put some handling into the new born foals, I like the foals to meet as many new people as possible, so we need an extra nanny for them, it takes a kind, quiet, careing personality and lot's of patience to do this job, as it sets an example for life to a new born foal.

We have sold our rising 3 year old filly "Mill Gitana", she has passed the vetting and awaiting transport to her new home, where she will be backed this summer, I am very happy as I always wanted to see Gitana go on to be ridden she has fabulous movement, and very typical old type Spanish conformation, and is a pleasure to work with, she has learnt a lot with me and is now ready for bigger challenges.

February has been a good month and given us a chance to put a lot of time and work into our youngsters.

 March 2010

We have taken back two of our youngsters that were previously sold and are at present in our isolation stables for the month while having a few health checks and getting them upto par with the rest of our stock, before they can join the others.

We have chosen which colts we want to keep entire and which to castrate, so the vet has made a start and castrated the first two, the others will need a little longer, to be sure there is enough there for the vet to remove! we will then offer these for sale as geldings in the summer.  After a week of feeling very sorry for themselves and rather sore all has settled down and gone well.

Our wonderfull back lady Teresa has been out to check over the stallions to be sure they are comfortable and ready for the busy covering season ahead, and to do some physiotherapy with our yearling filly that had a fall, a bit of tweeking and she is in good shape.

Our three year old filly Mill Gitana loaded beautifully into the transporter, travelled well, and is now settling into her new home along with their Lusitano mares, we wish her well with Louise her new owner, and thank you to Kevin and Dan from ECS for doing a good job transporting her safe and calm.

We were very excited to take delivery of the handsome buckskin stallion Metano III, at the begining of this month from a dear friend and fellow breeder Sam Tilley, whom I can't thank enough for making this all possible.  I lost my father at the end of October 09, and was devastated, but Sam came up with the most wonderfull idea to cheer me up and make some plans for the year ahead, "Thank you so much Sammy", having friends like that make life very good indeed.  So we are busy covering some of our mares with Metano, which will give us February foals for next year, let's hope we don't have the snow we had this Februaury !!!

We are spending some "spare time", (that's a joke!) on fitting out a new barn to make some large individual pen's for the mares to move into when they have foaled, we have designed and built all the partitions ourselves so it's taking up a lot of time, but at least at the end of it we will have exactly what we need.

Our mares are getting close to their foaling dates, so we are now seperating them from their groups, so they can have some peace and quiet in their own stables, several of them are starting to get milk, so hopefully they will be on time, so our farrier is working overtime getting them all trimmed,and we are clipping their manes and tails, and trying to groom out their heavily moulting coats so they will be all smart when their foals arrive, and we won't need to bother them with much when their foals are new born.

We have brought a lovely new cream gene stallion, I have put a few of his details on the new's page, he is still in Spain, so he will be fun to get back home and get to work with.

A very busy month, but we are starting to get on the way for another year of stud duties.

April 2010

Well a very exciting start to the month, our new cream gene stallion has arrived on the morning of 2nd April, he has the most fabulous old pure Carthusian lines to his pedigree, but also to his type and build, I can't take my eye's off him and what a mover ! he is only 6 years old but has such a wise and noble look about and manner, yes, I think you can gather I am very taken by this fabulous chap, I will get to work, tonning him up, settling him in and tell you more about him next month.

The two fillies we took back early last month have now picked up well, Mill Fantasia has settled in with her group of yearlings and put on a lot of weight, Mill Bezar, had several health issues to address, but she is well on her way to being her old self, she has gained a lot of friends and well wishers that have visited the stud during March, so I will keep you updated on her, we have tried to introduce her to a group of two year olds that she was with before we previously sold her, but it was to stressful for her, so she will be kept stabled untill summer turn out.

We are setting up the camera's now in the foaling boxes, and moving the mare's in as and when they are ready, the first 8 all have lots of milk now, so it's just a waiting game for the foaling to start, I'm getting excited !!! ..... Well didn't have to wait long, 8th April and the first foal has arrived, out of Carambola VM, and by Mill Gravitar, a handsome shiny Bay Dun Colt named "Mill Destello" he is a strong, healthy lad so no problems at all with him.  On the 12th April we had to stay up all night as one of the mares was very restless, then our 2nd foal arrived, out of Mill Ovacion and by Consejero VII a fabulous Grulla Filly, marked like a zebra on her leg's we named her "Mill Melaza" she is the cutest little girl.  Then not to be left out our 3rd foal arrived on the same night, out of Mill Gastadora and by Macetero IX a very elegant Bay Dun/Greying Filly named "Mill Sevillana", both fillies are healthy and strong and didn't need any help, just a watchful eye over them.

Well there's one good thing about being up all night, we were ready early to get on with doing some field work, so we now have all the fields fertilized, a little late to say the least this year, after all the rain, but everyone's in the same boat ! (not literaly!).... no sleep for the wicked ! on the following night, 13th April we were up foaling down Aislada, she has given us a very nice Red Dun/Greying Colt "Mill Cordobes" by Mejicano XXIX, which kept us up late into the early hours, followed by a visit from our vet John Dickerson of Chine House to do the import papers for our new stallion "Kilate VI" and register our youngster Mill Fantasia as there had been a hold up with her paper work, and to scan a few of our mares that Metano has covered, so we are getting organised with a new breeding season.

Then a visit from our farrier to trim half of our yearlings, then more field work, so we are now catching up with that as well with the fields all harrowed ... guess what ? ... we need some rain now !!! never happy with the weather are we ?

On 14th April Mill Reina had her lovely filly "Mill Infanta" by Mejicano XXIX she had kept us waiting several days so it was very nice to deliver her safely.  So, another visit by the farrier to finish off the rest of the yearlings hoof trims and then worm them all and clip their manes off, we have decided to leave on their forelocks and tails, as several people are saying it is going to be a hot summer so they will need some fly protection,I do hope those people are right, I think we all deserve a decent summer after that winter.  Well we have sun shine and we are out putting up some new post and rail fencing around the new yard and foal turn out paddock, nothing like the sun to get us out there catching up on these jobs.

18th April very late at night and we have another stunniong Colt foal, a grullo out of Venecia and by Mejicano XXIX his name is "Mill Cacao" a very easy birth which we are so grateful for as energy levels are getting low now, way to many nights awake foaling but this is the best part of this job and I would never trust anyone else to deliver my foals for me, they are all far to precious, I would never forgive myself if a mistake was made.

Metano the buckskin is going to stay with us longer than we originally planned, and we are keeping him busy with extra mares to cover, which he seems to think is a great plan ...... but will I next Feb. and March when all these foals will arrive ???

On 20th April we were very happy to see the safe arrival of foal number 7 "Mill Carinosa" after a long stressful labour this filly was finally turned around in the birth possition and made her enterance into the world much to our relief and Lucera's, she was 20 day's late and very big, taking a lot of effort to get her out, she is by Neron XII and is a Bay/Greying.   While working one of the stallions in the sand school, I noticed Mill Diosa at the gate trying to catch his attention, she is in season, so has unfortunatly absorbed her foal over the winter, she would have been due to foal later in the year, and is a very big mare, and as with all of our brood mares they look very plump! so we were unsure with her, another good reason for always scanning mares twice, which we didn't do with Diosa.

On 24th April at a very sociable time of 11.30am our cremello mare Mill Danzante foaled, a stunning Buckskin filly named "Mill Rareza", by Mill Gravitar I turned her out in the paddock while mucking out, and shortly after noticed her change in behaviour, by the time I was leading her back in she was in labour and only just made it back to the stable, a very quick delivery and a very unusual coloured filly.   With the weather picking up so nicely and a few showers of rain, the grass has shot up, so we have now turned out 10 of out yearlings, all of our 2 year old fillies and all of out 3 year old fillies, and the later foaling mares after they were all wormed again, which with this many horses is like military manouvers !!!   With all hands on deck we got a good system going, and it's nice now to walk around all the fields and see them looking very happy in the sun shine tucking into all that grass, after that hard winter it felt like we would never get to this time of the year.

The contractors have been in to spray the weeds in the fields, so we can now leave the hay field to grow and we won't have to do anything else untill it's time to cut the crop.  On 28th April we have another foal born out of Aguja Artisita and by Mejicano XXIX a stunningly handsome Grullo Colt that I have named "Mill Carambo" he's one I have taken a real fancy to !

John our vet has been back out to castrate another 2 year old colt, and to check over Didi as she is nearly 4 weeks late foaling, it was very reasureing to know that all is well with her and the foal, she is just not ready to have it yet, so we just need to moniter her, and lucky for her the foal is not to big, then a few swabs and blood tests on one of the stallions, always a variety of job's for the vet to do when he visits, but John is now very used to dealing with the PREs from foals, yearlings etc upto the older horses, with the PREs conformation and development being quiet different to other breeds it is a great asset having a vet that knows the breed well.

Well April has been our busy month, with so much happening, but all is going well thankfully.

May 2010

We could hold off the visiting mares no longer, so the first one has arrived on 1st May, a beautiful cremello mare for our chestnut stallion Opalo des Ondes, she is in season so things are moving fast.  We are spending a few days getting all the stallions shampooed now we have some warmer weather and most of their coats have malted out, and catching up on re fencing around the farm while we have a few days off from foaling.  We have also had some visitors from Spain, wanting to view our stock and see what we are doing here, always a compliment when the Spanish are interested in our stud and stock, and our Dun breeding program and the research that is going into it, and very rewarding for us to have future Spanish customers for our homebred Dun stock.

Another beautiful visiting mare and her foal have arrived and she is waiting to be covered by our chestnut stallion Opalo, he's going to be a very busy boy this year.  Back onto foaling duties after a few nights of good sleep, on 5th May our mare "Mill Bailaora" had a stunningly unusual Peach Dun colt by "Mejicano XXIX", and the following day 6th May "Mill Afamada" gave birth to a Bay Dun filly by "Mejicano XXIX", both foals are strong, fit and healthy and doing very well, Afamada is keeping us on our toe's, she is overly protective with this foal and likes us to keep our distance!

We have had a lot of enquiries for horses, so we are trying to fit in a few visitors to come and view them, it was lovely for me to have a visit from Emma Thomas and James Smith and make time for a good catch up chat, with like minded people, we tend to keep so busy with doing our own thing, but it is always a good boost to hear what other people are doing, they had a look at my 2 year old boy's and have decided to buy "Esposo" before I got to put him up for sale on the website, I think he will be a very exciting project for them in the future, and I could not have wished for a better home for him.

My favourite mare Esplendida (Didi) has at long last given birth, five weeks late! to a Bay Dun colt by "Consejero VII" on 11th May, with him being so late, he was a bit squashed up and needed a hand to stand and drink and poo, but the vet has taken a look at both mum and foal and we are happy with everything, by the following day he is feeling frisky and strong, what a lovely sight to see.

Opalo is keeping busy with another mare being covered, and more waiting to be covered, he is just the most gentle, quiet easy stallion and brilliant with first time mares.  Our vet has been back to castrate the last 2 colts we want to get done, both are dealing with the healing process very well, they are both yearlings that we will offer for sale later in the summer.

Our lovely brood mare "Camisa", that has been with us for 8 years, and produced many wonderful foals for us has been sold to Carolyn Roberts to start her breeding project and expand her growing group of PREs, Carolyn and her father came to view her and Camisa felt very happy with her and gave her a big snuggle, so I hope they will have a long and enjoyable future together, she is just waiting to be transported.

Time to have a good clean up of the stables and yard and doing some lungeing and training up of the horses we are putting forward for grading, we have left this a little late to get them ready this year as we have been so busy with foaling's and I didn't have enough empty stables for them ..... no excuse I know! it's a real pet hate of mine to see a badly turned out horse, or bad manners when a horse is presented for grading, so we are working over time on them giving them several trainning sessions per day, they need to be sensible in any situation they are faced with.

On 21st May our mare "Lacaya" foaled on her due date, she has given us a very unusual colour colt, he's as striped as a zebra, he's by "Mejicano XXIX" and I've named him "Mill Oriundo" he is a beautiful boy.

Well grading arrived, there was a delay due to hold ups with a traffic accident, but thankfully the grading commision arrived here safe, we only put 4 horses forward this year, as we have been so busy, and didn't want to breed with all 9 of our possible grading hoprses, first up was "Mill Sonador" our 3 year old Double Dun colt, then "Mill Fuega" our 3 year old Red Dun filly, then "Mill Sequita" our 3 year old Grulla filly, and finally "Mill Ascua" our 3 year old Grey filly who proved to be our star of the day, who won top vote, we are so proud of them, they all happily passed and are now Apto/breeding stock, and all out training paid off they were beautifully behaved.  Our 2 year old gelding Aguja Esposo that we have sold was also collected on the same day, he loaded well and is off to a new life with Emma and James in Northampton.

We have spent a few day's taking photo's and getting a few adverts ready to put on our website, time to offer a few of our horses for sale.  On 28th May we had another foal born in the evening, a colt that we have named "Mill Ruso" out of "Mill Pequenez" and by "Mill Gravitar".  Our stallion "Kilate VI" that arrived here from Spain at the beguining of April has settled in well and is starting to take shape, he was on the plump side and very unfit, so we have been taking things slowly with him, but we are now planning to cover our mares with him from next month onwards.  "Mill Bezar" our 2 year old that came back to us in March is now starting to look stunning and every inch the very special and rare colour that she is, she is attracting a lot of attention from visitors, I feel within this next month she will be at her prime for the summer, so we will update the website again with new photos soon.

May has been a very busy, but very successful month for the stud.

June 2010

The month has started with glorious sun shine, to remind us just what a great job we have during the summer months.  All the stallions have just been visited by the farrier again for their trims and new shoes, Kilate arrived from Spain fully shod so we have removed them just in time for him to cover his first mare with us, the rest of his mares are playing hard to get ! so we have threatened them with a visit from the vet to sort things out ! he likes to take his time with the mares, so we will give him this season to practice on our own mares and get him into a routine that suits him, .... Well, the vet threat worked he's just finished with his first mare and the next one is in season, he's getting to grips with a routine already !and several other mares are also in season to keep the other stallions occupied, so it's all systems go, with more visiting mares also arriving.

Well it's that favourite time of the year for me I get to hand over the reins and leave others in charge here and go and totally indulge myself at the Download Rock Festival, which we host on home ground, and well and truly needed to recharge my batteries and indulge in the other great passion in my life, and meet up with friends old and new.

Camisa one of our broodmares has now been collected and off to carry on her duties as a broodmare for Carolyn Roberts, we wish you a very happy future and many lovely foals from her.  We have been trying to fit in as many visitors as possible, there has been a lot of interest from people new to the breed that have enjoyed meeting all the horses and learning more about the breed and also people that are now ready to look at having another PRE, but everyone that has visited all have a soft spot for the foals, thank you to you all for the lovely comments on our horses, it makes me very proud of them, and worth all the long hours spent with them.  We have sold one of this years foals to one of our visitors, she has managed to fit in a couple of trips to see him as we can't wean him untill September, I hope you can be patient Kathryn?.

Thanks to advertising on the internet, an old family friend Tom White has by chance contacted me and made the journey up from Devon with his girlfriend Nicola to visit us, Nicola very much liked one of our mares Inesperada and they have decided to have their first PRE, she is a wonderfully kind mare, so I am sure they will be very happy, and what a lovely surprise to meet up and reminise about our youth !!!

Well June has been a great month for meeting lot's of people and introducing them to our wonderful breed of horses, we have covered many mares and the horses are enjoying our Spanish like weather.

 July 2010

Well a very pleasant start to the month, with a visit from a fellow breeder, Helena Berrisford and her daughters to look at some of my Mill Gravitar colts, they all agreed that my 2 year old buckskin colt Mill Barroco with his deep golden colour and shining irridecent gene was the man they were looking for and have brought him to continue their cream gene breeding herd, and I couldn't have wanted a better home for him, I'm as excited as they are to see what he produces for them.

Our extra summer help has started work with us again, Abi, she has been helping us for many years now, so we are going to spend this month handling all the young foals, it's great to have a few different people around them to build up their trust.  I have been to buy wormers in bulk so we can give them all their first worming. Our lovely broodmare Mill Aguila has foaled a week early at 4.00am on 3rd July she gave birth to a stunning dark red dun colt, he is such a handsome boy.

Our vet has been out to scan another bunch of our mares, a few more in foal for next year, and everything seem's to be in working order with our new stallion Kilate, he also had his teeth checked after damaging one, and a few routine checks on some of our colts, always good to know that hearts, lungs, eye's, testicles and general health is in good order if they are to go on to be breeding stallions for the future. 

Our 2 year old buckskin colt Mill Barroco, has been collected by Helena, he loaded into the trailer for the first time in his life, as if he had done it everyday, and off to his new life, we will miss him a lot and look forward very much to seeing his future foals, Good luck Helena, have fun with him.

Sarah our groom is doing a fabulous job with the foals, she is spending so much time playing and working with the first bunch of 5 babies, so we can have them ready for when the vet comes to do their registrations next month, all have had their first headcollars on, picking feet up, worming, and lot's of cuddles so they feel safe and secure around people, it's very rewarding watching their progress over the day's from coming in all fiesty, to building a calm loving trust of Sarah within day's, they call to her and come to meet her at the gate everyday to be brought in for their lesson.

Abi our summer helper has had to go to Belgium for RAF training, they do a good job of keeping her fit for us ! we'll miss her, and don't envy the hard training she will be put through ! she'll be back in a couple of weeks. We are still working our way through covering the mare's, we have another 4 in season this week, we are also taking more new photo's to update adverts and youngstock on the website, they grow and change so much over the summer. We have had swarms of horse fly's this month and a wasp nest in the horses shower room !!!

We have just scanned our brood mare Duna, she is in foal to Consejero VII, and we have sold her to my good friend Karen King to join the Warhorse stud, she has been collected along with Karens cremello mare that was here visiting, and as always great to see Karen again and have a good horsey chat and of course show her all the foals .... have you been tempted Karen ?

With the weather chopping and changing from heat wave to tropical down pours ! we have found a window of a few days to get our haylage cut, and as I write the sun is shining and the lads are out there bailing and wrapping, so it will deffinatley be another perfect crop, to keep the stallions happy for the next year, let's just hope there's plenty more being made locally for me to buy in to keep the mares and youngstock well fed. That then creates our next job, once the haylage is off the field, re fence it after last winters building project so I can move some of the horses onto it for a few months !

Well we have had a blitz with pregnancy scans and worked our way through a lot of the mares, we were very lucky to catch a set of twins at 23 day's and our vet was able to pinch out one, so we will need to re scan her again to be sure all is going well with the remaining pregnancy.  We also re scanned Galera, who we previously scanned positive at 17 day's, she is now 116 day's this was just amazing, to be able to see so much detail, rib cage, spine, heart, intestine, stomach, limbs, head in such detail, absolutley fasinating ! I can't wait to meet this little chap in another 7 months .... I've already made my mind up that it's a buckskin colt .... and I will have a list of possible names by tonight !

We have our extra help Abi back a little lame after completing a 100 mile march, but just in time to take over so Sarah our main groom can go off on her holiday, she'll be back early next month and I have lot's planned, I'm really missing her, work is so much fun when she's here.

My very dear friends Linda and Joaquin Rodriquez have been to spend the day with us, as a lot of you will know both of them are international judge's, Joaquin breeds and trains to the highest level, he bred my old stallion Euclides and taught me everything I know about riding and training Spanish horses, so I am in my element when they come to visit and look over my stock, many of which come from their bloodlines, it's great to have their opinion on what I am breeding and to seriously dissucuss all points of conformation, and the colours that we are breeding, and of course a good reason to go out for a lazy lunch and talk over things, what a perfect end to the month.

August 2010

A busy start to the month, clearing all the haylage bales from our field, fetching in outside hay, another 3 ton of feed to unload by hand ! no one's favourite job !

We decided to have a day trip to the BAPSH breed show on the Sunday to meet and chat to lots of friends we don't get to see very often, along with the perpetual Millpark trophies we sponsored 3 class's, 2 year old PRE fillies, 2 year old PRE colt's and 1-3 year old part breds, Congratulations to those that won the class's.  It was really nice to see how well our homebred stock had come on, and other horses that we have sold on, a big thank you to their owners for takeing them along to the show we enjoyed watching your class's, and as alwlays I found it very interesting talking to judges and comparing thoughts and views on horses.

Back to work on the farm, we have sorted out the fencing in the hayfield so we can move some of the young mares on there to top up their growing spurt ! With a good 4" of new grass, they will be in horsey paradise !  We have also put up the yorkshire boarding on the new barn, it feels very cozy in there now, and adds the finishing touch to it.

Inesperada (Prada) has been collected by Tom and Nicola to make the journey down to Devon, she has spent the last few weeks here going over her training, lunging, being tacked up etc. so she is ready to start the next chapter of her life, and it will be great knowing that we will keep in touch and get progress reports on her, she is such a lovely kind horse, she has found a good match in her new owners.

Catching up on more odd jobs around the place, time to tidy up the now very big leylandi trees around the front yard, a bigger job than we thought, and not a lot of fun in the rain ! they are taking over the fencing, the yard, the skyline !!!

On Sunday 8th August our homebred mare Mill Unica foaled at 6.00am, 11 days early, she has produced a stunningly gorgeous Red Dun filly foal, I just couldn't be happier with her, she is the first foal from our chestnut stallion "Opalo des Ondes", so a lot of people have been waiting with excitement to see what he produces, and I'm very happy to say, they wont be dissapointed.

Great, Sarah is back to work, so we are full steam ahead, bedding down the barns, moving all the 2 and 3 year old fillies to what is now a really lush green hay field, they are in horsey paradise !  our 2 yearling geldings have finished their growing spurt and are ready to be turned back out with the others, we've brought in a couple of yearling colts also having a growing spurt and needing some good feed and vitamins to help them along, a few mares to bring up to tease with the stallion, and the fly's are still annoying the horses we have found a couple of products that are great for soothing bites and itches, but nothing seems to keep them away!  The yard and paddocks are all cleared of the tree trimmings. so the inquisitive foals don't try to sample them! and I have removed all the scottish thistles near the sand school, as one of the stallions was convinced we had rattle snakes ! he now thinks I'm his hero for rounding them up and removing them !

Another visit by the farrier to shoe and trim the stallions, and a few more visits booked in to keep on top of the job,  Trimming up a few manes and tails and dealing with fly bites and shampooing the stallions.  We have just covered another mare and would like to try and put Unica back into foal, so a few late July foals for next year!

We are taking advantage of the odd sunny day to take more photo's of the youngsters, they grow and change far to quickly it's nice to keep a photographic record of the foals coats changing colour, with us specializing in the original old Dun coats, these pictures are of great interest to the colour genetisists working on the research of this very old original colour of the breed, we are so lucky that so much of the paper work exists from the 17th century, clearly documenting these colours in the major breeding studs, I am very proud to be able to put photographs of the horses I have produced along side.

Well Unica came into season, so Opalo has been busy, we are spending a lot of time handling the foals again, they are coming on so well now but with 5 mares and foals at foot stabled it's a lot of extra work to get done, the vet has now been out to do the registration's of the first 5 foals, papers, blood tests, microchips etc. and I am so pleased with all the hard work that Sarah has put in. they all behaved perfectly not even a flinch with having their blood samples taken or microchips put in, they stood like statues, what a fantastic job she has made of making them such well behaved little darlings!  We also scanned a whole bunch of mares lots of good new's with plenty in foal and some sad new's, Carambola that was scanned in foal with twins earlier, has reabsorbed the 2nd foal, I was looking forward to hopefully getting a full brother to my home bred stallion Rescoldo, but it was not to be! and it's a little to late in the year for us to try again with her.

We have our lovely yearling colt Mill Brio advertised and have had such a lot of enquiries for him, first to arrange a visit was Shelley Enoch and there was a lovely conection between them straight away, she went away and came back a couple of days later, I so wanted her to have him that I held all the other enquiries off untill she came back to see him again with Belinda Joyce, by which time she had already made plans for the rest of his life, all of which I am so happy with, he is a true gentleman for his age. and has a great new owner and home to move to early next month, Thank you Shelley and Belinda it was really good to see you both after so long.  What a happy end to the month !