Anything But Standard

... It's been a slow, freezing, and quite disgusting winter so far!!

We've well and truely broken the record for fatest selling horse: Within 30mins of advertising, the perfect home was found. Little Sonny (now known as Archer) will be heading off to his new home tomorrow, with the home we hand in mind for him all along ... Funny how things work sometimes! ... Unnamed and unraced - Sonny was sacked 3 weeks ago; Rising 3yo and measured at 14.1hh - this little tacker has the good life waiting!

Curly Wurly remains here (surprisingly) - and will probably be put in the spelling paddock soon to ride out the winter, then bring him back in for Summer and get him going to the 'basic education' stage. I'm sure he'll be very unhappy to hear he's heading out. haha.

When Curly goes out - Huey will come back in! He will most definitely be unimpressed - but we can't bear to part with him, and he's too good to be sitting in a paddock, so, he WILL be furthering his education, his ARC involvement, and competing...

I am dying to try out the new dressage saddle I bought, on the Huey-monster ... It is a 'soft tree' saddle, designed by Heather Moffett (http://www.enlightenedequitation.com/fhoenix.htm)  ... It's an amazing saddle to ride in, the only "fixed" tree part is the cantle, the seat and front arch are memory foam - which moulds to both the rider, and the horse ... I first discovered this saddle and rode in it, when attending the 5 day classical clinic with Marji Armstrong (http://www.classicalhorse.com/) .... I somehow managed to pick one up secondhand, that's barely been ridden in; Havana brown leather, smooth panels... Beautiful, beautiful saddle!! ...

Our 2 racemares are due early september (with another one due to foal down at Stud), so that's fast approaching! ... Time to repack the foaling kit with everything can could possibly think of that we'll need ... You never can be too prepared - one of our experienced mares resulted in a stillborn filly in an otherwise textbook birth last season... We were there for the whole thing: broke the sac as soon as the head was free, but after 60 seconds and still no breath, we started mouth-to-nose resussitation, and chest compressions .... There was a heartbeat, but try as we might, we just couldn't get the filly to breathe.... Anything can happen - so it helps to be as prepared as possible! ... Mother nature is a cruel thing sometimes.

But alas, to end on a happy note, here's Huey: