Nearly finished!

Well trailer number one is still a work in progress but the light at the end of the tunnel is now visible!  Firstly the "new floor" (anyone want some garden decking?) was ripped out, the chassis was sanded down and red leaded.

Then the floor was replaced with two layers of 18mm marine ply that were painted with bitumen and finally topped with Quattro rubber... (we had some fun shaping that!!)

Then the trailer was painted inside and out, making it a much smarter rig all round and nice and light inside.

Sadly the "I love my pony" sticker was lost in the renovation!  The new partition is made and is in the process of being painted and then this trailer will be on Ebay, so if anyone is looking for a three horse trailer for polo or hunting (beat the credit crunch, flog the wagon!!), give us a shout!

Cannibal Criollo!

Colin at five weeks old.

JR about eleven weeks old.

Looking like he's going grey and much larger than when we dropped him off at Rachan Stud at the end of June!

Anyone got any gopher wood?

Yes I haven't blogged much despite having things to blog (Moo and JR coming home, JR being the size of an elephant and grey...!) thats because we've been busy building an ark.

Just incase anyone is wondering - No I REALY don't want to know how lovely the weather is with you - We are on the edge...!!!

Busy few days!!

Another day, another trailer!  This time we shot down country to pick up a Sinclair three horse. On the way home we stopped off and stayed at Sian and Sebastian's and got to meet Lucas for the first time.

Beautiful weather in the morning so chukkas were very civilised.  Mark rode the fabulous Fatima.

As always lots more photos here! - "Chukka's"

Then Mark sat on the horses that are for sale on the yard.  First up, big horse Ruby.  Very weird to see Mark look "small" on something!!

Then Andrew's horse Max. 

Then back up the road and into the monsoon.....

I caught one....

I caught my very first fish... all be it out of Sebastian's lake which probably has more fish in it than water!

Good size though huh?!!! 

Mabel (Carter Bar) scans in foal to Exbury Ghost, due the end of June 2010.  Unfortunately Bridget scanned empty so she'll be broken in once Malambo has been weaned and do a bit of work over the winter instead.

Candid Camera....

Best Pals.

Kiss!

Very Flattering!

Jeannie at three and a bit months!

Steve and Bob have just sent me the most recent photos of Jeannie (Exbury Ghost ex Kofi) who was born at the end of April.  Unfortunately she has an injury to her near hind so we will never get to know what the hunter judges would have made of her but it is really interesting to see a Nico foal out of a large competition mare, in my opinion its been a very nice cross.

She now has stripy hooves, mottled skin and the appaloosa eye but I don't think I'm much the wiser as to what colour she'll end up!  

I was wrong......!

Not the most fabulously flattering photo of Viscacha but quite an interesting one... As her foal coat is coming out Viscacha is clearly roan.  Now Arrayan's breeder Numa said she would go roan based on her very first foal photos at hours old.  Honestly?  I didn't see it!!  So Viejo you were right!

Now that means that Arrayan had three foals this year and three are roan and I find that fascinating.  Obviously its not a huge sample to base any predictions on but I have always wondered if Arrayan could be homozygous roan.  It was always thought that homozygous roan horses were lethal in the embryonic state, i.e. they simply didn't exist but there are cases of Hancock Quarter Horse stallions that had 100 - 150 foals all of which were roan...

This is quite a good short article - Roan Genetics

Well Arrayan's sire, dam and all the siblings I've seen photos of are roan and his foals are all roan so far so as yet it could be a possibility.  There is no test for Roan at this time so we will just have to wait and see how his next crop of foals turn out and in the meanwhile it will be interesting to what shade Viscacha ends up!

Snigger....

Having sold our Ifor Williams trailer on Ebay we decided to keep an eye out for a three horse Rice.  Well one did come up, not particularly well listed and we didn't really know what it was like as there was only one photo that didn't give a lot of clues!! 

Anyway we won it and last week we shot up to Huntly and picked it up, stopping off at my dads for dinner (delicious, thanks Marion) and to crash the night.  Anyway the trailer is sound and Mark has been busy this week stripping out the floor, sanding it all down and he is now painting it but what made me snigger... lots... was that Mark had to drive for six hours with the following sticker on the jockey door...  

Darling that is just "so you"!!  

I don't think it will survive the overhaul.

Getting good at spotting them...

I am developing an uncanny knack of looking at a horse for sale and thinking "thats a Nico foal" - luckily this has always been proceeded by "that's nice"!!

So if anyone is looking for a riding age gelding the following advert is on Horse Quest.

Chestnut Snowflake Appaloosa Quarter Horse, approx 15.2hh, just turned 4 years

Going well on flat, lovely trainable attitude and lovely natural paces

Jumping small grid

Would excel in any sphere, lots of potential for a competent rider to bring on

£6,750 ono

For more details call: 07979 680897 (located in Dorset)

Pet Nanny Snapping!!

I have just spent two days having a ball with Pet Nanny (aka Caroline Howlett) photographing all the dogs she walks...

There were small dogs -

And slightly bigger dogs - 

Working dogs - 

And a fair few pet dogs - 

And we even snapped a few horses along the way!

To browse the other 600 or so shots click here "Pet Nanny Photos"

Huge thanks to Caroline and Sam for all their organisation, to Bruce for his lovely meals and to Caroline for taking one of my favorite photos... 

Me and my trusty photographers assistant "Taggart"