Happy New Year!

As I round up 2012 I feel I should resist mentioning the weather, the bloody awful, pigging constantly pissing it down weather, there we go, hardly mentioned it at all!

You just have to keep your sense of humour and squelch on really.  On the plus side we had seven nice new foals, all fillies, we saw the Northern Lights over the stud, bought Fatima the wonder Criollo from Sebastian (my nagging wore him down) and her trusty side kick Llamita.  Oh and I hacked out a camel and kissed a reindeer...

Santa is kind to Criollos!!

Chamfron Angel Dust - 19 Months Old.

Getting on great with Kayreen.

Chamfron Tizona in tinsel...

Photoshop would be easier!!!

Happy Christmas from Chamfron Stud!

Festive Horses

All getting in the Christmas spirit, the bay (Chamfron By Dand) and the chestnut (Chamfron Firefly) are owned by Rebecca Crump and the palomino is Midas (by Exbury Ghost) and owned by Carol McLean.

Don't call it a gasmask...!

Davina the David Brown is getting reluctant to start on a cold morning, Gretchen the Dodge is dragged in as a "electricity donor" and generally Davina leaps into life.  Sadly the starting usually coincides with a plume of black toxic smoke which burns your eyes, chokes your lungs and makes your lips tingle.  It doesn't help that you (you = Mark) then have to lean in and put the exhaust back on, while trying not to breathe, or see, or get too close... tricky!!  After two weeks we thought, hmmm this probably isn't that healthy and now Mark dons his S10 respirator (apparently I'm not to call it a gasmask!).  Stela thinks she's involved in a flash back to the Iranian embassy seige.  I have no idea why people think we are nuts...

Website Update

Victory is mine!!!  Well our old website was very nice, looked grand, had been professionally made etc.  Needless to say I was more than a little disappointed then to notice it was pretty shy of google searches, for example search "Appaloosa Stud Scotland" and we came up on the tenth page!!  Website wallah (who didn't build it) shook his head and said "its outdated, it needs rebuilt".  So I took matters into my own hands and rebuilt it on Weebly, two days to build it (I love Weebly) three weeks to move the domain names over (perhaps slight exaggeration!)  Now its live I can see all the mistakes but please take a shifty and shout if you see any real corkers.  It will be a work in progress over the next few days.  Of course if anyone would like to link to www.chamfronstud.com I would appreciate it!!

Chamfron Polo-Strings!

Introducing the Chamfron Polo-String. A great looking bracelet with a hidden secret that is perfect for hundreds of jobs and quick fixes at the stables or just about anywhere.

*Ideal Stocking filler*

Mark first came across these braided nylon bracelets in the Army. When needed the bracelet can be unraveled to give you a length of strong nylon cord. 1 inch of plated bracelet unwinds to about one foot of cord. In the military they are used in the field for securing loads, making shelters, repairing clothing and equipment and even for hanging food out of the reach of bears but we came to realise it had even more uses around the yard...

Horsey people have long used baler twine for all the odd jobs but how often have you found yourself wearing a coat with none in the pockets the very day you need it? With these bracelets you'll always have approximately 7 feet of cord with you no matter what you're wearing!

Whether you need to patch a fence, tie up a gate, do a temporary fix on a rug, rig a halter or lead rope or even replace a broken rein or stirrup our Chamfron Polo-String is just the thing!
Ideal stocking fillers or just as a gift for yourself these are also great for shooters, farmers, dogwalkers... just about anyone.

Available in a range of bright colours in 7" and tactical colours in 8" Chamfron Polo-Strings are only £5 each plus £2 P&P REGARDLESS OF QUANTITY.  We recommend at least 2 per person so you always have a spare if you have to use the one you're wearing.  Send us a picture of you using your Chamfron Polo String to save the day and we'll even give you 2 for the price of one on your next order.  Email me on info@chamfronstud.com to order, many more photos on the Chamfron Stud Facebook Page. 

Wall of Shame...

When the new website is up and running the girls will have their own gallery of shame, apparently no one read the no new rugs before Christmas memo!

Andre Rieu Concert

Marks gran (91yo!) uses her Ipad to watch Andre Rieu on so we managed to get tickets for his first ever concert in Scotland.  We made it up to the SECC and even had dinner before Peggy cottoned on to the surprise.  We had a good evening with us all dancing in the aisles, by the time he was doing his encore Peggy had rushed the stage and was in the mosh pit!!

 

Chamfron Deja Vu weaned

The yard thawed for ten minutes yesterday so we whizzed Deja Vu up to the stables and weaned her.  Her dam, in all honesty, is not broodmare of the centuary.  She currently looks like a beef bull, Mark asked when she was due and was a little surprised to hear she is empty for 2013, she keeps everything for herself.  The foals however grow on to be nice yearlings and super useful two and three year olds.  They've all gone to "using" homes and are getting on well, so what to do?  The plan is to breed Mable back to Nico for a much earlier 2014 foal and reassess, the other option would be to breed her to Arrayan for a more robust (ie demanding!) foal.  We will see.  The other foals in the meanwhile are kicking back and waiting for breakfast.

Murmuration of starlings

Gretna is well known for its starling murmurations in December, so armed with my Gingerbread latte (first of the year, sprinkling of snow this morning, jingles on the TV guide... oh its starting to feel a lot like Christmas!!) and my camera we headed of to see them.  They seem to come in over the outlet village and its worth a wander up to the fields to see them start to murmer once the sun has gone down. Of course its then compulsory to play the "it looks like" game, so in these photos we (quite obviously!) have  a bird of prey, a leaping jaguar and a dolphin!

Oooooo Tumble Drier!

You would think that being on the worlds wettest farm we'd of splashed out on a drier before wouldn't you?  Instead we kind of fell into the Comet sale last night looking for a blender and ended up with Mark squashed in the front of Gretchen (the Dodge) practically hugging a tumble drier with no reverse, first or second gear.  

Today the comfort rats offered to test it out as while they weren't malodorous they were slightly grubby.  They were a little nervous but off they went in the camper van to go surfing.  Theodore got wipped out by a big wave ("I'm not waving, I'm drowning"!) resulting in  CPR followed with a soothing spell in the sauna.  

After a wee tipple in front of a roaring fire, they headed off back to bed, lighter, fluffier and fragrant.