Bugger...

Sadly Conquistador's leg had deteriorated and he was put to sleep this morning.  I think we were right to give it a try on Sunday but the odds were very badly stacked against us.  

A mixed day...

A nice bright day, the weanlings are happy and Treacle was admiring the sunset.  Unfortunately our dear little furry beige child, Conquistador, has done himself a damage with a bad wound to his hind leg.  First impressions were pretty awful but he's bright eyed and bushy tailed and these Criollos are nothing if not tough so we'll have a go.

Chamfron Mojito - 19 months old

Just love his neck!

Chamfron Tizona - 4 years old

Lovely update from Christine to say that Tizona had her first outing today to Horse Agility just for a bit of fun and experience.  Well she was very well behaved and won!  Christine says she is coming on in leaps and bounds, looks amazing and the next plan is some cross country schooling.  I think she will jump like a stag!

The Weanlings (so far!)

Chamfron Quintana Weaned

Quintana has been weaned for a few days and is happy and settled, a typical Tammy foal she loves people and is very sensible.  The weather continues to be miserable, heavy heavy rain coming in day after day, I think we are paying for our dry spell last month!

Northern Lights from the air

Photos taken on our recent flight to see the Northern Lights with kind permission of Pete Lawrence from www.auroraflights.co.uk

Lumiere Durham 2015

We headed back to Durham for Lumiere 2015, the largest light festival in the UK.  As is becoming a theme with our trips out the drive across was horrendous with torrential rain from Storm Abigail.  We suspected we would be doing nothing but a long soggy road trip but as we pulled in to Durham the rain went off and for the most part stayed off.  The city has lots of different light installations including big knitting, an interactive projection on the roof of the cathedral triggered by the movement of the people below below and a rose window made out of thousands of plastic bottles.  

As we left Durham we may have tootled round a roundabout a few times while waiting for the Sat Nav to kick in, as we straightened up and carried on our journey the police pulled up behind us and put their own flashing interactive light show on.  Luckily for us they hadn't seen our recreation of the Maltesers advert and were just checking out a report of a stolen Ford Ranger so we were soon back on our way.  Two miles down the road it dawned on me through all this I'd had Gunnar the Ikea stuffed badger on my lap (I like to squish his feet as stress relief...!)

2016 Chamfron Stud Calendars

Calendars picked up today and will be available at only £10 including postage in the UK.  Please email me on laura@chamfronstud.com if you would like to buy one.

Chasing the lights!

Distinct lack of photos for the moment as the weather is grimmer than grim.  All the foals are in out the weather and Chaco has been weaned with no trouble.

Yesterday we had a bit of a day trip, heading up to Edinburgh for a Northern Lights flight which is our very kind Christmas present from Moira.  The plane heads up to about 61 degrees north then performs a race track holding pattern to allow both sides of the plane to get a good view of whatever is visible.  The night before it had flown out of Glasgow and seen a faint green glow but we were much luckier with bright green swirls, moving curtains, pink towers and pulsing lights.  Our pilot said it was the best showing he'd seen and the in flight experts rated it in their top three (having been on nearly three hundred flights).

Edinburgh Airports control tower was lit up red for Remembrance Day and we also swung past The Kelpies to see them lit up - they were red when we arrived, moving quickly to white and then were blue as we drove past them on the way home.  Now I did like The Kelpies when we visited them last year but I love them lit up in the dark, very very impressive.  We took one quick phone photo but we will definitely make a trip back up with the camera soon.

Remembrance Day

Arrayan and I have our poppies on.  Criollos were used as remounts for the British Army during WW1.

Aggie and Almendra weaned

Aggie and Almendra were weaned on Friday and have settled with no problems.

Roly away and a round up

Roly headed home this morning bringing the 2015 breaking and schooling season to a close.  Our ground has turned to soup with the recent rain and the stables will be full as we crack on weaning the foals.  We had some genuinely lovely horses and owners this year and are already getting lots of enquiries and bookings for 2016, which is great.

Some thoughts for anyone considering us next year...

As you can see we get a wide variety of horses, Arabs and Appaloosas, Polo Ponies and Sports Horses, Natives and Thoroughbreds, we adapt to suit the horse but always aiming to produce each individual to the best of its ability.

Horses came from far and wide this year including four from North of Aberdeen.

It's always nice to have such a variety coming for breaking and schooling but also lovely that many people who have bought horses we have bred also choose to send them back to us when the time comes to begin their ridden careers.

People been kind enough to leave wonderful Testimonials but I am also happy to put you in touch with our previous customers,  just ask.  Lots of owners also told us they'd asked around about us and only heard good things (yay!).

I'm already quite excited to see what next year brings.

Sakura away home

Last night Sakura did the late check on the next generation of Chamfrons and posed for a "through the (spotty) ears" shot.  She has headed home today.