Chamfron Calandria weaned

Callie has been weaned and is proving to be super sensible, what a nice filly!

Meant to be?

A wee tale with a happy ending!  Clare who is buying Ethel and Ella (along with her husband Shaun) asked me if I knew of any older Chamfrons for sale as sadly her five year old arab had started head-shaking badly this summer.  Well second hand Chamfrons are like hens teeth so we widened the search and the hunt was on for a suitable endurance horse.

This resulted in hysterical messages flying back and forth between Clare and me, "too short" "that moves, err, interestingly" "wow that has unusual conformation" "they want HOW MUCH?" and sometimes me subtly going "perhaps not that breeder..."  With a few exceptions once Clare got to the viewing stage it got worse, horses shrunk or were simply sad and neurotic.  Clare had moved on from "preferably no white legs" to actively pursuing Facebook pages like "Paint Horses UK" "Blagdon Cobs" "Coloured Horses and Ponies" and still nothing...

Then there were the pushy sellers and boy was one seller terrifyingly pushy, interestingly I had looked at her stock on Facebook and was very interested in them, not now!

So, another phone call, a spotty mare in Northumberland, ah yes I said I know her, nice mare, Mark broke her in, owner is lovely to deal with.  I said to Clare, "actually her owner used Arrayan on her dam, wonder what happened to that foal?"   We were both getting a little excited at this point so Clare asked the all important questions "do you still have him?" "yes" "will you sell him?" "YES!!" actually we were really quite giddy by this point.

Another long car journey North and Clare's herd of two roans will become three, he is surely the perfect endurance prospect, five and only backed, never had shoes on, been living on a hill at 1800ft, this horse is tough.  Now there were only four Arrayan Numa foals from outside mares, three of those foals are now playing polo in Scotland.  Clare finds the fourth by ringing up about a totally unrelated Appaloosa mare who is being advertised on Preloved with a head shot and is a mere 500 mile round trip away.

I introduce Brujo Numa (Arrayan Numa x Wearview Gypsy) like his father totally found by fate, I hope he proves to be just as much of a good buy for Clare as his sire was for us.

Wildlife

This year I have noticed an abundance of snails and they seem to be covered in some other bugs (note technical country life expertise there!!)  One good photo on the trail camera, loads of photos of me bating the area with food, all of which vanishes, only one photo of the badger, they are sneaky stealthy creatures (or possibly I had the camera too high up...!)

Gemma's Chamfrons

Helpfully arranged in age and height order - Chamfron Olegario, Colada and Kukri.

MIlano, Nicobar and Almendra

Caroline's Chamfrons enjoying an idyllic childhood!  Bombero has gone back to his trainer to be ridden away so Almendra (on the right) has moved in with Milano and Nicobar (Prickle!)

Mutterings

I wonder some days if I will look back at my blog in years to come and think "hey, it wasn't so awful, was it"!  I try to be and generally I am pretty positive, so I choose to gloss over the bad bits.

It was eight months yesterday and I'm doing OK, what have I learnt about bereavement?  It is a hugely effective diet, your hair falls out in handfuls, stomach ulcers are not a barrel load of laughs, your short term memory will go missing in action (and other widows will smile and tell you they aren't so sure it ever comes back again) and you will be amazed and grateful you arrive at places safely because you cry so much in your car.  Simply that you miss them every day.

They say loosing your partner re writes your address book, it has, there are new friends, absolutely brilliant old friends and there are people I know I will never see again.  It's fine, you know what, I am socially inadequate around bereaved people too, if anyone is going to say the wrong thing, it will be me.  One thing I have learnt though, if I am ever in two minds about going to a funeral I will go, I am still so thankful for the people who came, people I hadn't seen in years and those who had travelled a long way.

Horse wise it was all going swimmingly, twelve on the place and it looked like I really only had two left to sell.  Sadly it would appear that Inca is back on the market.  We've had time wasters, photo collectors and people backing out of sales every year.  Some people I still wonder about (Lehan, Kat in Denmark) some I've had a small wry smile at (when their new horse didn't work out so well) and some people I think "when you message me can you not see the twenty messages you have sent me over the years, when you have promised to phone, to view, when you have made offers...?"  That said I have never had people switch from uber excited to not having the foal in 24hrs and this year I have had two.  In the dark last night I cried and thought, yes you are right to get out of horses, you can't run a business when people behave like this.  In daylight, after coffee, I remember that the lovely people outweigh the others ten to one and I think maybe I will miss this life, maybe one day I'll be foolish enough to do it all again.

September Foals

They met the Space Hopper today and Colibri was the star of the show, immediately getting that he had to kick it around until the ears were upright and then grab it by one.  He was quite put out when the girls wanted to play but didn't really "get it" - he tried to coach them, then gave up and cantered away with his prize!

Lazy Sunday

I checked the foals at 9am, they told me it was a Sunday morning and they were having a lie in, could I come back later.  I went back later, 11am, they had moved, it had clearly been tiring, they needed a wee snooze to recover.  Meanwhile the Guinea Fowl were over excited that I had removed the fly screen and they could admire themselves in the door once more.

September Snaps

Chamfron Yolanda - 4 years old

Chamfron Yolada is now owned by Gemma Malasomma and playing polo in Cheshire.  Lovely to see her all grown up and starting her career.

Chamfron Campeador - Latest Outing

Another good weekend out showing for Cid, winning both the Open Youngstock class and the Foreign Breeds.  Looking very smart with Ally (and look at that lovely dry ground!!)

Missed Opportunity!

Rather warm out today so everyone was taking the opportunity to dry off and kick back, no exciting photos to be taken so I popped the camera away and took Wif for a walk.  Well soon he was doing a fantastic Meerkat impression then he was pouncing through the reeds, he was beautifully framed on the horizon.  I wondered what he thought he saw, then I looked down and five paces away from me there was a very healthy, very fluffy and very ginger fox who was watching Wif and wondering the same.

Just Ned 1991 - 2016

The last of the retired boys is gone, he went quietly with the sun on his back.  A tough horse, his only moment of shame was doing a headstand at Newcastle then delaying the next race by refusing to be caught.  He'd of done the same at Fife Point to Point if it hadn't been for a very on the ball huntsman grabbing him before he worked out which way was up!

Alyward Aurora (Ally's foal)

Arrayan Numa x Gordian Knot (but seen here with Aunty Bridget (La Reine de Rome))

Updates and "what happened next"!

The two previously unnamed foals have now got lovely names, Ally's foal, Arrayan Numa x Gordian Knot has been named Alyward Aurora and Suzanne's foal, Arrayan Numa x Chamfron Compostela has been named Campo de la Estrella.

The sold mares that are continuing as broodmares are busy cooking some exciting foals for 2017.  At Sannabays Sports Horses Shesa Perfect Zippo has been scanned in foal to Bordergrove Hawaii for an April foal and Lady Erica was scanned in foal to Kambarbay for a May foal.  She is seen here admiring her next offspring!

Sue Ellen is scanned in foal to the Irish sports horse stallion Cos Me Is Black, I am glad I suggested Gemma look at him because his owner Bruce went above and beyond meeting Gemma at a service station with the swimmers and also because I think this will be a very exciting foal.

At WD Appaloosas Oor Eagle Eyed Cherry has been running out with RDF Ti Kha Atta Rain and Ally's girls, Gordian Knot and La Reine de Rome were AI'd to One More Tiger.

Arrayan Numa has been running out with three mares this summer, two imported ranch bred Quarter Horses, Pretty Gaston Star and Miss Powerfritz CL and a grey mare Silver Sapphire who is part bred Connemara / Irish Draft.  Silver Sapphire has competed up to 1* eventing including a double clear at Tattersalls, showjumped at 1m20 and has a great intermediate tetrathlon record.

Westmorland Show

Nice show but "interesting" to get to, it took us four hours  The weather forecast was glorious, hot, wall to wall sun, no rain, we didn't pack our wellies.  We should know better!!

Garden Bunny does Yoga

Chamfron Chipita - Arena Eventing

Chip had a lovely outing on Sunday winning the 80cm class at the Greasby Eventers Challenge.

Delicious!

Chamfron Calandria is a voracious hedgerow forager!