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"