New arrivals!

Two new arrivals yesterday, the part bred Quarter Horse mare, Midnite Harmony, who is by Rexy's Midnight Runner and her foal Crioch Kestrel (pending) who is by Adohr Tawny Owl. We have weaned them this morning and the foal will be available for sale as soon as he has had a bit more handling... now who could resist that wee face?

Chamfron By Dand -Backed.

Chamfron By Dand being lightly backed, photo thanks to Rebecca, who says absolutely nothing bothers this horse!

Chamfron Aguacero away!

On Friday we delivered Chamfron Aguacero to his new home with vet Jo, he joins the Arrayan Numa filly, Chamfron Viscacha, as Jo finds out even these part bred Criollo's are addictive!!! He had got a bit warm on the wagon but decided to show off his paces and balance before settling down to the hay. If Viscacha is made out of sugar and spice then he is definitely snails and puppy dogs tails, bright, athletic and with more character than you can shake a stick at! A cracking gelding and what a nice pair of "pink ponies" to have!

Lizzie of Larchmont.

The problem with keeping old horses is that simply they do not go on forever and we are very sad to have lost Liz to colic yesterday, aged 26. A cracking mare, dam and granddam to so many good horses. Liz was absolutely my idea of the perfect appaloosa - tough, hardy, athletic and beautifully marked. A kind old girl who shall be missed.

Scafell Pike.

Well, as previously mentioned, there has been some (silly) talk (not even involving alcohol) of doing the Three Peaks Challenge later in the summer. I have long since convinced myself that going uphill is not in my nature so thought I better have a few practice runs to find out if I should be the one volunteering myself to be the driver and to not bother with the hills. (However Mark had already suggested this and been given "the look" so the pressure was on not to be the dead weight on the hillside!)

We decided to climb Scarfell Pike today and got a fabulous day for it. Foggy when driving over but beautiful blue skies the whole way up. We were treated to an air display by the RAF and Mountain rescue were out and about, and giving us a cheery wave! The climb up was ideal in that it was all uphill, none of the silly going down just to come back up, it also meant the downhill was genuinely that, all downhill - yay!!

I only had one wee wobble when we got to the last 600ft and I was faced with a patch of compacted snow, slipped down 20ft on my backside and Mark got out the ice axe... errr did I sign up for climbing with an ice axe? I thought this was a tourist route, with sign posts and coffee shops, oh and a loo? However Mark got me over the slippy bit and soon we were at the top, two lads climbing up after us thanked Mark for the path as it saved them getting out their crampons (crampons??? I thought the wooly hat was being organised!!) I felt quite good on the top of the hill as everyone else looked like rather serious hill climbers, though yes, some I was giving thirty years to... but still! You can also see from the photos that I may well have had a small advantage in that I carried the camera and nothing else and Mark carried my warm clothing (I don't like to be cold), chocolate (lots) and all the water.

Cobs Can

This is the front cover for Omar's book "Cobs Can!" I took photos for the book back in the summer. The book is published by J. A. Allen and will be available in May 2011. Should include some great photos of Ketchup doing Piafe, Passage and Spanish Walk!

Furry feet and lycra!

This lad last featured on the blog in June 2009 as a new born foal of our neighbours. Since then he has been growing up on the hill and is now offered for sale, so with a bright blue sky we legged it up to take some photos of him.

Then as the driveway was free of ice, I donned my Christmas lycra and started jogging again. There has been mutterings of three peaks challenges and other lunacy so I think more movement is needed!