Monday 6th April

The endurance season is now getting into full swing. I am enjoying  riding Mon Talisman and have removed him from the sales list for the present. We did a 30 km ride at Contin at over 16 kph and 50 km at Invergarry yesterday at 14.5 kph - and that we getting him to go as slowly as he was happy to stay balanced at. He has a huge length of stride and was vetting within 10 minutes each time with a HR of 48. I hope he will make a good ER horse.

Sadly Louis will not be going to the Horseshoe this year as he pulled a colateral ligament in his hoof when he pulled a shoe off so has to be rested. I just hope he comes back for the later part of the season as he really should be in his prime just now.

We have been putting in a lot of work on the cobs and the youngs arabs we have here so it is nice to see one of them, the older blue and white cob, Jimmy, find a new home home with Brenda of the Highland branch of SERC. I hope she has lots of fun with him as I am sure she will. He has a super nature.

The new addition to our family is Luca, a 7 week old Hungarian Vizsla puppy who we picked up in York just last week. At present he still has rather a loud voice at night time as he doesn't like sleeping alone in his cage downstairs, but he is quite delightful in the day.

Isn't he so cute???

Saturday 11th April

Easter weekend here and still no lambs - can't believe that they are taking so long! Even my neighbour already has half his Zwartbles lambs and he used our young tup rather than the senior boy who really should know his job!

Brenda has taken Jimmy home and seems to be delighted with him. I imagine he has been groomed to within an inch of his life now and that most of his winter coat will be away. He has certainly made friends for life - Frank seemed just as smitten.

Our new kid on the block is Genghis Ibn Charisma, an 8 y.o. purebred Arab by the multi champion, WSA Charisma, who, as you will see from the photo below, arrived with us on Thursday looking a bit down on his luck. How could anyone let a magnificent Arabian like this get into this state? I hope to be able to put up another very different photo in a few months time. He comes from the same seller as Mon Talisman who was not a lot better when he came to us, but luckily we are in the business of rehabilitation and he is now looking great. Pic of him for comparison!

How does this happen to such a noble beast?

For comparison - Mon Talisman after he has been with me for 6 months. He has turned the corner mentally as well as physically and I will try to take him on myself in endurance for just now.

Monday 13th April

Here is a snippet from Brenda about her new purchase:-

Hi ya everyone, had a lovely afternoon on my new baby, he really is loverrly, Donna is was a shock to me too, last Friday night Frank said lets see if Candy has another horse suitable for you, so...... 2 mins late on phone to Candy .... she wasn't in dohhhh1  - actually getting her new baby Luka, he's gorgeous, Anyway back to my wee story, phoned candy again sat morning at work , still no answer ... dooh......  Then she answered phone so 10 mins later on way up to Candys, she showed us 2 horses suitable for me and I knew straight away which one i wanted and thank goodness frank agreed with me, so hey presto I have another baby and he really is one of the best so hopefully I will attatch a photo of him to you all, he has the very grand name of ....Jimmy and his brilliant, bye for now, Brenda

And one from John about Omar:-

Hi Candy

Its just on a year now and time flies but it seems just like yesterday that I first took Omar out along the trail from your yard.

Its been a good year. Trans Scotland 200 miles under our belt, a couple of BTQs and our upgrade to EGB Open Class. In between we have had our share of tremendous days in the hills and some cool rides with SERC.

The dude is fine and continues to amaze me. I apparently continue to amuse him! You take care and hope Louie gets back to form as soon as possible.

Many thanks, John

Monday 27th April

Amazing how time slips by! One of the Zwartlbles has produced twins but we seem to be waiting a very long time for the other two to have theirs, though it does seem that they are indeed in lamb. The weather has been so good lately but now has turned colder again though it is very dry. Dry enough, in fact, for the big heavy slag spreader to get onto the fields with leaving the minimum of mess. 

These are Susie and Gigolo -

the ewe and tup lambs so far this season.

Sorry about the shadows!

Iglo - the latest arrival              

Yesterday was Tali's first 60 km ride at which he acquitted himself very well despite falling into a bog. He didn't panic and I was able to step off him and lead him out even though he was completely bellied in it.  Forgot to say a big thankyou to the ride organiser. Sarah and Tilly, with help from Lois. The ride was superb and so well makred. Really made people move up to a proper endurance ride. Afraid I don't think you guys will get away with not organising it again next year as it went down so well with the riders!

Tali was a bit stiff at the halfway vetting and got a B for gait but by the end was fine and was awarded an A, despite covering the track at 15.5 kph. He looked brilliant today too straight out of his stable. Hopefully Dalriada will be the next ride for him as I have been told that the tracks are in really good condition just now with lots of grassy going - promises to be fun.

We have a new horse in the yard - a 16 hh Polish Warmblood called Iglo. He is a very comfortable ride who has spent most of his life going round an arena and living in very flat lands. He is now being introduced to the joys of hacking out in the countryside up and down hills. Riding is starting to pick up now the good weather is here and we have quite a few bookings from folk coming to the area on holiday.

The greenhouse is getting full and keeping me out of trouble any spare minutes I have. Luca is the under-gardener. He keeps a check on the stock of flower pots, makes holes for new plants and tries to make sure the water can get out of the holes he makes in the hosepipe! He is really good fun though and growing like a weed himself.

I also forgot to mention the Horses Inside Out demo that took place last week. It was actually a first for Scotland. Gillian was a great presenter as even when the horses had obviously not read the script and were making her life really difficult, she was able to rise above it and find others ways of getting her point across. There were about 80 people present and it was a very social event with plenty of time for chat at the beginning, during the interval and at the end. Great to see the daylight lengthening so much too. If anyone has any ideas for another demo or lecture of any type then please let me know and I will see if it could be possible to arrange as people definitely seem to like this sort of thing.

Thursday 30th April

Heard my first cuckoo of the year today - a day early - it usually arrives on the 1st of May! Nice to hear it though as they say that numbers of cuckoos are declining.

Not so often that I get such a nice email in favour of Arabs as I received yesterday - so here it is!

Hi

I just wanted to say a big thank you for a lovely ride out I had on Faro a couple of weeks ago.  I was holidaying in Drumnadrochit in the easter week and your yard was recommended to my nephew which he duly phoned and booked.  It was a lovely day and the scenery was just wonderful.  I used to own an arab, before my son arrived, and when I resumed my interest in riding 15 years later I found I felt a lot more vulnerable and kept, what I thought, to the steadier types.  However, after my experience with Faro I realize that it is the gentle nature of the arab and their willingness to please that really ‘does it’ for me.

You couldn’t possibly have known, but, I really feel I have turned a corner.  Thank you.

If you where ever to consider moving Faro on, I would be very interested.

Kindest regards

 Another nice thing that happened yesterday was that I heard that Tali was awarded the best condition for his 60 km class at the Cawdor ride despite falling into the bog - so I was delighted.

Another  email below - this one from Brenda about Jimmy

Hi Candy and Iain, Just to let you know how happy I am with Jimmy. He settled in really quickly and is a very "lovable friendly" horse. I have taken him to his first pleasure ride with SERC, where he was brilliant throughout the whole ride, nothing much bothered him, we had a great time jumped all the small logs, he was just enjoying himself. At the end when we went to the vet, unfortunalty we timed it wrong, just as some other riders came in from there class, and there was quite a bit going on, so he got a we bit excited and his heart rate went sky high because of it so we were eliminated with high heart rate (68) The vet said it was such a shame as it was quite slow when she started to take it, but as the horses came in over the finish line she could hear it rapidly increase, So first pleasure ride we were eliminated, but not to me, he was great and thats just a "young" thing.

We have been for a lesson together where he was very well behaved, we had Stephen Cruikshank, and he commented on how sensible Jimmy is for a youngster, and today we took him to his first show, on his own, to do one class in-hand, really just for a growing up experience. He behaved extremely well, got a tad excited when we arrived, but off into our class we went, - where incidentially he decided to empty the runnier type of gut waste!!! all down his legs and tail, that WAS washed whiter than white, - it wasn't after that lot!

He was brilliant, behaved perfectly, there were one in his class going up in the air, but not Jimmy, he was the best, we were down the end of the line-up, as there were some very classy animals there, but I know who was the best behaved one, and I'm really chuffed to bits with him.