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Should spring grass carry an equestrian health warning?
The fields still look like the early days of the Somme with a slight fuzz of green on top of the divots. Yet something has changed. The normally angelic Katie wouldn’t stand still for me to get on her yesterday. That is a red flag that she has fire in her belly. So I put her on the lunge instead and I am very glad I did. She leaped and bronced and galloped and boinged and turned herself inside out for almost 30 minutes....
After that she worked beautifully. I’m very glad I listened to her.
And it makes me wonder. When your horse has been out for several hours in a field where they can gallop and boing to their hearts content, why do they save it all up to show you when you come to ride them? Is it some inborn need for an audience?
Gimme a D, gimme an I, gimme a Zee Zee Y. DIZZY!
Look what she’s doing now. 
🙂 Keri and Becci at Ekko Equestrian have done a great job with her. Apparently she’s virtually bombproof, hacks out with friends, she is unbothered by traffic and is trotting over small cross poles.
She needs a lot more strengthening work and miles on her clock but she’s coming home with a very good school report.
...I’m picking her up next week and will start the slow work of getting a horse fit for the first time. I’m really looking forward to it. When she’s less green she will be for sale. I’ll let you know how she’s coming along.
For a bit of lighthearted fun we did the nail test on the pregnant mares to see if we could predict what they are going to have.
Raica (motherline of Flammengold, Freestyle and Dragon Hill) x Casino Grande (showjumper from the mother line of Stedinger, 6th in the FEI dressage sire rankings) is predicted to have a colt.
Darley (full sister has produced a national dressage champion) x Silvermoon (sire of Blue Hors Matine) is predicted to have a filly.
...Please may Darley’s prediction be right. I’ve been trying to breed my very own Matine for almost 10 years and this was my last chance, there isn’t any more frozen semen available.
With the arrival of my first foal this year, it is also the arrival of an annual puzzle: how to attract buyers who will offer the foal a wonderful home.
The more I ponder this, the more I see that the horse world is full of doublethink. (1984 reference for anyone who hasn’t read it where two mutually exclusive ideas are held in the mind at the same time and the conflict between them is overlooked)
To give a few examples:
... We all know that for dressage you need to buy the walk and the canter because the trot can be developed.
Horses with big trots sell fast.
We all know that temperament and trainability are more important than big paces for 99% of dressage riders.
Hot or difficult temperaments are overlooked if the horse has big paces.
A horse is no good to anyone if it becomes unsound and there seems to be a link between big paces and suspensory desmitis.
Horses with big paces sell fast.
When choosing a stallion, young black stallions with long legs and huge paces are fashionable and heavily advertised.
Advertising works and makes unproven stallions appear more attractive than proven producers.
We all know that good horses almost always come from a strong dam line. Just think of the Holstein Stamms and the Trakehner mare families.
When you use a strong mare family no one cares! Many seem to think a famous damsire is the same as a strong mare family.
😞
Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 8 photos.
Stolen Black. A stunning black colt by a Grand Prix producing stallion out of a World Equestrian Games gold medal winning dam line.
He has superb conformation. He is always uphill. Always in balance. Showing potential to have huge, expressive paces.
He has been bred for soundness and for temperament. His dam’s siblings have both been bought by a GP rider. His grand dam has produced a licensed stallion in Germany. His grand dam’s full sister has produced a GP horse. His grea...t granddam is blood sister to a World and European gold medallist.
His sire has produced Grand Prix horses, graded stallions and national champions.
This is a top colt with stallion potential at a fraction of the price you would pay at the famous studs. £7500.
Flammengold (Florestan) x Garuda k (Muenchhausen) x De Niro.
Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 2 photos.
In a surprise move by BD and BE foals will now be allowed to compete. A spokesman said this would give the foal experience of a big show atmosphere and help develop their talent at an early age.
Today I also had cuddles with these little cuties. Dazzle (dark bay) and her bestie Skyfall (coloured with blaze)
Dazzle is bred to event and to be your best friend. Because I am a breeder she is also for sale. As my husband pointed out, if I breed horses but don’t sell any I’m not a breeder, I’m a collector.
Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 4 photos.
And some conformation photos and one showing a brief glimpse of trot. He is straight and strong in his limbs, adorable in his temperament and would not be for sale for any amount of money if he had been a filly.
This one is perhaps my favourite photo. He isn't even trying to move big in these photos, he's just being himself. Wow.
Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 4 photos.
Here are some photos of Murray with his mum Beauty. He is a real mini-me isn't he?
Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 5 photos.
I think Stolen Black might just be the best foal I have bred so far. They say buy the canter for dressage. Every single photo I took shows Murray in the most incredible uphill balance. He is 10 days old! Anyone looking for a stallion prospect?
Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 3 photos.
Yesterday as well as foal watching we turned Dawn and Secret, the almost-2-year-olds out in the arena. The more I see of them, the more excited I become for their futures. Dawn moves as well as many dressage horses with an inbuilt gift for collection. Can’t wait to see her going over a jump or two.
And as for Secret, she takes my breath away. She honestly moves better than the horses you see in the top, top auctions. The difference is that Secret is going to be allowed to gr...ow up before she goes under saddle, she won’t be lunged when she is 2 or backed before her joints are ready. I’m going to give her every chance to become the best dressage horse she can possibly be. Her movement and her pedigree suggest she has the talent to go to the very top. I hope in 10 years time I can look back on this post and say “yes, you could always tell that she was special.”
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Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 7 photos.
Here are the least bad fuzzy photos from today. Some of them could have been quite nice if I'd managed to focus the darned camera!
It is fortunate that the aim for today was not to take some nice photos of Murray. I managed to turn up with my posh camera and 2 batteries. One was flat, the other was almost flat. I also skilfully turned it onto manual focus mode (I had no idea that was ever possible!) so all the photos have turned out rather fuzzy.
Fortunately the main aim of today was to meet up with two old friends and since that was lovely and involved a wonderful roast beef lunch at the pub, it was a very successful day. 🙂
Here’s a short iphone video of Beauty and Murray which sums up their first outing in the sunshine. Beauty was simply saintly. Astonishingly she isn’t 4 till May. And Murray did a little bit of whizzing around, showing just enough to make me think he is going to be a big mover, and then he did a lot of slurping milk.
Stolen Silver Sports Horses a ajouté 2 photos.
It is really hard trying to photograph a black foal in a stable. I did get this one though. His mum is in the photo taken in a field. He really is a mini me 
😍
I have a Black Beauty for sale. Born 21/3/18, he is a black colt with 3 socks and a star.
By Flammengold (full brother to Freestyle who stood in Canada). Flammengold was Southern German dressage champion in 2000 and has sired 6 GP horses from relatively few foals including national champion Fabioso and graded stallion Frank Sinatra Gold who stands in Germany.
Flammengold is a direct son of Florestan. He is still competing and winning at PSG at the incredible age of 25. Know...n for passing on a lovely temperament and soundness. He had a stallion son approved in 2016 who excelled at his 50 day performance test at Adelheidsdorf in Germany scoring 9 for temperament and character.
The dam is by international GP Trakehner stallion Garuda K who is from the famous line of Caprimond. He is also known for passing on a wonderful temperament.
The grand-damsire is De Niro who needs no introduction x Prince Thatch xx. The motherline itself is exceptional. It has produced Piccolino, German team horse and gold medallist at the world equestrian games and european championships. Two brothers of the dam have been sold to a GP rider, they are currently 2 and 3 years old. Full sister of the granddam has produced a GP horse.
This colt is genuinely bred to have the potential to train to Grand Prix and also to have a kind and trainable temperament.
OIRO £7500 ($11,000) Located in the UK.
