Equine Fair Stallion Parade:  See Spirit Land, for a video clip.
A nice day out for our young stallion! He  is only 4 years old and on his second career . It was actually a big question to ask, in front of a  decent sized crowd, under spotlights.   He was only aksed to show his paces and jump a small jump, but he had to go intoan unknown  arena, with no previous practice. He obliged.

Exciting News from Goresbridge Go for Gold Sales ( Nov 2):
 Two Stormhill Miller youngsters, a five yr old and a four yr old sold at the Goresbridge Go for Gold sale for 30,000 and 14.000 euros!    As my readers know, I bred Miller so I feel very proud. Apparently the 5 year-old went to Olympic rider Oliver Townend, whose partner has already bought Miller, to stand in England this year. Apparently they have already got 5 mares of their own in foal to him and are very happy.
The 4-yearold is described in the Irish Times as a bargain, at 14.000 euros.
I, on the  contrary took a Stormhill Harvest Moon, a 3 yearold, to the new indoor school for a customer to see. The prospective purchaser had already visited the young horse athome, on the Hill, and liked her. Now she was to be seen under saddle.
She hadn’t done much, since being backed a couple of months ago. Nothing, in fact.
She came  out of the trailer in a cloud of sweat and steam althoguh she had loaded fine and travelled nicely. Well, youngsters do this, especially in their thick winter woolies.. We took HM into the indoor school. Shock horror, there was a strange bay horse in there. It did everything Harvest Moon did, If HM snorted and pranced, so did the upsetting bay horse on the wall! It moved really well, that strange bay, fantastically. HM moved with it, not quite understanding about mirrors.. And can she trot! Unfortunatly she looked a bit tense with the horrid mirror image and her canterwork was green. She finds flying changes easy.. The purchaser fled, exclaiming that a 5 year-rold would be more suitable..Actually, HM did nothing wrong, she was just a 3-yearold on an unexpected outing! There you are, a golden opportunity for somebody else. The dam is by Stormhill Miller and from the family that has produced Stormhill Michael. See the for sale page!

Here on the Hill November has  proved rather gloomy with a lot of mist. Luckily it has been very mild and the grass is still very green. The horses are feeling well. High Spirits, the baby colt , is growing fast. They all have thick winter coats. I’m not a believer in rugging them until necessary and I don’t like rugging foals at all. They entangle themselves! Occassionally  it’s necesssary to kep a little pullover tied around a very young early foal, if it looks cold, but generally they will make good thick coats themselves and will be tougher later in life.

People often ask me’ Can you tell if a foal is going to be a star?’  Well, not really. You can see if they are good movers, of course and you tend to know if you have one with a serious attitude problem.

Often the good ones aren’t very noticeable.

A good foal gets up soon after birth, it finds the teat, it sucks, it doesn’t get the scours, it has no lumps and bumps, needs no corrective surgery.. In fact, you hardly know you’ve got them!

Research done in Sweden confirms my view, foals that have to be shut in the box very early in life, because they can’t /won’t suck, have joint problems, or whatever the reason, never, in their entire life make up for this set-back when compared to siblings who had no set-back.

So, out with them! Let them find their legs and their balance. Let them gallop and play and be as natural as you can manage.  Later in life, they may  have to do their dressage test at Badminton during a storm, or cross country at Burghley with the rain in their eyes. It is a tough sport and mamsied  animals will always be wanting that cosy little rug... Was Stormhill Michel a lovely foal? Well, I can hardly remember him as a foal! He did everything right, he had no problems. He was in fact out most of the winter as a two to three yearold as some neighbours let me use  a large field and we fed him and another youngster out in it. No rugs.
Oh well. Life goes on. On Saturdays in winter I love watching the NH racing, if I have time to do so. Just now it has become a bit boring, our ageing TV is giving up the ghost and it now only has two colours: Orange and brown. All the runners are chestnuts, all the jockeys wear orange colours and the races take place in Dubai, I think, some sort of pale desert anyway, on all weather surfaces. It’s not quite so exciting as it used to be. But what thrills yesterday(19/11),  old Kauto Star brought tears to my eyes with his game win at Haydock Park and Master Minded, another favourite also brought both joy and a few pounds into my account. I’m not a betting woman, it’’s the horses I love. But the odd pound on one adds to the excitment.

The crowd took to him, as he pranced in to his own music’ A Guy is a Guy’ ( Doris Day) and he got a really good hand for his efforts. And my heartfelt  thanks go to Clare Wilson who had only sat on him 3 times beforehand.  She is an excellent rider.

A thoroughbred is bred to race, not to trot on the spot, nor to compete in the highjump. A thoroughbred is quick and gallops , even a slow one, like Spirit Land, who, incidentally, stays very well, can beat the warmbloods with a leg tied up. In a race. But not in a dressage test.

Nevertheless, many of us love the throughbreds for their beauty, speed and intelligence. Intelligent?

Well, you try to train a two year-old warmblood to go into the startingstalls and run like stink for 5 furlongs..To each, his own.

And when  a thoroughbred wants to please, he, or she,  can be very rewarding to work with..

Spirit Land’s son: High Spirits. Maybe it’s time for weaning soon?

Let us  hope that the end of the recession is in sight.
With an eye to the future we put up this little video-clip of Stormhill Fairytale, 3 years old, at her Grading. As you can see she is one for the future indeed. She is with Kirsty Kirslake in Cornwall. The filly is by Kremlin out of Stormhill Arrrow, and is a full sister to Kossack.

Aprt from that, a sale has been agreed and my two youngsters by Downeright Rebel will be leaving us a bit later on in the winter. They are heading for an excellent home.
The broodmares are enjoing the winter, which, so far has been very mild. They are heavy now, the time of waiting is upon us. Before Christmas I never think much about the spring season, but the minute Christmas is over it allseems closer. As my husband reminded me, it’s only 4 months til we can expect the swallows back!
 Christmas has been lovely, family time and some help with the mucking out!
Those that have competing horses will be preparing in earnest now and I hope to see some of the horses we have bred out in the spring Events.
2011 was a very quiet year and I hope the established superstar horses will emerge this year fully cured of their minor problems.
And that young stars will emerge. It is very important that the horses find competitive homes, if you’re a breeder. Unfortunatly,it’s down to chance mostly. My horses tend to have nice temperaments. This should be a plus, but often means that they settle in homes for life because their owners adiore them. Nice for the hose, but a bit  disappointing for the breeder if a very capable horse stays all it’s lfe at the lower levels... Difficult horses often require professional help at some early stage of their careers and then often stay with a professional rider who will, without a doubt, make more of that horse. It’s life! It would seem very stupid to breed dificult horses on purpose though as then, you’re stuck with a world full of dificult horses, most of whom will prove disappointing!  Noy all difficult horses are potential stars and not all obliging horses are moderate. Having horses changes your life: you become a slave. You might as well be the slave of a decent horse!
Let’s raise our glasses to the New Year, the Olympic Year and let us hope for good fortune and lots of fun for all horse people!

Wet and windy.
2012 has come in with a roar of wind and a rush of water.. The mud is unbelievable and the little bit of post and rail fencing I have is leaning dramatically. It was put in by a profesional! The soil has gone to, well, there is no other word: MUD. Wolfie has to suffer constant hosing down, poor dog. Never have a long-haired dog if you have lot of mud about, I made a bad mistake there. The grass is very green but there is no chance of getting onto it.. Silage it is! In the mud, it just can’t be helped. I have a system, one lot of

horses are in for one day, then I change them over and the other lot are in the next 24 hours. That way everybody can dry out, at least. If it’s really awful I squeeze them all in, but that is alot more work for myself, and strangely, they seem to want to go out again, regardless oof the weather. It has been very mild but the mud is really trying.

I have to cross the mud 12 times a day, at least, with the heavy wheelbarrow so perhaps I will lose the weight I gained at Christmas? Going to a gym would be more expensive!

Walk like a duck!
I complained to my husband the other day, about our lack of concrete. Concrete costs money.. He looked at me quite blankly, then he quite seriously suggested that all I have to do is change my way of walking:
To walk in very deep and sticky mud, you should, according to his instructions, adopt a rolling footfall.

So, if you happen to pass Tiverton, and you  happen to a see strange woman in Morrisson’s supermarket, walking like duck, just come up and say hello, it will be me...
The horses, on their relatively smaller feet, have less trouble and are much faster than I am at the moment. Wolfie, who has exceptionally large paws, like his name-sake, the wolf, also goes well on mud, his large foot/weight ratio keeps him on top of the surface. I just sink in and remain stuck, walking out of my own boots at times.
 Growing the field of oats was a really good idea, I have oats in hand to feed for the winter,an old-fashioned choice, perhaps, but none the worse for that. I also have straw! With the cost of bedding ever rising, this is wonderful. The homegrown haylage is also very popular. I’m glad of these assets this year as costs are so high and fuel is quite horrendous, today it cost me £74 to fill the pick-up up.. And I don’t go for leisure drives in it, Wolfie and I go to work in it and that’s that. I tlooks likwe we’ll have some cold days now and I’m not surprised, winter is winter. The two youngsters that have been sold had a loading lesson into the trailer, they were brilliant!  Downe Right Rebel might well turn out to be aloss to the breeding industry, not many youngsters go straight into a trailer first time! These did.

A bad start to the year...
I have surprising number of readers on these pages. If I update the stud-grooms blog I get a gratifying increase in visits to the site, if not in any horse-sales..

The reason for the lack of news is that my mother, in Sweden is causing me a lot of worry, she is 89 and living on her own..I spend a lot of time on the phone just now..
My father-in-law, aged 93, is very frail

The tractor, also rather aged, is  not usable, it is in two parts, awaiting a new clutch. ( £ 500+).  I’ve also had some rather horrible and expensive visits to the dentist. What  fun!
We have had, and are continuing to have, hard frosts, leading to frozen water-pipes. This means I have to thaw out the pipes and carry a lot of water by hand.
The tractor situation means I have to dispend silage/haylage by hand too. It’s heavy.
My husband has been away a lot in the course of his work, no help to be had..

I hope to bring better and more cheerful news soon.