Ups and Downs!

Well, I guess I’ve got over the disappointments of losing to South Africa by now! But, the worst thing to come out of it was that Honey, my top mare, has strained her suspensory ligament in her near fore and needs at least six months off… still at least I have a great excuse to breed a foal or two out of her – she is still young enough to bring back into work after that! I have decided to send her down to a young Argentine stallion called Open Maestro, standing at the Beaufort Embryo Transfer Centre. His breeding has really captured my interest as I feel she needs a good dose of Thoroughbred to put a bit more size into her foals… I am sure my stallion, Diesel, will get his chance later on in her breeding career!

Polocrosse differs to polo as you are only allowed to play on one horse for the duration of a weekend competition – this could mean up to nine 6 minute chukkas over a weekend. These horses have to be incredibly fit and tough and we have to look after them like gold dust! Having sold some older horses this year and now losing Honey for the season, I have had to look to the future. Our breeding programme that we started when I moved to England permanently in 2002 is starting to come to fruition… I have a couple of young’uns by Diesel who I am seriously excited about, and I am full of hope for my Australian import, Banjo, who at 4 years old is showing all the talent you could wish for… I am just hoping that they all live up to their promise!

The short lull in polocrosse competitions has allowed me to get stuck back into work with a vengeance! I have twelve clients’ horses in at the moment, mostly for starting but I have a couple of ‘problems’ to sort out too… there was one particularly impressive rodeo performance – I wish I had it on video! I have a stunning Thoroughbred racehorse colt in for starting and a bit of pre-training. He is being syndicated and I must admit, I am sorely tempted… it’s been a little dream of mine to ‘own’ a racehorse over here. My dad breeds racehorses back home and has a scary obsession with bloodlines, so the love of the Thoroughbred is definitely bred in me!

We are also gearing up for our Open Afternoon on 15th August – opening of our new barn and facilities (hmmm, I think we’re going to be up in the middle of the night with a paint brush!), free demos of groundwork (leading and loading), starting a young horse and the Australian Stock Horse. I’m thinking of doing a ‘first ride’ on a breaker in front of everyone… well they do say that fortune favours the brave! See you there?!