STUD NEWS 

Summer is here and all our foals have now arrived.  We have three for sale, all with plenty of quality, who can be viewed on the 2010 Foals page. 

Up until July the weather has been exceptionally dry with little grass.  Our haylage crops have been less than usual so far.  We still have  a lot more to do but now, of course, the rain has come and doesn't know when to stop!! 

  We have  had a lot of interest in our horses with some recent articles published in Welsh Rider magazine and lots of stud visitors. Many of our visitors are new to Quarter and Paint horses and are usually astounded by how quiet and friendly our horses are.  It is a very good time to buy a young horse as prices are low at the moment but can really only go up as we come out of difficult economic conditions.  

Acorn Flybynight

During the 2008 stud season we were particularly pleased to welcome back Acorn Flybynight for a visit to Tinsel King.  She is now owned by Mr and Mrs Mainwaring of West Wales and is pictured below.  Fly caused us quite a stir as she was born in the air in 2005 on her way to us and this fact wasn't discovered until the crate was opened at Amsterdam.  Fortunately her mother, Ms San Leo Rojo, took it all in her stride (speaking volumes for her temperament) and there was no harm done. 

Fly  produced a lovely cremello filly foal in the spring but, sadly, rejected the foal which has had to be fostered onto a Section D cob mare with, once again, help from the National Foaling Bank. Sadly the foal died due to neglect in its foster home which was absolutely disgraceful. 

The current news of Fly is the best.  She has produced another cremello filly foal this year and, happily, has taken motherhood in her stride this time around.  We are so pleased that this is the case and it was well worth another try.

Acorn Flybynight and her 2010 filly foal owned by Mr and Mrs Graham Mainwaring 

Freckles Fancy Jac (Lola)

Lola and I getting to know each other.

Our latest acquisition is Lola, who is 86% foundation bred.  She was imported from the Wolfe Ranch, Oklahoma in 2006 by her previous owner.  As we have had such success with our other Wolfe Ranch mares, Pinkie and Blue, we decided to purchase her.  She is a 2003 red dun mare and her pedigree, which is outstanding, is shown below.

Lola represents a new challenge for me.  That is to ride Western at last at least some of the time! (see above)   We are also trying our hands, or should it be hooves, at TREC and Lola is steadily gaining in confidence in competition.  In July 2009 we gained 3rd place in our first attempt (for both of us) at an individual TREC competition.  We have also gained places in all the Kelly Marks Winter TREC Competitions during 2009 to 2010  although we have yet to gain that elusive win!!  Lola is also taking to the jumping obstacles very well and is very bold so watch this space!  She revels in fun rides at  the Cotwolds Farm Park where she shows huge enthusiasm and jumps all sorts of things.  We still have a lot to work on but we are very encouraged with her demeanour and performance.  Lola is quite a character and quite hard to form a relationship with but I feel now that we are finally bonding.

This summer Lola and I have been participating in full TRECs.  We have been to West Wales, Shropshire, Wiltshire, Worcestershire and Somerset.  We have been competing with my cousin Katherine on her Acorn Section III Quarter Horse Dazzling Dream and our big news is that we  qualified for the National Championships.  Unfortunately we will be unable to take our places there as Katherine has had to undertake a major operation from which she is slowly recovering.  Lola and I are therefore competing as individuals for the rest of the season - boy, do I miss my navigator!  Despite this Lola and I at last managed to win a full competition in Bryanston, Dorset.  We are pictured above negotiating a scary footbridge over a tarpaulin. I look worried but Lola takes it all in her stride.

Dooby

We rarely seem to be able to get through any breeding season without some drama and this year has been no exception. 

In May Willow (Do Bee a Margarita) produced a lovely colt foal who she ultimately rejected.   She had been allowing Dooby to suckle as long they were supervised but was becoming increasingly antagonistic towards him and finally, the ultimate rejection, her milk began to dry up.  There were no mares available from the National Foaling Bank so we were in a quandary as the thought of hand rearing a foal filled me with horror.  (I once did it and, believe me, it is no fun!)  Fortunately we came up with a solution when Susan George of Rockfield Quarter Horses offered to rear Dooby on the milk dispenser she uses on the farm.  Although unorthodox the approach has worked fantastically well and Sue has now bought Dooby from us.  He is shaping up to be a lovely chap and his progress is being chronicled on Facebook.  Check out Rockfiel Quarter Horses Updates page.  We are very proud of this little chap as he represents the best of our breeding being by our own Tinsel King.  Some pictures of Dooby can be found on the 2010 Foals page.