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April 2010
After a long, hard winter, spring is finally here and foaling is underway. First mare to foal was Corraslira Cleo (by Grey Macha) who produced a super filly by Lady's Tralee Raj on Tuesday 6th April. Our joy was very short-lived, as the next day, our lovely yearling filly - Indigo Daybreak (by Avanti Amorous Archie) developed acute colic. She was rushed to 3 Counties Equine Hospital and into theatre, but was put to sleep on the table as the damage was too severe. After losing her grand-dam, Little Macha, last year, this loss was extra hard - particularly of one so young.
R.I.P. Indigo Daybreak - 2009-2010
Our New Arrival - Indigo Clementine
A week after Clementine, Surprise's colt by Raj arrived. Promptly named Indigo Future Shock (Alvin for short!) He's as bold and friendly as they come and although there are no white spectacles, we're pretty sure he'll follow in Surprise's footsteps and grey out slowly!
While waiting for the stud season to get fully underway, backing and schooling is keeping us busy. We welcomed an extra rider to our team for this busy period - John Hughes, a very experienced event rider and trainer has been kept busy schooling on youngsters - both our own, and those for clients. To our delight, he's agreed to stay on! Olivier will be concentrating more on the backers - while John gets youngsters ready for competition and handles the older 'problem' horses.
Indigo Thornton -an RID 4 year old - gets some basic schooling from Olivier
Guiness - an ISH gelding - starts his jumping schooling with John
October 2009
2009 has brought its highs - and its
lows. Foaling went well - 9 mares foaled with 9 healthy foals and
plenty of pure-bred fillies. But in July we lost our grand old
foundation mare, Little Macha (Portia.)
Portia was bred in Ireland and was by Grey Macha ex
Sligo Star (by Dickie) - a full sister to the great Irish stallion
Agherlow. She was foaled in 1989 but her passport was lost -
perhaps along with a lot of her history as I have not managed to track
her prior to her 2002 foaling when she belonged to Gail List. She
came to me after that foal was weaned, having scanned not in foal.
Hiding foals was one of her talents - I regularly had to remind my vet
to 'look again' when he couldn't find a pregnancy. But she was the
easiest mare to get in foal - and until her last foaling, never needed
help. But this year was different, and a grey colt was finally
delivered with THREE legs presenting - he was dubbed Tripod!
She promptly got in foal again, but when Tripod was just 8 weeks old,
colic struck. Our excellent vet's best efforts were to no avail,
she went downhill very quickly and we had to make the decision to end
her suffering.
Portia won't be forgotten - her legacy lives on in our broodmare herd
with Indigo Diamond Surprise, Indigo Macha Pride, Indigo Macha Dawn and
Indigo Macha Princess. Indigo Macha Prince, now backed and under
saddle, will be re-presented for stallion grading in the future, and
Indigo Macha King has a good local home and a future as a dressage
horse. Tripod (Indigo Macha Duke) was successfully hand reared.
National Breed Show 2009
This was our first visit - and an amazingly successful outing. Indigo Deep Secret was first in the yearling filly class, just beating Indigo Sweet Magic. In third place was Indigo Dainty who we sold as a yearling. It was a great result for Raj - the 1st, 3rd and 5th placed fillies were all sired by him, and 2nd was the progeny of one of his daughters.
It was also a great result for our other grand old foundation mare, Northwood Rose. Her daughter was first, and two grand-daughters were 2nd and 3rd.
Portia's last foal - Indigo Macha Duke
The three winning fillies - here in reverse order. From left to right:
Indigo Deep Secret (1st), Indigo Sweet Magic (2nd) and Indigo Dainty (3rd)
Indigo Sweet Melody was 5th
in the Filly Foal Class.
Melody is by Avanti Amorous Archie ex Indigo Tralee Rosebud - and is a half-sister
to Indigo Sweet Magic.
We had three Raj daughters foal to Avanti Amorous Archie in 2009. This stallion was selected as he is very similar in type to Raj - with excellent conformation, plenty of bone, very good movement indeed and a stunning temperament. The fact he gave us 3 fillies was a bonus.
Hope that at least one of them would stay bay quickly faded - but we were delighted with their conformation and their movement, so Indigo Tralee Rosebud, Indigo Macha Pride and Indigo Macha Dawn all returned to Archie for their 2010 foals, joined by another two Raj daughters, the 3 year olds Indigo Three Times a Lady and Indigo Ripple.
With the Breed Show out of the way, Inspections came hot on its heels. Having a lot of grey horses means lots of shampoo is needed!! We put forward Indigo Macha Princess (aged 2) - who graded RID, and the 3/4 bred filly Indigo Ripple (aged 3), who graded AID. Ripple is in foal to Avanti Amorous Archie and we're hoping for a filly!
Corraslira Lady was awarded her third Hornby, with a score of 129, to become a Hornby Select mare.
Lyrem Fuzzypeg also scored 129 and was awarded her 2nd Hornby; and Indigo Tralee Rosebud and Indigo Macha Pride were awarded their 1st premiums. Indigo Macha Dawn had dropped some weight rearing her big first foal and wasn't successful this year.
We were particularly delighted that homebred mare, Indigo Tralee Rosebud, scored very highly indeed - 133!!
Indigo Tralee Rosebud
Corraslira Lady - Hornby Select Mare.