A new horse!

A new horse will be arriving here the week after next. She is 3/4 Arabian and 1/4 Thoroughbred, but although an Anglo Arabian is registered Part Arabian. Her name is Loudoun Imari and she's getting along in years. In her day she was a very good endurance horse, and her full sister Talisman Gamin was a big winning endurance horse. Furthermore, one of Gamin's foals "Captain Starlight" placed equal 3rd in the Quilty (Australia's biggest endurance ride, 160 km = 100 Miles) in recent years.
In 1988 alone, Gamin was 9th National Endurance Horse (Australia), and Winner of: Northern Rivers Zone Horse, Distance Horse, and Best Conditioned Horse Pointscore winner.
Lou has a long trip ahead of her the week after next, from Tasmania to northern NSW. I'll put up photos of her when she arrives - meanwhile, I am hoping to track down a picture of her in her youth.

Palomino Part Arabian Mare

I've been trying to find out the breeding of my palomino mare since I bought her last Christmas - I bought her without papers - so last week I sent requests for help to several Australian Arabian horse and endurance riding email lists I'm on. It turns out that the lady 3 owners before me was in fact her breeder. I was also quite pleased with myself :-) as I guessed she had Silver Moonlight breeding (she has a double cross) and I thought she might have Spindrift breeding as she reminded me of Rimski, an Arabian stallion I used to admire as a teenager, but it turns out she in fact goes back to Rimski's mother. Jasmine is by the pure Arabian Nilgaram Royal Dynasty - check out his pedigree here: http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/
nilgaram+royal+dynasty (copy both these lines to your browser)
- and her dam was a palomino who was by a good palomino Quarter Horse stallion from a stock horse mare.
Jasmine's breeder was thrilled to hear how she was going, and will be sending me photos of Jasmine and her relatives. Apparently the initial paperwork did go in to the Arabian Horse Society, so hopefully I can get Jasmine registered.

Fencing and Driving

I spent the whole weekend fencing and driving the kids to town and picking them up, an hour round trip and I did several. They haven't started work on my car yet, so doubt I'll make it to the Gulgong endurance ride. I also found out the breeding of my palomino mare Jasmine, which is quite exciting as I've been trying to find out since I bought her last Christmas. I rode her yesterday, but was too tired after all the driving and fencing to drag the saddle out, so rode her bareback. I didn't get a chance to eat over the weekend so lived on coffees, 2 at a time, but in an attempt to be healthy (?) I drank 1 hot chocolate for every coffee.

What's that green stuff?

Had a bit of a drama last week, had to race off early in the morning, went to a coffee shop on the trip, and wondered why people were staring at me. I had a pair of bolt cutters sticking out of my handbag! Oh well.... perhaps not the usual thing, but always good to have them at the ready!
To make matters worse, I had on a nice coat, and someone asked me, "What's that green stuff?" - I had hay on it!
I suppose I am a fairly typical horse person, but I don't have a tack room on my property as the last people had miniature ponies and no facilities, so I've had to redo all the fences and build, but haven't got as far as a tack room yet. However, I do have a large walk-in pantry, and all my saddles, bridles, halters, leads, brushes and so on are kept in there.
When I got back I finished the Kikkuli Method of Horse Training newsletter. It's here: http://www.kikkulimethod.com/index.php?pr=NewletterAugust
Check it out - over 10 years ago I replicated the 3,000 year old horse training text with Arabian horses. There's lot about it at www.kikkulimethod.com
I also blew a big end bearing in my Landcruiser, and the mechanics can't start on it for a fortnight. This was a quite horrible and expensive shock. Thankfully I have borrowed a little car from friends who are overseas, but it means I have to have all the feed delivered, and will not make it to the next endurance ride. Let's hope the rest of the month is extra good to make up for the start.