Horses More Horses

The Sultan Saga

2008-03-07T21:39:00.001-08:00

Here is a pic of my Thoroughbred mare, the naughty girl had better not be in foal! Read on....

I sold now rising 3 y.o. colt Cudglebar Sultan to a stud W.A. in June 2007, and he was due to leave for his new home when EI hit. Consequently, he is still here 9 months later!

A few weeks ago I moved him under DPI permit to a 10 acre paddock 20 mins from here so he could run around. It is next door to my land where I run my mares and youngstock. I put electric tape standouts along the boundary fence, then for good measure, built an electric fence with several rows of tape on the mares' side, leaving quite a gap.

I have 7 horses here that I have sold but are still here due to EI, so I was thrilled as Sultan was supposed to leave today at lunch time for Western Australia, but the transport guy rang at lunchtime and said the driver had a tyre blowout, so will be here tomorrow morning at 6 am!

Last Wednesday morning I drove up with load of water and feed, to find that Sultan was not in his paddock. He had knocked the energiser to the ground (I didn't think he could each it), climbed over the standouts and the wire fence, through the electric corridor and in with my TB mare. He was standing next to her as if butter wouldn't melt in his mouth.
So I locked him in the stockyard, then drove back to town in a hurry and bought a roll of while tape and insulators, drove back, built a long fence line compound surrounding the stockyard and put a removable tape over the top of his gate. This took me all day in the hot sun, and meanwhile the mares had noticed him and were lining up, giving him the come-on, then I hooked up the energiser - it didn't work, so I raced into town to buy batteries, got back, put them in, it still didn't work, I drove back to town, had to buy new energiser, and the only one in stock in town was an expensive one!!
So I went back, hooked it up - it worked, then I had to drive back home and bring up 2 more loads of water - this in drums in my car boot! After the 2nd trip, my Arabian colt Ki had come up, so I locked him in the big yard I had just made of electric tape, a yard all around the back of the stockyard to prevent the mares getting near Sultan. I fed and watered Ki in there, as I had been planning to separate him soon. When I got back an hour later with another load of water, rising 3 yo Arabian gelding Trinity had broken in, broken an insulator, and put Ki over the fence into the neighbour's. So I got Ki and led him into Sultan's old paddock and fed and watered him there. Then I looked over my shoulder, Trinity had seen me feed Ki and decided he'd follow, but he went up a gap not wide enough for a horse between the neighbour's wire fence and the stockyard fence. So I tried to make him up back, but he decided to turn around and put all his legs through the wire fence, so while he just stood there dopily I had to fetch the wire cutters from the car boot and cut him out, lucky he is dopey quiet. Well I had left all the halters at home this trip, so had to lead him over the mesh grid and through the gate with baling twine and a bum rope made out of white tape, as the mesh grid did not look inviting to him, meanwhile trying to stop all the mares racing out through the gate over the mesh grid. I got home that night completely exhausted.
Then the next day the vet was coming at 4.30 pm to check Sultan for stallion registration with the Arabian Horse Society. Well, I drove up there, then got a phone call from the vet to say he was going to be late as he had a cow emergency down south. So after what seemed like long time sitting in the paddock in the hot sun I rang the vet surgery, and the receptionist said she'd see how long he'd be. When I rang back she said he'd be there within the hour.
So I rang her back and said I didn't live there, it was at least a 20 min drive from home, that I'd drive home and feed my horses as it was getting late, then drive back - she said I'd have enough time. Just as I was driving in my driveway, the vet rang and said he was on his way, so I turned around and drove straight back!!!!
Then I thought Sultan was going today, but now he's going tomorrow! The transport guy assures me that the driver is on his way!

Splitters Creek Visit

2008-03-07T21:24:00.000-08:00

On my way back from dropping my daughter off at uni I enjoyed the great hospitality of Catherine of Splitters Creek stud. It was great to have a long talk, til the wee small hours of the morning! Catherine has stallion Hyksos Benjamin, whom I bred, and while there I saw a very lovely filly by Ben, owned by Tina Camm. I wanted to hitch up Catherine's float and take off with the filly! I was also very taken with an outstanding yearling filly by Ben from Cudglebar Mujeor. I used to own Mujeor. She was one of the original Kikkuli Experiment horses, and then went on to a successful endurance career, over 3,000 km and 20th Quilty with Lowest Heartrates. She is by Cudglebar Es Sahra, the sire of my head mare Cudglebar Riena. They both will be 20 y.o. this year and were both Kikkuli Experiment horses as 3 y.o.s. My 15 y.o. son's favourite was a very inquisitive colt foal by Ben out of Cudglebar Shamira. I saw my 26 y.o. mare Cudglebar Rabi's very nice daughter, S.C. Juliet. I also saw tall Anglo stallion SC Red Jewel, a big fave of Catherine's! He is typical of the Cudglebar Mameluke line temperament, super quiet and laid back. Here's a pic of Catherine with him. I saw lots of nice horses! I also liked a grey Aloha mare with very nice colt at foot.

Catch up Jan-March 08!

2008-03-07T20:58:00.000-08:00

Well, a lot has happened the last few weeks. Sadly, my father passed away. I also had to drive my daughter interstate to start uni. Back home now. I was away from home for quite some time, but friends looked after the horses well - check out Esther's art blog HERE - also NSW was declared EI free, so horse movement has started again!

My camera packed it in, but before it did, I took this pic of my cremello Part Arabian colt.

Catch Up! Nov 06 to Jan 08!!

2008-01-02T19:27:00.000-08:00

Well, I haven't posted for over year, and I have just deleted some emails from my Inbox which means I now "only" have 4199 to look through.
2007 was very hectic - my 4wd finally died. When it stranded us on the side of the road in 2006, the engine was under warranty - I took it back to the mechanic who kept it for over 2 months, and informed me that he had sent it back to the suppliers to be fixed. Well.... 2 weeks after I got it back, I was bringing back my 2 Arabian mares from their fast workout (they were soon to race in an Arabian race) when I heard a ghastly sound. I pulled over - and to cut a long story short, a piston had gone through the engine. It went back to the mechanic, who said he would complain to the engine supplier. He also said I must not contact the supplier, but to leave it to him. He was so adamant about this, that I got suspicious and phoned the supplier - and to my horror, found out that the engine had never gone to them at all! The mechanic had simply done a bandaid job on the warped head and given the car back to me saying it was a replaced engine. After much crooked dealing from the mechanic, I finally got a replacement engine for the car. However, it than sprang a petrol leak and an LPG gas leak at the same time, and the brakes went, so I got rid of it.
Meanwhile, I had sold my double float and bought 3 horse angle load, which I still have , but have nothing to tow it with.
Meanwhile.... both my parents became very ill.
Meanwhile..... Equine Influenza broke out in Australia. I ended up having all my horses vaccinated, that in itself was quite a drama, but I can only type with 2 fingers so it would take too long to recount that tale.
Meanwhile.... I also rediscovered my former pure Polish Arabian mare Kasztelanka and was able to get her back - her story is at my website http://www.hyksosarabians.com/ - go to "Arabian mares" page and then click on her name for her story.
Meanwhile..... I was hard at work trying to meet the publisher's deadline for a couple of books. Some of my books are now on Amazon, see the link at the right of the page.
Meanwhile... my lovely Arabian stallion Hyksos Arkhon had his first two foals, a buckskin Quarab filly (photo baiove left at 10 weeks), and a Dilute Black (photo above at 2 weeks), of all things, colt from my cremello mare.
Well that's about it. So much happened in 2007.
I will be posting on frequent basis from now on.

Road Trip From Hell

2006-11-21T17:21:00.000-08:00

Last weekend my 14 y.o. son and I drove way down south to 1/2 way between Taralga and Oberon over ghastly scary roads to pick up Cudglebar Riena and her filly Hyksos Rowena from Montville Stud. The trip one way was 10 hrs 50 mins, although we called in on Les Ellery at Cudglebar on the way.
On the way back, all seemed to be well and we were making good time. I'd arranged for Les to meet us in Dunedoo as he was keen to see Rowena. We left Dunedoo, got through Gunnedah, then the car suddenly made a hideous loud sound, blew white smoke, and stopped while going up a hill on the busy highway. This was 4 pm and the weather was very hot. Eventually someone kindly stopped and phoned the NRMA (roadside assistance), and they turned up about 7 pm. Meanwhile, someone else had kindly stopped. I had a new engine and new radiator in the car only a couple of weeks earlier, and the problem!! The mechanic had put old radiator hoses on the new radiator! Consequently one had split open. The NRMA thought the head was cracked.
In a further twist, I had rung NRMA normal number despite having Premium Care cover - when they arrived I told the NRMA guy I was Premium Care several times, but he looked at me blankly. With premium care, they tow your car to wherever you want, put you up in a motel, give you a hire car, and it covers the float as well. However, the NRMA guy just towed us up to behind the petrol station at Somerton, a small town and left us there. (He was however a nice helpful person, he must just not have run across anyone Premium Care before?! I also didn't know I had to phone a different number for Premium Care, but no one from the NRMA on the phone throughout this told me.)
So I rang a neighbour to drive all the way down and tow us back, and we got home after midnight.
Meanwhile, poor Riena and Rowena had been stuck in the float since 7.40 a.m. We kept going in and feeding them and offering them buckets of water, and topping up their haynet. They seemed none the worse for wear when we finally got home, but Rowena wanted a very long drink from her mum.
It was a truly horrible experience - and what is wrong with people these days! Between 4 pm and 7 pm only 2 cars stopped to help us, - a woman, a child, a horse float with mare and foal, on the side of a very busy highway, and on the edge, with no room to get off properly, the bonnet up. You would expect more people to stop in the country, if not the city. Thankfully two very kind carloads of people did stop to help.

New Zealand foal born now, planned 1992

2006-10-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Pure Colonial Arabian colt KD Nitro has just been born at KD Stud in New Zealand. He's the result of several generations of planning. His sire is my former Arabian racehorse and Kikkuli Experiment stallion Cudglebar Rasuli*, and his dam is the double Santiago granddaughter Hyksos Nysa. The photo here of KD Nitro is taken when he was less than 24 hours old, and the photo of Santiago taken when he was 21 y.o.
Santiago was by the Malik by the Rakib* son NEMO who was out of the famous endurance progneitor SHALAMAR (bred by Cudglebar in the days before their prefix). Santiago's dam Loleta was by Baz, a full brother to Bahri, both sons of Rakib*. Loleta's dam Leto was by Sala* from the Jelbart mare Buraida who was intensely Shahzada* bred.
I bred my endurance mare Rose Park Lady Rakai (who also did the Kikkuli Experiment and was by Bahri himself) to Santiago to produce a filly to breed to Cudglebar Rasuli*, and after getting two fillies, Hyksos Trysting and Hyksos Red Rum (both exported to New Zealand), bred Cudglebar Symphony to Santiago in the hope of producing a colt (that happened, his name... Hyksos Vangelis) to put to Trysting when he grew up, with the hope that they would produce a filly (that happened, her name... Hyksos Nysa*) that could eventually be put to Cudglebar Rasuli* to produce a colt. Whew!! Well, that long-term plan has just been brought to fruition, in the form of KD Nitro.

Hand the vet my credit card?

2006-10-18T17:42:00.000-07:00

I think I should hand over my credit card to the vet. Cudglebar Jasmine had another relapse. (If you haven't read past blogs, she ate Pattersons Curse when she lived at Cudglebar which caused liver damage, and so Les Ellery sold her to me to get her out of the area asap. Otherwise nothing could have enticed him ever to part with her.) Jasmine had just started on the liver drug but it hadn't had time to kick in, and she suddenly went downhill again. She is doing hugely better today and last night finished a 5 day course of antiobiotics. As of last night, she was only eating grass, and not drinking water or eating her feed or hay - and only drinking water in the form of warm molasses drinks. The first few days of her relapse she wasn't even drinking that, so I had to syringe molasses and water into her mouth, countless syringes of it went into her mouth.
Last night I started her on shots of B complex, and B12 and folic acid. This morning brought about a marked difference - she had eaten most of a biscuit of lucerne hay, and drunk the remaining (now cold) molasses water and quite an amount of normal water.
She is living on the front lawn at the moment, which, thankfully as I am on town water, I had been watering (no water restrictions here) and fertilising as a pick for the horses. She has been grazing the last few days but not greedily.
Nowe that the liver drug is starting to kick in, her coat has become incredibly shiny for the first time ever, and lies flat - a huge improvement. She has no more needles for another 2 days, which will make her happy.
Here's a photo of her - the view from my office window - when we had a cold snap the other day. Now it's back to hot and dry. There is rain on the horizon but nothing doing as yet.

Improving

2006-10-10T21:37:00.000-07:00

Here's his wound now. It's not as good as it looks in the photo, as there is still a lot missing - you can put half your fist inside the wound so the photo is a bit deceptive, but at least you can tell how much it has healed in just 2 weeks. His neck has almost healed over completely. He is trotting and cantering around normally now.

The Good News of Goodie

2006-10-10T21:09:00.000-07:00

My much loved 23 month old Quarab colt has safely arrived in South Tasmania for his new owners Mandy Yorke and David King after a 4 day trip - Tasmanian Horse Transport looked after him really well.
The kids were sad to see him go (there's my 14 y.o. son hugging him goodbye), but happy that he's gone to a lovely home.

Catch Up

2006-10-10T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well, I don't know where to start! The last couple of months have been a ghastly blur. I have an investment house in my home town that I renovated then rented out some years ago - a recent change of tenant proved to be quite a disaster, I had to go to court to have them evicted, it was traumatic - they have gone now, but I am flat out with the enormous clean up, the insurance co, you name it. I'm going to sell it once I restore it to its former glory, so am working full-on so I can put it on the market asap.
I also had yearling colt attacked by a dog. Part of his throat was torn open, and the whole of his chest, and a lot of muscle was missing. It is unclear what was from the dog, and what was from injuries sustained as he ran away from the dog, as he was chased a couple of kilometres away. He couldn't walk on that leg - it was a ghastly injury. It is healing up well and now he can walk on it, although still looks a sight. The photo is on the left is 3 days after it happened - quite an improvement on the first day! The photo on the right is the first day (after the vet had treated it), but you can't tell from the photo just how bad it was, there was a lot of muscle and flesh missing.
My 3 y.o. buckskin Quarter Horse mare Brandys Precious Pass has adopted him, which is quite cute.
Oh, and the day I had to get the court order to have them evicted was the day the colt was attacked - the vet left at 8 am, and I had to be in court in another town at 9.30 am. That night I felt I was going completely mad and just lay on the lounge staring into space.

Assortment

2006-09-06T19:06:00.000-07:00

In the last couple of weeks, apart from the fun part (the visitors), I've had Cudglebar Jasmine ill, had to race down to Newcastle to see my father (at least I still got to see Dr Who on Saturday night!) , and before that Jasmine's yearling son Cudglebar Sultan was running around the paddock with a stick in his mouth - he'd pulled it from a pine tree, and dropped it then tripped over it, and it stuck in his leg on the front of a hind cannon - not bad, but of course I had to treat it.
Last week (and throughout winter) the place looked like the Sahara desert, but now, as is usual at this time of year, everything has greened up seemingly overnight, and the flowers are coming out.

Pic of Palomino filly

2006-09-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

For some reason the post about my Palomino filly would not load a photo of her, so here it is. She has her own page on my website, go to www.hyksosarabians.com and look for "Little Leslie Lena" on the menu.

Cudglebar Jasmine gets sick

2006-09-06T01:32:00.000-07:00

A couple of days after Les, Karen and John left, on my way back from dropping the kids at the school bus I saw Jasmine not eating her breakfast, and looked depressed with her head down. As I went to catch her she trotted away, coughing a little, so I rugged her and gave her shot of depocillin and syringed some Trimidine down her throat, and called the vet. Her temp was 39.1.
He took bloods and marked them urgent, then took some back to the surgery to see what he could find out there.
The bloods the next morning were worrying, but what we have figured out is that if there is something going around, like a cold, she drops her bundle as her liver isn't the best. I have ordered some pangamic acid (used to be called vitamin B 15) and will give her a course of that, and then continue it at intervals, will look up some herbal stuff to give her in her feed too.
The vet gave me a printed out diet for liver patients, but it turns out that's what I've been feeding her anyway, so that was good!
She finished her depocillin course last night, and took off at a gallop after I let her go. She's feeling good again, but I'll keep a close eye on her.

Another filly, a PALOMINO Quarab!

2006-09-06T01:12:00.000-07:00

Riena foaled Rowena on the Monday, and on Tuesday afternoon I noticed chestnut Arabian mare Arwin of Kikkuli had bagged up considerably since that morning. As I was contemplating the sleepless night ahead of me, the phone rang, and it was Karen of KD Arabians, New Zealand. They were visiting 83 y.o. Les Ellery of Cudglebar Stud, and on the spur of the moment thought they'd bring him to visit me the next day, stay overnight, then head back the next day. Les was thrilled, as he usually can't get away from the farm. I've known Les since I was a kid, and as a teenager leased him my foundation stallion Helicon for 2 seasons.
I quickly "cleaned up" the house, by throwing everything in file boxes and stacking them in my bedroom, out of sight - I'm still looking for things!
Karen and John were frightened as they had experienced my cooking before, and their faces looked stricken when I insisted on cooking the dinner. Les was very excited to see Cudglebar Jasmine, a favourite mare of his - he sold her to me last Christmas just after she recovered from a life-threatening illness. Les's stud is out west and the season had brought more Pattersons Curse (nasty weed) than usual - Jasmine had sustained liver damage from eating it and had nearly died. The vet told Les she had to get to a Pattersons Curse free area asap, and Les wanted her to come to me as I have a vet literally 3 minutes away, and, if I do say so myself :-), I spoil my horses!
That night I stayed up again to check Arwin, and she foaled at 2 am - very easy birth, everything went just perfectly (apart from me not being able to see if the filly was passing the meconium in the dark, so I picked it up and put it in my coat pocket to check its identity later - and found it there at dawn!) This is Arwin's first foal, and she is a superb mum. The night took a cold turn so at 2.15 am I ran to wake up Karen, and we moved Arwin and the foal into the foaling stable from the foaling paddock. Then Karen and I stayed up all night talking. Les was up at 6 am to see what had happened, and was impressed the foal, and very approving that Karen and I had taked about pedigrees all night!
Les suddenly decided not to eat breakfast when I offered to cook it, and said cereal would be fine. He didn't want toast as I burnt the first 6 pieces and had to throw them in the sink and turn on the tap to put them out as they were smoking. Toaster's fault! I said.
Back to my filly... a PALOMINO!!!!!! I saw her first in the moonlight and knew she was a palomino, even from the distance at which I was lurking not wanting to disturb Arwin. All my life I have wanted to breed a palomino filly, but haven't been able to breed a palomino at all, and I am very blessed and excited to have the lovely filly! She is by Trazir Stud's palomino Quarter Horse stallion BWQ Tassa Hollywood. I named her in honour of Les, Hyksos Little Leslie Lena. She is a very intelligent horse, and very cute!

It's a filly!

2006-09-06T01:03:00.000-07:00

My pure Colonial mare Cudglebar Riena had a filly!! Yes, this was the Monday before last but I haven't had a chance to catch up on the blog yet. She foaled at Montville Stud as when I knew I would be able to buy Riena, it was too late to travel her, and will be around a 9 hour drive. The filly was born on my son Rowan's 14th birthday, so he insisted she be named Hyksos Rowena. Rowena is a full sister to my stud stallion Hyksos Arkhon. Riena was to be rebred to Caleb, who was about to head overseas to New Zealand to KD Arabians. However, while the date he was due to leave left enough time, the transport was sent for him days earlier than expected, to my disappointment. The overseas shipping company just happened to have a truck in the area, so thought they'd pick up Caleb on their way past.. oh well... here's a picture of Caleb (he's working stock horse) with his owner John Heffernan of Montville Stud, photo by Sharon Meyers.
At least I didn't have to stay up all night with Riena - when Arkhon was foaled (I had leased her back then for 1 year), I was sleepless for a few nights and she finally had him in the middle of the final episode of Friends screening in Australia. However, I soon was to be up 2 nights running with only coffee to keep me going....

A new horse!

2006-08-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-13T17:11:00.000-07:00

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

2006-08-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

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?

2006-08-06T18:03:00.000-07:00

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.

Augean stables

2006-07-24T16:36:00.000-07:00

It's all about floods this week - it hasn't stopped raining for 2 weeks - this district needed rain, but now I wish it would stop. The horses are standing in mud, I get soaked every time I venture outside, and the three weanling Arabian colts don't look too happy being so recently taken away from their mums and are standing around looking drenced. My palomino First Cross Quarter Horse filly seems to be getting over her cold, despite the weather, but is still on medication and is locked in a stall.
At any rate, I ventured out at the weekend to build fences. The people who used to own this place had miniature ponies, and miniature fences to match. Most of the posts I was able to pull out with my bare hands, no digging required. I have had to refence the whole place myself. So last weekend I completed a Herculean fencing task. It was ghastly - I would rather have cleaned out King Augeas' stables. (Unlike Hercules I wouldn't have had to divert two rivers to do the job, there were already here.)
Of course, having teenagers, my fencing was interrupted by comments like, "I'm STARVING!There's nothing to eat!" My reply: "There's food in the fridge". Their reply: "No there isn't, come and see, there's nothing to eat in it". Of course the fridge was full, but I think they expected McDonalds Drive Through in the fridge, everything else in there wasn't "food". So I had to fence while fielding those comments, teenagers!! Anyway, check out my lovely fences. It's posts, 1 rail on top about 5 1/2' high, filled in with wire netting, with 2 strands of electric tape in front. (Excuse the fencing material still on the ground.) I'm going to paint it all white when the rain stops.

Horses More Horses

2006-07-22T05:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, I am a horse addict. My parents were very anti-horse but my grandfather was a top horseman. Although my parents did take me for riding lessons and I competed in shows as a child, I didn't get my own horse until I was a late teenager - he was an Anglo Arabian stallion and my very first endurance horse. I suspect I've been trying to make up ever since for my early horse-deprivation, as I can't resist a good horse! Some people collect china but I like to collect horses. I've bred Arabian horses ever since - the old fashioned sort, the working type, known in Australia as the "Colonial Arabian". Colonials are fantastic for the sport of Endurance Riding. However, ever since I watched countless episodes of Mr Ed as a kid, I have desperately wanted a palomino. All sorts of strange things initially went wrong with this venture, but now I have three palomino horses, a Quarab mare, a First Cross Quarter Horse filly, and a part Arabian mare.
As of course Arabians (sadly) don't come in the colour (or, for you non-Aussies and non-English, color) Palomino, I have leant more and more to Quarter Horses, and now have 3 y.o. buckskin Quarter Horse mare. I also have a chestnut Arabian mare in foal to a palomino Quarter Horse stallion, and my palomino Quarab mare is in foal to a palomino Quarter Horse mare, and I would love a cremello from that combination. (I also have an unusual brindle Quarab young stallion, 75% Arabian and 25% Quarter Horse.)
I haven't shown a horse for years, but this year want to venture back into the showring with a couple of horses. I'd also like to try another horse sport apart from endurance and showing, but no clues as to what, preferably something that doesn't take hours in the dark or being out in all sorts of bad weather for ages. I also have 2 Stud Book Thoroughbred mares that I used to own, sold, and bought back, and they will be bred this year to my Arabian colt for Anglo Arab progeny.
Well that's about it. You can find lots of photos of my horses at www.hyksosarabians.com