Well, as promised, here are the photos of Benny Bashir (River Oak Colorado x Rosewood Rhiannon). He looks a bit suspicious in some of them, because the only way we could photograph all of him (& not just the end of his nose) was by flapping a plastic bag at him. This he did not like, for all he helps me hang out the washing when Rhiannon is grazing on the driveway. Do you know how much longer it takes, when you have to retrieve socks, undies, etc, from a small horse's mouth?

I took Hattie (Rosewood Sonata) to Rangiora A&P show last weekend. This is only the third show she has been to, and the first where I expected her to stand up and trot out properly. She took it all in her stride, even being tied up to the float for the first time, and behaved beautifully. She is such a lovely filly to handle, and she proved herself again by winning her class and then going Reserve Champion Partbred/Anglo. It's often hard to show a two year old (or yearling) up against adults for a championship, but Hattie more than held her own. Robin Marshall kindly took the photos.

T'was a dark and stormy night, when the mare Rhiannon decided it was time (t'was bloody wet and cold'n all). She had carefully made sure she didn't foal on a nice warm nor'west night, and as an added bonus this had made her mum wait two extra weeks to see this baby. To make sure the agony was complete Rhiannon waxed up and dripped milk for the last week to ensure nightly visits by her mum. As the walking zombie her mum had become approached at 1.30 on that morning, she played her final trick - grazing as if nothing was happening. Thank goodness muttered mum, only a mentally deficient animal would foal in this weather. Haha said Rhiannon - got ya, and she lay down and started pushing.

There are times, and 1.30am on Monday the 29th of September was definitely one of them, that I would swap the lot for a bowl full of goldfish. Mind you, by 4.30 all I cared about was getting inside to a hot drink and a heater. Maybe those people who have virtual horses are onto a good thing! However, I now have a beautiful bay colt to cuddle, and he is very cuddly. Colorado's first baby is all I could wish for, very tall with legs as long as his mother's and joints nearly as big. He has dad's pretty head and fabulous shoulder; the rest is a lovely mixture of the two parents with a good long neck, excellent legs front and back and a nice smooth body with a long croup and very strong hindquarter. It's a bit hard to tell his movement as yet, his legs are so long he's having trouble controlling them and they tend to maliciously wrap themselves round each other and drop him on the ground when he least expects it. I'm sure he'll sort it out soon.

Nicole wants to call him Benny, not sure why, so Benny it is for the present. He has the most delightful temperament, and just loves to be scratched; he's especially fascinated with Nicole and Danielle, possibly because they are actually smaller than him, and they think its great having a baby you can play with. The weather has been so foul since he was born that I bought him a dog coat to wear (very cute), definitely the earliest I have ever cover-trained a horse. Mind you, he's going to be huge (he's easily the size his ½ brother Ardashir was and Ardashir is a good 15.2 as a five-year-old) so it's probably not a bad thing to get that stuff out of the way while I'm still bigger than him. I don't have any photos yet, as the digital camera we borrow is off on holiday with it's owner (how inconsiderate!), but as soon as we can I'll get some pictures up for you to see.

I took Colorado to a stallion parade at the beginning of September, and that was a lot of fun. He was in full show-off mode to the audience, and ponced and pranced as only he can do. Things got a trifle hairy when a helicopter flew over very low, but on the whole he was very well behaved. He generated a lot of interest, and there were more than a few visitors to his box after the parade. Here he was in his element, smooching and cuddling any who came in to see him. It obviously all went to his head, as the week following the parade he was very bored and played games and tricks on me every time I went near him. As soon as the weather gets a bit drier I'll start working him under saddle again, that'll give him something to think about.

So for now it's all feeding and grooming the show team for this year; barring accidents this will be Colorado, Naahrah, Sonata, Ashira and Najah, with probably a baby or two to go to the Nationals. This month I have the Northern A&P show and Colorado's second baby due from Aurielle, and the first of the outside mares for the season arrived on Friday. It's going to be a busy year.

Taralea Tamara died on May 25 of toxic shock resulting from a twisted small intestine. It happened incredibly fast; she was fine in the morning, then four hours later she was dead.

By The Ambassador (Aus) from the lovely mare White Pine Tammar, Tara was a beautiful mare and her grace and gentle temperament will be sorely missed. I luckily still have her daughter, Rosewood Ishtar, a liver chestnut copy of Tara; she will now be taking her mother's place at Rosewood Farm.

This season has been quieter than normal - at least as far as the horses are concerned. After my plans at the start to get Demi qualified for endurance, I just ran out of time; the children absorbed most of it.

I've promised myself that next season will be different, Nicole is at school now and I forsee Danielle starting preschool on Fridays - right before show season starts! I don't think I'll have the time to do endurance properly for a few years now, so I'm going to concentrate on showing until then.

<< I even took Sonnett out to the inaugural Arabian Saddlehorse Championship Show in January, and had a wonderful time. This is a show that I had been helping to organise, so I didn't have a lot of time to put into schooling her before the event. But dear Sonnett was just brilliant; although she had had the last three years off having babies, she hadn't forgotten any of her training and never put a foot wrong at the show. I hadn't ridden her before, and I was very pleasantly surprised to find how much like her sire, Kandahar Ibn Kazra she is to ride. She has the same paces and lovely temperament, including his smooth trot that you could sit to for hours. Robin Marshall very kindly took some lovely photos of her while at the show, you can see them on Sonnett's page.

With the National show here in Christchurch next year being in my mind, I have broken in River Oak Colorado, with a view to getting him out under saddle come November. It will all depend on how he copes with being out in company; I remember with Malek that he was brilliant at home and hacking round the block, but until he was rising four he blew his stack out with other horses. After that he was fine, he just needed an extra year to calm down. So plan "A" is to get Colorado out to lessons come August and proceed from there. He certainly has the ability to perform under saddle, his walk is very active, long and smooth; his trot is the same, even when he's barely moving he's tracking up and covering the ground well; and his canter is just beautiful to sit to. Added to all this is the fact he finds it effortless to carry himself in a good outline; and I have never broken in a horse that could do walk - canter transitions at this stage while just playing around. Plus he just loves the attention, and is fun to work with. I can see why other members of his "family" in Australia do so well in saddle classes, they are born and bred to succeed as performance horses.

Although I haven't been out and about with my horses much this year, Tycoon has been well represented by his babies. Tycoon's Secret Agent is a beautiful big yearling partbred colt, owned and bred by Anthea Sharp and shown by Sally Christian. He would stand about 15.2hh as a yearling and obviously has a lot more growing to do. Sally showed him at the Canterbury Horse and Pony Breeders Show in February where he took out Reserve Champion Hunter Youngstock. This is a great result for only his second show.

Wendy Hodgkinson from Blenheim has had great success with her lovely hack colt foal Temptation's Legend, winning Reserve Champion Sporthorse Youngstock at the Marlborough Horse and Pony In Hand show, and Reserve Champion Youngstock at the Nelson Arabian Show.

And Jim Cooper's Premonition (x Rosewood Sonnett) has had his first 40 km training ride, which he completed and vetted through with no problems.

Congratulations to all of you, I love hearing about "family members" getting out and about.

<< Rachel Rennie of Rossmoor Stud was presented with a beautiful colt this year from her National Champion Anglo mare, T.G. Summer Rose. By Tycoon, Rossmoor's Vivace, or Vinnie as he is known, is a real stunner as you can see from the photos. He has been to one show where he attracted attention as much for his lovely nature as his beautiful big eyes. Rachel has leased Rosewood Enchante this season, and has bred her to Kazmere Armani, a Multi Supreme Champion Arabian Warmblood. This is a cross I have thought of doing, so I will be most interested to see the result.

<< My one baby this season, Najah by Tycoon from Naahrah, is growing well. She will be tall, and has a fantastic nature; like mum she is cruisy and easy to handle. She loves to show off to an audience as you can tell from the photos, she will make a great show horse with her attitude.

Next year I should have 3 babies coming; Naahrah is back in foal to Tycoon and Rhiannon and Aurielle are in foal to Colorado. I had hoped to get photos of the Fearsome Foursome (the yearling fillies) as well, but the only one we could manage to photograph was Spellbound. The other three were not co-operating at all, and every time Pete took a photo Spellbound seemed to be right there in the middle of it!

It's been a while since I last wrote, but so much has been happening that time has just flown. I'll try not to forget anything. First I would like to thank everyone who took the time out to "sign" the guest book, it's been wonderful to read your comments. When you do something like this website you can only hope that what you are saying is interesting to others, and it's always great to find out all your work has not been in vain!

#1 event was Naahrah (Naaddel x Shaaltarah) foaling. I do like to check on mares and be with them for foaling, especially maiden mares, but Naahrah gave me no choice in the matter. She didn't wax up at all (well after 9.30pm if at all), and certainly didn't look any different that day; so it was with some surprise the next morning that I realised the extra legs I was imagining behind her were actually real! A beautiful big chestnut filly was bouncing around her mum, (another chestnut? I thought I'd get a bay) very much a typical Tycoon baby; very strong and independent, and, being a filly, looking much like mum. Najah has a longer hindquarter than Naahrah, but has her lovely laid back nature and the most incredible curled tips to her ears. Photos of her are on Naahrah's and the sale pages. This wee girl is definitely for sale, Pete will go spare if I try and keep any more, and I am so pleased with her that Naahrah will be bred back to Tycoon for another one next year.

River Oak Colorado is maturing nicely, he really looks like a two-year-old colt now. Rosewood Rhiannon (Kandahar Ibn Kazra x Sherwood Athene) is in foal to him and I am waiting for Taralea Tamara (The Ambassador x White Pine Tamar) and Rosewood Aurielle (Arabian Park Tycoon x Gold Kanial) to come into season to breed them to him. I can't wait to see these babies. We had a photo session with Colorado a few weeks ago, borrowing a friend's digital camera. I've always thought the quality of photos from digital cameras was a bit dodgy, but I am now sold on them. They have obviously improved out of sight and they are soooo convenient. You take 50 photos then delete the obviously bad ones (the ground, the sky, horses tail just going out of the frame - stuff like that) and start again. No waiting and no developing costs for one or two decent photos out of the whole lot. Pete is developing a good eye for taking horse photos too, this helps a lot.

Some of the photos are just outstanding, take a peek at Colorado's page and judge for yourself.

I have been having a wonderful time with Rosewood Vedema (Arabian Park Tycoon x Sherwood Athene) doing her first endurance rides. Well the first competitive ride was the Trail ride at Bottlelake and we did the 20km. Unfortunately the plantation had been double booked by the rangers and a championship mountain bike ride was on at the same time. Things got a trifle hairy at one point, and there is a mountain bike rider out there who still has his head attached to his shoulders by virtue of a very quick reaction. Demi got scared when caught in a large group of bikers, none of whom were prepared to give us any room, and when she got trapped against a tree trunk she (and I!) panicked. However we survived and all credit to her, she settled down straight away after this. The only other problem we had was two fold, firstly 20km was nowhere near long enough for her, and secondly about 2km from the finish some riders charged past us and then stopped about 200m in front of us. This Demi did NOT like, she wanted to be in front. So she pranced and did canter and trot half passes (very lovely they were too according to Jenny and Katrina who I was riding with) and reefed and pulled; with the result that we crossed the line with an 84 heart rate. However, by the time we got back to the float it was down to 48, so we qualified no problems.

The next ride was a straightforward 40km training endurance at Fernside, where in spite of the rain and hail she gave me a dream ride of 3 hours 32 with a final hr of 40. This on one training session per week of around 20km. Given time (and a more consistent training regime!) I think she is going to be great, but I can only do as much as time and children allow. I missed the November ride as I had horses entered at Canterbury show, and it just wasn't possible to ride Demi and train the show horses as well.

I took Rosewood Sonata (Arabian Park Tycoon x Rosewood Sonnett) to Canterbury International A &P Show, her second outing ever and the first since she was a foal at mum's side. She was a bit startled by it all, but took everything in her stride. She trotted out beautifully in the class, she just needs to learn to stand up. Typical Tycoon baby, she was happier walking round and round than standing still. But we can work on this. In spite of her reluctance to stand for the judge, she (the judge) must have liked what she saw as she gave Sonata Reserve Champion Partbred/Anglo Youngstock. That's two Reserve Championships from two outings, and I think she'll do even better as she matures.

Well, I finally have a website up and running. Several years ago a computer-oriented friend of mine (I won't call him a geek!) suggested I should have a website, and that it would be no problem for him to help me set it up. After all this time I figured that if I really wanted this I would have to do it myself and so I approached Robin Marshall. And I am really pleased with the wonderful job she has done. I hope you enjoy reading all I have to say about my horses -- like all breeders I'm very proud of my bunch.

If there are any Australians out there reading this, please could you help me? I have no background on Arabian Park Tycoon previous to me buying him. The, ahh, "gentleman", I bought Tycoon off left Auckland in a big hurry two weeks after the purchase, and all the promised show and progeny details never eventuated. I know there was a gelding, Son Val Mukhtar, doing endurance a few years ago, but that is it. So if anyone out there knows anything about Tycoon's past owners, or his progeny, I would love to hear from you.

Last weekend (August 18) saw Rosewood Vedema (Demi) and Rosewood Ardashir at their first trail ride. OK, it was only 10km, but hey I was at a ride on my own horse for the first time in two years. I had a silly grin on my face the whole time, even when the pair of them got highly upset when other horses went past them. On the whole they were very well behaved, considering neither of them had ever been ridden outside of their home grounds before. And there were more than a few people and horses there to provide distractions -- more than 60. Roll on September and the real trail ride at Bottlelake plantation. After that Demi will be doing her first 40km endurance training ride, as plan A is to get her at least yellow carded this season.

There's not much else happening around here at present; I only have one baby due this season, from Naahrah in November. She is huge already, it's obviously a big baby. Ashira, Distinction and Sonata are all being fed for the coming show season; the schedules for Canterbury and Rangiora have arrived already, so it's only around the corner.

Colorado had decided to grow suddenly over the last fortnight, now his bum is around 15hh. Last week his withers were still at 14.1 and he looked very strange -- like a back to front giraffe, but they have come up this week, and he's not looking so odd!