It's now been about seven months since my last update - my apologies to anyone who is bored with checking in - but this is the first time I have felt like writing anything since the National show. Most people will probably know we lost Tycoon in April (from suspected heart failure), capping off the year from hell where we lost four others all for differing reasons. Even now I'm still not good talking about it, and it seems very strange not to have him around. Thank you to everyone who phoned and sent emails and cards - your thoughts were appreciated at the time, and I'm sorry I did not get back to all of you.

Zelina

But, as the mother of a friend of mine used to say, shift happens. To this end we now have two new horses here (well one will be shortly).

The first is Zelina (Cyrasa (Pol) x Kyrenia) a beautiful flea-bitten grey mare, and a horse I have had my beady little eye on since I first saw her at her breeders (Sharon Mason) many years ago. Zelina is the epitome of elegance, with the most glorious long fine neck, a very good hindquarter with a long croup and natural high tail carriage, and she is a good moving mare as well. At 21 years old she is still fabulous. She is currently in foal to Zaddam and I hope to put her back in foal, once she has had her baby. I would like to thank David Marshall very much for making this beautiful mare available to me.

Who I will breed Zelina to is not so certain, as the other new arrival (on October 23) is Redwood Lodge Calais. Calais is by the World Reserve Champion, Om El Abadaan from Redwood Lodge Cabreaa, a daughter of the beautiful USA import mare Cambriaa. These are very different bloodlines to most of what I have had in the past, but I have been a fan of Calais for a while (I saw Cambriaa years ago and she was just glorious). He is a short-coupled horse with substance, beautifully balanced with a lovely length of rein and a good strong hindquarter. Sandy says he has a fantastic temperament to match and his babies are just a pleasure to work with. I will be leasing Calais from Classic Arabians for the next couple of seasons, as I feel his daughters would be a lovely match to breed to Colorado. This cross has been successful in Australia, with the recently imported Lexington Tequila being such an example. While he is here Calais will stand at public stud, so please feel free to contact me if you are interested in breeding to this horse of world-class show bloodlines.

The first baby is due shortly - Rhiannon, in foal to Colorado, is due on October 22, and she is huge. A couple of months ago I thought she had a nice little filly-sized bulge, but in the last three weeks she has expanded, and now I'm not so sure. I'm pleased I bought a foaling alarm last year, as she had a real struggle to get last year's big baby out and I wouldn't want to miss this one, just in case.

Zelina is due at the end of November, followed by Molly the TB (baby by Flowervale Meteor WB) at the end of January and Mishka (baby by Colorado) the first week of February. We served Mishka only the once, the week before the National show, but that was obviously enough!

Her filly by Colorado, Shemaali (aka Tilly) is growing into a big beautiful girl and I look forward to seeing a full sibling. Tilly was supposed to be shown this side of Christmas, but she currently has a face full of warts, so she'll have to wait until after Christmas. Tilly's half brother Shiraj is now three and is maturing into a tall (now 15hh) elegant, beautiful Arabian. He is all I could hope for from Colorado, and leaves no doubt that Colorado will take Tycoon's place as #1 man about Rosewood Farm.

Well, the National Arabian show has come and gone already.

Rosewood Shemaali at the Nationals.

It always feels a bit like a wedding to me - massive amounts of planning and work for half a day's performance. Although this year we got to come back for the finals in the evening as Shiloh (Shiraj) went top 3 junior gelding and had to be shown for the announcement of the Champion and Reserve. More later.

I had to admit I was a tad worried about Tilly the Filly (Shemaali) and how she would cope with it all, as she is a big girl and doesn't hang around if things start to worry her. However, apart from taking a couple of days to teach to load onto the float, she was a wee darling. I've never had such a good foal to wash for the first time, and nothing was a problem, from having a cover on for the first time to putting on a hood; she travelled beautifully on the float and was quite happy in the box overnight, and coped with the indoor arena and the whole showing thing really well. She wasn't about to let the judge put on her qualifying ribbon, but we'll forgive her that seeing she was so good about everything else. All in all it was a great first outing for her.

Mishka and Tilly both qualified but didn't go any further, they were both up against some very strong competition, but neither of them looked out of place.

Many thanks to Penny McDrury for all her help on the day, she was great at getting everyone ready and handled Mishka for me in the ring. Also thank-you to Jennifer Low, who was kind enough to give me these lovely photos she took of the horses.

Rosewood Shiraj.

Shiloh flew the flag for Rosewood Farm at the show, after qualifying he was placed top 3, and then second in the movement class. By Saturday night he was getting fairly stroppy (as only 2yos can!) as he had been there since the night before and his mates had gone home several hours previously. Unfortunately I had twisted my ankle quite badly earlier in the day on a loose piece of bark in the arena, so by that night there was no way I could run him into the arena. Thankfully Rachel stayed around after her ridden classes so she could take him for me, although I was a bit worried about his acting like performing seal for her.

Mishka at the Nationals. pictures: Jennifer Low

However, things went well and it was all made worthwhile when he was named Reserve National Champion - a first for a Rosewood Farm purebred. We had a bit of a celebration over that, as Rachel, Pete and I had booked in for the after show dinner. We were at a great table, (I'm sure we were the loudest!) and had a fantastic time catching up with people we hadn't seen for a while and Pete made some new friends as well.

On the warmblood-breeding front - Dee unfortunately kept both her embryos, so I made the decision to abort them, rather than run the risk of losing her. She will be going back to Penny soon to be ridden instead. But the thoroughbred, Molly, is in foal, with only one, so at least I have one on the way, even if it is not Arabian warmblood.

Molly is the loveliest mare, a very gentle soul. She has teamed up with Rhiannon, which works well as so far they are the only two definitely in foal for next year.

Mishka, after refusing to show in season since foaling in spite of 2 injections of PG, finally decided to come in the week before the show. I was umming and ahhing about whether to serve her or not, but Rachel convinced me to, because of her age.

At 18 you never know how long a mare will keep breeding for, and Tilly the filly is too good not to repeat. So hopefully there will be three foals coming next season. We'll know in a week or so.

It's been a while since my last update; so much has happened, not all of it good, that I have been too busy to write.

First the good bits.

Rachel, Jenny and Helen at Rosewood's "Arabian Tent" at the stallion parade. Cover boy: Arabian Park Tycoon pictured at the stallion parade. More pictures

The stallion parade went very well, I think Tycoon has finally grown up at the age of 21. Previously he would have had to be tied up in a box to stop him pacing up and down constantly, but this time he just stood at the box door quietly and talked to everyone who went past. He was really enjoying the attention and obviously loved being out. Jenny's Ardashir and Rachel's Vivace were superb as representatives of Tycoon's progeny, and there were many comments made on their height, type and movement.

The boxes looked great too, as we had the first half of a whole aisle and did it up with trees in pots, heaps of photos and a box decorated with last year's Arabian tent. It was great to see other studs had taken on "the challenge" and gone all out to promote their horses too. The feedback from visitors was that it made everything much more fun and gave a friendly atmosphere to the whole thing. It did put Pete on his mettle though, as an Irish stud won the promotions prize and so he is full of plans to make next year bigger and better than ever before. Ain't testosterone a wonderful thing!

The article in Horse and Pony (October) by Annie Studholme was just great and I had emails and phone calls from all over saying how much people had enjoyed reading it, or in some cases seeing photos of their horse's sire. Then to our great surprise Tycoon made the cover of November's issue due to a stunning photo taken by Annie at the stallion parade. I got a major kick out of seeing Tycoon's picture wherever I went that month ("look that's my horse"!), and I never realised just how many dairies sell H&P. Certainly the promotion of Tycoon through the stallion parade and the article has meant that this season he has served more mares than Colorado (but only just), much to that young lad's disgust.

The open day at the end of October was a huge success, the weather was perfect and we had a large number of people turn up. Nicole counted 69 (adults that is, there were about 15 kids at one point all having a ball on the trampoline and in the tree hut - it sounded like a major children's birthday party was going on!), which made all the work worthwhile. We even had a lovely couple come all the way from Wales! Well, almost, they were in NZ on holiday, read the article in H&P and promptly rearranged their South Island tour to make sure they were in Christchurch in time for the open day. Most people I never got to see on the day, as we were running around like little blue bottomed flies beforehand and then kind of collapsed after, so if I didn't see you and thank you for coming and making the day then, please accept this instead.

River Oak Colorado at our Open Day. More pictures

I could never have managed without my helpers; Ainsley King and family who came from Ashburton with Premonition (it was with difficulty I stopped them leaving with Dot and Shiloh in their float!), Penny McDrury, Mandy Thomson, Robin Marshall and Neil Clarkson, Helen Jansen and her mother (awesome in the kitchen) and friend Dee (on the microphone), Rachel Rennie who bought Vivace (again) and, of course, Jenny Rouse who was there the day before weeding the garden (not her favourite job but the garden has recovered since!) and early on the morning with Ardashir, helping to wash white socks and brush out tails. A huge thank you to all of you, I could never have managed without you. We'll do it again some time - in another 18 years! As someone pointed out, it was the perfect way to spend an afternoon - in the sun drinking wine and watching beautiful horses.

I had hoped to have to have two Colorado babies to show off at the open day, but it wasn't to be. Rhiannon did foal two weeks before, a stunning, huge, chestnut colt, but in a freak accident he went through two five-wire fences shortly after foaling and was electrocuted on next door's cattle wire. I still don't know how he managed it, as when I left them (at about 1am) he was getting up and down just fine and trotting round after mum. The fences are in good condition too, and he was so big I have no idea how he got through them. Especially as there wasn't a mark on him. Even Pete was pretty upset; he went and fetched the colt from next door and buried him in the paddock. Rhiannon is back in foal to Colorado so I will be extra careful with next year's baby.

Mishka's daughter Shemaali

Mishka was the next to foal, due two weeks before the open day she hung on until five days after - of course! However she redeemed herself by having a beautiful big bay filly, the first purebred filly for Colorado. Shemaali (Tilly for short), is very pretty with excellent conformation, going to be at least 15.1 - 15.2 hh and has Colorado's amazing movement. She does have a bit of an attitude, she loves to be the centre of attention, but she is very sensible to work with. At the moment we are working on trotting out and standing still when asked, as both Tilly and Mishka, along with Shiloh, have been entered for the National show next month. Shiloh has, at present, the worst case of warts that I have ever seen; they appeared the week after Canterbury show, so theoretically they should be gone by the time the show comes. Some of the smaller warts have disappeared this week, so I live in hope, 'cos he is looking good right now.

Tycoon's only baby this year was from Jenny's partbred mare Elizara, who foaled a beautiful filly at the end of October. Diva (Dee for short) arrived 2 weeks late, but was worth the wait, as she is just what Jenny was hoping for. I haven't seen her since shortly after she was born, but she was very pretty with long legs then, and is apparently growing into an elegant copy of her mother.

My Arabian warmblood breeding programme has had to be put on hold for a year, as the mare I had leased, Mishton Shequinaah, has decided that if one is good two must be better. Unfortunately I don't agree, so unless she spontaneously loses one by the time we rescan her in a week we will have to start again. My vet didn't hold out much hope when he scanned her last time, so assuming the worst I went ahead and found another mare to breed to Flowervale Meteor instead of waiting a year. She is a lovely registered thoroughbred mare, by the name of Loopstone (where do TB people get their names?), paddock name Molly (much better!). She is a 9 y.o. 16.2 chestnut, no white (I just can't get away from them) by Noble Jewel, has very nice movement and a fabulous temperament. She is currently at the vets, awaiting her turn for AI, and she should also breed beautiful Anglos. My heartfelt thanks to her previous owner, Leslie Aiken, for offering her to me; Molly is a beautiful mare and it would be hard to find a nicer nature. If a miracle happens and Dee does decide to only have one, then I will happily have two warmblood babies next year. Could be interesting.