Newsletter - April 2001
Welcome to my first newsletter for 2001. I cannot believe it has been 6 months since the last edition. Well the summer here on the farm has been long and hot. For the most part the rain has been sufficient to keep a little grass around, although it is dryish now as I wait and hope for a good Autumn break.
The end result of this years foaling? Colts, colts and more colts. As reported in October's newsletter, my Mustafa filly had a colt by Cudglebar Manak. The good news was that he turned out a chestnut with a big white blaze and one white sock. He was born during the Olympics so I called him Splitters Creek Aussie.
The part arab palomino mare, Aloha Arctic Gold foaled a spectacular palomino colt with white blaze and socks, by the Welsh Cob Barnon Imperial Jack. The white goes up above his hocks, including a big white diamond that is separate from his sock. He will be very eye catching when his coat darkens. He has now been weaned and is at Julie Frauenfelder's stud Fleur De Lys Welsh Cobs. Julie is going to take him to a couple of foal shows.
My only two colonial foals were born up at Cudglebar stud, and surprise surprise, they were both colts. The first was a chestnut colt by Demon (Cudglebar Raksha) out of Cudglebar Mira (x Cudglebar Manak) and the second was a bay by Demon out of Cudglebar Piety (x Cudglebar Es Sahra). I was approached by Samantha Morrison in Sydney to purchase one of these colts. The original deal was a swap lease for her 8 year old mare, Cudglebar Shamira. She is by Cudglebar Mameluke x Cudglebar Hearts Desire (x Helicon). But it looks like we will be doing something more permanent. Samantha has several Cudglebar mares that she needs a colonial colt to breed with.
Demon has had a busy time since arriving here, and was bred to a number of mares. It was quite a successful season until March when my two big Arab warmblood mares came back into season. They were originally bred last November, so it seems they must have absorbed their foals very early. Discussed some intervention methods with the vet, then decided it was too late in the year and too expensive to pursue now.
The grey anglo, Omani Stylist and the chestnut purebred, Aloha Kurlis have started to show their pregnancies, so fingers crossed there. Two other mares that I hope to get foals by Demon from are umm ¡¦ my most recent acquisitions. Yes I know I said 'No more horses', but sigh, it just keeps happening. I have on lease from Kay Harding's Jirrima Performance Horses, the mother and grandmother of my two Arab warmblood mares. She is by Sinbad (Hadban Enzahi) out of a full sister to Chip Chase Sadaqa. Her name is Chip Chase Sinarli, and is a grand old matriarch at age 22. Another old age pensioner that came my way is Aloha Minuet (pretty name), who is a 19 year old anglo by Talquah Talik (x Royal Domino). She is a sweet old thing and has her first foal at foot (colt of course), who is by Watch the Duco, a 16.2 hand paint & stockhorse (lean type). Both of these mares were bred to Demon.
The old Helicon stallion, Cudglebar Nur-Ed-Dam and my old endurance mare Sam, are up on the local stock reserve and doing very nicely. Sam is in foal to the Welsh Cob stallion.
The yearling colts are growing beautifully. Both Hyksos Benjamin and Splitters Creek Fortitude have had leg injuries, but these are healing with no serious damage done. The Aloha Power of One colt (I call him Jim¯) is growing into a big lump. Kath Roberts from Illarak Anglo Arabians near Wodonga has offered to campaign Jim in the show ring in the spring in exchange for using him with several of her anglo and stud book mares. It's very exciting. I can't say I'm really into showing but it will be nice to see him all polished up!
I started working my big trotting mare Claire, but she decided that it wasn't to be and ripped her heel off in one of the fences. It's a shame as she was showing a lot of promise.
Lots has happened at endurance rides. Last November Cudglebar Tarquin completed his first 80km harness drive at Binya NSW with myself and friend Debra Kuhne in the driver's seat. Next we went to the Y2K Kick Off at Canberra on the Australia Day weekend. It was hot and humid. Debra and Rowallan Mitchell completed successfully, but my young friend from Beechworth, Zoe, had to withdraw Tarquin at the end of the second leg as his heart rates indicated that he was obviously not coping in the conditions.
They all fronted again at Tumut 80k in February, another warm ride with a bit of altitude and both successfully completed - heat again reflected in higher than normal heart rate recoveries.
In early March I took Mitchell to the Rankin Springs 80k ride. Neither Debra nor Zoe were available that weekend so I enlisted the services of Griffith rider, Kathy Gardam. Much to the chagrin of Debra, but to my delight, Kathy rode him to first Middleweight. It was very exciting to see a horse that I have trained do so well.
At the end of March, Zoe and I took Tarquin down to the Wombat Run 80k ride at Macedon in Victoria. Our quest was to get both Zoe and Tarquin successfully around their 3rd 80k ride giving them both qualified endurance status. The weekend did not start well. It poured rain all the way ¡© we broke down twice, and were amazed to be assisted by the husband of a girl I know from work. Not the sort of thing you expect sitting at the side of the road, broken down near Melbourne. Anyway, we got there eventually. Zoe completed a well paced ride and Tarquin vetted back to 48. We were very happy. Even Tarquin smiled.
We were again off to Canberra last weekend for the FEI Australian Championships, although the horses were only entered in the domestic 80k. On this occasion, Debra completed well on Tarquin and was pleasantly surprised at the presentation when she was awarded fourth middleweight. Unfortunately Mitchell was not so lucky. I had arranged to loan him to Victorian rider, Mary Hughes. Mary wanted to set the pace with her Canberra friend Cathy Banwell, a novice rider trying to complete her first 80k ride on her Talquah Talik gelding. Well we got all the horses there and settled in beautifully. The ride started at noon and off they all went. But the spanner in the works was Mitchell deciding to vet out on metabolics after the end of the first leg, despite not showing any abnormalities during the ride or the strapping. This meant that Cathy had to continue on the 2nd and 3rd legs on her own, as Debra and Tarquin had gone on ahead. She set out on the last leg in the dark, and we were all very apprehensive. They vetted through with flying colours and a bottle of champagne was cracked the next day after the presentation. Mitchell seems fine now so I'm thinking perhaps some electrolyte imbalance? It was quite disappointing after his success at Rankin Springs.
Over Easter I had a long overdue trip to Cudglebar stud. All the horses looked good and the foals are growing really well. I managed to take a video of the young stock, particularly for Larry Hodson, a New Zealand endurance rider who has just leased Cudglebar Rasuli from Ann Nyland for 3 years. Larry is looking for a mare to breed to Rasuli and also a colt to use later. While I was at Cudglebar I met an interesting couple, David and Cathy, who have very successful backgrounds in barrel racing and rough riding. David also used to work as a horse breaker for Bart Cummings. He spent a few hours handling each of Les'young horses and it was very interesting to watch. It was a pleasure to see someone work so patiently with the youngsters.
Rowallan Mitchell, 1st Middleweight Rankin Springs 80k ride
Rowallan Mitchell and Cudglebar Tarquin at Canberra in January.
Splitters Creek Aussie
Bye for now.
Catherine.