Newsletter - May 2002
Hi! Umm...9 months since my last newsletter
sorry! For those of you receiving
hard copies you will be receiving last September's as well. All is well here but very very dry.
The horses have all been moved off the crop stubble and crops of canola
and wheat will be sown soon.
The foaling season was very
successful with a total of 8 healthy foals born. On 3rd January 2002 with 5 colts on the ground I
was again despairing it was going to be another colt year! However within 10 days, 3 lovely girls arrived including one literally,
by car. SC Juliet (Cudglebar
Manak x Cudglebar Rabi) was born on 4 January at Cudglebar out of a mare I
had on lease. Les rang to tell
me the good news -a colonial filly - my first!
It was all down hill from
thereˇ¦ Later in the day Les
rang again to say that all was not well and he hadn't been able to get Juliet
drinking from her aged mother. I'd
had a mare here foal the day before,
so Les suggested I attempt to get the mare to rear two foals. Cudglebar is over 8 hours drive from here
towing a trailer, so I was pretty
relieved when Les said he'd bring her to West Wyalong. It was a funny sight to pull into a truck
stop and see a lanky, ribby foal standing in the back of a stock crate on
the rear of a small ute! She
was picked up (again literally) and put into my float via the front door and
I drove carefully home. The
idea of adopting her out was short lived,
when her potential mother screamed out 'what are you doing over there???'
when I first got Juliet off the trailer, then she suddenly twigged that her own baby was beside her
and this other thing was an IMPOSTER,
she nearly jumped a gate to cause grievous bodily harm to Juliet, who was hastily bundled back onto the
float for safety.
Move to Plan B. The milk bottle. Fortunately (very) at the time I was on
long service leave otherwise I doubt I could have coped with 2 hourly feeding.
Boy was I grumpy! The first few weeks were the hardest.
She always ate well but there was no escaping the summer heat and it
was a constant battle to keep her hydrated.
She is now 4 months old and growing beautifully.
She is a replica of her father and seems to think that she's pretty
important.
My first foals here by Demon
(Cudglebar Raksha) arrived - 1 purebred and 3 anglos (of high percentage arabian
blood). 2 fillies and 2 colts.
I am thrilled with them all. They are all big strong friendly foals.
The purebred colt out of a Talquah Talik mare is an absolute stunner. I named him SC Bustamove. I had another colt by Manak but he is still up at Cudglebar
and I havenˇ't been able to get up to see him yet.
Also born this season was
bay full brother to my arab warmblood colt 'Jim', and a welsh cob x Arab mare, SC Lucky Boy, so named because of an adventure he had getting
seriously tangled in a gate and my joy in dressing his leg for many many weeks
(nicely healed now though).
Endurance news: Not a huge amount to report. Before Christmas both geldings did 90k
at Darlington Point in a slow time but both placed well in open and junior
with Debra Kuhne and Zoe Gardener. They
then had a bit of a spell over Christmas.
During that spell Cudglebar
Tarquin started a steady nose bleed. He was taken for a 'nose cam' with the vet forecasting that
a tumour was most likely. He
was sent home with antibiotics which the vet thought would not do anything. The next step if it didn't stop bleeding
was to drill a hole in his skull and do a nose cam in his sinus area.
Following the course of antibiotics the bleeding stopped,
and is has not recommenced some 10 weeks later.
Rowallan Mitchell went up
to Canberra early in March to be trained by Debra. (That was very motivated of her I thought and I must say,
it is a joy not to be training 2 horses here).
Mitchell has had two minor lameness problems
- a stone bruise at Rankins Springs and a pulse vet out at Canberra
FEI 105km. He was subsequently
lame at the 2 hour post ride check which explained his elevated heart rate. He achieved a good 6th place
in a big field at Gundagai 80k ride 28/4/02, and Debra hopes to get to their first 100 miler this winter.
Although I have made a lot
of noise about starting my 5 yo Mustafa mare, SC Molly (gunna gunna gunna) it hasn't progressed beyond long reining and a bit of driving!
I've been on her in the crush, and
Zoe has also. Molly is very quiet
fortunately. Anyway, it's on the list. J
Show news: (this is the boring bit -I hate shows!)
Kath Roberts of Illarak Anglo Arabians took Jim into her show team
and did a great job preparing him for the show season.
He really looked magnificent.
Her successes included reserve championship sashes at the GRAAC Indoor
Show and the Images of the Year Show.
In March we took him up to the Australian Championships where he performed
in quite an orderly manner in the ring (led by endurance rider / halter trainer
Anthony Geyteman) but as the classes were combined he was against his father
and older brother, and as a 2yo
wasn't competitive. Kath's mare
Illarak Estelle was sashed Reserve Australian Champion (led) which was very exciting. Jim is now back home and that's had it's own excitement...
There's a lot of testosterone happening and to tell the truth, I'm just not used to these BIG horses. Don't get the wrong idea, he is a very
kind horse. He is on the sale
or geld list and there is a nice photo of him in May's horse deals in the
Warmblood section.
Jirrima
Ultra Minx was shown by Jirrima Performance Horses for Supreme Arabian Exhibit
at the Albury Show under Adam King.
She subsequently had a mysterious hind leg lameness which was a suspected
hairline fracture. This meant
she had to be locked up in a small yard for 3 months which wasn't any fun
for anyone. Fortunately she has
recently been released from prison and all appears to be well. Hope my next newsletter comes out a bit
quicker!
Catherine.
Jirrima Ultra Minx Supreme Led
Arabian Exhibit Albury Show. SC Power Play
SC Fortitude @ 20 months Cudglebar Raksha & Cudglebar
Tarquin chewing the fat.
SC Juliet arrives via car to be bottle reared SC Vienna (right) SC Rosie (left)