Vestlandsbandens Dora

Yesterday Penny finaly had her foal. I've been waiting, waiting and waiting for this one. Off course she foaled when I was at work - my only comfort beeing that Magnar was home taking care of them. I had to ring him and make him lift the foals tail, asking him several times, are you shure I's another filly??? Yippi!!!!
Her sire is Camella Boy Warrior - DNA testing a.s.a.p - But I'm expecting here to be a pearl carrier.

Meeting cosin EMMA for the fist time. Two weeks og age difference

Yupp, this girl has hair!!!

Trying to do like mummy...

She had a lot of problems getting started on the milk bar - I spendt houers last nigth trying to help her figure it out. Well, she still manges to get milk all over her face, but she is getting there:)

- Mona -

Yeah, yet another girl!

Like Mona mentioned, finally spring is here and the foals are starting to enter the world :)

I was actually not expecting my first foal to be born yet, I thought I had to wait a few weeks more. But shame on me - last night Nancy had a big and strong filly!

A tobiano chestnut and white cutie pie with a short, short back and looong, strong legs :)

Her father is La Coste - I guess she will grow up to be a big cob just like her daddy.

Here are her first photos, not the best because it was evening and starting to get dark before i got the chance to have a photoshot, but at least you will get an idea of how the little lady looks like :)

We have decided to name her Ramona.

Check out her long eye lashes - too cute! :)

Mummy is the safest place to be in this scary new world.......

Hardly no back on this little lady - where do the saddle go when the time is right for that....?

Trying uot her feet for the first time!

Well, that was it for today - have to snap some new pics of Ramona later on when it is brighter outside. Hope you`ve enjoyed! :)

~ Elisabeth ~

It's a girl!!!!

Finaly - my favorite time of the year. The ligth is coming back, birds are singing, the grass is getting green - and the foals are arriving!!!
Rose gave me a beautifull supprice yesterday morning. A pretty, adorable filly! The first one this year. Sired by Golden Victory, I'll be DNA testing her, believe here to be a silver dapple one!!!!! And as you can se, like the filly Rose had last year, this one is also a tiny littel one. I do love the little ones.

One day old in theese photos

Adorable, playing with her mummy's rope. This girl is born calm. She already loves a cuddle.

Finding a name is the worst part of getting the foals... well, finaly I've desided that this one is Vestlandsbandens Emma. Only 8 more to go in my farm.... phu..

A close up on her mane. Ther is a white spot between her ears, but isn't the mane a bit silver?? I have to do the DNA test soooon - so hoping for here to be a silver one!

Well, hoped you enjoied the photos... and just to make shure you stop by our blog later on..... I had an SMS from Elisabeth this morning. There is a pretty supprice on here farm to!!!

- Mona -

Vestlandsbandens Robin - 2 years old.

I just wanted to share a few pics I shot of Robin today.

He will soon be 2 years old and is developing into a nice young stallion.

He is really special with his white head, red body and blond hair :)

Of course - just like his father Ickie - he is a little sweetheart and very calm and easy going....

He will be for sale to the rigth home!

Sorry - he is not to clean in the photos, I hope you can see the nice young stud behind the hair and mud ;)

Here together with his best pal and brother - Teddy.

Hope you liked the update.

And while I`m here I also want to wish you all a very HAPPY EASTERN!!! :)

~ Elisabeth ~

Stallion approval 2010

I guess some people are curios to see photos and the results from the stallion approval which Simply Red and Camella Boy attended Thursday 25th of March, so - here they come :)

Red - who now is four years - charmed the judges with his blond, long hair and got some really good grades! He got a straight line of 8ths and the judges said he was a nice, harmonic young stallion with a pretty head, nice body, nice legs with good joints and really good movements.

You can imagine we were pleasently surprised!

He is like the ugly duckling who blossomed into a beautiful swan! :)

But unfortunatelly we haven`t had the time to train him enough in the wagon, so he didn`t do the driving test this year and couldn`t be approved due to this......

I guess we will show him again next year and train him properly so that he can do the test (and hopefully he`ll be approved then).

Mona doing the last finish before the show...

He`s has a grown a lot and the vet measured him to 146 cm in hight.

Two happy friends :)

Camella Boy - now 5 years old -has also developed much over the last few years.

The jugdes said he was a stallion of good type with a good shoulder and really good movements. Unfortunatelly he didn`t get approved because of the angles in his legs weren`t good enough (don`t know the English term for this...sorry...)

But he has such a good temper and and is a great driving horse.

He did the best driving test of the day and achieved 46 out of 50 points!!

He really loves to pull the wagon :)

He was measured to 143 cm in hight.

Showing off for Simply Red and telling him who`s the boss!

Unforunatelly he is a bit bogburned, so he looks a little funny.

Camella Boy, me and Mona during the driving test - the judge was really pleased with this well mannered boy :)

Well, that`s all for today - I have some movies to, but haven`t edited them yet, so they will have to come later ;)

Hope you`ve enjoyed!

~ Elisabeth ~

Camella Boy Warrior

It`s been a while since Camella Boy Warrior (or Corny as we call him here at home) has been in the spotlight, so here are a few new photos of him.

He will turn 5 years this summer and is developing into a nice, compact stallion with an exciting colour!

Not cleaned up in the pics, but I think he looks pretty good anyway ;)

Showing off.....

He is a buckskin pearl and we are very excited to see if he will give away some crazy colours to his offspring this season.

Love his brown stripes in the mane - it looks so cool!

He will be attending a stallion approval at the end of this month, hopefully it will turn out in our favour ;)

~ Elisabeth ~

Coates Amee

So, it's about time to tell you about my latest deal.

I had an email from Amy at Coates in England. She was interesting in my mare Nefatiti. Lots of e mails ... and suddenly i found myselfe waiting for a new mare. A traditional SMAL black and white one. Perfect for my dream about a 4 in hand drive. She is only 3 years old. 135 cm tall - In foal to a pretty, pretty boy.. I'm already fallen in love with her perfect temper en personlaity. Nefatiti will be arriving in England monday - hopefully Amy will be happy with her.

I let her out for the first time today. Simply Red was really happy about it:) She's been on a long travel - and need to put on some weigth - I'll share some photos of her anyway.

- Mona -

Sooon....

- Mona -

Reflections.........

I just felt like writing a few words about LaCoste and why we did what we did. I guess the rumors have already started flying around, so I think it is better to be honest than keep everthing in the dark. Like some of you now know, we put LaCoste to sleep yesterday and it was one of the hardest decissions we have ever made......I know many people think we are crazy or losy horse people because of this, but from our point of view, it was the only solution we could see at this moment.

We believe that working and dealing with our horses should be a joy and not something we do with fear and a bad feeling in our stumack.

The thing is that he was a big and heavy horse with a really strong mind, and when he decided not to co-operat (which he decided to do a lot) - there were not much we could do to make him change his mind. And when a 650 kg heavy horse gets on two feet and starts to kick with a "little" human dangling in the end of his lead rope.....well, it is easy to figure out who will win the fight........And naturally it is a little scary when you know there might come a hoof flying aimed at you at any time.

Yes - with a lot of time - we could maybe train him to better manners, but we were not willing to risk our health to do so.

You may ask why why we didn`t try to sell him, but as we saw it we didn`t want him to cause injury to some one else either - that would be even worse than putting him to sleep. And it wasn`t like we could sell him to whom ever either.....

La Coste had a lot of good qualities too and he was a really beautiful horse, but sometimes we just have to be reasonable and think of our safety first and also where we want to go with our breeding.

The gypsy horse is supposed to be a loving, easy going and kind horse, therefor we want to breed on cobs with those qualities. Like we all know - looks isn`t everything!

And even though everything feels horrible at the moment, I believe we did the right thing......

~ Elisabeth ~