Sophie and Abbey Cartwright Canberra Royal - one of the horses I have bred
I know the Olympics seems like a long time ago now, but I just want to say Wow what a huge response from my last blog!
I hope that change is on the cards, and I am sure Prue Barrett our National Eventing Coach, will be growing a lot of grey hairs over the next few months to try work out what went wrong and what and how we could do it better. I’m sure she will bring the system into a more modern and up to date program for the future.
As for me, I have been busy riding heaps of horses. I have a few foals due in the next few months, which is exciting.
I just love breeding horses. I ultimately breed them for myself, keeping in mind that they need to have a good temperament to be able to go onto others if they aren’t quite up to Olympic standard. Breeding is like a lottery really. You can never be sure of what you are going to get, no matter what mare and stallion you put together. My best broodmare to date is a little palomino mare called Springdale Missy. She was 15.2hh and was owned by the late Reg Kelly (who was in his late 70’s when I met him). Reg was my number 1 fan and supporter when I was a teenager up till he passed a few years ago. He told me he bought Missy from a saleyard for $175. Missy was by a Palomino Stallion owned by Robyn Johnson out of a chestnut TB mare. I think it makes her mainly thoroughbred, with a touch of Arab and some bits and bobs of something else down the track. Anyway, whatever the mix, Missy was a freak.
From the time I got Missy she loved to jump. As a young horse, whilst lunging she would line up the jumps in the arena and pop over them easily. She went on through the grades with me to Novice level competition and was graded intermediate very quickly. Unfortunately she sustained a tendon injury preparing for a three day event and it was then I decided to put her in foal.
Missy's first foal - Cosmic Cat (Felix) as a five year old competing with me
I used to ride the lovely young stallion Cool Cat when I was training with Heath Ryan, so naturally being a chestnut which gives 50/50 chance of a palomino foal, I put her to him. The result, the most beautiful pally colt foal I named Cosmic Cat (Felix). He was just stunning. He never had a gangly moment and like his mother was incredibly honest to jump and extremely careful. He won and placed at preliminary and was fourth at his fist pre novice. He showed loads of potential and I thought how exciting would it be to win a gold medal on a gold horse! A few months later, I was approached to ride Algebra with the view to selling him. The Townsends were one of the people interested in buying him, but after viewing the video, they decided that he might have been a bit much for their 14yo daughter Olivia. Upon getting the full time ride of Algebra, I mentioned that I had another superstar who was further advanced on the flat at the time, and a palomino to boot, and next thing I know they were down and I had sold my beautiful baby to them. My business was just starting out, and at the time the money was handy.
Olivia and Cosmic Cat at Avenel Photo: Jenelle Christopher
The Townsends provided a great home and even though I was worried he was a bit much for Olivia at the time, they slowly got to know each other, and progressed through the grades. I was excited to hear just the other day from Olivia that Cosmic Cat (now called Blonde) competed in their first two star event at Avenel and they WON!
I do often get a few looks and sniggers from other Elite riders, as I am a bit known for riding my barbie doll horses. But the Blonde ponies also have a massive fan club. When riding every little girls dream horse, Just a Blonde (Missy’s second Foal by Just a Pomme), we turned plenty of heads. He was a very competitive horse and initially I was hoping he would be ready for the London games, but we just didn’t quite get there. However, he was still young and after placing fourth in the Sydney CCI** I decided we had a good chance to be a WEG horse.
It was a hard decision to sell Just A Blonde
With Algebra being the main focus on my Olympic campaign and setting up a bare block of land into my equestrian centre, I came to the painful decision that I had to sell Just a Blonde. It was a hard decision to sell my second string horse, but I do love to hear how new owner Katy Doak is now the envy of many young riders and are going great guns. I have also sold rising star Raynick Apache Cat (by Raynick Kavassa) to local junior rider Kelsey Szczepanik. They are both in just lovely homes and I get to see them compete regularly and their riders keep me up to date on Facebook with some great pics. Kelsey placed fourth in the preliminary at Camden, and Flipper just loved being a princess winning some classes at the local pony club show riding championships and is about to go pre novice at Goulburn with Kate. I look forward to see these guys go all the way on these special ponies.
Kelsey and Apache Cat - thanks to www.maineventphotography.com.au
Kate and Flipper
Missy herself has now had eight foals. Some include a full sister to Cosmic Cat called Linmore Sophisticat. She herself competed at preliminary level eventing with junior riders, placed sixth at Canberra Royal in the Pony Club riding class, and has a four year old foal by AEA Metallic. (pictured as a foal below) BHM Rocky Road and BHM Christmas Gift are by the Spanish Andalusian Galero but unfortunately are BROWN! (I was going for buckskin) but they show amazing talent like their siblings. She has had a stunning Pally filly to Riverside (2yo) and is now in foal to Finch Farm Style.
Missy with foal number seven - BHM Christmas Gift
I am very excited about the future of all of these horses and hoping that one of them will be my future star.I have bred a lot of other foals of which are going well for their owners and I often get a phone calls, even years later, to say how they are going which is nice. I just love breeding. It doesn’t often end up the cheapest way of getting new horses, but instead of forking out huge sums of cash at once, I think of it like a minus interest bank savings account. Is it worth it? Have a look at the pic’s and you will see that it is for me!
