Pirouette Shetland Stud

19th March 2012

We are pleased to welcome our new multi champion stud stallion Hose Reynard.  'Jamie' is a wonderful gentleman who has too many championships to his credit to list, and has superb bloodlines with pure Wells behind his Hose prefix and sire, going back into Marshwood. He runs with both his mares and foals, and whilst with the Avomlie stud even did fancy dress classes dressed as both an elephant and a knight's steed! He has produced some lovely stock throughout his 'career' and passes his fantastic temperament onto his progeny. We are delighted to own a stallion with such a proven all round history and would like to thank the Westbridgepark Stud for allowing us to buy him.

Not quite sure how it happened as we are cutting back on numbers, but somehow we came back from Builth with Matilda of Quimper on board!! Never just 'take the lorry for a run' to an auction!!  She is a lovely big mare with a good depth of bone, and some superb old bloodlines who really caught our eye, so much so both mine and mom's hands shot up to bid at the same time, without consultation....good job we were sitting together! 
                                   

2nd August 2011
Over the last few months Thumbelina has been going wide on the rear meaning she has not been tracking up properly. She has been marked down in the ring because of it, and we have been watching her practically daily to see if there is any improvement, hoping it was just a phase she was going through and that she would grow out of it. A couple of weeks ago i spent ages watching her, and although it was barely noticable, i thought i could see a very slight deviation in her spine movement when i walked alongside her and looked down her spine. Just to be sure i made her an appointment with the Equine Osteopath who came out to her yesterday. She said that her pelvis was very slightly out of place. The most interesting part was just when she thought she had finished, she noticed a very tiny 'dent' just above her left eye. The cranium doesn't fuse in youngstock until they reach three, and Bee had given herself a bit of a bump putting her pelivs out. A second vist now seems to have determined that she has done the splits and pulled a deep pelvis muscle. Whilst everything is now 'in place' we are doing regular muscle stretching excercises, and zig zag hill walking, to stretch out the slighty shortened muscles as much as possible.

10th July 2011
Really pleased today with Patience who took 1st in a large miniature yearing class at the Shetland Performance Show on her first time out. As only our second homebred in the ring she has managed to follow in her sister Thumbelina's footsteps, who secured Reserve Miniature Junior Champion on her first outing. We've got to go for the hat trick with this line when we start breeding again, i'm feeling the pressure already....!!!!!
                                 
                                                                      At the end of the day when it's all too much to stay awake!

21st June 2011
The showing season is underway, and although we have yet to bag a red we were really happy with our most recent rosette, a fifth at the Three Counties with Pirouette Thumbelina in a very strong class of fifteen. There was great support in all miniature classes, the first time the miniatures have had their own classes at the show.

Sadly today we lost our beloved Laugherne Blackberry. Even now we as i type this two weeks later, we are still unsure of the exact cause. The vet thought she may be choking but was unsure and took bloods as well as injecting her with a muscle relaxant to help move the blockage. The next day there was no sign of any improvement so we took her to be scoped. This did not reveal anything remarkable, but she rapidly deteriorated whilst we were there. On our way home we had the phone call every owner dreads to say they were losing her and we had to decide to operate, with slim chances, or put her to sleep. Whilst there was any chance at all the there was no decision for us to make, but tragically she did not survive the operation. Despite further investigation of the bloods, and some contributory factors found during the operation, the cause of the sudden loss of this beautiful, much adored mare has been unable to be determined. She will never be forgotten and will always be greatly missed.