Windrose Farm

Where ponies are family.

Farm News/Pictures

Occasionally we will try to update this site with pictures/info from recent happenings here at the farm and events we attend.  For now there are just a few pictures, but stay tuned, as soon as the site is up and completely running, this will be the page to watch for updates!

August, 2006

Windrose Farm is proud to announce the addition of 3 new ponies to our herd. Blue Ribbon Farm in Northern California was selling out due to a quickly anticipated move. While we weren't looking to purchase any ponies, we didn't want to see the ponies sold too hastily into substandard homes. We offered to help get the ponies trained and into the perfect homes. Next thing we know, we have 3 Half-Welsh on their way to us in Southern California! The three ponies, all out of Welsh mares and a Quarter Pony stallion, are now settling in here at the farm and beginning to learn about rules and acceptable behavior. The oldest, a 4 year old mare, will be started under saddle soon and the hope is to have her showing at the November Welsh show. The goal is to get all 3 ponies under saddle as their physical and mental maturity dictates (we don't like to push them, ever), and then find them new homes. The oldest mare will be trained in english and possibly a bit of western and driving. The 3 year old gelding reminds us greatly of Coaster, Melissa's homebred Fourth Level Dressage pony and will most likely be pointed in that direction, and the youngest mare will find herself started in harness shortly with hunter training to follow. Due to the youngest mare's lack of physical maturity, we may consider breeding her to a Welsh stallion this coming year and reconsidering her riding career in 1-2 years once she fills out and strenghens up. Please feel free to contact us if you may be interested in any of these ponies. They will soon find themselves on our pony page and eventually our sales list, but feel free to inquire before they are placed there if you may be interested!

In late August our mom's gelding, Matt (ME Imagine) attended another 4-H show (with 74 horses!) and competed in his first w/t/c classes!  He got 2nd and 3rd in his english flat classes and then won his open english obedience and country pleasure (walk/favorite gait) classes.  The obedience and country pleasure classes had 17-20 riders in each and are the hardest classes to win, we were SO SO proud of him and DJ as this gelding used to be quite flighty and even made it through a rider falling off during one of their classes without so much as a spook!  Matt and DJ ended up as English Senior Highpoint, this was against all the highschool aged kids (ages 14-19 years old). We are so proud of them! DJ hopes to continue Matt's training and eventually make him into her eventing horse.

 

July, 2006

An unimaginable thing happened here lately. We have been allowing Trystan to attempt pasture breeding a couple of our own mares (if they were receptive that is). No real news to report there. Then one evening DJ comes in at 10pm to tell us that Trystan has cast himself in his stall (he's stuck upside down against the wall-something that has never happened here before). We get him uprighted, but he's still not looking good. Soon he shows signs of colic (something we haven't had in over 20 years) and so the handwalking begins. After a while of this he's still not getting better, and its a fight to keep him standing, so it was decided that he should go to the equine clinic for possible surgery right then! Somehow he is loaded into the trailer and after an ultrasound it is found that he has had a slight, unnoticeable inguinal hernia and a part of his intestines has slipped into it and gotten caught. After 5 hours of surgery (which began about midnight), Trystan recovers from anesthesia without any complications of being under for so long. He then had about 14 days at the clinic to ensure his incision and surgery healed well. Trystan is now back home and regaining weight and his zest for life is coming back too. Luckily, his hernia is not genetic and the hope is that he will be able to breed mares in the near future, with several months off just to be safe. Once we get the ok, he will also be put back under saddle, but this is more than a couple months off. Until we know that everything is ok and Trystan is back to full health, his breeding book is closed, but if you may be interested in a future breeding, please feel free to contact us.

 

May, 2006

I am sad to report that Allie (Tainted Alliance-Paint Mare), lost her foal. Born on day 339, at about 2am, the colt appeared to be stillborn, though it was hard to tell. At 4am when we found the pair, Allie had obviously had a hard delivery and was bonding with the gelding 2 stalls down and not interested in the foal. She also had some fairly bad gashes on her face and side. Upon further investigation, it was found that she had also suffered a complete vaginal-rectal tear (3rd degree peritoneal laceration), due to the foal's foot coming up and poking through the wall and tearing as she pushed. She was later cleaned up and had minor surgery done at the vet's office to remove the torn tissue to prevent any further injuries and will be on special care for several weeks. Luckily the vet gave her a good prognosis and said she can continue as a performance and/or breeding animal after healing, but will need 2-4 surgeries to rebuild the wall separating the 2 cavities. The colt was absolutely perfect, with a tiny dished head, ample hindquarters, legs that went on for miles and 4 white feet and offset blaze to set of his red coat. To say we are emotionally destroyed at this moment is putting it mildly as this was a highly anticipated colt.

To make things even worse, we were informed by the vet that Tina was also empty! She was ultrasounded (by another vet) at about day 45 and we were told she was infoal, and she even gained weight like she was infoal, but after 400 days of assumed pregnancy and no foal, we had her checked to receive the sad news.

It looks like there will be no foals for Windrose Farm in 2006! Lets hope for a better outcome in 2007!

 

2005 in Review

Well, the year has come and gone... So what did the year bring Windrose Farm?

Well first of all, we sent Trystan off to "stallion school" for a month in April. His teacher (trainer) claimed he was an excellent, and eager student :) His semen is of excellent quality and holds in the shipper well. We even test bred 2 of our mares, with 2 and 3 day old semen and we will have 2 Half-Welsh foals in 2006 to show for it! Badger Training Center/Stallion Station is about 15 minutes from home and we will transport him there as needed for collections so that he can still live at home and continue with his dressage training.

In 2005 we have focused on eventing our ponies/horses. DJ's new mount, Tina, is a talented jumper (she hates hunters, but will do it) and also does well at dressage. We started out low, in the walk-trot division as Tina had never even trail ridden away from a group of horses, so we didn't know how she would take to cross country. Well, she did better than hoped and WON her division and then quickly moved up to the Novice Level. In the middle of all this she was bred and in an effort to not injure her or her foal, we have decided to give her a break until after foaling, when she will again compete at Novice. Lisa also tried her hand at eventing, but her mount, Gretchen, was not quite as excited about cross country as her rider and she had several refusals. Ah well, she is much more of a "flat" mare anyway.

2005 also marked a good sales year for Windrose Farm. In September, Windrose Coaster found a new home with his new10 year old owner, Hannah. Hannah had been riding a 10 hand, 20+ year old mare, and was ready for a step up. Well, Coaster was the perfect match. They're still working out a few kinks, but have shown several times and won many classes, they will also start eventing this coming year. Coaster used to show 4th level dressage before he sustained an injury and had a year layup. He is now sound as ever and loves his new job and rider! We wish them the best of luck in the future. Windrose Contessa also found herself in a new barn towards the end of the year. This 7 year old mare had barely been started undersaddle and had basically sat around in the pen for the last 6-8 months. Diane Herger of Glynmagic Welsh had been interested in her for some time and finally decided to take the plunge and purchase her. So the race was on to get her ready to travel across the country from California to Pennsylvania before the bad December weather hit. Unfortunately, Tessa arrived in a pretty severe snow storm, but in true Welsh fashion, she made it through and is now showing Diane and her family what she is made off! This mare is one of the best movers we have ever seen, much less produced, and so I'm sure she will make noise on the East Coast when she enters the showring. You can see Tessa and the rest of Glynmagic on their website at www.glynmagic.com

Towards the end of the year we were happy to take part in the Holiday Welsh Show, in Pomona, CA. This is the first welsh show in southern California in several years, and we hope there are many more to come. The show was a Double Gold for breeding and a Single Gold for performance. We had a good showing there attending with two of our cobs, Cwmfadog Trystan and Quillane Gretchen. Windrose Sir Thomas also went along with Windrose Sir Harold who was out on a 2 month lease for the show, and finally Windrose Coaster attended. Trystan ended up Reserve Champion Section D stallion with one judge and Gretchen got second and third (out of 6) in her Aged Mares class. That afternoon Trystan received Champion Ridden, and Gretchen got second in the Ridden Cob Class. The next day Harry and Coaster competed in the Short-Stirrup division and Coaster won an over fences class and equitation. Harry went off course on 2 of his over fences classes, but came back to place 1st and 2nd in his two flat classes (the second was behind Coaster). Tom showed in the English Pleasure 18/under classes and placed second consistantly until the last class came and he missed BOTH leads. He was then tied for Reserve Champion and had to go for a work off, but in all the confusion his rider had started untacking him and when she got back on she didn't tighten his girth. When the judge asked for the canter his saddle slipped and his rider fell off, loosing the reserve ribbon. Oh well....Then finally it was the cob's turn again and Trystan showed exceptionally well. He placed first and second in all his classes, missing the Champion Ribbon by 1 point and scoring the Reserve Champion English Pleasure Cob Open (out of 8 Cobs).

 

None of the ponies showed on the final day of the show as some of the family left to fly to Africa to meet up with Krista (middle daughter). Krista has been in Tanzania, Africa for the last 2 1/2 years with the Peace Corps. She was stationed in a small village in Mafinga and helped the people there get modernized pigs, a few types of trees and towards the end of her stay she organized the building of a medical dispensary. The village is over 50 kilometers from the nearest town and with no mode of transport other than bicycles and walking (and the bus but you had to get to the stops first), there was a huge need for something closer. The dispensary is a 7 room medical clinic for her village and the other 4 surrounding villages. At the end of her stay our family was honored through several festivals. I'm sure it was a wonderful feeling, and they were sad to see her go. After leaving the village the family had a chance to tour central Africa and see much of the wildlife. It was a trip no one will forget and we hope to visit again!

As the year comes to a close, we are happy for what we have experienced through the year. We have met some great people and had wonderful experiences. Everyone made it through healthy and happy, and we hope the same holds true for 2006!

Please watch this page, as I will REALLY try to keep it up to date much more this coming year than I did in the past. If you would like to see pictures of the Africa trip or anything else, please don't hesitate to ask. We're always happy to share!