For the time being, another friend of our who specializes in Irish Sport Horses has taken Cartier and Vantalia. We will keep them as part of our long term breeding program but with our focus turning mostly back towards Thoroughbreds, we felt this was a good move for them. There, they will continue their training and work as therapy horses. Cartier, though a stallion, has never shown any ill will toward anyone and we have no doubt that he will do an exceptional job there. The program they are now a part of helps disabled children of all ages find strength and joy. It is a wonderful program and we are happy to aid in it as best we can.
We have finalized our plans and retired a few of our studs. QMR Full Moon has now been gelded and retired to pasture along with his closest friend, HPS Graphite. The two of them have sired several now actively competing foals and we hope that their legacies will live on through them. The two are enjoying a life in one of the larger pastures and are available for visitors to visit from time to time. They are crowd pleasers and are often seen racing each other along the fence line as the tourists drive up to the facility. They may have been gelded, but they haven't lost their spunky attitudes!
We have also retired Marilyn M, Uncommon Chrome, Summer Eclipse, and Everlasting Fire. They have all done exceptionally well with producing fine foals and are now allowed to enjoy their days in the pasture. Marilyn M is a strong visitor attraction as well and she struts her stuff around for them as they snap some pictures.
Now, with all of the retirings, we are left with only a few active broodmares, QMR Devotion, VSH Ahoy Investor, HPS Dreamcatcher (allowed only 1 more foal), QMR/WPE Star Moment (allowed only 1 more foal). We have a few others but are mostly kept for companion horses like CP Cloudy Day, HPS Kahlo and WPE Tia Maria; but HPS/FE Lantea's Serenade has been doing well actively competing again and we hope to one day breed her again. Golden Caress is still a special horse to Cheyenne and she keeps a close eye on her and her picky attitude; and don't forget about BWF Gottcha Back. She is another very special horse to Cheyenne and actually has help keep an eye on Golden Caress. "Whisper" as she is called, has actually taken a liking to Gotcha Back which now allows her to have a pasture mate when her daughter, Little White Lie is not around.
It has been a tough week and it looks like an even tougher one is coming with more reductions needing to be made. As I mentioned earlier, we are looking to refocus primarily back Thoroughbreds we are trying our best to reduce our horses as much as we can bare. We are still wanting to keep a decent breeding range so a complete reduction will not be happening. That helps the staff stay calm with all of the big changes happening. But Cheyenne has not been doing very well with this decision and needed to take a step away for a few days. So she and Chuck took a much needed trek out to visit the Mustangs on Painted Island. It had been about 6 months since they last visited and didn't know where to start. Luckily, they didn't have to search too long before they found many horses grazing across the open grassy hills.
"Shadowmane still had all his mares and we were relieved to see two foals growing strong. Millie had finally had her foal sometime after we left. It was a beautiful bay roan filly with a little white star on her forehead. She followed her older sister and held close to Shadowmane as he kept a close eye on the horizon. A small bachelor band was nearby and Shadowmane was not going to relax as long as they were in sight. The foals were unaware of the danger these bachelors presented and took a nap at his feet. The mares continued grazing close by but kept looking up at him in case something was to happen. Off in the distance, we watched as the bachelors didn't seem interested in any mares, but rather play fighting and chasing each other around. A large pale grey bachelor was a clear leader of the band and used his big chest to get his way; pushing the other around. Eventually the bachelors moved off out of sight and I watched as Shadowmane was finally able to relax, even if it was just for a few minutes.
We only two days to spend with the Mustangs before needing to return home, but it was so nice to see that everyone was doing well."