D.J.
. I started a blog entry a couple of weeks ago after the Open Day and just haven’t had a chance to finish it yet and post it. I’ll include it below anyway as it was a such a good day.
The reason Fred and I have been so busy is in the title….yes, we’re moving house! I’ve given more detail in my old post below, but we’ve bought our own little farm 5 mins down the road from here. Actually, we’ve pretty much moved now and I’m sitting in an empty house, bar a couch, a bed, a few mattresses and my computer. Fred has been hard at work putting in new yards at the new place and fencing some great paddocks for clients horses and our own. It’s all looking really good and we will be moving the horses over this week some time and then be living there. Still a lot to clean up here too but we’re getting there.
We’ve kept a few clients horses in work while moving which has worked well as we’re in horse mode till about 10am, then we go over and work at the new place or clean up around here. We also still have Milo and Charlie here, the two last Prenti Downs colts that Fred started last. Both are now ready to go home, I’m just waiting on their new owners to tell me when……hint hint!!
Karla on Trader
Fred on Caddy
Prenti Downs Joanna STILL hasn’t foaled. Karla has decided she’s just taking the piss now and it’s all the hay we’ve been feeding her . Not really, there’s definately a foal in there and she’s enormous! She’s been waxed up again the last few days and has that whole ‘pointy belly’ thing going on plus her udder is huge, so hopfully it will happen soon. I would prefer she foal before we move her but we’ll just have to deal with whatever happens. She’s very friendly and domesticated now which makes life easier.
First touch with Prenti Downs Jesse
We’ve had some lovely horses here lately, a whole mix of breeds and also reasons for being with us. Nothing unusual or out of the ordinary so I won’t mention any individually this time. Right now we have Luke, the most stunning QH from Tom Price, Kiwi, a young horse Fred gave a light start to a year ago when he was a ‘lassoo job’. His owner did the right thing and stuck him out and he’s come back much quieter and more settled. Mind you, Karla still refuses to ride him . We also have Banjo here, a lovely Arab being started.
Sammy helping on the tractor
Diik being lead horse with Jess
Anyway, here’s my older entry from two weeks ago after the Open Day ~
So much news and so little time to get on here and tell it……I’ll start about the OHHAWA Open Day we held here last Saturday as it was such a great day and I can’t wait to show some of the photos off
Joey having his first trim
Sheila and Roy
The Open Day was a ‘spur of the moment’ idea I had in response to the huge amount of interest in the Prenti Downs horses rescue. I’m not sure if it’s because we are now based in Perth and often the horses end up down south, but over the week of the rescue and the following weeks, I dealt with well over 100 enquiries about purchasing the horses and so many more, just about the horses and rescue in general. I thought it would be great to harness that interest while we still had the horses here in training, so we went aheadI had an idea to get members and owners to bring up their Heritage Horses from previous rescues, and on the day I think we had 12 or so older, previously rescued horses on display which was great as people were able to see the huge diversity in shapes, sizes and colours in these horses for themselves. Plus, with the recent rescues still looking a bit skinny, it was great to have these lovely, healthy, shiny horses on display that would have looked similarily skinny to the new horses when rescued themselves.
Maren and the gorgeous Clayton Station Tirawah
Gunnadorah Desert Jewel showing off her incredible movement
Megan and Earaheedy Roscoe
The gorgeous stallion Earaheedy Pope
We didn’t have a real schedule for the day but there was so much to see and show people, there was never a dull moment! Fred would work a few Prenti Downs horses, then we would have some of the older horses in the round yard and Sheila would talk about their rescue and what happened and why, then Fred would work another horse, then we would have a display like Sheila’s amazing one with Roy. Funny Roy, he hadn’t done any Liberty with Sheila for two and a half years but he was amazing and was so clever. Sheila also jumped on him bareback and did some lovely piaffe in a halter which was very impressive!
Sheila and Roy doing Liberty work
Roy doing his own Liberty display!
We had the gorgeous Kimberly King Leo here for the day, a Waler stallion from the same rescue as Roy, and he was great to watch and hear about. Actually, we had 5 colts and stallions here on the day and they were all pretty much impeccably behaved, making a great example of their lovely temperaments.
Tommy bring a typical feral brumby
Fred with brumby colt after his first ever session
It got to 41 degrees on the day and at one point we counted well over 150 people here all at once. We had a big crowd which was just fantastic and I know we really opened a lot of people’s eyes up about the horses, their plight and how special they really are and what wonderful horses we have in our own backyard. The horses all did us proud, looked amazing and were just so beautiful. I had a lady come up to me in tears at one point, saying she had read about Australian wild horses and their plight, but it hadn’t actually been real for her until she was able to touch them and look at them as individual animals. Given that every horse there on the day should have been long dead, they made a strong point.
The girls doing an Equine Touch display on Earaheedy Darraby
Hutch, Ros and their stallion, Kimberly King Leo
On that, the OHHAWA supports humane culling where necessary – of both modern and old bloodline brumbies if required. Of course culling in some instances is a neccesity and the OHHAWA isn’t againt culling, but is looking at promoting more humane methods of culling and also putting some breed management plans in place. We very much want people to realise that sometimes, what is being culled is an important part of our Australian history and heritage. Also, with all the horses that are being imported into Australia currently, we want people to recognise that we have some incredible horses out there running wild and at risk, with all the attributes people look for in a top performance horses for every discipline. On that, it’s great to have support from the likes of Dr Victoria Hamilton, who attended on the day with one of her lovely pupils.
The OHHAWA info stand with Robyn doing a great job!
Beautiful brumbies PD Charlie and Jesse
Anyway, it was a wonderful day, we had lots of laughs, raised some money for the charity and got some great new members. We definately raised awareness about the horses which was my biggest goal for the day. A big thanks to everyone that attended and to all those that helped on the day and leading up to the day.
Prenti Downs Joey and Tooloo being cute
Sheila and Megan posing
It’s a week on now and we still haven’t packed away the barbie and chairs!! The other big news around here is that we’ve bought a property, a lovely 12 acre place with a little cottage and heaps of potential. It’s not far at all from here, only about 7km’s down the road, and of course I will be changing the website and updating all our clients with our new address and details in another few weeks.
Prenti Downs horses, now all sold to lovely homes.
We’re working less horses this month so we have time to get the new place set up, and I’ve also been busy renovating the house as it was fairly ordinary. We’ve removed 20 tonne of concrete from the back yard, I’ve painted the whole house, and yesterday we finished polishing the lovely old wooden floorboards, so it’s starting to look like ‘our house’ now . We also had a pool installed last night which got the kids very excited! Fred is busy pulling down the timber yards here and starting to build day paddocks over there so it’s all go. The property ajoins some great riding and trails so it will be fantastic for the business and horses. We just can’t wait to get in!!
PD Mabel in the orchard
Fred is still working on the Prenti Downs horses but Tooloo and Jess are just about ready to go home to their new owners…..always very exciting! Mabel, the black mare with the big white blaze, has gone down to Sheila’s purely because she was in the worse condition and she will fatten up better in that environment. Plus, she’s actually abouyt 4 years old so Fred will start her once she is a healthy weight.
The big news is that Joanna, the lovely black/brown mare with the star, is very pregnant and looks to be about to foal anyday.
Brave PD Mabel having her teeth done with Rach Stone
~ So, that was nearly three weeks ago. I can’t belive how time flies around here! We have a full book of horses due in again this weekend so I’m off to help Fred with putting the shelters up. I’ll do another entry from the new place soon with photos as it’s looking so nice. It will take a while to get all the fences up to scratch but the client’s horses facilities are looking great, plus we’re putting in a dressage arena and the round yard is bigger and in full shade this time, not full bloody sun from 10am like the one here! Stupid us.
First touch with PD Joanna. Can't belive there is a fola hiding in there!
I hope everyone had a great Christmas and thanks to all for the lovely cards and messages we recieved .
Trev doing some 'walking up steps training' as all young breakers should!
