Memphis Belle offspring

The above are all offspring of the bay American Saddlebred mare Canyonleigh Memphis Belle (now deceased).
Canyonleigh Victorious is a 10y.o. chestnut gelding by C. Bigshot;
Bloomsbury's Maybellene is a black 6 y.o. mare by the famed Richmeed Medallion;
Bloomsbury's Mai Ssandro is a black 8y.o. gelding by R. Medallion (full bro. to Mayb)
Bloomsbury's Sir Galahad is a brown/black 2y.o. gelding by Brae Galaxy x B.Maybellene
Canyonleigh Olympic Chaser is a palomino 5 y.o. gelding by C. Cloudchaser x Belle Olympia (daughter of Memphis Belle.

Temperament and style are super. The colour variation is interesting..from a bay mare,(Memphis Belle), the sires affected the colour. Bigshot = chestnut, Medallion = black; Brae Galaxy = chestnut but dam's sire, Biathlon, was black; Cloudchaser = palomino.
(Photos courtesy Terry Inkson)

Boyz Trio

I brought Maybellene home on Saturday for a couple of weeks' break from work. That necessitated a bit of re-organising as she still has shoes on and hasn't yet met the new boys...and she's in season! So she and Cloud are sharing one paddock and Laddie has moved in with Harry and Victor.

Harry is asserting himself...I think purely because he's the tallest and can 'look down' on Laddie.

They all enjoyed the attention of visitors on a farm visit yesterday.
Thanks to Terry for the photos above.
Bay = B. Sir Galahad (2y.o.)
Chestnut = C. Victorious (10y.o.)
Palomino = C. Olympic Chaser (5y.o.) "Harry"

Social progress

Gradually feeding closer together; Cloud buffers/owns Laddie and the biggest pile of feed.
This morning, Harry (foreground, rugged) took over this pile of feed and Cloud moved to be conciliatory, wanting to eat with him! She moseyed around him, slowly, with head lower than his, as Harry continued to eat; Laddie then brashly walked in between the two and spoiled the possible peace pact, so after this, Harry left them to their own devices. Fascinating to watch.

Ssandro photos from Berrima

Photos courtesy of Equiscape.

Developments

Day 11 after the Boyz arrival! and they're relaxing into their surroundings at last!! Just after dusk the dogs alerted me to some commotion in the paddocks, I'd have needed an Infr-red camera to capture it ,unfortunately, but there were the BIG 4cavorting in their glory!! doing the evening "burn", tails flagging madly...Harry and Victor at an extravagant 90 degrees, Cloud at 80degrees, and Laddie at about 45!!(but his paces were absolutely "afloat" and made up for the difference!!)
Cloud and Laddie went 'the full hog' around the complete extremeties, whilst Harry and Victor confined themselves to the back paddock.
Beautiful!
Cloud and Laddie have a 'bit of condition' on, and haven't been very active since the Boyz arrived, so they were really puffing...camouflaged with the Saddlebred "snort"...rather ineffectively!
Lots of Snorting: times 4!!! Quite an impact on the environment!

Day 12, today..and Cloud left Laddie to cope alone with Harry and Victor in the front paddock while she kept a judicious eye on the machinations from the buffer lane. Then H & V were relaxed and brave enough to remain in the 'upper' paddock to join the other two for afternoon tea! Hay all round!

Then all fiendly and relaxed this evening.
Great guys!

Sandro photos + result

Results posted Wednesday: Sandro placed 7th /31 in the Berrima PrelimB class. He scored 59.2% for the dressage leg: if he'd finished on his dressage score he'd have been placed 2nd!..but he had 2 rails in the show-jumping this time.

would like to invite you to view pictures Berrima Horse Trials Autumn ODE April 2011 at Equiscape Photography. They are located at http://www.equiscapephotography.com.au/.

When you go to the website, click the Access Gallery link and enter in the access code below:

Access code: a12a8518

After you do that, you will be able to view these pictures."

I checked: it doesn't take you to the exact photos. You need to look in the Prelim Crosscountry file, page 9. He's image ID 293613/14/15

Shifting dynamics

Harry and Victor are proving to be very "thoughtful" in the way they're adapting to their new situation.

Kept separate from Cloud and Laddie for the first couple of days, they had the opportunity to check out their new paddocks and get used to the noise and activity of a suburban environment after the quiet, space and broader herd experience of a country property, Canyonleigh Stud, south of Moss Vale.
When they were allowed into the same paddock, it was Cloud who looked to be dominant, making a bit of a charge at the newbies, but when Harry stood his ground (protecting the older, smaller, Victor), Cloud backed off, and, miffed, headed off into her own space, with Laddie in tow.
So it's virtually been Laddie sticking close to Cloud and Victor pairing up with Harry.
I'm feeding them separately and closing them in separate paddocks every other night to ensure the new boys can relax and sleep a bit better.
The new boys both have a good 'eye' for 'personal space' and safe passing distance; augurs well for eventing (!!).
From day to day they're venturing further apart from each other and closer to the 'residents'.
Interesting to see, in the photo above, the similarity between the Cloudchaser brother and sister (Cloud and Harry)...
and also the way Cloud orchestrated a friendly move, on the 'safe' side of 'unflappable' Laddie, touching noses with Harry, with Victor tucked in behind him.

Rocco and Lisa

Rocco starts event season in Maryland

Rocco (Canyonleigh Sirecho) and owner/rider Lisa Kurr had their first Eventing start for the 2011 season on the beautiful Morven Park course last weekend.
A great start, with a good dressage score and clear cross-country and show-jumping phases; finished mid-field in an Open Novice Rider class..but all very close scores.

Photos from grcphoto have just been posted.

http://www.photoreflect.com/store/Orderpage.aspx?pi=0EBK00EA830000&po=0&pc=55

Rocco (Canyonleigh Echo Commander x C. Katy Stardust) is related to both the palominos I have at home at the moment.
C. Katy Stardust is the dam of the Canyonleigh Stud stallion C. Cloudchaser who is the sire of 4y.o. filly Cloud (C.Cloudchaser XC. Amazing Grace whose dam is also a grand-daughter of Kalarama Penny, dam of Katy)..
and also sire of 5 y.o. gelding Harry (C. Olympic Chaser, by C. Cloudchaser x C. Belle Olympia).

Cloud's in foal now, but I have hopes that Harry has also inherited the jumping "eye" and stamina.

Singleton Young riders

North Kaludah 'grooms': Megan Riley on Maybellene and Alexandra Leppien on Aleiro....had their turn on the dressage tour on Sunday at Singleton.
Super young riders!

Would you believe that Maybellene (Black)is 16hh; How tall is Aleiro!!???

Maybellene at SDA

Beautiful sunny day today for Singleton Dressage competition; just the best weather for my sister Andy to visit and catch up on M&M's progress.

Megan had 2 tests on Maybellene, a Prelim in the morning and a Novice mid afternoon.
The pair worked beautifully today.
Christine has been teaching Megan to 'communicate' more, with a young horse and it was exciting to see both partners working for a test result. The fields were very big; there were 30 in the Prelim class with a winning score of 62%, so M&M's 58.8% had her placed 6th.
Another large class in the Novice and again the pair drew comments. "Very sweet; lovely paces"! The scores weren't available by the time we left, but it was a good test, so Maybellene got heaps of pats , and some sugar cubes as reward.
She enjoys her outings and takes everything in her stride.

Many thanks to the North Kaludah team, coach Christine, trainer-coach Jeremy, Sharon Leppien and Alex and Georgia, and Kathryn Crofts for the support calling the test.

New Boyz on the Blok!

Harry and Victor arrived at the crack of dawn this morning.
Many thanks to John from Jackaroo Horse Transport who over-nighted at Cessnock and got up to load the guys before daylight in order to get to me at 7am so I could leave for work before 8!
The boys cooperated, too. Harry(the pally) had never before left the farm and he walked straight out of the paddock onto the truck on Thursday afternoon, was loathe to leave the safety of the truck to change carriers in Sydney, offloaded in Cessnock in the dark and then loaded by the light of the truck lights this morning. No wonder he was happy to unload here this morning. Victor knew more about it all and was a little more questioning of the process, but both boys are happy, eating well tonight, in their new paddock.
Very pretty, friendly boyz!!
Cloud and Laddie can't wait to be up more 'close and personal' than rubbing noses!