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Wow – you would think you’d have tons of time to get organized after the breeding season and the next thing you know, August and foaling are upon us again.  We’ve been busy weaning our youngsters and feeding horses.  The autumn-break has become a running joke and we are now well into winter and surrounded by dust.  Availability of good-quality hay is a serious issue that needs to be addressed. Luckily, we have had a little rain recently and things are looking so much better. 

We’ve been very lucky in selling some of our foals and horses to a couple of great dressage homes.  HB Rotteufel (s: Rotspon) and HB Weltlich (s: Weltmeyer) were both sold to Katrina Bolmat.  Rotteufel has now been broken-in and is under saddle as we speak.  Weltlich is still a baby (albeit a rather large baby) and will not be produced for a couple of years.  HB Smash Hit arrived in his new home, Bellingen NSW recently.  He has been purchased as a future dressage prospect by his lucky new owners.  He was thrilled to hear that frosts were to be a thing of the past!

We have recently returned from the obligatory trip to Germany where we took the opportunity to renew our friendships with some of the more influential German warmblood studs.  Suzanne and Jens Meyer were again most obliging and were very keen to show us their new stallions, Dansey and Herzensdieb.  These 2 youngsters show tremendous potential as dressage stallions of the future.  We are looking forward to offering their semen to clients this year. His Highness, looking magnificent as always, has recently won the first qualifier for the Bundeschampionate in Warendorf this year with an impressive score.  He has the best, most trainable temperament that he is passing onto his progeny.

While in Germany we visited a wide range of studs to view their dressage stallions, both new and old.  Stallions such as Weltmeyer and Brentano II look great for their age – you have to see them in the flesh to appreciate their qualities and how they might cross with your mares.  We also checked in on some of the newer stallions such as Duino and Flavio at Gestüt Sprehe, both very good examples of the sort of stallion we want to breed to.  Donnerball has grown a couple of inches and has developed his dressage talents enormously.  Unfortunately his semen doesn’t freeze at the moment so we have only the semen we purchased last year to use.

We took the opportunity to visit Stall Duen, home of the fantastic German Riding Pony “Hilken’s Black Delight”.  The Duen’s were very hospitable, especially as Danika was in labour while we were there!  They showed us this fantastic little black pony with lots of chrome and movement to die for.  He looks just like a scaled-down warmblood.  These ponies will make a great addition to the pony breeding lines we already have in Australia.  With the increasing popularity of pony dressage there will be strong demand for their progeny.

We are just finalizing the stallions we will be offering this season and their pricing.  Our web site will be up-to-date within 2 weeks.  We are currently visiting South Australia and checking out the warmblood breeding scene there.  Our friends at Glenella Park have some nice foals by Rotspon and Weltmeyer, and this afternoon we’ll check in on a couple of Londonderry’s just down the road.  Our beautiful mare Gem is due to have a Londonderry foal this year so we’d like to have a sneak preview of how it will look.  In a couple of days we’ll head back to the dust-bowl and start getting ready for the 2006 breeding season.

regards, Peter and Jane

Phew – what a season!  I think we all only just made it to the end of the breeding season.  The last client mare and foal only left us last Saturday, safely in foal to His Highness.  Over the next couple of months we will have to take the opportunity to analyse the breeding results by mare, stallion, insemination method, insemination timing, and all the other variables that can be thrown in.

Next weekend Jane and Peter are heading back to Germany to renew contacts with some of the studs.  There are plenty of exciting new stallion prospects for this season that we would like to inspect personally.  Gestut Sprehe alone have 10 new young stallions!  There will be a lot of rushing around to catch up with all our friends from the Meyer’s at Dorum Altendeich to the many studs around Vechta and Verden.

While in northern Germany we will take time to attend the elite auctions of the Oldenburg and Hanoverian verbands.  These are auctions of both riding horses, foals, and some ponies.  The riding horses are all thoroughly vetted and available for test rides in the weeks prior to the auction.  This is a great way and place to buy horses as you are competing against other genuine buyers.

While in Vechta we will visit Filigranda, the Furst Heinrich mare we purchased late last year.  We had hoped to put her in foal to Don Laurie and bring her home but northern Germany is still in the grip of a cold snap and she has yet to come in season.  She is being trained and cared for by our good friend Clemens von Merveldt.  While we visit him in Gut Fuchtel we also hope to check on the progress of his Florencio x Donnerhall colt.  Although still a baby it will be great to see how he looks as a yearling and to check in on the progress of his mum’s pregnancy (to Florencio again).

Our breeding direction for season 2006 will not be determined until we return from Germany.  We will have discussions with the leading stallion owners to determine what we may be able to offer clients next year.  We hope to continue to offer access to quality dressage stallions and to also source some semen from pony dressage stallions.  However, we will not know what is on offer until we get a chance to talk to the major play-makers.  We know they appreciate our approach of visiting and inspecting the stallions rather than selecting sires by remote control.

We have had a pretty good breeding season on the home front.  Six of the seven mares we attempted to get in foal are pregnant, all to frozen semen.  We will be expecting foals by Sandro Hit, Londonderry, De Niro, and three by His Highness.  As well as being good-looking and having a fantastic temperament, His Highness would seem to have extraordinary fertility with frozen semen.  He has achieved better than 70% per cycle conception rates on a wide range of difficult mares.

Our foals from last year will be weaned on our return from Germany.  The first two, Weltlich and Bremen, have already lost their mums.  Weltlich has gone to his new home with Katrina Bolmat and HB Rotteufel (Toy).  Smash is still stunning and improves daily.  Twinkle (Weltstern) is a delightfully stylish young man and is taking after his Thoroughbred mum.  Ana is everyone’s favorite and is available for pats and hugs but that is all.

Hollands Bend News 21^st January, 2006

We are struggling to get to the finishing line of the breeding season this year and the mares keep coming.  Our farm has been filled to capacity with client’s mares hoping to get in foal.  The results in the next 2 weeks will tell the tale of the season.

We had hoped to produce some frozen semen fillies to enhance our broodmare band this year.  Unfortunately, the only filly we had this year was by the imported stallion Sirocco out of Belcam Aarmani (Aachen/Falkland). The filly, HB Santa Ana pictured right, is the spitting image of her grandfather Sir Oldenburg.  She is a quality foal and will be a valuable addition to our breeding program, visit our foal gallery for more photos of this lovely filly.

We have eight of our own mares to get pregnant this year.  The fertility gods have yet to play all of their cards this year.  However, the results to date are as follows:

We will keep our fingers crossed that we get a couple more mares in foal.  However, we don’t wish to be greedy and will accept the cards we are dealt.

Filigranda, our 17hh 4 year old Hanoverian mare pictured below, is currently being trained by Clemens von Merveldt in Gut Fuchtel, Vechta, Germany.  She is by Fürst Heinrich (dec.) out of a Grande/Argus line mare.  Our intention is to join her to Diamond Hit before she is exported to Australia.  She is not yet cycling due to the depths of winter in Germany but we hope to get her in foal in the next 6 weeks.

We have a stunning crop of colts this year who are soon to be weaned.  Then it will perhaps be time to take stock and head back to Germany to catch up with friends.  We are looking forward to catching up with Jens and Suzanne Meyer and getting a glimpse of their 2 new stallions, Herzensdieb and Damsey.  We also have a number of new stallion semen options we want to look at as well as attending the Oldenburg and Hanoverian Elite auctions and the Sprehe foal auction.

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543 Benalla-Tatong Rd  Benalla Victoria Australia 3672  « click here for location maps »