21st
November, 2006
Herzensdieb
Hengststaion Meyer’s young stallion is named
Reserve Champion of his 70 day test in
Schlieckau (Sept. 10th to Nov. 18th)
Herzensdieb was runner up in his 70 day test
>>>
This was thrilling news for the Leatherdales,
the Meyers and us. He was second to Hotline
(sire of the foal that we have imported in utero
– Filigranda) with an excellent score in both
his showjumping 111,90 and his dressage 133,56.
20th November, 2006
HB Diamonds Are Forever is our third foal for
the season. She is a filly by De Niro out of
Tiffany (a Lunchtime T/B mare that we lease from
Kay Dawson). This has proven to be a wonderful
cross and we are very happy with the resulting
filly. We have been married for 25 years this
year and this filly has a fitting name to help
us celebrate!
HB Diamonds Are Forever.... here is a sneak
preview of her
>>>
more photos will appear on in Foal Gallery soon
19th November, 2006
Our next imported filly, Hirtensage, is
currently in quarantine in Germany and will be
making the long trip to Australia at the
beginning of December. She will be released
from quarantine at Eastern Creek on the 23rd
December (just in time for Christmas).
Unfortunately, she will be coming with a winter
coat that we will have to clip off. I will post
photos when she is safely in her new home.
Our daughter Alex has been given the opportunity
to travel to Germany for Christmas this year.
Alex, who is 13 and attends PLC in Melbourne,
will be staying with Hanke Ostermann’s parents
and family near Vechta. She will have the
opportunity to help around the farm, have riding
lessons and attend school in the New Year.
Christmas will be a fabulous time to be staying
in Germany and having Christmas with the
Ostermann’s and living with them will be a magic
time for Alex. She will also be attending some
of the various stallion parades, like the super
PSI parade, that are on at that time of the
year. I will make sure that she sends home a
few photos – I hope she has some time to do
that! Alex leaves on the 15th
December and will return on the 25th
January. We are also planning next years trip
back to Germany the first of which will take
place in March/April like last year but we are
also hoping to return in July.
17th November, 2006
<<<Filigranda
has settled in well and we have had many
visitors keen to look at her. She has managed
to put on around 75kg since arriving a month ago
and is now looking magnificent and in foal. We
are extremely pleased with her very kind nature
and yet she loves to ‘show off’ if given the
chance. She has settled in well to her
quarantine paddock with her new large stable.
She will find the stable quite helpful when it
comes time to foal in May.
18th November, 2006
The
Meyers have two fantastic new stallions for our
2007 stud season.
At the recent Hanoverian Licensing 2006 two new
stallions were purchased by the Meyer/Leatherdale
partnership to be added to the line-up of
stallions for the next season with Hengststation
Meyer. The first was the brown Florestan/Donnerhall/Aarking
colt, First Dance
>>>
pictured oppoite.
<<<They
also acquired the brown Rubin Royal / Glorieux /
Sidney colt Rob Roy. Both of these stallions
were accepted for licensing by the Hanoverian
Verband.
We will personally inspect these new stallions
along with the other stallions and new foal at
the Meyers on our next trip to Germany.
This is a tremendous boost for Hengststation
Meyer. Their rise to the elite breeding world
began with the stunning acquisition of His
Highness. Last year they purchased Herzensdieb,
now runner-up to Hotline as the winner of this
year’s 70-day test. Now, with the addition of
these 2 newest stallions, you have the most
potent stallion team in the realm of private
Hanoverian stallion stations. All of the
stallions will be brought on slowly to afford
them every opportunity to develop to their full
potential. The story is only just beginning!
Quality will always rise to the top!
15th November, 2006
Hanke Ostermann will be working with us for the
2006/7 breeding season. Hanke arrived in early
October 2006 and expects to be here for the
entire Australian breeding season. Hanke came
from the Josef Kathmann Stud in Germany and is a
real addition to our team. His knowledge of
warmbloods is impressive and his insights into
German warmblood issues and politics are
invaluable. We are privileged to have him
stating in our home.
Hanke has come to Benalla after completing his
apprenticeship for three years at Hengststation
Josef Kathmann near Vechta in North-West
Germany. His family has a small number of mares
and breeds around 3 foals a year. All of his
neighbours breed or ride horses. He is very
interested to see our practice including
endoscopic and deep uterine insemination with
frozen semen as most inseminations in Germany
are normally fresh or chilled.
Hanke has been a wonderful source of information
for us. He has been able to appraise our stock
and give us his honest opinion on the direction
we should be going in with our breeding
program. He has also been a great help with our
choices of stallion this year and has made
suggestions for our clients as well.
He enjoyed have a few days at D & JWTS this year
and is now able to have a better picture of the
talent or our young horses and riders in
Australia. He is now trying to encourage some
riders to make the ‘big’ trip to Germany to
further their knowledge and abilities in their
sport. It was a great time for Hanke to see a
bit more of Victoria and to catch up with a few
other German friends.
Recently, while the Meyers were in Australia,
Hanke was offered a position working for Susanne
and Jens at Hengststation Meyer in Dorum,
Northern Germany next year. It did seem a long
way for Jens to come to interview Hanke. He
will be working within the stallion section,
collecting stallions’ semen and inseminating
mares and will be able to put into practice much
of what he is learning here.
8th November, 2006
Susanne and Jens Meyer visit our facility – It
was wonderful to have the Meyers make the trip
to Benalla via Melbourne from Germany to visit
our AI facility in Benalla. They were lucky to
be able to see their first endoscopic
insemination while they were here.
Unfortunately, the country side is not looking
its best at the moment because of the drought.
However, we enjoyed beautiful weather with
Susanne taking advantage of the sunshine by the
pool while Jens visited one of our Thoroughbred
Studs in the area with Peter. This TB stud is a
small family-run business at Greta West near
Wangaratta. Jens has decided to take home the
idea of the ID collars that are used extensively
on T/B stud in Australia for the mares that come
to his station. He was also impressed by the
serving boots and we are now ordering a set from
Scone for him.
We enjoyed an evening meal and much
conversation. They left for D & JWTS on
Thursday as Jens was to judge the young dressage
horse (he actually ended up judging the young
jumping classes).
30th October 2006
HB Eclipse had a gorgeous colt foal to His
Highness. Eclipse was sold to Exclusiven
Warmbloods and produced this stunning black colt
for her new owners. The colt is very light and
athletic. We are thrilled to see such a
fantastic foal from a mare we bred and
treasured.
HB Heleine [pictured on the left with her mum]
is our second foal for the season. She is the
first foal in Australia by the Hanoverian
stallion His Highness. Although her mother is
only 15.1hh, Heleine will mature 16hh. She is
beautifully marked and has a very sweet nature,
go to our foal gallery to see more photos>>>
10th October, 2006
Our Hanoverian mare, Filigranda, arrived safely
at our facility on the night of the 10th
October. She was tested still safely in foal to
Hotline. Now she needs to recover from her trip
and put some weight on.
