NORTHWICK WELSH COBS

23/09/2013

The majority of the ponies are now turned away in the hope that they might get a few nice weeks before the weather breaks and winter sets in!  Can't really complain about the summer we have had, weather wise or showing wise(!) but winter is my least favourite time of the year.

 

2013 seems to have flown by! Spring saw us blessed with five beautiful foals, four fillies and one colt!  All superb foals that we are very pleased with.   After last years heartbreaking catastrophe of losing two of our best foals it was a relief to get this years all safely here.  Being full of highs and lows as life is though it seems that May can be a difficult month and May 2013 was no exception as we had to say goodbye to our beloved old Stallion Finney HIll Mad Max who was fit and well at 19 years of age but a bout of colic and twisted gut left us with no option other than to have him put to sleep.......... he is sorely missed and will forever own a piece of my heart.

 

On a more positive note, having transport that isn't as much of a gas guzzler has allowed us to get out showing a bit more this year and further afield!  Our season started with the SNWPCA spring show in April where we took our three year old filly Northwick Estelle, having only come home a few weeks earlier from wintering out (and what a winter it was, I think we were still in its grips in April at this show if I remember!), she was not quite as ready as we would have liked her, however she still did us proud with a 1st and youngstock champion.  Our other three year old filly Northwick Welsh Model was then taken on a long journey to Glanusk Stallion Show (held at the Royal Welsh showground) and did amazingly well and won her class! Next for an outing was our young barren mare Northwick Elektra who we took to the well supported NECWPCA silver medal show, Elektra loves showing and and was rewarded by winning her class and going on to be overall D Champion and Silver Medal winner.  A few weeks later we took our young stallion Northwick Notorious out to the NAW Silver medal show, where this young (5 year old) stallion won his stallion class in good company.  Next for an outing was our Dun yearling filly Northwick Flashdance at the WYWPCA show, her first show she looked beautiful and went on to win her class, get youngstock champion and overall D champion and the bronze medal!!  We had a little break then whilst we concentrated on the mares at home and it was busy with haytime etc so our next show was the Royal Welsh!  We decided to take Elektra even though we knew it was a big ask to expect a 5 year old mare to go up against all of those more mature mares.  When we got the catalogue there was an entry of 59 mares in our class and I believe that over 40 of them came forward for judging!  If you have been to the Royal Welsh you will know that these class are full of quality animals most of which are previous champions in the show ring.  So...... we were over the moon when she was placed 3RD!  Quite an acheivement for such a young mare.  Our next trip was again to Wales but this time to Anglesey silver medal show and again with the three year old filly Northwick Welsh Model, despite the long journey she put on a great show and was placed 1st then went on to be youngstock champion.  A couple of weeks later we were off to Scotland!  This time to the Scottish All Welsh Silver medal show with our young stallion Northwick Notorious, what beautiful scenery we saw on our journey and what a beautiful day it was and to cap it all Notorious not only won his class, was champion and silver medal winner but was also Supreme Champion. Our last show of the season was again with Northwick Welsh Model whom we took to NECWPCA bronze medal show.  Model did us proud a again winning her class, youngstock champion, overall d champ and medal winner, supreme youngstock, res sup welsh and overall supreme of show!  We are very honoured to have such wonderful ponies and they have done us proud and have earned their time out.

 

 

We have had a number of visitors this year from various countries including Australia and Holland who have gone out of their way to specifically see our cobs, it is wonderful to be able show these lovely folk our animals and it is great to talk to such knowledgeable and passionate people about our beloved breed. 

 

On the 21st September the South Western Welsh Pony and Cob Association came to us as part of their annual stud tour!  What a wonderful time we had, a great bunch of people who were very passionate (as we are) about welsh ponies and cobs, we really enjoyed putting on a show for them at the yard with the show stock and stallions and then taking them round the fields to see the mares and youngstock, the sun shone and a good time was had, brilliant!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next month we will be looking to wean a couple of the older foals and get them all microchipped etc, then it is just a case of getting through winter!