Massage in the morning and without blinking I had ridden 3 horses AND finished with energy to do more - winning feeling, still riding on that wave!! Hurra, hurra. Fibromyalgia you watch it.. I was very happy with all three, especially Halagador has developed alot lately, he is rocking it!   Very cool. Moli is getting new oats today, we found corn in the other which is one of his allergenes, grr, how hard can it be to get that horse a decent meal!? Also Santa is bringing a special cultured powder called 'Probimin' from Sweden, I am pretty sure that will fix him once and for all.

Here's a greeting from Festivo greeting in the New York snow, brr, in the hands of man that makes him look small!?!

Today we had a visit from Molis real 'mum' and she rode him for the first time! She talked to him in french and voilá Moli understood perfectly!They looked very nice together and seemed to like each other. It was great to see him from the ground he is a very handsome horse! I have to measure him now, and lots of lieing down lately so he is still growing, looking good for Moli.

A litte SICAB nostalgia, here a tribute to 2011 Champion of Spain!

Sevillano XLI

And live

We are back from SICAB, loaded with inspiration from PRE beauties, old and new spanish and swedish friends and some new interesting contacts. Javier photos coming up. Came home to a mum-made advent decorated house, in Sweden its tradition to lit up the house with special lighting and it is very cosy. Five up-for-some-action horses were waiting in stable today so they all got their turn in the sunshine - happy horses, exhausted but content horse-mum.

We also had time to update footage and info on some of Horsespre sales horses that will be exciting for some of you...!!

SICAB is good for pausing and thinking about how to set up coming year. There might be a new destiny for a Vikinga horse family member.. I have decided to give Donoso the oportunity to qualify for next years dressage final in SICAB, so now I have said it I'll have to do my best to live up to it! Good to have goals. Next year will also be Start's year I have promised him, he will be first priority competitor. Here we are before SICAB departure last week.

Riding, riding, today Moli and Halagador's turn Start and Donoso had a break as I had other things also to tend to. We would love to meet up with you in SICAB, please send a note on http://www.facebook.com/Vikingapre 

See ya!
Pretty girly yesterday

Have had a great social weekend doing Madrid shopping and sightseeing in the constant pouring rain.. One of my visitors had a positive outlook though and said - Since we don't know what we are missing we don't suffer it.. Today riding riding all the boys and alittle roundpen in the mud with chiquita-Donita. This is how she moves naturally and relaxed. Look forward to see how many natural moving horses we will see in SICAB..!!

I have had a day of horses recieving two professional mums and two dogs, after some coffeshopping we made swedish buns and the house smelt like heaven on earth (to me anyway)! Meanwhile I had a glorious update on Festivo that has made his first on-stage entrance in the USA, he went to a trade show where everyone fell in love with him! Two people recognized him from us and one lady knew him from Sicab last year and she was so excited to see him in the US so she could breed to him that she almost started crying! Splendid!

Festivo MR demonstrating how to be presented as a sport horse in breed shows in the US.

...the present situation of PRE Spain. Breeders are not covering their mares because they can't feed more mouths. On the extreme end there are breeders with lots of anger and some hidden tears telling us with hanging heads that they are living a tragedy. Some don't cover their mares or very few of them. Others are forced to sacrifice their horses because they can't afford to feed them and they are in bad condition. Some say this serves to eliminate the many low quality horses and raise the standard of the breed. I think in desperation things are not well achieved and it is quite brutal. A intelligent selection would be less drastic and totally possible. But this is the reality today and we have to deal with it. You would think that with lots of horses on the market you would be able to find a great selection for very good prices. But this is not what we see. The truth is that today its even harder to find healthy horses, professionally bred, and with a training that is not accelerated for sale purposes. When we select I look at the quality as if they were for myself and there are already too few. In Spain a horse is a animal and if the funds are lacking the vitamins to the horse are not prioritized. I have been searching for mares now for 6 months and it is hard enough but to find the good basic condition, and when I also find the quality I want we are talking alot of money. The spanish breeders are now, more than ever, aware if they have quality to offer. Last week I was speaking to a breeder interested in breeding with one of our stallions. Because of the present situation he was not convinced he wanted to breed at all. But I was encouraging him because if you breed quality today you will be some of the few offering interesting horses to the market tomorrow. And it is important to be one of those. He agreed.

But it is not all doom and gloom! I am very satisfied and proud of our horses and their achievements this year. Festivos bronze in EU championships, the wonderful offspring to our stallions in Sweden, both Festivo and Donoso passed TRC, finding the perfect person for Festivo, the perfect horses for other people and this month on the frontpage of Ecuestre. In a week and a half we will be able to enjoy this years best spanish horses in SICAB. I won't be competing but I will be there, I will study, make my conclusions and learn. I hope to see as many as possible of you, let's enjoy, relax and get inspired!

Festivo & me SICAB 2010

I was in stables at 10 am as my 'old' farrier is back doing my horse-feet again. Ok the other one might shoe horses on the spanish team etc but the angles were terrible and unequal, long toes, low heels and the one that did it for me was the - how do I explain this - when you scrape on the outside of hoof and make the edges round... Ohhh nooo - makes hoof smaller, destroys healty surfice, big no no. Luckily they are all healthy as hell and step on heavenly flooring every day so they have been fine and I am sure there was a plan and I listened to it. But, I am the client. So without wasting more energy, not even one discussion, sorry mate you are fired, nothing personal though. So today all four got new shiny feet and I did not have to say ANYTHING = understood = happy. All four got a workout and I was finished at 16.00 Brought in Donita that had been playing up all the guys in walker, she works up a flashy trot, snorts loud and they all go mad! Naughty little lady, mum very proud, go for it girl. Had a very late lunch with a friend then a walk with Betty Boop in the drizzle. And swish, that was that day! Tomorrow house fixi-fixi again, I have been to IKEA again, could easily be Mrs IKEA this month. Next week a new invasion by 4 people and 2 dogs so another room needs to be prepared.

Pretty Donoso feet - yay!