"Catch up time! Well where do i start? Lets get Saumur out of the way first; a huge disappointment - one of those competitions that make you realise why the sports gurus are jumping in and out of the judging think tank attempting to improve the judging system using hip words like 'transparency' and introducing display scoring some years ago, all to no avail I fear.

It was quite impossible to follow the scores in relation to performance and quality; I imagined the commentary if presented along the lines of a premier league football competition would have made for srious TV entertainment.

But I was not alone in my confusion. A ripple of mystified whisperings were going round as scores were announced. The CDIO was no easier to follow with combinations performing two-tempis going into the "C" line pirouettes (not required I may add!) along with a catalogue of errors to boot yet notching up scores exceding 65% - not to mention the competitor who completeley missed the first piaffe and scored over 70%! Thank heaven for Euro Dressage and their down to earth frank sporting commentary which we can all follow. Ah well, do not despair, things have to change if dressage is to receive the media coverage it craves as its public have to be able to follow the commentary warts and all! Onwards and upwards to the next show!

Now back to the real world and we've had several additions since Cascade hfd presented us with a handsome colt. This mare's 2009 colt went to live with his new owners earlier this year way down south and when we returned from Saumur we heard he now stands at 15.2hh is much loved and enjoyed. These emails leave you with a warm feeling inside when you know the little fellas are going do their job and having a good life - it makes breeding all the more worth while.

Bvlgari (by Trento B) gave birth to a very extravagant bay colt by Mooiman hfd and one of the visiting mares in for foaling gave birth to a very elegant black/bay filly by Santana hfd - a welcome relief as the mare had lost the last three foals, so it was wonderful to see him skipping around the field with his mother. Eva hfd presented us with our first KWPN coloured foal, she is exquisite like her father Santana hfd with the same light expressive foreleg action.

As with all good things comes some bad: We got a call from a neighbouring breeder at 11pm on Friday evening. When Brian got to their place, he immediately realised the foal had an abnormal presentation he had 2 front feet but the head was bent back. Sometimes the foal can be pushed back in and the head pulled forward, but this is every breeders night mare and the vet is needed immediately. It almost always ends in tears and you end up fighting to save the mare. This case was no exception; the foal was born dead but thankfully a very exhausted mare looks to be surviving, though she is not yet out of the woods. It makes the sight of our strong healthy foals romping in the spring sunshine all the more valuable. We have one more client's mare left to foal. She's a special mare to us as she already has a stunning three your old Mooiman hfd colt on her CV. Her owner recognising the quality of this foal so repeated the combination.

We always welcome breeders with good mares like 'Perrie' who themselves have successfully competed to advanced level dressage. Rideabillity is an important part of the stallion grading for the KWPN many fantastic stallions have been short listed for the 70 day test following the second stage selections held in Den Bosche each year only to be eliminated unable to score high enough for the rideability marks. We know how hard our stallions have been tested in this area so it is good for us when we know the mare also has proved her self ridebale and trainable. We always put our brood mares under saddle before breeding with them, even the maiden three year olds, and would not use a difficult mare who had a bad work ethic for breeding.

We currently have college students queing for places to complete their 200 hour work experience with us, and the stud open day on the 30th may looming. We also have mares coming and going every day and from 10am a trail of mares and foals backwards and forward to the breeding station; as one is confirmed with a succesful pregnancy scan, they make room for others waiting for a place. All the resident HFD mares are back in foal for 2011 plus we have mares destined for Libia where AI is not allowed, so they must be in foal before export. We also have frozen semen waiting for export papers so we can ship it to France. With scanning over we move onto the walk-in collections for stallion owners - a much underestimated procedure. Once the stallion is phantom trained he can do his job easily as a rule; the expertise then lies with the practitioner who evaluates and packages the semen for transport. An error at this stage can render the semen useless. The same applies with semen freezing - 50 doses of semen is not much use if all the cells are dead when defrosting for insemination.

A new breeder has joined us this week. She is a one stallion owner and wants a hand getting her first crop of offspring on the ground for 2011, so after finding Mel a very smart PROK mare her stallion Rasputin has his mate. While he is with us, he will also have a consignment of semen frozen so he'll be at HFD for a few weeks yet."