"Our first bit of exciting news is that we have a new stallion in the unit. Royaldik (Harry) is by Royal Diamond out of Heraldik's full sister. He's a super stallion, and we're honoured to have him standing with us! We should have more news about some other super boys who will be joining us for the 2011 season in due course... some very, very exciting potential residents!

Futurity preparations

As I write this, Lou and Megan are busy getting the youngsters ready for the Futurity at Solihull tomorrow. We're taking some of our own as well as some clients' two and three year olds so the girls will have a *very* busy day tomorrow... we wish them the very best of luck, of course.

Unfortunately I've been rather poorly over the last week or so, and ended up spending a few nights in hospital. Thank goodness we've got such a good team at the stud – everyone pulled together and kept things ticking along – stallions collecting, frozen semen being dispatched etc. as well as all the usual stud activities! It was very strange being out of the loop for a few days, but all is well now, and things are getting back to normal.

Burghley stallion parade

If anyone is going to Burghley, we will be there with Grafenstolz and Royaldik. Please come along and see the BEF stallion parade – there should be some real stars there, and you'll be able to come and join us for a glass of champagne and a cuddle with the boys after the parade too - they love all the fuss!

A busy winter ahead

We will be running some stallion handling courses early next year – something I think a lot of people could benefit from. So with that and the AI course we're running in October, stallions coming in for freezing for UK and export use... I think we will be pretty busy throughout the autumn and winter!"