Tag: bloodstock

There are three new photographs on the photo page. Pat sent in the Heron taken at Kew. Love the photo, I also like the Bird. But no where near my lake. Elsies Deer photograph was taken at Fountains Abbey. The Swan and Signets sent in by Vicky from Derby.

Sorry, we didn’t manage to get finish setting the camera up to watch the Sheep. Just been megger busy running about picking up posts and rails for the corral, that we are putting up in front of Lady’s stable. I forgot to order the ballast to make the concrete to put the posts in, so that had to be collected. That was another couple of hours of wasted time.

We need to get the stable area for Willow and the new Foal ready by the end of the week. Finishing the corral really need finishing as well. As we are going to need to juggle the Horses around so that we can keep the new Broodmare and Foal away from the other Horses for a week to ten days, just to make sure that the new arrivals are not bringing in any unwanted bugs. You can never know what new Horses may be bringing with them. Not necessarily from where they had been kept. But also from where they have been whilst travelling from one location to another. I cant be sure what route from Ireland to Denbury the Horses that are coming will take. The Horse Box that they are being collected by will no stop off at other premises to collect and deliver other people’s Horses.

I not a big fan of Bloodstock Auctions for the same reasons. Some of the larger auction have in excess two thousand + Horses for sale over a week. Four hundred + a day coming from here there and everywhere. Bringing in who knows what. This year the Bloodstock industry, including Horse Racing came to a virtual stop in Australia, through Equine Influenza. There are many problems that new Horses can bring in to a yard, so it is very important to be vigilant and isolate them for a period.

The Father Christmas Webcams are now working.

The Bloodstock Auctions are just about finishing and I have not managed to purchase another in Foal Broodmare. I have been glued to the computer for the past four days, with sale catalogue and Stallion guide in front of me, watching the live webcam from the sale. I have been bored to tears. The only times that I have left the computer was when I went to feed the Horses, Sheep and Badgers. That had to fit in to what the sales catalogue was telling me was coming in to the sales ring.

Over the four days I bid on nine Broodmares. When I fancied a horse that was in the sales ring, I would phone a person I know who was at the sales, and he would put in my bids. It is a little bit difficult trying to buy that way, as the video is about thirty seconds behind real time. One Horse that I phoned the person to bid on was sold by the time I had got through to his mobile phone. Another one that I missed was because the Postman knocked on the door.

There were a lot more Horses that I fancied, but I knew that it would be a waste of time bidding, the prices would have been more than I wanted to pay. I was a bit surprised with some of the high prices that a lot of the Horses went for. There is so much over production of Bloodstock, that the market is in for a big crash. The large majority of Horses produced don’t run a race in their life, in fact a lot are not even broken. A lot a this sale were three and four year old Fillies that were put into Foal that had not raced. A lot of the over production is caused by the tax breaks that the Irish Government allows the Breeders in Ireland. The Foal sales a couple of weeks back, saw many that did not get bids on, let alone sell. An Irish person that I know is going to get me a Filly Foal to run with Willow for a year or so. It is going to cost very little money, only a small amount of what the Stallion covering fee would have been, let the cost of keeping the Broodmare. He is also looking out for a Broodmare in Foal for me.

I was unable to place any bids today as the person who had been bidding for me went home last night. There were two that I would have bid for. They went for more than I would have wanted to pay. I would have needed to use a Bloodstock Agent, If I had wanted to buy a Horse today. I try to avoid using Bloodstock Agents, they all know each other and make their profit out of the commission they get through buying and selling in the same auction. They also know most of the bigger breeders. I am sure you will know where I am coming from.

I also had a bad experience on the first and only time that I did use a Bloodstock Agent. I wanted a couple of Yearling for the Horse Partnerships that I was trying to get going. My instructions to the agent were that the Yearling should be from a winning Dam, ready to be trained, be able to run as a two year old’s and attractive Horses. After weeks of trying to buy me what I wanted, the agent phoned me from an auction in Ireland telling me that he had purchased two Fillies for me. We were all very excited in anticipation on what he had purchased for us. I was gutted when the two Fillies arrived. Both were very immature and would never had made two year old races. One also had Sweet Itch, a very nasty condition caused by midges that bite them, as they do us. Some Horses are very prone to the condition, although it is rarely seen in Bloodstock. It causes Horses to have very bad irritation, making them try to get rid of the itch by rubbing. As the midges bite in the tail and main area, the Horses finish up with very little of both. It is also not very nice to see the Horse suffering. The are various potions, lotions, injections and rugs that can be used to try to stop the condition. None are very successful.

The agent got most annoyed when I told him that I didn’t want the two Fillies. They were not what I wanted or asked for. He came out with a load of old rubbish about the Sweet Itch not being a problem, he even got a Veterinary in to look at the condition. The Veterinary sent by mistake a copy of his report to me, that didn’t please the Agent much. The Veterinary tried to cover himself by sending me another report. As one of my Friesian Stallions that I owned, for the funerals that we did for Undertakers had the condition, I knew more about it than most. It would have put the Horse very backward with any training that it did. That is if it could be trained at all. Needless to say I fell out with the Bloodstock Agent. After a couple of weeks the Horses that he had purchased were collected, and that was the last that I heard.