Anna,
Count me in as someone who would love an update on all your guys. A census so to speak.
For example, did you ever sell or rehome Guido?
I recall that you re-homed Nelson, but can’t remember any others.
Would love to know the status of them all! At the moment, anyway.
Hi!
Our lot had grown to unexpected amount due to the crisis (today on news they said that we are over the worst bit so there is a hope that things will start to change)
So - we do have 12 horses now. 4 are boarders.
Guddy is still at trainer and Peter is going to ride him as often as he can (He went this morning again). Guddy now has started working in indoor arena and his first training there was incredibly good - he was in the indoor arena for the first time, Peter for the second time, but all went well. Guddy is for sale and actually has one buyer interested, from Finland, but her plans to come and see him before Christmas were delayed due to the ankle surgery. She might be suitable owner for Guddy, but we shall see it only when she will arrive and try him out.
I’m waiting for spring to see what’s with Lilly - so far looks like all her mysterious problems were created by that long building up colon impaction. If that, she will spend a month at trainer at the spring and if all will be OK there, will be for sale. To find her a right buyer will be not an easy task because she needs the best. She is such a princess so rough life is not for her. Ideally we are looking for Dressage rider who would be interested to try her. She has incredibly sweet character, very human orientated: give her a choice between piece of bread or a cuddle, she will go for a hug and cuddle first and only then for a bread.
Sapphire is growing well, her weak legs had improved a lot and she will be also for sale as looks like she will be 100%. Only I do suspect that she will stay with us another year till she is 3, goes under basic training and then for sale - she will be probably quite small horse, max 16 h, so good child horse prospect. So far she is very well behaved, walks, brushes, stands for a farrier, and loves cuddles so she hopefully will fulfill the dreams of a little rider.
Little Sonora is growing like a weed, doing very well and is healthy and happy.
Gamma also is waiting for spring to see how her training will go - since our arrier started to trim her hoofs and she as proper turnout, her legs have improved and hopefully she will be able to be a good jumping horse. She is not very happy with other horses, so she might be suitable for a single horse household. She is very good with humans and likes children, so a bit of basic training and she must be a great horse.
Inka is more complicated thing - she is now well behaved and obedient on ground but still a handful to ride so she is waiting for an advanced teenager or smaller adult rider - she has a great jump (she was bred to jump) but is a bit of a handful and not for a beginner - she tries every rider out and if she CAN throw you off, she will, just for fun. But if suitable rider will be interested, great.
Puika will be never rehomed, he is our foundation stone as well as Shella and Giva, and probably Daggy - he is hard keeper, needs a lot of extra care so not actually easy to rehome.
Havanna, our Estonian girl, probably also will stay here up to the end of her days - she is a paying client, this is her retirement home. She has no serious problems but has arthritis so large pastures and a lot of free movements are the best for her. Her owner definitely wanted her to live here, not somewhere else as she has trust in our care. She is very easy to take care, sweet and mellow, gets well with everybody.
Sigma, our other elderly lady, has the same game plan. She was used as broodmare all her life so was not very human orientated when arrived but now she is looking for cuddles and hugs as everybody else here. We were also told that she is hard to catch at the field and picky with farriers - she really dislikes some of them. So far we had not had any problems - she is waiting at the gates as everybody else to be walked in and she is very good with our farrier so not a problem at all. Also Giva picked up her as her best friend and helper so she is second in the rank in the herd and really good mum to the herd.
Honey, who is also a paying client, is 5 yo, nice little thing, will probably be here up to the spring - then her owner will know are the family moving abroad or not and her future will be decided then. If the owner will be leaving country, there are already 2 families who are interested. Until then she lives here and her owner (blond girl in pictures) comes here to visit and ride.
Our hardest client here is the gray horse. She is 5, and due to the end of February. She has quite nasty character - with humans as well as with other horses - so she is a handful. Her owner had booked in the holidays when she is expected to foal so her bad tempers will be not my headache at the first days after the birth. It is her first pregnancy so we need prepare extra just in case.
This spring Nelson went to new home after 8 months in our place and I’m really happy about him now.
Renny had find a nice owners and he is doing well now after he was gelded.
Sheriff is also doing very well, making two little girls and their parents really happy.
And currently I’m working on 3 yo Fabio who is officially a wobbler case. Things are more complicated due to the fact that horse is a property of government so it means much longer contract changing time and about 5X more paperwork, but the home for Fabio had been already found (the pastor who last year adopted an elderly horse Boss, recommended these people so I do have a good reference them) and now, after all the paperwork will be done, Fabio will need only transport arranged.
There is also a 12 yo TB mare waiting until we shall have a free box - she needs an eye surgery that her current owner is not willing to pay for. She had torn tendon on her first race, and since then she is suitable for a mild ride and as broodmare - she had produced few quite nice babies. She is safe now but probably in February we shall need decide on her.
And on top of all this my MIL is playing up.
And… It all started with Puika. Anna you are amazing. Truly.
Anna, thank you so much for the rundown on the “crew”. You and Peter are truly inspiring.
Hope your MIL feels better.
Happy New year to you all!
This is today’s fun in winter wonderland 
Happy New Year Anna & herd!
Beautiful horses, thanks for sharing. The last video of them running in the snow was wonderful to see
Wow, I just found this thread! I’ve read nearly the entire thing this evening - what an interesting story you guys have created! I’m going to be following your blog, as well!
Happy New Year to all of you! I am always amazed at how happy all your horses look, not an unhappy looking one in the whole herd. Keep it up!
Tell me more, please
Hi Anna,
Do you have any trakheners in your herd? I can’t remember quickly. What are the characteristics of the traks there?
I don’t know the breed, so I only have my own Wren as an example. I don’t know if she is typical.
whicker, I only have one mare who is half Trakenher - Inka, and she is not a great example of trakenhers here - she is coming from sire Irtiss who had a great jump and poor character. He ended his life being killed by a pony.
Inka is sweet but not an easy ride but her children are OK. Inka is passing jumping ability to her children, for sure.
Others just have TR blood down the lines here and there.
There are few TR breeders here in Latvia but the best place to look for great old TR blood is in Lithuania - 6 hours drive from here - Nemunas Zirgas stud. This is gov run stud and they do produce about 60 foals each year. In general our TR are not so hot as German ones but sill hotter than usual Latvian horses.
More winter pictures
Here will be same more winter pictures
Sonora
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9580.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9609.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9614.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9650.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9680.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9706.jpg
Sapphira
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9683.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9687.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9678.jpg
Puika
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9734.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9735.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9731.jpg
Daggy
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9749.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9752.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9748.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9744.jpg
Just winter
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9675.jpg
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/PICT9803.jpg
More pictures here
http://s965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/31-12-09/
A bit of Guddy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LovQmxsL2J0
He still have problems after the jump trying to escape. And Peter is still far from a top rider 
But they both are getting better. Guddy jumps clean, never hits the bar, so still the main thing is just to work on the basic.
Annacrew-some of Guddy’s reaction maybe that he is looking for a bigger release off his mouth or maybe someone in his past caught him in the mouth and he does not trust it yet…
Otherwise Peter looks great! What a rider…Olympics here we come!
Oda to my Shella
This will be overall a BIG brag about Shella But I can not keep it to myself, I am so thankful to her.
So the story:
We had a snowstorm here again on Saturday night. Snow over 2 ft deep. On top of that that we had already. Behind our stable is a dirt road, and about a mile and a half from us there is lonely farm with old lady living alone. She is 89 yo, very perky and busy, but walking is her weakest link - she has deformed hips and can walk only with 2 sticks on clear ground. And she needed to get out to go to doctor.
It was absolutely clear that she can not walk out by herself. No way to clear the road to her by tractor - too deep.Taking out her by children sledge - also impossible because snow is too deep there. Skis would do it, especial the wide ones, but she can not do it.
So we were thinking all morning searching for a solution how to get her out. Horse… She can not ride due to her hipps, that’s for sure. We do have a sledge, simple and plain one, who would do the job. And also we do have 3 driving horses - Puika, Inka and Nikie - but all three are not an easy job to handle. I can not trust any of them. Plus - I do not have any driving experience at all.
But I do have my sweet Shella. She had been a riding horse only, a jumper, and never had been driven. But I can trust her 100%.
So… What’s better - trained driving horse to whom I can not trust or untrained but absolutely relayable one?
I decided try the untrained but relayable one. Shella. Just try.
So…
… we dressed her up. She was curious only.
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0658.jpg
Walked one circle around. She had no problems with the quick self made creative equipment at all.
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0659.jpg
Then we added the sledge and again - she was curious what she must to do now but only curious, asking all the time what exactly we want her to do - no stress at all.
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0662.jpg
Then I sat in sledge to see can she take the additional weight - again - no problems.
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0666.jpg
In 3 minutes we felt absolutely confident that she is comfortable with idea about equipment and pulling the sledge, and off we went
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0667.jpg
Girl is leading Shella on the rope, we did not tried the real driving - nobody needed that, and I was at the back to be sure that sledge will not slide too fast and will not hit the horse’s legs (sledge is only on ropes, no shafts) - so I was like a hand break
Here the rescue operation is almost completed
http://i965.photobucket.com/albums/ae135/lillydelully/13-02-10driwing/PICT0671.jpg
Shella did know nothing about driving but did everything perfect so she really is my hero and all our Valentine kisses we gave not to each other but Shella - she got them all
Good girl, Shella!
Nice neighbor Anna!
Yeah Shella!!! What a great mare.
I am totally and forever in love with the entire crew in Latvia. xoxoxoxoxoxox
Anna- you need to write a book…it would inspire everyone and right now with the state of the world we need heroes like you…Amen for that…good job…YEAH SHELLA!!!
That last picture you posted, of your neighbour in the sled being pulled by Shella made my day! Her smile says it all!
Wonderful!
Oh wow, this is so heartwarming! Good job Shella and Anna!
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