Latest Updates at Home Again Farm
I have just finished re-designing and updating the entire website. Please let me know if you see any errors or missing links. Also the guestbook is back in service after being very ill. It even offers the option of making your message private. Please sign it and let me know what you think of the new site!
May
New pictures are up of this year's colts - Hot to Trot, Fidelio, and Royal Don - and of Flamboyant. Enjoy!
What a breeding season this has been! I can hardly believe my luck. As of May 27th I have seven foals coming for 2009. They are:
- Rohanna with a Wolkentanz I which will be a full sibling to Wolkenstanza
- EM Wintermaske with a Wamberto (Rousseau/ Voltaire). Wamberto won his 100 day test in 2007 with fantastic scores in all categories.
- Kabibi with a Wolkentanz I. Kabibi is so much like Rohanna, I think this will be a golden combination
- Wolkenstanza with a Rousseau (Ferro/ Roemer). Rousseau's breeding sucess is phenomenal. This is an embryo transfer foal.
- Wolkenstanza with two Fidertanz foals (also embryo transfer). Fidertanz is the sire of her 2008 colt and I cannot imagine trying to improve upon him!
- Frolichkeit with a Rascalino (Rotspon/ Velten Third). She had a gorgeous Rascalino filly this year and I hope that next year's will be as nice.
Rubizza is due any day with her Fabuleux foal. I hope to breed her back to Londonderry.
EM Diva is in foal to Blue Hors Romanov and the foal will be Andrea Hayden's. (rev. 5/27/08)
I have new pictures of Rohanna's second foal — all grown up and preparing for the show ring with her owner Elaine Lash. Read more about Weltspring on her page.
April
Breeding season has started. Rohanna is in foal to Wolkentanz I for a full sibling to Wolkenstanza. EM Wintermaske is in foal to Wamberto, winner of the 2007 100 Day Test. Wolkenstanza has been bred to Wamberto's sire Rousseau and we will flush her for an embryo in a week. Frolichkeit has been bred to Dancier (DeNiro/ Lancier).
The boys born this year just get better and better. Check out new pictures of Hot to Trot, Fidelio and Royal Don. (rev. 4/13/08)
Wolkenstanza and Diva at play with their colts
Rohanna and Frolichkeit posing with their babies
March
Diva presented us with a tall, fancy bay colt by Royal Prince on March 5th. That was also the day that Bootsie went in for her surgery, so this little boy's birth went unannounced for all too long. Meet Royal Don on his own page.
Home Again Farm is home to more critters than horses. We have a sweet little dog named Bootsie who has been a large part of our lives since we got her at Christmas time in 2001. She is a rescue puppy of who knows what lineage and has not had the easiest of lives, coming to us very shy and worried from abuse as a tiny puppy. She is a smart, sweet and spunky little girl and is thoroughly adored by her humans and her co-dog Pepper the Labrador. Bootsie has suffered from bad hips for a long while and blew out her knee late this month. Her knee surgery has been the reason for my neglect of the website of late. Please wish her a quick recovery, so that I can give you more details on the babies and mares!
February
Wolkenstanza presented us with a gorgeous black colt by Fidertanz on the 26th. Like her mama Rohanna, Stanza foaled and took her baby on as if she had done it many times before. Meet Fidelio, pictured below on his own page. (rev 2-27-08)
I went to the American Hanoverian Society yearly meeting in Lexington Ky early this month. It was wonderful to see friends made at previous meetings and to meet new ones. As always the meeting was educational, enjoyable and made me proud to be a Hanoverian breeder. I was very honored to receive a plaque that stands for the Bari Von Buedigen Perpetual Trophy. It was awarded to Wolkenstanza for being the top scoring Hanoverian mare on the 2007 inspection tour. Ballerina, another Home Again Farm homebred now owned by Andrea Hayden of Prosperity Farm, was awarded 2nd place for the Hartwig prize, a perpetual trophy that goes to the 3 or 4 year old mare that has the highest combined inspection and mare performance test score of the year. (rev 2-15-08)
January
The babies are coming! Rohanna presented us with a beautiful bay colt by Hotline on January 29th. He is typey, leggy and very friendly. Please read more about Hot to Trot (barn name Trotski), pictured below, on his own page.
Wolkenstanza and EM Diva are also very soon to foal. Stay tuned!
The 2006 babies are becoming quite big and beginning to look lie horses. Rohanna's Don Schufro filly is hard to tell from the mares without looking twice. She has been renamed yet again. This time, the name really fits what she is becoming. Meet Dominique below. Only one more year to wait for Maya to start her.
Kabibi is working well under saddle. She needed a body shave to help with adjusting to Florida's warm weather. That left her previous black coat looking rather brown — but no matter. My trainer Maya is enjoying her energetic and willing ways.
I am so happy to report that I have been able to add a beautiful new mare to the Home Again Farm herd. Kabibi (Rubin Royal/ Donnerhall/ Akzent II/ Argentinus) has just arrived in Florida from Laura Whitford's Shadowfox Farm in Virginia. Kabibi is a simply stunningly beautiful black 2002 Oldenburg mare and I could not be more pleased with her. Plans include breeding her, keeping her under saddle for a while and presenting her to AHS this summer. Please read more about her on her page.
October
Photo credits: wncphoto.com
Wolkenstanza went to the GAIG/USDF Breeders Championships DSHB SE Series Final October 20th. She had qualified for the Fillies Final in September. The judges were Lilo Fore and Hilda Gurney of California. The fillies class was the biggest of the finals with nine really high quality fillies. Stanza did it again, this time winning with the highest scores yet — an average of 83.95! See her with her handler Sterling Graburn above.
Judge Fore gave her an 84.6 % and Gurney an 83.3%. Fore gave her an 8 for conformation, 8.5 for walk, 8.8 for trot and 8.7 for overall impression. Gurney gave her 8.2 for conformation, 8.6 for walk, 8.2 for trot and 8.3 for overall impression. Wow!!
September
Wolkenstanza continues to amaze me — and delightfully so. She went to her first DSHB show this month (actually two shows on one weekend) at Pennock Point Sporthorses. One the first day she was judged by Kristi Wysocki in the 2004 fillies class, where she received a fabulous score of 83.5%, winning by a wide margin. She then went on to beat the colts to win the Young Horse Championship. Worth mentioning were her individual scores of 8.5 for walk and general impression and 8.7 for trot. Later in the day, she won her Hanoverian class with another fantastic score of 82.9%. The following day, with judge Carter Bass, Wolkenstanza repeated wins in the 2004 fillies class (80.9%) and once again won the filly championship and young horse championship. Next stop will be the Regional Finals October 20th! Pictures from this show soon.
August
I hosted my sixth AHS inspection on August 29th. Our judges were Karin Himmelmayer and Meg Williams. Please see the inspection report for a full summary, and her I will just briefly hit the high points for my own horses.
The highlight of the day for me was Wolkenstanza's inspection. Stanza is Rohanna's third filly, a 2004 model by Wolkentanz I. She had injured a hindleg in May playing in the fence at my trainer's farm and had been in stall rest until only two weeks before the inspection. Thanks to miles of hand walking and hand jogging with Andrea Hayden of Prosperity Farm, this setback did not stop our Stanza from shining. Her overall score was an 8.5, which the judging committee pointed out was the highest score given by AHS in fifteen years. I have believed in this particular filly since she was tiny and having my beliefs bolstered is truly a joy. Stanza is in foal to Fidertanz. After foaling and weaning, this talented young lady will be aimed toward the Five Year Old FEI Young Horse Test and beyond.
Photo credits: Alicia Frese Photography
Wolkenstanza being judged as a three year old at her American Hanoverian Society inspection
Showing off the trot that scored a 9 in hand without being turned loose
The look that made me always believe that this daughter of Rohanna was special!
Our beloved Ballerina has grown up and did a lovely job in her inspection and her mare performance test. She passed the MPT with the great score of 7.38 and an 8.5 in rideability after only about 60 days under saddle! Her inspection score of 7.5 was plenty to make her an Elite Mare Candidate. Looking back to 2004 and her orphan days, who would have expected her to come so far? Kudos to her owner Andrea Hayden of Prosperity Farm who has raised her so carefully and to Maya Sniadecky who did her usual fantastic job of training her and presenting her for the MPT.
Photo credits: Alicia Frese Photography
Ballerina showing the rideability that earned her an 8.5 after only 60 days training
July
Weltdancer (Weltmeyer/ Rohdiamant), Rohanna's first foal, is now owned by Jessica Morgan who has started her well in her dressage career, as well as preparing her beautifully for inspection. Jessie successfully guided Dancer through her Mare Performance Test and mare inspection in Rhode Island this month, taking the sash for Champion of the MPT and Champion Hanoverian Mare, with the dream scores of 7.83 (inspection) and 7.72 (MPT). Since then they have been winning in their first dressage shows with scores as high as 77%! Kudos to Jessica for giving Dancer such a grand start! Stay tuned.
Weltdancer at her mare inspection trotting free and in the jumping chute
Last Updated May 29, 2008