November has been a very bitter / sweet month.  After losing one of my favourite mares Somahouse Eureka in such unexpected and tragic circumstances on the 5th November, I was close to throwing the towel in.  The pain and hurt that over took me was hard to shake off (it still is) and naturally, you want to wrap your ponies and your heart in cotton wool but inevitably as animal owners, we cannot escape the fact that at some point we will experience heart break.  They make us but boy do they break us.  So what stopped me giving up?  Partly being persuaded otherwise by my good friends and partly because of the stampede of ponies that race towards me each morning and evening and offer their eternal and selfless love and affection to you. 

We all have that ‘special one’, the quirky one, the charismatic one, the shy one, the one we have fought for, the loving one, the rebel, the feisty one, the trouble causer, the ‘first time’ experiences.  Whatever your reason, you cannot ignore the fact that some bonds are stronger than others.  Eureka was one of mine and is sorely missed.

My entries for the British National Foal of the Year Show were submitted for the 25th November but my enthusiasm was lacking.  By the by, after hours of delay, I finally found the initiative to bath the foals.  Youngstock are the breeds past and the breeds future and ‘the show must go on’ to promote the breed that we all love and have in common, not to mention the start of the foals education as the show is friendly and quiet with the added perk of being indoors for the owners.  The dreaded alarm went off at 5.30am and admittedly, I was still lacking some enthusiasm but I had spent time working with the foals and I was happy with the way that they were behaving so it would have been a waste not to go and I am so glad that we carried on soldiering forward. 

My homebred filly Courellis Dorothea won her Standard Filly class and my Standard Colt Vindon Utah won his class.  I could not have been happier.  It was overwhelming and completely unexpected to have my two Standard foals head to head in the Championship (massive thank you to Leanne Beacham who helped) up against two beautiful, strong Miniature foals, Pinglewood Meghan who won the Miniature Filly class and Castlethorpe Jack Junior who won the Miniature Colt class.  Vindon Utah was placed Champion and Castlethorpe Jack was placed Reserve Champion.  The results were unpredicted and had I have not shone a little bit of a spark back inside me that I had lost and just puts everything in to perspective.  No matter how fed up you feel, these precious ponies just lift your spirits, unbeknown to them.  Shetties can break our hearts but can also heal them and this is the reason we do what we do.  Well done to everyone involved.

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