7th August 2002.
Slow time of year,hay and straw away in barn,mares and foals all settled in their groups and Stallions turned away for the season.Transport company phoned today to tell us that COTTRELL JITTERBUG will go into quarantine on Monday for 30 days before his long flight to New Zealand. He will join Sue Lamonts "Greenlee Stud" for the 2002 southern hemisphere breeding season. Sue breeds both Sec B's and Riding Ponies so BUGSIE will have the best of both worlds.
1st October 2002.
We picked up Laithehill Amethyst and her blue roan colt Pennway Picasso and brought them back to Hever so we could wean Picasso.He didn't really want to know about hard feed so we have left him on mother for a few more days to get him eating. He is a lovely colt and should show well at foal shows. We have sold Laithehill Icarus our top show colt from 2001 and he has gone to his new owners the Bond family from Lancashire and we wish them every success with him in the future. Not long now before Jitterbug is on his way to NZ. He is scheduled to fly out on the 7th to start his long journey. We will let you all know how he settles in down under.
7th October 2002
Had a call tonight from IRT to let us know that Bugsie was on his way to New Zealand but will spend 2 weeks quarantine in Australia before completing his long journey. We weaned our first 2 foals on Sunday, P.Picasso (C.C.Pele-L.Amethyst) and P.Jubilee (C.Jitterbug---L.Columbine) and it went without a hitch.We will wean 2 more foals later this week.
12th October2002
Jitterbug has arrived in NZ. Change of flight details meant that Bugsie was able to fly straight to NZ. He is due out of quarantine on the 23rd of October. Weaned 2 more foals this morning P.JAZZ (C.Jitterbug---L.Cygnet) and P.TAPDANCE (C.Jitterbug---Minnie TB) lots of noise but no drama.
26th October 2002
Jitterbug is out of quarantine and arrived with Sue Lamont his morning.Over the moon were her comments he is even better than I dreamed he would be.Sue rang a few hours later to confirm that he had settled in to his new home and was tucking in to his first taste of lush NZ grass.
28th October 2002
Weaned our last foal today P.SKYLARK (C.Jitterbug--F.Sylvia ) and took P.PICASSO to Ruth and Terry to prepare him for foal shows.
2nd November 2002
We took P.PICASSO to Home Counties Foal Show today and he won the Sec B colt class and then went best of breed Sec B so a good start to his show career. P.PEKIN was picked up by his new owners today and we hope he is very successful for them .
10th November 2002
P.PICASSO went to Southern Counties Foal Show today and repeated last weeks result. He won the Sec B colt foal class and then went best of breed and Champion Sec B. He will now winter and get ready for the spring shows. We have sold P.SKYLARK and he will be gelded before joining his new owners.
15th November 2002
We have a gelding day organized for the 25th of November and we will take P.SKYLARK who will be picked up from there by his new owners and P.COLUMBUS who we will run on till next year to be broken in. He will make a top class ridden M&M.
26th November 2002
Gelding day went off without a hitch. We had P.SKYLARK gelded and he was picked up by his new owners.We also had P.COLUMBUS gelded and he will still be for sale but now as a 12.2 gelding. He will be 3 in 2003.
6th December 2002
Winter is really here, mud everywhere and all the ponies rugged up and eating hay. Weaned foals are doing very well and putting on lots of condition. P.PICASSO has stayed with Ruth & Terry and we have P.JUBILEE, P.JAZZ & P.TAPDANCE at home. We hope to have 4 nice yearlings to show in 2003 and as yet an unshown 2 yr old out of C.MARYROSE called P.ROWAN who is growing into a nice colt. P.PEREGRINE is also on our show list for 2003 along with the promising young broodmare L.CYGNET who is in foal to W.GRENADIER.
13th December 2002
Cold wet and very foggy. Oh to be in England now that winters here. Never mind just get on with it only 6 days to the shortest day then the sun is on its way back. Roll on spring.
24th December.
We had a phone call from Sue Lamont in NZ to tell us that she has started to cover mares with Cottrell Jitterbug . What a Gentleman were her comments,he is so easy to manage, he is a saint.
