A much belated congratulations to Alicia and Rufus for their great achievement in winning the level 5 Championship at the Waikato Champs. I must say the garland looks as though it was specially made for him! They are now competing in advanced and I'm sure it won't be long before they are making their presence felt in that level too. Rufus is the first of the Dream Boys to compete at this level and we have every expectation of him reaching GP.

Meanwhile the youngsters here are growing well, Cracker , 2yo gelding by Limonit, is approx 16.1 already and is now looking super after going through an ugly duckling stage, he really is going to be super laid back sort of a guy with presence and good paces, and Dee Dee the Dream Boy 2yo filly is her delightful cheeky self, full of confidence and character. The foals, Luke ,full brother to Cracker, and Donna, 1/2 sister by Don Quattro to Dee Dee are just delightful, so freindly and easy to handle. Luke is very elegant with quite a dish in his nose, and Donna, the image of her father and a super liver chestnut.

babies

Here's Leo Donna, Don Quattro/Leo Merry Dance, she's still a little stand offish but can she move! In the background is Leo Lucullian (Luke) Limonit/Leo Fanfare, he's very friendly and I can already pick up all his legs, hopefully soon he'll teach Donna that it's great to have your tail scratched and humans are not scary!I just love them at this age ,watching their personalities develop and seeing how they can move, though finding theright homes is always a trial. Luckily most of mine have done fairly well so that's a help.

New Boy

Here's the latest baby to be started, Leo Distinction (Sox), has gone to Fiona to carry on his education, she should have a fun summer with him, he's such a character. His 1/2 sister Leo Aphrodite (Abby) is destined for the broodmare paddock for a season to give her time to mature and recover from a nasty abscess on her wither caused by a combo cover!

I spent some time with Anita and Leo Chocolat (Taz) on Saturday and he is looking a lot more settled and ready to do some good work this summer. He and Sox really are 2 peas in a pod, though Sox is quite a bit taller.

Taupo

Digital cameras are so frustrating! Here I was all set to take photos of Sam and Leo Degas at Taupo and the battery was flat!! Never mind.

Douglas and I arrived Friday afternoon to find that they were lying 3rd ,after the dressage, in the Non Championship 1* out of 45 starters, not bad for the youngest in the class.

The next morning was the YEH, a couple of minor hiccups in the dressage, a super showjumping round, a short gallop and run up for conformation and 3rd overall out of 23. 1st= for conformation , great result. So then off to the cross country. Quite a hold up before they started, following a fall. I was standing near fence 3, which seemed to be a fairly good vantage point, they were certainly looking keen and happy in their work. Andy needs to learn to jump a little more conservatively as he tends to clear them by a mile ( check out http://www.takethemoment.co.nz/photos/v/events/3DE/Taylor) and land too close to the next element in a combination, all went well until the sunken road and he was 1/2 a stride out for the second element so had a couple run outs, such a pity as they went clear the rest of the way and would have finished close to the time barring the mucking about.
The next morning was cold and wet but they jumped well for one rail and a 27th place finish .Some 17 were either eliminated or retired .

It's so much more interesting when you have some connection to a combination competing and this looks like a very promising one!

When I first thought to breed from my Hanoverian mare Tabago I knew I would always want to follow any that I bred and registered the prefix Leo. It seemed a good idea as I’m a Leo and my maiden name was Lee and it’s short and sweet.
Tabago first produced Leo Godonov (by the Canadian Hanoverian Gouveneur,) who went on to be NI Med Champion and National Med Champion in 1998 in fact in that season he won 21 out of 28 starts, unfortunately he was injured and never reached his full potential. However before starting his competition career I bred him twice to my TB mare Golden Legacy who herself is out of the great mare Rosica and by Leader of the Band, sire of many leading eventers. The resultant 2 fillies I still own and the first of which, Leo Fanfare, is the dam of Leo Chocolat and Leo Distinction both by the Hanoverian sire Dreamboy.Her latest is a colt ,now gelding ,by Limonit , she is back in foal to Limonit.The second filly from Golden Legacy is Leo Merry Dance Champion Saddle Hunter and Med Dressage Horse, dam of a filly by Dreamboy and in foal to Don Quattro .


Excerpt from article written by NZ Warmblood breeders after winning The Warmblood Assn. Annual Grant for Breeders and Owners: Julia has been involved in Warmblood's and Hanoverians from the early days, has stayed loyal to the bloodlines and has given them every opportunity to perform. She has ridden competitively on Golden Legacy (Leader of the Band), Tobago (Winnebago), Phaedra (Polaris) and Leo Foxfire (Fox Valley/Tobago). Julia has bred Leo Godonov, a colt by Gouveneur (Hann) out of Tobago. He reached Advanced level with Kirsty Davies. Julia bred him to dressage mare Golden Legacy. Two fillies resulted - Leo Merry Dance (Medium dressage and champ saddle hunter) and Leo Fanfare (Elementary) that has a colt to Dream Boy - now under saddle with Julia's daughter Fiona who is her main jockey now she retired from international groom duties. Golden Legacy is a Hanoverian Studbook mare and has produced two very good Dream Boy foals - Leo Dreams of Gold being very successful in his first season in dressage as a 4 year old. Another foal by Babarooom won the Young Event Horse title with Kirsten Kelly in 2002 (exported to USA)

Tory

It's been an interesting few weeks with Leo Degas continuing to produce double clears ( with time faults) in his eventing career and Leo Dreams of Gold winning his last 4 tests at level 5 and 6 dressage . Leo Chocolat is continuing to improve and had his first level 3 test a last week, and his delightful 3yo full brother Leo Distinction came home from the breaker for a while on Monday.


Husband Douglas and I are off to Taupo to watch Leo Degas compete in the 1* class. It 's so much more interesting when you have a connection to something or someone competing.





A few days ago I visited Leanne who has another of the Leo offspring in Leo Zanzibar, she has a delightful colt foal by Littorio and is back in foal to him . Another of my "grandchildren" to keep an eye on. I don't have any of the human kind!!