NEWS FROM WINDY GOWL

The Hemmi Spring Course has been arranged for mid March and already most of the places have been taken up. Suddenly there is a bustle of activity with horses and riders heading for the arena and mumbling about having a lesson or two to brush up before Hemmi arrives!
(Hemmi is Hermann Karlsson, a top class trainer from Iceland.)

At last the snow has partly gone, for the time being at least, and we have survived some minus 15 degree temperatures and the biggest snow drifts that we have ever seen! Although the wild animals and birds have been hard hit, the horses have absolutely loved the snow and spent far more time than usual playing happily between snow falls

Daily chores of defrosting pipes, checking that all livestock had food, water and heads above the snow and that they couldn't walk over the buried fences, have been replaced by replenishing stocks of feed and catching up on various routine jobs for this time of year like worming, weaning, tetanus and handling foals etc.

OUR 2009 FOALS

Gigja had a lovely bay skewbald filly named “Nift” and Vagna had a pretty long legged red dun filly.

Each year we name the foals with the next alphabet letter e.g. our first ever Icelandic foal born in 1988 when we started, was named “Njall”, later known as “Nigel” and owned by Penny Clark.

Having now completed the full alphabet (excluding W,X,Y and Z) we have arrived back at N.  So in 2009, to mark this event we have named Vagna’s filly foal “Njala”, the female meaning for “Nigel” and the name of an Icelandic saga.

Some pictures of the foals - Moða, Minning, Mánadís, Moðnir, Melasol, Maja and Markus.

We currently have a well equipped room with en-suite bathroom available on the farm. A horse could be available for lease or there is the possibility to help train the youngsters with Paula.
 

We regularly travel to Iceland to look at horses and catch up with Hemmi who comes regularly to give training courses at Windy Gowl. He has just completed another successful course and we are hoping for a third course in Autumn if he can find time in his busy schedule. He is a great source of help and information on horses and on riding in Iceland.  For more information, visit his new website on http://www.efri-brunavellir.is,

We were hoping to take a foal from top class mare, Aria, this year. However sadly, she has been found not to have been in foal.
 

POSTCARD FROM PETRA

Petra Links came on holiday to PHI over 12 years ago and took Glampi fra Skipanesi back home with her to Germany. She has just sent the following news:

"I only wanted to tell that Glampi is still doing fine. He's now 20 years old and still full of power. It's fantastic! Every day he goes very clear tölt without any sign of pace or trot. He's still great.

But the best! Last weekend we had the masterships of "Nordrhein-Westfalen" - it's the big region around Cologne. We had at about 272 starters. A very big mastership. And Glampi won the mastership in the eventing. It was so great! And it was such a good conclusion because it was his last tournament. I want you to know that! I never regret that I bought him! He' s really great! Now I ride him through the forest and only have fun with him."

Hofsi

UPDATE ON HOFSI

Hofsi who was diagnosed with Grass Sickness in 2005 has made a fantastic recovery. s

He is well rounded and has matured into a tall handsome gelding. You would never know that he had been so ill with grass sickness when you see him playing in the field with his mates or being ridden across the hills. I think it is now safe to say that he appears to have completely recovered from being so near to death.

 His training is well on and he loves to ride out on his own showing interest and keenness to work.  His gaits are very good and he has plenty of power. If we were ever persuaded to sell him, it would only be to a very special person.

Sadly these cases of survival are rare and grass sickness is usually a fatal disease. This highlights again how important it is that we continue our fund-raising efforts, to support efforts to find a solution to this awful disease. To read Hofsi's story and learn more about Grass Sickness, click here.  To see how well Hofsi did on our recent training course, click here.