Saturday, November 1, 2008

The story so far.....





Flamenco at 4 years old





Splendacrest Flamenco was born on Christmas Day, 2003. She is out of Splendacrest Fiesta, a bay purebred Arabian mare, and by Dunwingeri Maakhiel, a black purebred Arabian stallion (who was subsequently sold for export, and now resides in the stables of the King of Thailand).

As a foal, Flamenco was a real bossy little thing, and she pushed her mum around something terrible! She was also extremely pretty, and it seemed that she knew just how beautiful she was! She has two hind socks, a little star, and a tiny snip of pink skin on her muzzle.

When Flamenco was weaned at the age of 6 months, she was handled a little, taught to tie up and lead, and then turned out into a large paddock with about 10 other horses of varying ages. From that moment on, Flamenco turned into a real feral bitch! We couldn't get near her, and in order to catch her for her regular worming treatments she had to be run into a small yard and then cornered. Once she had the halter on, however, she generally behaved quite well.

Her mother, Splendacrest Fiesta, was broken in to ride just after the foal was weaned, and she also proved to be quite a difficult horse to deal with at this stage. For the first six months after she returned from the breakers, I was the only person who could ride her, as she was very 'scatty' and could be quite dangerous at times. However, after about 6-8 months, she settled down really well, and she was then started in the sport of endurance riding.

At this time one of my clients was looking for a mare to purchase, and I sold Fiesta to him, on the proviso that she remained at Splendacrest for her future training. This suited my client very well, and to this day she is still here, and has proven herself to be an excellent endurance horse, with numerous completions including a 2008 Tom Quilty buckle!

And so Flamenco grew up. I don't have many photos of her during this time, however I hope to rectify this situation in future, hence the reason for this blog.



Flamenco is just starting her education, and is now nearly 5 years old. I hope that this blog will mark her progress from newly-started young mare to sucessful endurance horse.

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