28 January 2010 - Lots of visitors!! Thank you to Rhodé (Vennebos Stud) and Joost (Meladelle Stud) for coming to visit us from Holland today. One of the greatest things about breeding Welsh mountain ponies and Welsh cobs is all the wonderful people you meet and we are thrilled that you think my shaggy welshies are worthy of a visit! I hope you had a good trip to England and we look forward to seeing you both again soon. It was also time for Sam Barratt (Equine Chiropractor) to come back and see Fiasco and check a couple of the mares and youngsters. So a big thank you to Sam and her navigator 'Mum' for making the journey down to look after my big clown of a horse again. Its great to see you both - hope you had a good journey home this time!

19 January 2010 - Visitors from Norway Thank you to Hilde Solberg and friends for coming to see us despite the muddy conditions! It was lovely to meet you all and I thoroughly enjoyed showing you the ponies and cobs. I hope you had a good flight home and look forward to seeing you in the summer!

10 January 2010 - Yikes how much snow?!! Well it has been a fun 10 days or so with very heavy snow and watering, feeding and haying every day was an all day job for me most days! It may look pretty but it isnt much fun, although the horses all seem very warm, playful and happy! Some photos on the photos page - click on Fiasco's photo for lots more snow photos. Fiasco has been confined to barracks in all this awful weather but had a much needed play in the snow today. In amongst all the snow it is time to start looking forward to the first foals which are about 6 weeks off!

1 January 2010 - Happy New Year! Well the New Year started with a dusting of snow as we collected Taraco Amira from the Equine Hosiptal where she had spent a colour of days with a sore eye. However, she recovered very quickly and well and returned home after only 3 days which was good news. The rest of the horses all look well and we are now preparing for the first foals due to arrive in March. The three section As are due first with Rara hopefully expecting a foal on 6th March, Charm on 9th March and Glisten on 9th April. Then the welsh cobs are all due in May. Yet again I have been privileged to use some superb **A list** stallions and for that I am truly grateful. There are some days in the peak of covering season when we seem to be forever loading, travelling and covering mares when I wonder if we would be better having just one stallion at home but whenever I see my foals I am so pleased we selected different stallions for each of them. I will always be eternally grateful to the stallion owners for standing their stallions at public stud. Here's to foaling season and fingers and toes crossed for healthy foals and mares both at Taraco and any other breeders out there.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all our friends. I cannot believe that it is the end of 2009 already! Where do the days, weeks and months go?!!*!@!! It has been another busy year at Taraco Stud - as usual it has been very hard work but full of memories to treasure. We have met some lovely people as always and the year had a very cosmopolitan feel with 12 international studs visiting and 6 horses sent overseas which was very flattering. I hope 2009 was full of treasured moments for all our friends and wish you all the best for a happy 2010.

This year we were honoured to entertain visitors from Australia, Belgium, France, Holland and Germany as well as from England, Wales and Scotland. It was wonderful to put some faces to the names and make some more friends, and great to have more excuses to share good old Kentish hospitality (the pub) with friends, old and new. Thank you to everyone who felt my shaggy welsh ponies and cobs were worthy of a visit from near or far - it was great to meet you all. The international theme was also seen in our sales with Fabio travelling to Denmark, Orlando, Gwyn and Beauty to Germany, Rockstar to France and Razzle on lease to Holland. In addition Fernando and Ghazaleh were sold to Scotland, Morocco to Wales and Fireblade and Lionheart to England. I would like to wish everyone with one of our ponies or cobs the very best of luck with them and thank you for offering them a superb home. It is always hard selling but as always this year has seen the ponies and cobs leave for some really special homes.

It is time for my annual thank you to the great team of vets, farriers, physiotherapists, chiropractors, farmers, friends and family for all their help and support. Every time I look at the wonderful mares and stallions I have I am always reminded that a stud can only ever be as good as the stock they have and the stallions they can use. I am always so grateful to those stallion owners who stand their stallions at stud and enable me to use some truly fantastic stallions in my breeding programme – thank you this year to Matt and Jose (Danaway Stud) and Meirion (Gwynfaes Stud). In addition a very heartfelt thank you to Harold and Yvette (Ysselvliedt’s Stud) for entrusting the lovely Ysselvliedt’s Golden Boy to me until May 2010. I adore him and will be very sorry to see him go!

I always have to thank my mum for starting me off on horses, and I had to laugh as she helped me fill haynets and feed horses on a sunny boxing day. I am not sure it was the most conventional way to spend the festive period and I am certain mum was secretly wondering whether it was wise introducing one small toddler to a little fat Shetland pony all those years ago! However, I am very glad she did so thanks mum – both for sharing your passion for horses with me and for being the best mum a girl could ever wish for! (Although I think there are some winter days when your son-in-law wishes you had taught me ballet or tap dancing instead…!!). A big thank you to all my lovely ponies and cobs who make the early and cold winter’s mornings, the dark and wet autumn evenings and the sleepless nights at foaling worth every minute and to my husband for sharing most of those minutes with me! Thank you to all my 'horsey' friends, both home and abroad, for sharing the highs and lows and laughter and tears that are an inevitable part of breeding welsh ponies and cobs. And thank you to all my friends and family for accepting that I come with a rather unusual retinue of four-legged friends! I could not do it without any of you! x