Blog – Spring is the season for new beginnings, friendships and horses

(March 26, 2017) – Spring is such an exciting time of year with warmer weather, longer hours of daylight and great anticipation about the upcoming riding and show season. We’ve been particularly busy with annual farm clean up, and readying horses for our Spring 2017 Sales Horse Collection which rolls out in a few weeks.

March is also when International Women’s Day is celebrated, and we just happened to welcome two delightful mares to the farm this month.

Mouse touches down at YYC

Last week, the 2013 Hanoverian mare, Das Nesthakchen, by Deveraux (Depardieu – De Niro), arrived from Germany.  We already had some insight into her amazing disposition from our team member who was dispatched to Germany to help assess prospect horses’ suitability for our sales program, but this girl has exceeded all expectations.  From the first minute we handled her at the YYC airport, we were incredibly impressed with her easy handling and affectionate nature.

True to her name, Das Nesthakchen, who was named after a little girl in German literature who is loved by the community for her kindness, is a gem! We’ve given her the barn name, Mouse, because she is so incredibly sweet.

The process for importing mares from Europe is a bit more involved than that of geldings.  While she passed the European Union quarantine process with flying colours, she must now undergo additional testing during her time in Canadian quarantine.  This involves a vet coming to our quarantine facility over the course of two weeks to take swabs from the mare. On each of the days when the vet comes to collect the sample, we must race it immediately to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) lab in Calgary. The additional testing is required for all mares entering Canada.

As for next steps with Mouse, she was being prepared for her show debut this Spring on the German circuit, and her training will now continue with us.

Prada: classy and elegant

The second mare to arrive at the farm this month is a 9-year old Canadian Warmblood with exceptional ground manners, outstanding movement and great arena presence.   This compact 15.3hh mare with a show jumping background, has come to us to advance her dressage training.

Our process is to give horses who are switching disciplines an opportunity to reset by giving them time away from training. Prada will now enjoy a bit of time in the field with a companion mare, good quality hay, and lots of fresh air and sunshine, before she steps back into her dressage training program.

Davidoff: Schoolmaster update

The imported 2003 Hessen Warmblood, Davidoff, was announced as ready for purchase this month. This highly skilled schoolmaster has a sizable waiting list for viewings and test rides. He is currently listed as conditionally sold.

Sneak peek

Watch the web site in the days ahead as we will be doing a soft introduction of a few horses in our Spring 2017 Sales Horse Collection. Nick, the grey pictured in this blog, will be one of the horses who will be offered for purchase.

Auf Wiedersehen Germany!

A huge shout out to our team member who traveled to Germany in recent months to help us find quality horses for the Spring Sales Horse Collection. You’ve done a first-class job in making those all-important onsite visits to breeders, trainers and owners.  And thanks for sharing a few pictures you took during your travels (a few highlights from your trip are included here).

We feel strongly there is simply no better way to assess a horse than to spend some time with it to get it know it and to press the flesh with its owner/trainer or breeder. Forging relationships with prospective suppliers of horses and renewing acquaintances with old ones is so important to our core values of: professionalism, quality and integrity in the services and support offered.

Tschüss (German for farewell),

The Team at Jennifer Winkler Sport Horses