Ballabrae Sports Horses

13/03/2022

💪🚀

04/03/2022

🐴🌞♥️🎉

09/02/2022

We are back 🎉🎉
After my unfortunate injury, and our resulting move back to Belfast, I am finally working with the horses again! (Not that any of the herd have complained about being turned away on a hill to go feral for the past few months 🤣)
From now on I will be working on one project at a time, at a yard with an indoor school 😳😍
First up is Wee Lady! Freshly clipped today and ready to crack on 🐴

20/10/2021

💖SOLD💖

Luna 💕🐎
Cracking little foal to make 13hh
Just weaned and eating hard feed.
Leads well and picks up feet.
A real character, really affectionate, who will go on to do any job
Will be a proper weight carrier as she is as wide as she is tall.
Dam has China Doll breeding and sire is a son of Lloyd, both dripping in feather
Booked with HSI and chipped but no breeding recorded
Homes will be vetted as she is much loved Offers considered
BASED IN IRELAND but transport can be arranged

01/10/2021

I'm back from my week off! 🐎
Finally got the photos from Cloncaw 80cm 2 phase sorted 😍
Absolutely thrilled with how Kova went!
I only realised when we arrived that the course was a final for the league so was a bit more technical than I expected 🤦‍♀️
I decided to miss a few jumps on the XC course that she had never done before like the coffin and jump down into water so we had an elimination on paper, but I didn't give a hoot as she flew over the rest of the course 🚀
It was a fab learning experience for her and I'm so sad to say that is her officially up for sale. She's ready to go on and give someone else a lot of fun.
We have a flatwork lesson in the morning to get some videos then she will be advertised 😭

17/09/2021

Kova schooling over 90cm this morning like it's nothing 🚀 such a talented little mare, so excited for her future 💕
Available for sale in a week or so! (After I've had some more fun XC this weekend 🤣)

17/09/2021

Red's great great grandsire 😍

The Story of First Secretary
No one knew for sure if Secretariat would produce offspring. Lab results found the Triple Crown winner and Throughbred legend had "immature s***m in differing amounts." So the Claiborne Farm staff decided to test breed the stallion. By chance, they chose a nurse mare named Leola, an Appaloosa. Secretariat was fertile, and the breeding took.

Several Appaloosa enthusiasts contacted Claiborne Farm to buy the mare and her unborn foal. John and Lynn Nankivil of Winona, Minnesota, prevailed with an undisclosed amount of money and purchased Leola and the chance that she carried a colored c**t. Even before the foal's birth, several breeders had purchased breeding rights to Secretariat's first foal, without knowing if Leola would produce a c**t.

On the cold Minnesota night of November 15, 1974, Leola produced Secretariat's first foal, a blanketed Appaloosa clone of the great Thoroughbred. First Secretary grew to a full 17 hands, an inch taller than his sire. And like his sire, First Secretary owned a rich red coat, three white socks and a blaze.

The foaling made national news, and even forced President Gerald Ford to apologize for a remark he'd recently made at a Republican fundraising event. He'd said that his critics, like Secretariat, were "fast on their feet but not producing much."

Secretariat had produced something for the Appaloosa world. First Secretary's November birthday made him ineligible to race, so instead his owners used him as a stud. He sired 247 foals including 39 race starters and 33 point earners. First Secretary lived into old age and died in 1993 after suffering from colic.

p.s. - Initially Claiborne refused to acknowledge the paternal parentage of the foal, offering to allow the person who bought it to register the foal with the Appaloosa Horse Club as sired by an "unknown Thoroughbred." The buyer of the c**t countered that they would only do that if they were allowed to register the c**t as sired by an "unknown Thoroughbred Triple Crown winner." (Secretariat was at that time the only American Triple Crown winner alive.) Claiborne finally relented and First Secretary was allowed to be registered as a son of Secretariat.

repost from fb page; Eddie Sweat and fb user; Bethany Shine

08/09/2021

Turns out Kova absolutely loves XC 🚀💕
She has a totally different jumping style from Red and took me by surprise a few times as you can see from my face 😱🙊
If in doubt, take one out!!
Think I might enter in the next horse trials in the area 😏
Big thanks to Stracomer Riding Club for organising the day out 🐎

06/09/2021

Appreciation post 💕
Huge thanks to my long suffering other half John from Longpaw Productions for his support this weekend. It's been a very long three days out in a row and I can't thank him enough for his endless patience.
Lady and Luna had their first day out to Greenacres yesterday for the pony mare and foal class, and due to the very small class size we came home with some ribbons. 🙊
They deserved it though considering we entered at the last minute and pulled them out the field to practice trotting twice this week and that's it 🤣 and it was John's first time ever participating in a class!
The girls behaved impeccably and I hope looked the part, despite being quite a bit heavier and hairier than your regular "show pony" 🐎

05/09/2021

Busy weekend for us at Greenacres Equestrian for their Gala weekend!
Kova had her first proper outing and was a total star coming home with second place in the SJ, we entered the smallest class just for the experience and she did great 🎉
I had entered Red in both SJ and Working Hunter, but after a bit of an accident in the warm up, he made it clear during the SJ he had had enough and wasn't feeling it anymore.
I decided to retire from both classes and took him home to try another day.
That's horses! 😅

28/08/2021

"Where's the rest?!?" You ate it all kiddos, sorry 🙄😂

21/08/2021

Turns out that natural fences make a lot more sense to Kova than those weird coloured poles 🤣
Absolute star for her first day in an open space even if she did come out a bit fresh 🐎🚀

17/08/2021

Fab day at Gordon's Bay Equestrian!
Red was a bit unsure about the XC at first with lots of babyish stops, but he jumped everything asked eventually and learned a lot! 🤩
We did have one incident with his head connecting rather solidly with my nose 😳 thankfully it wasn't broken 😅
He was an absolute star for the SJ as usual, but his "expressive" jump does get him into trouble sometimes with distances, so a technical grid with some bounces was just the thing to teach him to think about his feet 👌

13/08/2021

I realised I hadn't posted any photos of Red's jumping rounds from Lenamore a few weeks ago! So here they are 💕

He wanted to make sure I knew there is no point in entering him in a warm up cross pole class and he would prefer it if the jumps were quite a bit higher thank you very much!
I think you can tell by my face that I wasn't quite so convinced 😱🤣 we came out clear and 5th with one unlucky pole down in the last round 😍

He also made it very clear at the AIRC dressage championships last weekend, that he has absolutely no interest in that sport unless he has jumped several rounds of SJ first 🤦‍♀️ our scores weren't as abysmal as I thought they would be but the judges comment of "tactfully ridden" said a lot 😳🤣

Looking forward to the SJ/XC training at Gordon's Bay Equestrian on Sunday which will be much more his style!

06/08/2021

"John! Where on earth is Finn he's not in the sta- oh, nevermind, found him" 🤦‍♀️😴

05/08/2021

I've been keeping things slightly quiet but I thought it was about time I introduce Ballabrae Kova, our new project!
She is a 4yo TB mare by Sholokov who wasn't quite good enough for p2p.
She's a bit spicier than Penny but just as sweet 💕
She has been under saddle twice now and has proven very willing to work, she appreciates a job to focus all that personality on 🤪
I'm hoping to aim her for some combined training down in Sligo on the 29th if I manage to find the time 😬

27/07/2021

Team Ballabrae really pulled it out the bag this weekend! 😍
For my gelding Red's first ever show, and having been ridden only a handful of times over the past few months due to other commitments, coming home with four rosettes was not what I expected! 😳

We entered as part of a team just to support the local clubs, and came home with a 2nd and a 3rd in our intro and prelim classes. Turns out that qualifies us for the individual prelim AIRC championships! 🎉
Narrowly beaten in both classes by our livery Clodagh Brady 🙄🤣
I am honestly so surprised as dressage is not either of our sport of choice 🤣

More updates to follow!

11/07/2021

Not a dry eye in the house today 😩💕
So pleased to say that Penny is now sold to the loveliest home.
We dropped her off at her new yard this afternoon and she settled immediately!
I wish her and Louise every happiness and lots of fun for the future 😁

09/07/2021

🎉🎉 Announcement!! 🎉🎉
Summer is officially scanned 35 days pregnant 💕💕

In foal to the stunning, newly Class 1, ID stallion Balcormo Sir Dun Cliff. Big thanks to PJ at Annaghbrack Stud for all his help.

The foal will be guaranteed chestnut with 50% chance of "dun" colouring (pale body, dorsal stripe and zebra markings on legs) but I don't care too much about colour. It's his temperament which I was impressed with!
For a young 3 year old stud he was exceptionally quiet and friendly, and I am so very excited to see what this pair produce in 2022.

Stay tuned for some exciting news about Penny, and some new faces on the yard! 👌

20/06/2021

Absolutely thrilled with Penny today at Letterkenny RC show. She behaved impeccably as always, and again I cannot fault her.
Came home with a few rosettes, some lovely comments from the dressage judge despite me forgetting my test (🤦‍♀️) and a fab learning experience for her SJ.

Penny is also now officially for sale and advertised. I'm genuinely gutted but it's time for someone else to enjoy her! If I keep her any longer I'll never let her go and I've far too many who don't earn their keep as it is 🙄

https://www.donedeal.ie/horses-for-sale/genuine-honest-16-2hh-5yo-mare/28480594

19/06/2021

Me and Penny got caught by a photographer on our way home from the beach yesterday 😅 I don't think any of us were quite prepared to pose

19/06/2021

Ember and Luna today, official best friends 😍

16/06/2021

That's all the mares and foals moved down to the nursery field for a month or so before going up the hill for the summer.
Although the weather is still a bit wet, there is plenty of natural shelter and protection from the elements, the trees in the back are as good as any barn roof!
Just need to let them eat the grass down so I can build some XC jumps in there 😏
(Left to right, headed over for their lunch - Nora and Finn, Summer and Ember, Lady and Luna)

10/06/2021

Our Ballabrae Pennyluck (Penny) at her first proper arena, away from home, seeing her first ever coloured poles.
What an honest girl, once she understands what is being asked of her, she really tries for her rider. I cannot fault this mare's attitude to work. She is even quiet enough for John to have a trot on!
We have a few little outings planned with this girl, then she will be available for sale.

10/06/2021

Finally introducing the long awaited Finn (Ballabrae Finnoch). Born Friday afternoon, out of our Invincible Spirit TB mare Nora and by Irish Draft stallion Echo King.
He is here, healthy, and a bold little thing.
Turns out he doesn't like bananas tho 🤣

26/05/2021

Now introducing this little angel, Ember is a thoroughbred filly by Saddex out of our Shantou mare Summer.

This little girl is already reserved and will be headed off to County Antrim at weaning, with big dreams of becoming a racehorse.

Born in the middle of the afternoon, (and interrupting my work from home shift!) she made quite the entrance to this world, and despite her shyness, her little personality is unforgettable. A good bum scratch is the way to her heart! ❤

26/05/2021

Introducing Ballabrae Luna, our first arrival of the year and an accidental buy one get one free! 🤦‍♀️
Her dam, Ballabrae Lady, is a 12.3hh cob with China Doll breeding, who we purchased as a project before she was discovered in foal!

After staying at the yard an extra 6 months, (and giving us this beautiful filly) she crept her way into our hearts, so we decided not to part with her. She will remain as a broodmare/show pony, to be covered with a connemara this year.

Luna arrived, as her name suggests, completely unannounced at 5am on the night of the full moon in April. She is an absolute darling and will make a fabulous kid's best friend one day. ❤

For sale at weaning.