And finally it is raining! Perfect timing, now we will have green pastures for another month, so good for us!! I have had visitors from Sweden this week and got all the horses teeth done, very happy about that, thanks alot best Janne!

New guy 'Capi' gets his teeth done
 
And Ulrika on Camaron

Capi has had his castration surgery done which went perfect and the lower temps are perfect for healing so all great. Today he has been working out light on the pessoa and so did Donoso, Start and Camaron. A kind spanish woman came driving down to the stables and called out asking if I had a galgo in a blue jacket, she had just stopped him from the highway, naughty Viggo, not sure how he got out but tomorrow I have to go over fences, again. Gracias gracias gracias!
Knabstrupper Tania in Denmark has had another baby colt from Donoso, this time a PRE! Will post pictures here. Looks like Tania is going to get all boys, D has had more fillies that colts so far so Tania's baby quote will even out his gender statistics. D has one PRE partbreed boy, three PRE and one Knabstrupper colt, the rest are all females! And at least two PRE girls born 2010 and 2012 waiting to be registered. If you want to breed with the purpose of selling the offspring I can recommend to breed with Donoso and contact me when offspring is born as I have clients interested in buying his offspring, especially colts but also other requirements as specific bloodline combinations. I have been in contact with the breeders that used D but most do not want to sell, which is also great news of course! 
Donoso VII May 2014
           

Finally yesterday D-semen arrived to USA, hurray!! It has been a long and harduous story, basically USA import protocol changed and all communication between the official departments had to go via Brussels. Dra Concha Cuetara has been working nonstop on the issue since last year to get the shipment sent officially correct and finally she did it, thank you so much Concha for all your work!
And Denmark is letting it happen!! A danish breed called Knabstrupper allows crossing with PRE for genetic improvement. Visionary breeder Tania Mortensen has chosen Donoso VII for her breedingprogram and below you can see the first result, a beautiful colt and future Knabstrupper breeding stallion!! This colt has the sought after red leopard spots.The spotted coat is caused by a genetic mechanism called the leopard complex. The spotted color patterns common in the Knabstrupper are seen in other breeds, such as the Appaloosa horse, though the two breeds developed independently of one another. The Knabstrupper breed generally has either warmblood or baroque horse conformation. Some Knabstruppers are born with solid colors, such as bay or chestnut and it's a very functional breed, used for sport both in dressage and show jumping. Today Knabstruppers are bred in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, United Kingdom, USA, and, most recently, Australia and New Zealand.

Tania is the breeder that used the contract buy 3 dosis with unlimited breedingcerts and she got 5 mares pregnant on these 3 dosis frozen D-semen! Three are now born, 1 PRE colt, 1 PRE filly and now this Knabstrupper colt. Another black spotted Knabstrupper mare is due soon, wishing Tania good luck with her exciting breeding project!
Knabstrupper colt sired by Donoso VII 

PRE filly by Donoso VII born in Denmark

PRE colt by Donoso VII born in Denmark

Uplifting, inspiring and fun, how greatful am I not to have the oportunity to get help from olympic super spaniard, Juan Manuel Muñoz is not only a excellent rider he is also a great teacher! Felt a genuine support and got the help I needed, great, thank you so much!! Start first day and Donoso second. I have changed routine for Start as he is very hot and moody, so he has been grazing and all day in paddock inside during the night. Start is a super kind horse but with a big personality and when he doesn't like something he definitely don't like it. A year ago I fell badly from a chair trimming one of his ears and since then he has not let me touch that ear, so I let it be. But now a few days ago he was ok and normal with his ear again. However working he is still very hot! So I asked Juan Manuel for help with getting him regular, here working principally on this.
Hope you like it!
Start 

 



Then to the passage/piaffe transitions to get them more even, quiet and better balanced.  

Canterwork and tempis; Practising self-carriage and control of my leg and Start's hindlegs. At times I loose the feeling of my legcontact in the tempi-ones, so to maintain contact I compensate with handcontact instead of maintaining all contact with my leg. So I asked for help with this. 


So to get there; Activation of hindlegs, more legcontact and lighten up hand, got it!


And finally pirouette work with Start; 


With Donoso I wanted to practice bases for balance, selfcarriage and getting lighter in hand and front. And as I have no help from the floor normally I asked for this to get him more on his hindquarters. So we did with this kind work, laterals shoulder in, half pass and collected workouts. 
Donoso VII 
 


And final work with Donoso! 


 
www.horsespreviktoria.com

Happy rainy monday, we have had a glorious sunshine and some active days here, student Chloe has just left for her home in England, she will be missed! 

Summary of our training days, we started to feel the horses out riding at home to see which horse/es fitted best, Chloe is a talented young rider with a very good feeling for dressage and ability to ride and learn from both Donoso and Start. It was exciting to see also how the guys responded, this was the first time for them to do the role as teachers and I think they did the job great! Both are well willing and amibitious horses but neither of them are easy and automatic, you have to do it right to get it right. I believe in learning from getting it right, I do not think we learn from our mistakes so it is important the horse and student get as many rights into the experience as possible. Both D and S showed Chloe clearly what she needed to work on, how to use hear seat, focus on less hand and learn how to ride with legaids and weight, basically change the position and ride from back to front rather than front to back. 
Here from first day trying out horses at home.
Camaron and Chloe day 1

 


Start and Chloe day 1
       
Day 2 we took D and S to a nearby training yard to use their arena. Focusing on straightness and getting the position of the form totally correct. Donoso proved to be a good teacher of flying changes, and Start helped Chloe to get her seat into the saddle, to improve her position and to use her sensitivity of aids for transitions and collection.

In the afternoon we did homework studying some of Spains best Grand Prix riders competing in glorious sunshine, Spain at its best! And I am presenting a new selected exclusive PRE for sale, Grand Prix calificado Escalera branded Curioso JLE, contact me via www.horsespreviktoria.com 


Day 3, Chloe now alittle more sure of the guys, and we could get into more focus and feel more secure with forms and collection.

Start middletrot


Donoso and Chloe working on correct straightness, form and collection.         

And day 4, Chloe passed the final exam with these good transitions on Start!

 
We finished with some well earned hacking in the beautiful nature of El Escorial and of course eating!

Donoso VII semen soon on it's way to Australia, 4 new dosis ordered yesterday, do your booking now before delivery to share costs for transport!
For inquiries email; viktoria.vikingapre@gmail.com 

Donoso VII http://www.horsespreviktoria.com/1/donoso_vii_699059.html
   

So was it finally time to disconnect emotionally and hand over Halagador, and yes it is hard work. Yes I am a sensitive person so it can't be any other way, and I don't want it to be. Yesterday we had a last ride with 'brother' Donoso and Maya got another feel-him-in, this time in a very high level of energy! He showed her his full-on repetoar with +++ energy and he even took her for a little naughty-run   They will do great together when they get time to connect at home in Israel. Find connection, maintain it, get into leadership and make it all fun! Good luck!

So here's my focus, the new little light in my life. 'Chula-hopp' never stops running and jumping and is a super happy and cool baby!   
She now has her own page with link to family album etc; 

http://www.vikingapre.com/1/chula_vik_690406.html
Chula 5 days old
          

We are still between protocols for export of Donoso's FAI to USA and Australia. The USDA changed their protocol and we have been working non stop with an additional export certificate model which has been sent by spanish ministry of agriculture to USA for approval.

Here correspondence between Dra Concha Cuetara and import agent USA, you can clealy see how absurd the issue is:
'I sent our authorities the comments of your official vet with the minor changes he saw.

Still I have a big problem. About CEM samples, in the conditions listed in the USDA webpage that you sent me, it indicated that it was necessary to take 3 batches of 3 swabs, taken at least 72 hours apart. We used this protocol with Donoso. But the new protocol established with the EU indicates that we have to take 3 batches of 4 swabs. Is it imperative that we take 4 swabs each time? If 3 swabs are enough I can ask for an export certificate indicating this. If we need four swabs then the only solution I find is to take the horse again into quarantine and repeat all the procedures and the freezing.' 

So,.. as we have have been and are still waiting for the USA Ministry of Agriculture to answer, we now decided to repeat the procedure. Donoso goes to Aranjuez again so that the protocol can be happy and we freeze some new dosis to be able to send to our clients. See the solutions and there are are solutions for everything, right?!!!! At least noone can tell me we didn't do our very best to get D- progeny into the world!! But then it is all worth it if you look at the delightful results, some of them here below.

We live and learn; Don't put up to tomorrow what you can do today, make a choice and go for it. So all of you having decided to import semen don't wait, who knows what protocols will be changed next!?

Donoso VII about to breed 2011.

    
Pinturero BAT, PRE stallion born 2012, bred in Spain, exported to USA.

Antartica, PRE filly born 2013, bred in Norway 

Raza, PRE filly born 2010, bred in Sweden

Thank you so much for all the Holiday Greetings and Happy New Year wishes!!! I'm back to dirty fingernails, horsesmell and normal days. Realized these holidays that I love my normal life and that there is no place like home. I also realized Spain feels as much home as Sweden does now, I am entering my 10th year living here, I will be 40 this year and I can't wait, every woman knows how special this is, right girls?! 
I found my lovely dog and horsefamily happy and sound, relief! Start and Donoso got new swedish outdoor rugs and they fitted perfect, super happy. Finally it is raining in Madrid, small guys did not want to go outside because of rain so they got to roam free in the stable, of course they left everything in a mess like real boys. Everyone got a cleanup a chat and that was it for today, more tomorrow.

I will now sit down and answer emails and please be patient, my time will now be decicated to you I'll be right back!

So Happy New Year 2014 that is apparently the Year of the Horse according to chinese calendar, so let's make it a GREAT one, so much to look forward to, new babies, new breedingseason, new (and hopefully old:) visitors and pehaps we will have more of this fun,.  let's go are you with me?!!!