This year has been different in many ways. We made the decision early on that due to the current economic situation and the over production of horses and ponies that we would not put any of our own mares in foal for 2014. We only had three foals this time but it will seem very strange to have no Hollybrooke foals next year. It is very many years since we have not had a single foal. The stallions all covered some lovely visiting mares so there will still be foals by them next spring and we have plenty of youngsters to show ourselves. The show ring appearances were also much less frequent, following two years when our young stallions were professionally produced under saddle. We have, never the less, been very successful.

Our two year old colt Hollybrooke Duke won several good classes through the season culminating in winning both the stud colt and stallion championships at the Breed Show. An amazing achievement for a two year old in only his sixth appearance in the ring. In the Autumn he went on to pass his colt inspection and vetting so that he is now approved by the Breed Society as a breeding stallion. Sadly he is too closely related to our ponies for us to be able to use him to breed. We had several expressions of interest in him, even before his super results so we very sadly decided to sell him. He left us in October for a new home in Cambridge where he will continue his competitive career in hand and hopefully later on under saddle.

The fillies Grace, Jubilee, Dazzle and Melitta all had a turn in the show ring over the summer and all came home with good prizes. The stud also did well in gelding classes Hollybrooke Merlin and Hollybrooke Kenco (now owned by Ingrid Bergman) were always well placed and Hollybrooke Chablis also owned by Ingrid won the two year old gelding classes at both the New Forest and the Breed Shows. He followed the Breed show win by becoming young gelding champion. It is the second year in succession that he has won his class at the Breed Show.

Hollybrooke Ginger has had an fantastic season in dressage competitions. He started the year competing at Prelim, had a break in the middle of the summer while we worked on the movements for the next level and then continued competing again from the end of August. In total he entered eighteen dressage competitions and only once was he out of the top six and in fourteen of them he was either first, second or third. He has qualified for the NPS Dressage championships next spring at Addington at at both Prelim and Novice. When he qualified for the Prelim with a score of over 70% the judge wrote at the end of his test sheet 'A joy to watch, super harmony between horse and rider, accurate and obedient and well ridden. Well done' Definitely one to frame! He also achieved the second level dressage grading with the Breed Society in only his second ever Novice test. A great achievement for a pony who is only five.