Blossom

Came to Chantry via a small ad in Horse & Hound and was so wonderful that she secured her place there for life.
She was a purebred bay mare, just under 15hh, and was that perfect combination of sensitive but sensible. As well as being used for Western riding, she excelled in English disciplines, won a number of open classes in the eventing field, had regular dressage wins and placings, and even qualified for the National Riding Club's horse trials championships, where she came a very close second in her class of 35 horses — mainly large purpose-bred eventers.

In the autumn of 2005, we made the very difficult decision to have Blossom put down. She was getting increasingly arthritic and was finding the winters more and more difficult to get through.

She was a real star of the yard and is greatly missed. I consider her to have been the best horse I have ever owned and the one I had the closest relationship with.

Badger

Was born in Montana and imported as a weaning. I bought her as a 3yo and she grew to be 16hh — much bigger than your average Quarter Horse. In 1998, she had a superb filly foal called Chantry Cruisin Cat. I still have this filly and you can read about her in her own section below.
Badger was bought by Judy Jolly, who coincidentally was the person I had bought Blossom from many years before.

Jet

Was born here in May 1996, and was sired by the outstanding Trakehner stallion Fleetwater Opposition. Her dam was a partbred buckskin Quarter Horse, but Jet has taken her very dark brown colouring from her sire and, like him, she has three white socks.

I bred her in the hope that I would get the calm trainable nature of the Quarter Horse, combined with the action and elegance of the Trakehner — and the experiment seems to have worked.

Jet gets sweet itch in the summer and in the past we have used the Scandinavian Boett sweet itch rug. In the summer of 2006, we started her on an experimental course of sweet itch treatment in the form of injections and pills. They improved her condition considerably and meant she did not have to wear the rug until late in the summer. In the past, we had put it on her around April or May and she had worn it throughout the summer.

Toffee

Her name on paper is Kernow Shawnee but Toffee suits her better. She is a red roan by Pesky Silver Foam out of Harvest Dividend and was bred by Jennifer Collie in 1992. I bought her from Shandy Bridges's yard at St Just near Penzance in Cornwall.

She is a really useful horse to have in the yard because any competent rider can handle her and she loves going out hacking on her own or in company. She has bred a number of foals in the past and we hope to put her in foal ourselves soon.

Chantry Cruisin Cat

Is Badger's foal and was born in June 1998. At first she looked like a miniature replica of her buckskin father, Cat Man Dooley. Next, she spent several months as a very dark chocolate-brown foal, and then went shiny bronze before turning grey.

In the summer of 2006, she had her first foal, a cremello filly by the palomino stallion Sedgehill Gold, owned by Anna Burns in Leicestershire.

Chantry Gold Star

This is Chantry Cruisin Cat's foal by Anna Burns's palomino stallion Sedgehill Gold. She was born in June 2006 and we were thrilled to find that we had our first cremello, with soft gold coat and bright blue eyes.

We halter-broke her in the first few days of her life and she is very quiet and easy to handle. We intend to keep her and see what unusual-coloured foals she produces.