I read recently that you you can rewire your brain for happiness simply by frequently acknowledging the things you are grateful for. "Selecting unique areas of gratitude each day forces you to re-frame your perspective to look for the positive, rather than the negative, aspects in your daily life." Thomas Oppong, How to Train (And Rewire) Your Brain For Happiness. So far 2019 has brought us a lot to be grateful for.

First up we had two new special mares join our family in April. I should know by now that when Ruth has a certain twinkle in her eye that she is scheming something fun. Such was the case when she met me roadside just off the Confederation bridge on a cold January day, declared she had found the perfect mare for me, handed me a copy of a pedigree and a bag of cheese curds, and drove away. After few months of planning and waiting, Belle de Jour and Raven, made their trip from Marefield Meadows in Virginia to our farm. Both mares are nine year old Hanoverians. Belle by Balou du Rouet out of EM Andromache (Arrian/Lortzing/Wenzel I), and Raven by Ruiz Soler out of Rara Avis (Rienzi/Wenzel I/Domingo). ​I had an instant connection with Belle (Ruth definitely knows what type of mare I like), and Raven is just so sweet that you cannot help but love her. I am so grateful to my favourite enablers, Ruth and Eric, for encouraging me to take the leap of faith on these mares, and I have heaps of gratitude to Marefield Meadows for entrusting their two beautiful black pearls to my care. 

Our next bit of wonderful news came from one of our clients in Ontario... the birth of the first Glori foal of 2019. Fanny Lemay's mare, Genny, had a beautiful leggy black colt who Fanny named Noir Par Noirs (Black by Blacks). ​To see a quick video clip of the little guy visit our Instagram page.

The next Glorioso Noir foal to arrive was much anticipated first foal for Rassicot Farm. On June 24th Emilia (Emilion/Voltaire) gave birth to an adorable and perfect filly named Gamora. This athletic little lady is going to make someone a fun and competitive hunter or jumper someday. The next mare up to foal is our Eden (Donatelli/Laroche) in September. 

Bellamy (Bonheur/Contucci) has begun his training with the talented Pearl MacGregor and we could not be more thrilled with how well he is developing; he has become an exceptionally handsome young man. There are several recent clips and photos of him on his page. Gratefulness abounds for having such a gentle and skilled trainer such as Pearl so close to home for starting all of our youngsters. 

Another of our beloved boys who is thriving especially well this year is Glorioso Noir. He has fully settled into the routine on the farm and has been a joy in every way to work with this year. We are also quite proud of ourselves for how much we have learned over the past year about stallion management, handling, and collection. I am super grateful (and still very surprised) for Eric stepping up to learn how to run the AV; he definitely has earned a lifetime supply of brownie points for it. So very grateful for the stallion owners who have shared their knowledge with us.... although some lessons just had to be learned under fire... for example we now know a wrapped bale of silage looks very much like a breeding dummy to Glori. :-) There are still a few more weeks of our breeding season left and we are offering great deals to those mare owners still looking to breed their mares this season. 

Our 2017 & 2018 youngsters have started their ground work training and are taking to it like fish to water. All three are proving to have willing characters, sharp minds, and even temperaments. Dauphinee doesn't mind what you do with her; she is just so happy for the attention, Ziggy Stardust enjoys playing "games" with an enthusiasm that makes me laugh every time, and De Angelo is so earnest that I just want to hug him when I watch him working out what is being asked of him. The future looks bright for all three rock stars. Check out each of their pages for recent photos and videos. 

I was super grateful to receive updates this spring from Valerie Leighton on Poodle's 2015 son by Schwarzenegger, Superbad (now named Spudnik II). Spud has started his over fences training and has already been successful at a few hunter shows in the Edmonton, Alberta area this season. Valerie had this to say about her beloved boy  "I absolutely adore him. He’s a sweetie to handle and extremely honest and willing, with talent to boot!". All of Poodle's foals hold a special place in my heart so I always appreciate receiving updates from their owners, it makes missing them so much more bearable. 

I could fill pages listing the things I am grateful for, not least of which would be the farmers who supply us with our hay and feed, neighbours who rush over to our rescue when yet another tree falls on our fence line, friends who share in our joys and sadnesses (so much of both when horses are involved), family who understand why the horses always come first, our vet who accommodates my work schedule by coming to the farm at o'dark thirty to do ultra sounds and who is always just a phone call away, iced cappuccinos with shots of expresso, hot showers, good food, good books, Dalmatian cuddles, and, most of all, for being lucky enough to live on the beautiful and gentle Prince Edward Island with the person I love most in the world.  

As always my ambitions are bigger than the actual manpower and time I have to complete them, but as Leo Tolstoy said, "spring is the time of plans and projects." It has been an extremely chaotic past few months but in the most wonderful of ways.

First up is very exciting of news... Daisy gave birth to the most perfect little black colt named De Angelo! He is by Dauphin and has a pedigree stacked with top level dressage horses such as De Niro, Donnerhall, and Hohenstein. Daisy's sire Donarweiss is a Grand Prix dressage horse in the U25 division, and her dam, Larissa, was shown to 4th level dressage. De Angelo will make an excellent upper level dressage prospect for someone looking for a lot of talent and good looks in a 15.3hh package. I am slowly adding to his page and hope to have a recent video added by the end of the weekend. 

Glorioso Noir is looking fabulous this spring! It seems life on PEI is suiting Mr. Tall Dark & Handsome very well; I was deligted to see his coat blossom with dapples once he shed out his winter coat. We are still in the process of putting the together the finishing touches our own collection amenities at the farm but in the meantime are utilizing the generous help of Ruth at Aileron Stables with our collections. His semen is looking great and so far we have shipped to one mare in Ontario which resulted in a confirmed pregnancy after only one breeding. We will be breeding the bulk of our mares this month and in July because the weather in the Maritimes is quite chilly in the spring, so we prefer our foals to arrive in late spring or early summer. We actually had snow this past week! 

A couple weeks ago we moved Poodle and our yearling Hanoverian filly, Dauphinee, to Rassicot Farm to spend the summer in the care of their aunt Stephanie. ​Poodle will come back to our farm in the fall at which time we will send our pregnant mares to Rassicot for the winter. Pictured left is Poodle at Rassicot Farm.  

Our Hanoverian colt, Bellamy (Bonheur/Contucci/World Cup IV), turned two
years old the end of May and is developing into a very handsome young gelding.
This gentle boy with upper level dressage potential  is still available and
​we have loaded new video to his page. 

Our two yearlings are also looking quite beautiful. Pictured below are our Hanoverian filly, Dauphinee (left), and our Andalusian cross colt, Ziggy Stardust (right). Ziggy was castrated 2 weeks ago so is now enjoying the relaxed lifestyle of a gelding. ;-) 

Returning to the topic of my over zealous ambitions. :-) We have gotten a lot done around the farm over the past few weeks, but the to do list is still quite long, and I may have to come to terms with the reality that I may not get a vegetable garden in this year. I have laying hen chicks arriving next week and turkey chicks in July that I need to get ready for. We have started the stalls in the new barn, but they will take some time yet to complete. We did get the new run in shelter finished last week which is a huge relief. The breeding corral should be complete by the end of the week (fingers crossed). I was very excited to have the concrete finally poured for the support for the phantom and I took perhaps a bit too much amusement in scandalizing the cement truck driver by explaining what the phantom was used for. The new lab in the barn has been slow to materialize but should be done by the end of the month. Every spring always seems to involve more fencing and this year was no exception. We were so blessed to have my sister, Robyn, and her partner, Jonathan, drive all the way from Liverpool, Nova Scotia, just to help us paint fence on the one sunny day we had this past week. I am so pleased with the results of all our work. Now to find some time to actually ride my horse before it is winter again. ;-) 

That will be all the broodmares we will be adding to our herd this year. Which means we can officially announce our broodmare line up for the 2018 breeding season. In total we will be breeding 6 mares to Glori this spring.... so we are already brainstorming for "G" names! :-) 

That is all the news for now. I am hoping to announce in our next update that our new barn is finally complete. For now I leave you with some photos of our very furry horses enjoying the winter weather.... as much as the humans complain I think it is the horses favourite time of year. ;-) 

Star Gazer Farm is excited to announce our partnership with Rassicot Farm. We have many exciting plans for the future of our two farms working together to produce exceptional performance horses and ponies. We made our partnership official by welcoming a new handsome man to our family this past Monday! We would like to introduce Glorioso Noir... although to many North American warmblood breeders he is a familiar face.

​Glorioso is a 17.1hh Hanoverian stallion by Glorieux o/o Grosse Liebe x Grundstein. Glorioso has an impeccable pedigree and is a testament to the famous G-line Hanoverian. His sire Glorieux won the Bundeschampionate and was the winner of his stallion licensing and reserve champion of the performance testing. Glorieux is by the immortal Goldstern. Glorioso’s damsire is the legendary Grundstein. His dam, Grosse Liebe, is the mother of three other licensed sons. Her dam, Luna, is the mother of popular Landkoenig.

Glorioso is a beautiful black stallion with suspended gaits and excellent conformation that makes him equally talented for dressage and jumping. He completed his 100-day stallion testing in Germany and finished in 11th place out of 40 stallions, placing equally well in both dressage and jumping. Among the highlights of his scores were an 8.0 on character, temperament and willingness to work, and constitution. He received an 8.0 on jumping ability and an 8.0 on his trot. Glorioso competed in the young horse dressage classes as well as in the hunters and jumpers with a junior rider. 

His foals tend to inherit his long legs and well-set neck. His offspring have light, elastic movement with excellent conformation and character. He is a unique stallion that crosses very well with Thoroughbred and Appendix mares by adding substance, jumping ability and movement to his get. His foals have had successful careers many disciplines with regional and national championships. He is truly a stallion that produces offspring for all disciplines- jumpers, dressage, hunters and eventers.

For more info, video, and photos see his page: www.stargazerfarm.ca/stallion

Will be available to a limited number of outside mares in 2018.

More details to follow in October 2017.

Our yearlings, Bellamy and Starfire, are both still developing well. Below are some photos of them both as well as a video of their progress in learning to crosstie. There is more information about both of these beauties on our sales page.

We managed to shoot a bit of video of Daisy this month. We will be taking Daisy to the Hanoverian inspection on September 1st to present her for approval. 

I always forget how much work comes with foaling season on the farm, and as a result I completing overlooked updating the farm news page.... so I have a lot of news to report!

​First up I have archived the NEWS page on this site because it was becoming slow to load with all the photos I had on it. I am hoping by using a blog page instead for farm news it will load faster for everyone and I can continue to share lots of photos. :-) 

In May we welcomed a new boarder to the farm named Sara. She is a beautiful 22 year old Irish Thoroughbred mare who has recently retired from a career in dressage. She is settling in great and especially loves her new handsome boyfriend, Sierk. 

On May 4th we welcomed another 4 new faces to the farm... of the tiny fluffy variety! Matilda gave birth to a litter of four healthy kittens. Being born on May 4th and having a dad named Darth we just had to give them Star Wars names so we named them Finn, Kylo, Leia, and Rey. Finn has since gone to a new home to be a house cat, but the other three will stay here on the farm. 

Then came the foals!!! On May 29th Poodle gave birth to a perfect colt by the Andalusian stallion Barolo. He was up on his feet in minutes and at only a couple hours old was doing canter pirouettes around his stall! We have no doubts that he will make a fabulous upper level dressage prospect. We felt he was worthy of a superstar name and settled on Ziggy Stardust. Two days later Starfish delivered a stunning chestnut Hanoverian filly by Dauphin. With her incredibly sweet demeanour we felt the name Dauphinee suited her well. We predict filly will be suitable for both the dressage and hunter disciplines, and will make an excellent amateur mount with her exceptional temperament. To see more info and photos of both visit their pages by clicking their photos below. 

The yearlings Starfire and Bellamy seem to have grown up while we were busy with the new foals... it feels like I blinked and they each grew a foot! Both are already showing promise of the athletic and beautiful horses they will be someday. Click on their photos below to see more information and photos on their pages. 

Finally I am happy to report our new arena fence is finally done. We are so thankful for all our friends and family who pitched in to help build it. We are also very happy to announce that our beautiful Daisy (Donarweiss GGF/Loredo/Paradox I) has been confirmed in foal to Dauphin for a June 2018 foal.