10 January - EQUESTRIAN FEDERATION OF AUSTRALIA (NSW) ANNOUNCES NEW COMPETITION CALANDER

Last weekend saw the first competition to be held in the purple zone in the aftermath of the EI crisis. This was held at Sydney Showjumping Club and attracted good numbers and a good day was had by all. As will be the case with all competitions in the purple zone in the foreseeable future, all entries were taken prior to the day and health certificates and microchipping was essential. This weekend coming, January 12/13, sees a very local (200 metres) showjumping competition being held at Jeremy Inglis's Wyong Creek property. Entries are expected to be enormous and the weather is promising to be perfect.

The eventing season is due to kick off with Quirindi in the first week of February, quickly followed by Camden the next weekend and the Sydney Eventing double header two weeks later. We intend to have a full truck load of horses at all the early season events including Grand Armee, Coney Island and Military Road. One horse that will be commencing his eventing career shortly is Sun Tzu, a city winning son of General Nediym, owned by Sydney's leading real estate agent, John McGrath. He has shown allot of promise and we eagerly anticipate his debut.

09 January–HONG KONG JOCKEY CLUB ANNOUNCES MARCH 15 AS DATE FOR THE HKJC INTERNATIONAL SALE

Finally, after much changing of mind and changing of plans we can plan on the sale, originally intended for December 10 2007, to go ahead. At this sale we will be selling 15 high class 2 year olds after breezing up 7 days prior. These horses were all purchased at Magic Millions Premier Sale and The Australian Inglis Easter Sale. Further to these 15 horses will be 12 horses that will be subscription griffins and raffled on the same day as the sale.

All of these horses have been rigorously tested, vet examined and well prepared for 12 months. EI, despite never affecting any horses at Limitless Lodge, meant Hong Kong were very reluctant to accept horses from Australia. The horses from New Zealand, England and America sold exceptionally well in the December sale, averaging upward of $AUS650, 000. We can only hope that the second time around the buyers are just as keen.

We have been very fortunate in that the last 2 drafts we have taken on behalf of the HKJC have gone on to be very handy horses with 85% having won races in Hong Kong already. This is a massive project and will take about 12 staff and 7 weeks away from the farm. First of all they will quarantine at home, then William Inglis in Sydney and then 3 weeks at Sandown Racecourse, prior to 4 weeks in Hong Kong. My team always look forward to Hong Kong as it is a fun trip, and I hope this year it is as successful as it has been the last 2 years.

08 January–DPI ANNOUNCE MOVEMENT OF HORSES TO VICTORIA AND QUEENSLAND BY PERMIT

After many months of not being able to move anywhere, finally with quarantine and blood testing previously infected horses are able to move. It is interesting that it is considered better to have had the virus than to be vaccinated from the DPI's point of view. Furthermore the DPI have also announced that from January 14 any movement of any horse is going to require a Traveling Horse Statement and DPI recognition. This is going to be considerably time consuming and tiresome.

On any given day we can have up to 25 horses move, so the paperwork for this will take longer than the time we usually spend riding! Crazy!! This is supposedly to prove to the rest of NSW and Australia that the crisis is lessening and we can start to break down the barriers, since there have been no new infections anywhere since December 24. One can only guess as to when normality will return, if ever! It seems for now we must live with microchipping, health statements and vaccinations.

05 January–TIM'S TRUCK IS SOLD TO PERTH

Clients of Tim's, Sue and Mark Warren, bought Tim's 2003 Hino horse truck for their daughter, Sophie. Sophie is a spectacularly successful young rider from WA with very supportive parents, a good team of horses and now, a great truck

 

01 January–HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM TIM AND ALL THE STAFF AT LIMITLESS LODGE!!