Lovelyta awakened during this winter, with quite a few exciting events!

• Dog training intensified, and Naddie earnt her BH exam and her IPO2title. Thank you Paris for your excellent work on training our dogs!
• Thoroughbred training did not stop either, which meant that clippings were in order - Moirafor example got quite a nice clip-job and behaved herself during the entire process.
• Exciting news! Our beloved Diana was matedthanks to an opportunity from our affiliate Equip Kennel & Ranch, and she's expecting her very first litter for year 3 Spring!
• We have a few new arrivals: Daisyfinally arrived from Patagonia to join Lovelyta Ranch, and we also impored Ebele, a quagga filly. Besides our already existing venus, Lovelyta is looking to take part in supporting endangered or special equines, so mules, quaggas and even zorses are hopefully a go. (It also means a new base was added to the reference template, and I updated the background, too, so horses going forward will appear on the new painted background.)

Quite fitting that as 2021 comes to an end, so does year 2. It was not as eventful as I would've liked, but I'm glad that I still managed to keep the day-to-day life and happenings of Lovelyta in the focus instead of getting lost in competitions and shows, and it should give a very nice basis for year 3.

This also means rollover time, and last time RNG did quite a number on our beloved horses and dogs. Here are the news of everyone individually going into year 3:

Thoroughbred news:

• Egyptian Mau turned 3 and had a minor little bump in her career when she turned up lame after a race. Still, she managed to run a few times and even won once!
• LR Emergency Code is now 6, but still going strong in his racing career. He ran well this year and levelled up to Listed races. We will hopefully let him run a season or two before retiring and retraining him for something else.
• LR Hell Hath no Furie turned 5, and won 5 times this year, coming 2nd twice. She levelled up to G3 level and we'll be excited to see how far she goes!
• LR Thunderstorm turned 3 and did us a solid on the racetrack! With 4 wins and a second place he flew right into Listed races, indicating some serious talent up his sleeve.
• NEC Big Brother is now 5, and he had an incident with a starting gate that ruined some of his tack and gave him some surface injuries. He still managed to run some races, but nothing major came in on his end.
• Suicidal Romance turned 8 and ran his last season of racing, going out with an absolute bang! With 5 wins, 2 second places and a third, he worked himself up to G3 races by the end of the year, finishing on a high note. He will retire from racing now and spend this year being retrained to then hopefully compete in cross country.

Other horse news:

• LR Chrystanthemum turned 4 and is having a nice time learning the basics under saddle.
• LR Golden Sunshine turned 4 and is similarly learning things under the saddle, hopefully soon able to start her basic discipline training.
• LR Stupid Cupid turned 1 without a problem, and looks to be a strong young cold. We are excited to start working him towards the end of the year and see him debut as a 2-year-old.
• LR Starry Dreams turned 4 and is also learning the basics of being ridden.
• LR Wish of Dreams, our beloved stallion now 21, had a little lameness during his regular exercises but recovered without a problem.
• Reborning Future turned 14 and is still in prime fitness after giving us 3 foals. We are considering whether to cover her or not this year, and who to choose as sire.
• Cyclon turned 11 and had a nice year doing endurance races, slowly progressing in State endurance.
• Kassendale's Regenbogen turned 8 and had an incredibly productive year! She competed in cross country earning a lot of points and just coming a point shy from Regional level, and also competed in show jumping where she worked herself up to State level!
• Kassendale's Walpurgisnacht is now 10, and had a great competition year in dressage as he worked himself up to Regional dressage level!
• LR Cecissa is now 6 (time flies so fast, I still remember when she was born!), and had a few cuts and bites when she had an arguement with another mare in the paddock, but otherwise had a nice year with some nice dressage results.
• LR Queen of Hearts turned 18 and after a successful year in dressage, she got to International level, basically reaching the end of the career level! Congratulations to her, she really is a star. Due to her age and achievements, she will retire to be a broodmare and have her first purebred foal next year, very excited!
• LR Something Special turned 8 and gave us a scare when he bit his tongue and started severely bleeding during training. Luckily it wasn't anything serious and he was able to compete this year, even if some of his training needed to be bitless.
• Mister Sherlock Holmes turned 8 and managed to lose a shoe so well in the dressage arena that we never managed to find it (please be careful in there, people, and watch out not to step on it!). His first Lovelyta competing season was pretty successful as he placed in the top 3 multiple times this year.
• Nanook is now 12 and had a pretty quiet year, with only a few endurance races.

Lovelyta Ranch Kennel news:

• BRK's Deadly Nadder vom Vampir turned 4 and had several successful Schutzhund exams this year, working her way up to her IPO2 title!
• Celestial Event turned 3 and had an uneventful year with several obedience tests.
• Equipped Key to Your Heart vom Vampir turned 2 and was working on her tracking this year, at such a young age showing a lot of talent for various things!
• Graveyard King vom Vampir turned 2 and took some tracking exams alongside Keyes.
• Ninja's Rosenrot vom Werehaus turned 4 and earnt her BH exam with 90% score. She then went ahead to take Schutzhund exams and with outstanding skill earnt her IPO1 and IPO2 titles!
• Black Storm von der Berg turned 2 and she was worked in tracking this year as well.
• Wild West vom Vampir turned 4 and took obedience tests this year, earning his CD title.

Injuries and bad news:

• Compass Morale turned 3 and had a serious leg injury as she was preparing for the track. She was put on lots of rest in order to recover, and will start work around year 3 Fall.
• Heart Throb, now 11, managed to get a leg stuck in the fence on the pasture, earning him some time off training while his cuts and bruises recovered. He'll be as good as new by year 3 Summer.
• IEC Wishing for Stars turned 14, and gave us quite a scare with a bad case of colic. We were incredibly lucky she got the care she needed immediately and survived. She should be back in training by year 3 Summer.
• LR Against the Odds turned 13 and developed laminitis, which took quite a while to cure. He recovered but remained sensitive, so we are closely monitoring him to decide whether he needs retirement. He'll be taking it easy until year 3 Autumn.
• Black Diamond Indigo gave birth to our first LRK litter, A litter, with 9 pups! However, the birth was long and something went wrong, ending with our beloved Diana leaving us here with the pups, all alone. She just turned 5 years old and will be sorely missed.
• This was not the end of tragedies for LRK, sadly. Dusk Still Down showed signs of colic after dinner one day and even though he was brought to the vet and into surgery as soon as possible, his life couldn't be saved. He just turned 5, and with Diana's loss we are in deep mourning now to have lost two of our dogs.
• SK's Spotted Delight von der Berg, now 2, managed to over-use his other legs while recovering from his knee injury from last year, and we were fearing he'd need another surgery. Luckily we managed to put him on proper rehab, but he will be probably back to his old self by year 3 Autumn.

It was such a mixed year - a lot fewer serious injuries than last year, but on the other hand, whatever we did have was very serious. Still a bit shocked RNG offed 2 of my dogs, but having the A litter is a pretty exciting and hopeful thing! Next year there's even more breeding and training and new things for Lovelyta, including the kennels being expanded from 10 to 20 kennels to give us even better opportunity for working with dogs.

Happy new year, we wish everyone a successful 2022 and year 3!