Welcome back everyone! May has been extremely busy as I'm finishing up my education and literally had to do a last-minute language exam - that I did half-sick, yay - and I also had a week of travel. Things should calm down a bit at least for the next 2 months, enough so that I might start drawing again as soon as I'm mentally rested enough to have the creative juices flowing again.

Winter passed in Lovelyta and I did literally nothing for it, no matter how much I wanted to, so we resume with the rollover and start year 4 here in June.

Thoroughbred news:

• Reborning Future turned 15 in good health, safely carrying the foal from LR Hell Hath no Furie and Malström. We are excited about the birth of this baby in Spring.
• Compass Morale turned 4 and came down lame after an unfortunate incident with a starting gate. She still managed to run some races and did really well this season, going up to Listed races.
• Egyptian Mau turned 4 and only raced a couple of times, not bringing home anything interesting. She might need some more time to mature.
• LR Emergency Code turned 7 and still raced, but didn't bring anything big home. We are considering retiring him and retraining for another discipline to accomodate his age, a decision will be made about it throughout the year.
• LR Hell Hath no Furie turned 6 and kept on racing as always, bringing home some more nice results. We might keep her running for one more year before retiring her.
• LR Stupid Cupid turned 2 and started his training, entering his first few races. He immediately broke his maiden and then had some other beautiful race results which points to a promising career.
• LR Thunderstorm turned 4 and had an interesting year. After refusing to start on his first race this year, he went on to have a few average results and then won the last 6 races of his season. We are absolutely thrilled with him!
• NEC Big Brother turned 6 and had an incredible year with a lot of wins, ranking up to G3 races!
• OPS Hallowed Bat turned 11 and competed well in dressage, though multiple times he managed to bite a tongue and get disqualified for blood in the ring.
• Suicidal Romance turned 9 and gave us a scare with colic, but luckily it wasn't serious and he was able to keep on with his competitions. He went really well in eventing and ranked up to State competitions.

Other horse news:

• RRS Ebele, RRS Gahiji and RRS Kesia all turned 2 and had nothing major happen to them this year. They have settled into life at LR and we are excited to see how our quagga program will play out.
• LR Wish of Dreams turned 22 and is currently our oldest horse here. He's still in good health and we are happy to see him holding up so well.
• LR Queen of Hearts turned 19 and came down with some lameness from the field one day, but quickly recovered. Her pregnancy is also going well and we can't wait to meet the foal in Spring.
• Cyclon turned 12 and had some competitions but nothing major happened to her this year.
• Daisy turned 8 years old and we had a very difficult year with her. While trying to use her for endurance races to show that mules can do it just as well as horses, she was disqualified 5 times out of 15 events, and 3 of those were for misbehaviour. She still won a few times but overall we might have to consider finding her something else to do.
• Heart Throb turned 12 and had some competitions, bringing home average results.
• IEC Wishing for Stars turned 15 and had a difficult competition season - she was disqualified a few times for her behaviour in the ring which we couldn't really explain, while at other times she went splendidly well. Overall she's now up to State level dressage.
• Kassendale's Regenbogen turned 9 and competed in cross country this year, ranking up to Regional competitions.
• Kassendale's Walpurgisnacht turned 11 and had a quiet year with some competitions.
• LR Against the Odds turned 14 and competed well this year, ranking up to State dressage.
• LR Cecissa turned 7 years old - how time flies! - and like her sire, she also ranked up to State dressage. Taken the potential we expect she has from her dam, we are excited to see how far she will go.
• LR Chrysanthemum turned 5 and started more serious training in eventing. She took part in many competitions and seems to be progressing well.
• LR Golden Sunshine turned 5 this year and started eventing training as well, but this was not quite as easy. She was disqualified several times for refusal, and then had a major fall over an obstacle that cut her competition season short. She recovered successfully and we will see how the new season will treat her.
• LR Starry Dreams turned 5 and started dressage training, but she had an unfortunate incident as well where a pitchfork was left in her stall and she seriously injured herself, unable to compete for the rest of the year. She healed up and we hope to see her blossom from now on.
• Mister Sherlock Holmes turned 9 and competed well this year, ranking up to State eventing.
• Nanook turned 13 and gave us quite the scare with colic, but luckily he recovered. He then started his competing late in the year, and had a few successful results before he acted up in a competition, then had a freak accident in the next one where he ran into the bushes and came up with a fractured leg. While he could be nursed back to health, the best decision was to retire him. Lovelyta will be looking into more huculs to see if we can launch a breeding program.

Lovelyta Ranch Kennels news:

• SK's Spotted Delight von der Berg turned 3 and is luckily healthy, despite his injury from his younger years. He's living a nice calm life that suits him just fine.
• BRK's Deadly Nadder vom Vampir turned 5 and did several tests in schuthund with really good results.
• Celestial Event turned 4 and had a bit of a training injury when she was going for a ball too fast and managed to bite into her own paw. She recovered and did several obedience tests, earning her a CD title.
• Equipped Key to Your Heart vom Vampir turned 3 and was worked in tracking this year.
• Graveyard King vom Vampir turned 3 and did tracking tests, earning his TD title.
• LRK Advent as Equipped turned 1 and had a minor training injury when she bit her own tongue by accident. Despite all the blood it was nothing serious and she managed to earn her CD title this year after successful obedience tests.
• LRK Astra as Equipped turned 1 and started her schutzhund training, passing her BH exam with 93% and then starting her IPO1 testing.
• Ninja's Rosenrot vom Werehaus turned 5 and had schutzhund testing this year with good results.
• SK's Black Storm von der Berg turned 3 and had a minor training injury during tracking practice when she stepped into a nail left out in the forest. It took a bit of time but she recovered and had a blast of a year, earning TDX and VST titles.
• Wild West vom Vampir turned 5 and had obedience testing, successfully completing several of the tests with high scores.

Injuries:

• LR Something Special turned 9 and came down with laminitis. It was a lot of struggle this year that left us sad as his sire also had a similar condition. He managed to recover and while his hooves are sensitive, we are hoping he can still continue to compete in dressage.
• LRK Aspen es Equipped turned 1 and caught a viral infection that ended up with months of struggle to finally bring him back to full health.

Overall I must say this was a nice year, RNG did not go on a killing spree - too much - and a lot of horses and dogs ranked up to the next level which is great to see. I'm looking forward to playing year 4, hopefully I'll have more time to draw horses and dogs and maybe enter some shows, and of course we have foals and breedings coming up as well which is always super exciting. Here's to a nice new year!