Very excited.  The Spanish Warmblood Facebook has reached over the ONE THOUSAND likes. Are you one of the Thousand?  If not, gallop across the internet and "click"  LIKE.

Just in case you need to know where it is Spanish Warmblood I.S.W.H.A.

Of course, the Spanish Warmblood Facebook is for everyone who is breeding and/or own a Spanish Warmblood horse.  At the moment, we use this page to tell people about Yardah Stud as well as the breed news.

Tall Poppy Syndrome - Hannibal

Hannibal. Pride of Carthage by David Anthony Durham   265-146 BC

Talking to promised stores and reinforcements after Hannibal had gone over the Alps with the elephants and made it safe for the ships to come with further assistance. (Thought --out of the box.)

by one of the Council (Imago Messano).. ".. the Council has decided to continue sending reinforcements to Iberia, but not to Italy."
Sapanibal (Hannibal's sister.)  "Not to Hannibal?"

.....  goes on . Imago Messano-- by Council.
"... but what they really fear is that your brother will achieve his goals. That result would make them [the Council] rich beyond all reason - but it would make Hannibal's fame immortal.  Greatness always makes enemies."    

Extracts from Pages 249 & 250.
..................................................................
And I thought the tall poppy syndrome was a modern cultural phenomena. Aren't we lucky that we have been inspired by so many people who have been brave enough to be different and successful.

Lessons on Life by the Horses = #1

The horses always give me lessons on life.  A few weeks ago, I had the last year crop of foals in for a bit of handling.  I wanted them to follow me behind the wheelbarrow of hay out to another paddock.  Out of the 6 young ones 5 wanted to grab hay from the barrow and get a "freebie" but not game to go along the track out of sight to where I told them the hay would be.  However, one put up her hoof "Cheekie", and said, "I trust you. I will be your first follower."  Trotting along behind me. She got the best hay.  Then a second one "Erin" only took another moment to check out the situation.  "Oh! Goodee." Then the other 4 came rushing around saying, "Wanta! Wanta!"

Yardah Tarantella  a.k.a."Cheekie"  From her first day she had an independence attitude -- rather too much at the beginning and we called her nickname "Firecracker." Now she is very obliging.


Sadly, I did not have the camera as a walking stick and barrow of hay was enough without the camera as well.
However, I stood back and thought of the lesson that they all can show us and about human behaviour.

A leader needs the guts to stand alone and look ridiculous. But what he/she's doing is so simple, it's almost instructional and it is not that hard as the leader knows the vision and the end result. It takes real guts to be the first committed follower! "Cheekie."  The first follower stands out and braves ridicule.  What if there had not been any hay around the corner. The others preferred to snigger and would rather to miss out, than take a chance about the hay.  However when, Yardah Enigma "Erin" also chased the hay, the other 4 thought they had missed out on something.


Look at the video above 5:35.  "Cheeky" thought she would just have a little drink from a different mare, Mayfair. Yep, "Cheeky" will always be a pioneer.

Will try to write a Yardah report on regular basis.
Do really want to tell you the story about "Erin" jumping two incredible jumps for a 10 month.  Will take a bit of words challenge for me to describe the situation. Unbelievable.

Hello and welcome

Hello and welcome to the Official Yardah Stud blog. This blog has been created to keep you posted on all the goings-on at the Yardah Stud farm, owned and run by world renowned trainer, Marji Armstrong.

Marji is a specialist at teaching both rider and horse the beautiful art of dressage. She has dedicated her life to Classical Horsemanship and has even developed a new breed called Spanish Warmblood.

Her website is dedicated to helping riders and horses the world over learn to ride in harmony and offers exclusive access to first-hand clinic training footage and hours of video training material.

This blog offers photos and videos and updates from all things Yardah. So stay in touch!

You can follow Marji on twitter too!

This week at Yardah a new foal was born successfully. Yardah Challenge gave birth to a strong healthy colt in the early hours of Saturday morning. This is the fourth foal but the first colt to be born in 2012. The newest addition is son of Yardah Diablo. He was welcomed into the world by Marji in her somewhat famous leopard print nightie, which I am certain he will be seeing a few times during his lifetime. He has been good with handling and hasn't caused many problems but we are yet to try and get a halter on him. Here he is on his birthday with mother, Challenge:

Yardah Challenge with new colt, with Bella in the background overlooking procedures

We now only have one pregnant mare in Bella-Donna who we are still waiting on to deliver her foal. This weekend we have a Clinic taking place at Yardah and we are all excited to welcome the students on Thursday evening for a long weekend clinic. This then is followed by Marji travelling to the UK followed by Austria and finally Canada to run Clinics for international students. Exciting times ahead here at Yardah and lots of things to keep you posted with.

Folllow us on Twitter: @YardahStud