Hello Everyone!

Happy Fall! Happy Halloween..isn’t that fun! And of course a Wonderful and blessing filled Thanksgiving!
We Welcome Josie Gomon to our Staff, as our Full time barn Manager. She is a graduate of VA Tech’s wonderful Equine program and we are thrilled to have her, and her 2009 filly Roulette!
WE also welcome home D’Aktion, our very personable, talented Donavan gelding , taking a break from training with JJ Tate so Royal Princess can go to JJ.Dax will be doing some cross training, over jumps, while being shown for sale.
JJ has also entrusted us with her Superstar , Cambay, or Chip. He is recovering from an injury and will be relaxing in our pasture! What fun to have him here. He is keeping Donavan on his toes! ;-)

I want to let everyone know that our young stallion Rosall is now featured along with the other great stallions on Hassler Dressage website. They will be managing his breeding for 2010.

For a video of him , go to, http://www.hasslerdressage.com/stallions/stallion-videos.html (also on my links page)

You can also browse the Hassler Dressage website, and note the progress being made on their gorgeous new facility, and all of the plans being made for the Young Horse Trainers Symposium in November. We so enjoy our association with them , and are so happy for JJ Tate who is teaching from Riveredge.

Rosall has continued to make us proud. He has recovered from an unfortunate injury (just prior to the Young Horse Championships, that left us all very disappointed. ) We are excited, JJ says she is doing great! We are very pleased that his first foal, Royall KIS has been awarded a Premium from the GOV and we are so delighted with this youngster. He handled himself at Devon extremely well showing the character and demeanor we like to promote. He has a future as a top level Dressage horse!! He is for sale, and we would love to place him a home that is looking ahead to competition. Royall (Rusty) is a lovely chestnut with white decorations like his sire!! He will probably be 161 or 16.2hh..and he is compact like his dad too! We have taken some video and will put him on You tube as soon as we can.

We have placed a video of our lovely yearling filly on YOU Tube , our AHS site champion filly of 2008, Paprika KIS ( Posh) by Pablo out of Atlanta/Aktion. She is growing beautifully, and we have felt we should keep her she is so nice. She pinned at Devon..and is a very sweet and smart filly. We have decided since we have 3 foals coming in 2010 by Rosall, that we would offer Posh for sale but with the stipulation we may choose to breed her to Donavan and Rosall at some point.

Her video is at   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91PokgwJZ64

We are excited and a little sad to announce the changes in our mare line up. Circumstances have offered us wonderful opportunities for our breeding program , and will allow 2 wonderful people to continue our plans and hopes for the Donavan legacy. Our wonderful mare Caviar will be moving to Montana soon. A very loyal client Bhritta O’Neill in Rollins MT, will be Caviar’s new owner. Bhritta has a lovely Donavan Daughter Dryannah, who is growing up beautifully under her watchful eye. Bhritta has a dream of continuing the traditional warmblood lines that Donavan comes from. She has had some bad luck with some beloved mares in the past, so I thought Caviar would be a great mare for her to have some success with for the future. Many of you may know that Caviar was gift to me and she has had 3 premium Old NA foals , a site champion foal- Don Noir, 8.2; a Res. Ch. colt, D’Aktion; 8.0- and a second placing filly Duchesse, 8.4! In addition a handsome Han. colt by Escudo II. All of these foals sold very early (one in utero) and are making their owners very happy! So now it is my turn to gift her to Bhritta!! Bhritta will entertain orders of Caviar Donavan foals! ( or a Caviar/ Rosall foal :-) )

The other change will be that our sweet Manhattan (reg. Name Precious Icon) in foal to Rosall is being purchased by Isabelle Brown in Ohio, Manny’s original owner. Manny has bee a super mare for us, with her 2 handsome Donavan colts, ( Isabelle has Don Giovanni) and we have Dahlgren. She is the mom of our gorgeous Premium Rosall colt, Royall KIS. Isabelle will be thrilled to place Manny back into her training program for Adult amateurs giving some lessons perhaps, and also breed her again , and she is buying the foal too!! We are so thrilled!!

As I state on my website, buying and selling my mares is not taken lightly. I love them, and spend time with each one , and will shed some tears when they leave. We want to have room for a young filly or two to grow up with us, and not have our herd get unmanageable. We also want to be able to train those that do stay. Our Royal Princess is now ready for JJ To Ride! Marty and I are also living in a wonderful new area to explore and we want to be able to devote quality time to our family, our 2 grandsons, and to our horses.
Yes , the often mentioned Balancing Act!!

For Sale

One more piece of News. Our pretty mare, Bianna (by Bordeaux out of Alexa/Abajo xx) is also coming home from her wonderful training with Teri Smith. She is a beautiful Hunter , and going so well. Josie will ride her , while we offer her for sale! She is a treasure for anyone interested in Hunters . She has automatic changes, loves to jump , placed in the ribbons her very first show. She is perfect size..16hh. Even! In addition, Bianna can be a Dressage horse too, for a young rider, pony clubber, etc..for sure for the lower levels. A  sweet sweet horse,. Bianna is Dam of our 2007 Dragee by Donavan. Gigi as we call her, is turning into a very lovely mare. She can be a Dressage horse for sure, with a great mind and power from behind. Take a look ..

Last but not least. Donavan is super! The old man, is looking good, and still can do his extended trot from the field when I call him! He is the most loving and gentle guy! We will celebrate his 25th birthday in March. He talks to his mares, the babies, and now the boys that are here. DAX and JJ Tate’s Chip. Donavan is still breeding though next year any collections for shipping will be very limited. We offer his excellent frozen semen please call for information. 443-249-3566.

Again, hope everyone is having a peaceful and pleasant Fall season, call for information on any of our sales horses, or for breeding.

Wendy and Marty Costello
Kent Island Sporthorses, http://www.KIShorse.com