Last week Willow Tree Warmbloods hosted their first Oldenburg inspection! Michelle decided to present the pony foal Nunez WTW to them so that he could get his Weser-Ems (Oldenburg’s pony book) papers. He’s officially a German Riding Pony, y’all.

The inspection was on a Monday, so I couldn’t be there this time, but Michelle looks to have done a great job of managing everything on her own. Inspections can be quite the production between getting the farm ready, setting everything up, and primping all the horses. Luckily she has other friends around that are willing to lend a helping hand.

Their efforts were well rewarded when Nunez showed himself off really well and got great scores, earning himself a Premium designation! He is really beautiful and athletic with tons of presence, so I’m not surprised.

His sire Nuno is on a roll, all of his foals have been Premium this year. Sebastian, the inspector, really loved his dam Stormie as well, giving her good scores and encouraging Michelle to continue using her for pony breeding. Clearly she is a great producer! Seeing how well Nunez turned out is making everyone even more excited for Stormie’s 2020 Usandro foal.

If the pony foal isn’t enough cuteness to satisfy you, Michelle also let a friend’s daughter present her favorite mare, Hanna. Hanna is a 24 year old Selle Francais mare who started her career doing the jumpers in Belgium before being imported and turned into a junior hunter. She’s taught a lot of kids how to ride, and now – with the help of Michelle and Sebastian – she’s turned one of them into basically a pro handler. Handling and presenting horses in hand is definitely an art, and we don’t have many people in this country that are good at it. Kid is pretty good already, she seems like a natural!

Michelle presented some of the other mares as well, some for inspection and some just to get the inspector’s overall opinion on the program. He quite liked Peyton, the TB mare, commenting that she is exactly the type of thoroughbred that should be used in sporthorse breeding. It was nice to have him agree with us, since we spent forever finding juuuuuust the right TB mare to add to the program.

While I was sad I couldn’t be there this time, all in all it looks like my favorite breeder and favorite mares all had a great day. I think Nunez has been going around telling everyone on the farm that he’s officially F.A.N.C.Y. – as if his ego wasn’t big enough already.

Whoever buys this kid will definitely have one heck of a pony!