The below clips were taken with my little unbreakable camera at various locations around the course, when it was safe to do so! A bit like the Blair Witch film...without the screaming...I already edited that out!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq8xQCL618M Waiting to start

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDo9H1f1xj0 - about 20 minutes into the race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JA2TosULdJo - about 25 minutes into the race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKmwylJpWRg - bit further....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcRPhuMMv-k - about 45 minutes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u8c_ZQ56Lk - quick bit of video before the bogs!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlE_O2lkRxs - this was not good!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqWYE3E0Lq0 - we're still climbing, and up to the highest point on the course - about 3,000 feet

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1edqiG37Cig - just after the vet check

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2CEe7_TaoU - about 3 miles from home and suffering....me not Heidi!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BZ4eFIP_LU - 1 mile from home and very boggy ground

Heidi in USA just before we shipped her home.  Just the greatest mare. We are competing in Man V Horse again this year and then she will be bred to ZZ Hoss for a 2010 foal.

Then my second ride on her since she came home. This is my horse of a lifetime with ZZ Hoss challenging for the title!  They are about evens right now.

We bought this lovely mare in 2006 year and left her in USA to be bred this year for a 2007 foal to Wimpys Little Step.  She was scanned in foal with twins which wasn't good then on the last scan before she was due to leave for quarantine, she was scanned again, and they'd both gone.  As the breeding season over there then ended, we weren't able to re-breed her, so she is coming home a few months earlier than planned.   I am a bit sad she's not in foal but delighted that I get to ride her now.

She has been used as a turnback horse and is a trained cutter and cowhorse.

Her sire, Haidas Little Pep, had over $425,000 earnings and her dam is a producer of offspring of over $250,000.

Heidi has also won money team penning - thought she might have won a few hundred dollars but just found out she won $3,800!

Took her to Emma French for our first lesson just after she arrived.  She is just the most superb mare, loading straight into the trailer and travelling like a dream the hour and a half journey to Emma's. 

Then Bev (who has bought Chianti's filly last year) came out for our first ride.  Bev rode Stony and I rode Heidi.  We put them in the trailer and drove just about a mile to a superb track which winds through the mountains but with the option to ride across open hills.

Stony had Heidi hadn't met before - you'd never guess.  Again both loaded straight into the trailer.  It started raining when we were tacking up and got very windy.  There was a large Welsh Black cow by the first gate - oh dear!  Better move her out the way. (LOL!)  We rode for an hour and a half in total and it was very misty on the top of the hill.  The horses were fantastic, got on like old chums and we found more cows to annoy on the way back.  Our "let's have a lope" turned into a very fast canter and we were both laughing with the exhilaration of the whole ride. 

More pics and info on her and Stony on Our Own Horses in Action page

We intend to compete in Man V Horse again next year.

This lovely mare will be bred to Muffin in 2009.

It's no good hiding down there - don't be shy now!

Fred, one of John Parker's drivers - he's been here a few times before!

Be a while before this lovely mare gets put into foal  .. but we are taking orders now for 2010!  (only joking.... I think!)  By Haidas Little Pep (NCHA $425,783) out of a producing mare of offspring earnings of $250,000.	I have ridden her a couple of times - she is so well trained, I did something and we ended up doing 2 perfect spins!  Should have got an instruction manual with her.....
First ride on Heidi - a bit lively - but controllable (especially after I lunged her for 20 minutes first! - I'm not that brave!!)
Time for Bev to have a go
And seven year old Megan	Such a kind genuine mare!
	Finally found a superb farrier - Mark Jones - who only lives 6 miles away!  He was our farrier decades ago but he moved out of the area for a time. Well, he's back and it's been years since our horses had such well shod and trimmed feet! He is very kind and sympathetic, and as Heidi had never been hot shod before he was excellent with her, not that she did anything other than raise her eyebrows when she realised her feet were smoking!! Her feet haven't smoked since the last black steer she was cutting in Texas!!  She was being shod just before Xmas and I wasn't paying attention as I was holding her.  There was a velcro ripping sound and suddenly she has Aran's chaps swinging back and for in her teeth - she'd caught the strap on the back and pulled them undone - it was like The Fully Monty except he had jeans on underneath of course!

I was amazed at how quickly she has settled - all those moves about in USA to stud and quarantine, then 12 hours in a trailer to the airport, more hanging about, 11 odd hours flight to Amsterdam, more tests and hanging about, in a lorry back on the road, on a ferry, couple of nights in another new stable then back on the lorry, 8 and a half hours later, she's finally home and she is the first QH we've had that likes carrots straight away!!  Loves cuddles and is a very impressive looking mare, with real substance and quality.