Brief life update before I disappear into the void again. Nothing horsey, unfortunately.

Work is rough, got put in charge of a whole department again but it's not quite as stressful as last time. Still, my back is killing me and I need to get out of this trade sooner or later. I'm just casually looking for new opportunities rn, nothing urgent. I'd rather not upend my entire life again this soon. I didn't realise how stressed I'd gotten from moving so frequently, so staying in the same space and the same mediocre job for a year doesn't actually sound too bad. Idk if I'll go back to studying at some point, idk if I am made for the unstructured type of schedule that academia often brings with it. We'll see, I'm young, I've still got some time to sort things out.

Was in the czech rep again last week to visit some old friends. It was fantastic. Stopped by Franken in Germany on the way back and stayed at another friend's home for a while. I've found some people here who I really like, most of them are social workers for some reason. I was worried I wouldn't find friends here but four months after moving here I'm more socially active than ever. The single downside is that some of them seem to think that I need a parent. There's worse things than overprotective friends, I think. Got into a shit situation while out with them recently where I ended up getting assaulted (whoops) and they couldn't've reacted in a better way. Idk, they're just people I feel safe around.

I finally started doing more autobiographical writing again. Somehow, it's going well. I earned my first few bits of money with it. Not much, barely anything, but holy shit was I not expecting that. That's just neat. Anyways, that's it.

Ah, interesting. Foal auctions are in full swing again and look who became the sales-topper (sold for 52k) at the Oldenburger studbook's foal auction:

That's a little Esquin White colt. I didn't particularly expect that stallion to get popular but color seems to sell well at auctions lately.

kiss at ur own risk

Escamillo (*2015 stallion) & some of his offspring

Esbén, 4yr old stallion Eleven HW, 4yr old stallion MSJ Elton, 4yr old gelding Extravagant, 4yr old gelding Extraordinaire, 3yr old stallion

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The boots seem to add super speed

Ride 19/100

Hickstead White (*2012 Oldenburger stallion) & a few of his offspring

Here I am, 4yr old stallion Herzbube, 3yr old stallion Hieronimo, 6yr old gelding Hirocco, 6yr old gelding Halaven, 4yr old mare

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Secret (*2014 German Sporthorse stallion) & a few of his offspring

Mollegårdens Secret, 4yr old gelding Shape of You, 3yr old stallion Sharma, 5yr old gelding unnamed 3yr old stallion Sesimbra-H, 6yr old gelding

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What on earth

Element of Crime, *2019 German Sporthorse stallion

Escamillo x Breton Woods

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Franziskus FRH (*2008 Hanoverian stallion) & five of his offspring

Furnival, 5yr old gelding Felissima, 5yr old mare Francesco B, 3yr old gelding unnamed 3yr old stallion Ferro, 5yr old stallion

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He was withdrawn from the performance test in Verden this week. According to his owners, he struggles with relaxation and forwardness in strange environments and thus wouldn't've received marks that'd do him justice. He did complete the first part of the test, after which the judges cricitized a lack of rhythm and relaxation.

Here’s the winner of the OL-stallion licensing at the  Oldenburger Stallion Days 2023. A stallion by Bon Courage out of a Sezuan mare. Roughly half the stallions presented there were licensed. (x)

Bonds (*2013 Oldenburg stallion) & four of his offspring I have too much time at work right now and I thought the direct comparison would be neat.

top left: 4yr old mare top right: 4yr old mare bottom left: 3yr old stallion bottom right: 3yr old stallion

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This is completely off the wall, and idk TOO much abt horse genetics or even history, but from what I DO know, chestnut is a super common, considered p basic color but it's essentially recessive to... anything else? Literally any other coat base and/or modifier? Is that right? And based on cave paintings and Przewalski's, it doesn't seem like the original, primitive, wild horse breeds would've been chestnut. They had more bay or dun coloration, primitive markings, etc. So do u think part of the reason chestnut is so common is bc, at some point in human history, it WASN'T considered this basic plain jane color, it was actually like "OOOOH, this horse is RED!! It's JUST RED!!" and people tried to breed for that and it became more common bc it WAS considered special at some point? And then ofc some horses were used to establish breeds where types and colors were restricted and bam, proliferation, but my point is, it feels like chestnuts get overlooked a lot as rly plain, but do u think at one point they were considered special and sought after? idk im emotional i saw that post abt how pigeons were once loved and cared for and now they're treated like rats with wings and idk why i started thinking abt chestnut horses but do u ever think something similar happened??? im drunk and sorry

you sound like me when i'm manic i can't give an honest answer cause i am not a genetics nerd and haven't looked into the history but i mean they could have been like "hell yeah dude it's red, lets name it ruby.. and that one too" thus creating the never ending cycle of red mares named ruby

Bon Voyage and Sir Graditz

Bon Coeur x Rohdiamant, *2016 Sezuan x Sir Donnerhall, *2015 x

Oh god so many of these retro pugs that pop up around here are literally just pugs in novelty colors. Mate, that's not someone putting time and effort into breeding back this breed to some old standard, that's someone selling a blue merle pug mix with no health testing for an absurd amount of money while somehow playing the breed-improving saint.

Unbroken youngster. Breeder is selling her below value because she suddenly developed a roach back.

My skills at drawing animals are really improving 💕