Grand Champion Lippitt Mare 2000 and 2001, Supreme Halter Champion at the Morab Regional Championship Show 2000, one of the last of the D-L free mares.

Houyhnhnm came into our lives in April of '99, purchased from the Konichecks as an 11 year old mare. She had had a dark filly by the buckskin, LJ Morning Reveille in 1997. We asked Wendy to lunge her for us so we could see her movement. While she had no real training in her, having only been used as a broodmare, we saw enough to know she had potential much like SFG Tansy Alan who we had purchased a year before.

Three months of conditioning later, she took thirds at both the Wisconsin Show and Badger in '99. No one was happier for her than the Konichecks who had kept her daughter. Steve Quaid took Tansy Grand Champion Mare that year and admired ''Whinnie''....he asked to take her next, so we did send her for her driving training.

In 2000, she returned for her driving debut and the Grand Champion Mare title, with SFG Tansy Alan , her Reserve. Telperien was JR Champion Mare with Rohan Titania , her Reserve. All four mares in the Grand Championship class were Eastbrook Mares...but it was Whinnie who took home the blue as well as in her two driving classes. She returned in foal to Winloc Sir Arthur but would lose that pregnancy a few weeks later.

Again, in 2001, shown by 16 y/o Lauren DeLuca, Whinnie took her second Grand Championship. We didn't work her at the show that year as she was ,again, in foal, this time to our stallion, Osiris. We were approached to sell the mare that day on the show grounds by a friend of Sandy DeMaster, the first blank check offer, I've ever received but Whinnie was happy with us with a foal on the way. This lady did not give up, joined us for dinner, offered to return the foal and finally said if we ever change our mind.....We never did as she was always so special.

In 2002, she produced a brown colt, our Eastbrook Georgio. We've retained Georgie to be our junior stallion though eventually he will be gelded to be our driving prospect. As a three year old, he's an ''easy'' horse, going well under saddle.

This was a fortunate choice as on Christmas Day, Whinnie walked away from her herd and hay and laid down. We brought her in and again offered food and water thru she had finished her meal from the night before. When she refused, we called the vet , thinking colic. He oiled her which she passed the following day but she still refused water or food. She just wanted to lay quietly in her stall. The vet recommended a new ulcer medication which did seem to make her feel better but she still refused all food and water. On day three, we asked to bring her in to the new ICU unit as we felt she was getting dehydrated.

At this point, when they tubed her, they got stomach reflux with few gut sounds. She stayed for IVs and a gastroscopy as it didn't seem to be a standard colic and her liver enzyemes were elevated. By the end of the day, she was drinking water and her gut sounds were better but had spiked a fever which responded rapidly to antibiotics. Gastroscopy showed the stomach outlet to be open but a ''clump of food'' stuck to the top of her stomach which hadn't dropped. The next day on gastroscopy the clump was still there but she would fed as soon as it dropped. On the 30th, they had irrigated enough debris off the clump to see a large squamous cell tumor to which food particles had clung on the irregular surface which also went along with the abnormal liver function to suggest metastatic disease. Her fever had returned and she was acting colicy. "We have nothing more to offer her and we recommend.......".

We drove over to be with her. With the stroke of a pen, the last rites of stewardship began, she was put to sleep ever so humanly. She was in good flesh and spirits until that Christmas morning, we didn't see it coming. We celebrate the good times and memories of the mare, Raud always greeted as'' Black Beauty''. Not a long life but a most memorable one for Cantieglen Houyhnhnm. We'll watch for her in Georgie's offspring. She always knew the way home........Mary Wilke