Monday, February 11, 2008

Breeding for 2008

After returning from the stallion show it is time to get serious about a list of stallions for breeding in 2008. Like most breeders we started with a “wish list” which we now will refine to some serious choices.

Veganieta ,Jazz/Zeolete, has had two foals one Donnatelli and a Sandreo. Both are great foals but we want to try something new on this mare until we see what works the best. We now have had four Sandreo foals and we want to see these develop before we have more. At this time Brentana II is on the list. Brentana II has made some great horses and we have a dose of frozen semen in the tank. The other real possibility is Sir Oldenburg. He was impressive at the stallion show and was very easy to handle when I saw him at Reesink horses. Photos and video are at http://www.reesinkhorses.nl/stallions_details.php?tar=paard&Paardid=58


Vuzarma ,Hamlet/Purioso, is an easy choice. She is in foal to Verdi and I saw Verdi jump at the stallion show but he looked wonderful, careful with lots of go. But with her last year colt, Charlton by Concorde, it will be Concorde again this year. Concorde sons are doing very well in sport and this colt shows movement that could make him a dressage prospect. Hamlet now is very desirable blood now that Hickstead is doing so well.

Florentina is in foal to Johnson. Johnson won his class at Den Bosch and the Pavo cup. His foals are causing a lot of excitement in Holland. We have two foals from Sandreo by this mare. Johnson is a Jazz son and a bit of Jazz “go” could be used on this mare by Florestan. Unless the foal tells us differently we will breed her back to Johnston.

Verginia .Welt Hit II/Zeolete Had a wonderful filly by Donatelli and lost a pregnancy by Londonderry this year. We are planning on Sir Oldenburg for her to give some refinement and his good mind. Also, Sir Oldenburg has a lot of jumping blood and this usually improves the canter on the Weltmyre line


Zinosa , Tango/Purioso, is bred to Lord Sinclair and we will decide when we see the foal but going back to Lord Sinclair is a possibility. Also, another choice is Sir Oldenburg. A real possibility is that we would put this mare back in work after weaning this fall.

Wiscalina , Jet Set/Haarlem, has had two colts one by Donnatelli and one by Sandreo. We may continue to train her or breed her back. From the appearance of this years colt Sandreo looks like a good cross with this mare.

Virtual Rose, Idocus/Quattro is in foal to Viva Voltaire. She did not settle with frozen semen and this is a stallion which has made some great offspring. IF the foal looks good then she will be bred back to Viva Voltaire this year.

This is our thinking at this time but there still lots of considerations. We would like to have a Quattro like our Zandman and many of the Quattro offspring we have seen. However, Quattro semen is not the best frozen. We could try on breeding and hope to get lucky.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Stallion Show

We are just back from the Stallion Show in Den Bosch in Holland. Stallion selection is done on a formula which selects the best of three year old stallions to go into breeding. The first round is held in the fall with breeders bringing approximately 750 three year old stallions to the committee. From these about 125 are selected for second round. The selection of these is done as a public event over four days where about forty dressage and jumping stallions are selected to go to the final test where they are trained and ridden. From these approximately 15 will we given tempory approval and then finally approved when they have several foal crops on the ground.

It was a great opportunity to see groups of offspring from each stallion. Stallions such as Jazz, Rousseau and Krack C were well represented. In this second round there was a full brother of our Zandman , Quattro/Cavalier. Also, there was a half brother of Wiseman by Sandreo and a very nice Florestan from Vaganieta’s mare line.

The stallions from previous years approvals were also brought back. Generally four or five from each year up to eight year olds and then another group of stallions doing FEI level. From these we were able to see last years champion, Westpoint. Florencio and Johnson were presented and won top scores for their group.

We got to see Krack C ‘s last ride as he was retired from showing at the event. We also saw Welt Hit II receive his Keur designate. It was easy to see how our Verginia got her build from her sire Welt hit II.

We were able to visit breeders and see stallions for two days following the show. We visited Team Nijhof and VDL studs. Of all the stallions we saw the most exciting was Sir Oldenburg and he will be definitely in our breeding plans.