Saturday, February 14, 2009

Breeding Descisions

Breeding Decisions

It is that time of year when breeders start thinking about what stallions to use next year. New Perth Farms currently has seven mares in foal and we must have a plan to breed them back after foaling. As we use almost exclusively frozen semen there is an almost unlimited list of possibilities. Foals this year will be by Brentano II, Concorde, Sir Oldenburg (2), Donnatelli, Lord Sinclair, and Johnson.

Breeding descisions are guided by the foals we have produced earlier years, breeding indexes, performance results of stallions in competition, and the results of the stallion selection. This is also influenced by discussions with other breeders. Right now we are at the “wish list” stage of the process and would need twice as many mares to use all the stallions that attract our attention at this stage. In reality we will probably make our final decision on what semen to order just after the KWPN/NA meeting in San Diego in March. That is four days of immersion in breeding, selection and training of Dutch horses.

What are we looking for in a stallion ? The usual that all breeders look for that long lined, super mover with correct feet and legs but we also must look for ridability as many of our clients are amateur riders that need a safe horse to ride. As we continue to start and train horses be become more and more aware how important it is to have suppelness in dressage horses. The horses like the Sandreo and Lord Sinclair offspring have those flexable backs and backs that makes their work effortless.

So what are we thinking now? We have several Sandreo offspring including one three year old that we are starting under saddle. He is from our Floristan mare and is a joy to work with as he is very willing and learns quickly. He is also a super mover so looks like the complete package that we would want more like him. Also, we see that Sandreo had the most sons, six, at the second round stallion keuring. Two of these went through to third round so this is another indication that Sandreo is making good offspring. Right now Sandreo is high on our list and added plus is the high quality of his frozen semen.

We have a Six year old Lord Sinclair, Wiseman that had done very well at the keuring and we have found very trainable. We had a very nice Lord Sinclair from our Tango mare and she is back in foal to him again. We think he needs some “Go’ on the mare side and the Tango mare is forward with out being spooky. He puts very nice heads on them and lots of bounce. So Lord Sinclair is back on our list.

Johnson also had several sons at the stallion keuring. He brings some Jazz blood which is good energy and movement and the Flemmingh influence brings a good mind. We have a very nice Johnson foal from our Floristan mare. We have one Jet Set mare in foal to Johnston and at this time we are considering him for next year. Also, Johnson usually brings lots of bling for those who like white socks.

We have a Jazz mare so Contango has to be on the list with all the great Jazz/Contango crosses out there. This mare is in foal to Bretano II , has a two year old by Sandreo and a three year old filly by Donnatelli.

On the jumping side we have a Concorde foal coming from our Hamlet mare who had a super Verdi foal last year. Vuzarma also has a Concorde two year old which we like very much. There is a large number of Concorde offspring doing well in the jumping ring. Verdi himself is doing well and has great bloodlines. No decision on this yet. Also, for jumpers we think we should be bringing in some Stakatto blood as this line is doing very well.




We have two foals coming by Sir Oldenburg. We saw him last year and he is stunning in the flesh. He is being used as a dressage sire but has a great jumping index with a lot of jumping blood with Sion and Contender in his pedigree. We will look at the two foals before we decide on using him again.

That is a few of the stallions under consideration and we will refine and expand the list until the semen is in the mares next summer.

The green grass will come !