Monday, March 22, 2010

First Day of Spring

Last Saturday was a good day for training. The first day of spring does not always bring such nice weather.

Megan was schooling the three year old Bolshoy (Donnatelli/Jet Set) in Nova Scotia.





Martha was schooling the three yeart old Bagatelle (Donnatelli/Jazz) in Virgina.











Martha was also schooling Wiseman (Lord Sinclair/Lancet)





Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Foalings for 2010

Our expected foalings fro 2010 are:


Waltzlina, Bred to Johnson , due April 29th

Vegineta , Bred to Contango , due May 1st

Florentina , Bred to Sir Oldenburg, due May 26th

Virginia, Bred to Sandreo , due June 6th

Vuzarma, Bred to Verdi, due July 4th

Intertesting pictures.



We were clearing off the cameras including these two pictures and these are not horses but why not share.

Tuesday, March 09, 2010

Breeding for 2010

One of the main reasons for going to the stallion show was to finalize our plans for breeding in 2010.

We were planning to rebreed our Jazz/Zeoliet mare to Contango. What we saw and conversations with breeders there confirmed that Contango on Jazz is a logical mating. Many breeders in the Netherlands would like to have access to Contango to improve the canter on their mares.

The plan is to breed our Floristan to Johnson again. Based on the previous foal, Demarko, from this mating and seeing Johnson and other Jazz breeding at the show we will go with this breeding again.




Our Hamlet/Purioso mare, Vuzarma, has had two Concorde foals , one Verdi and expecting another Verdi. We liked all these foals but want to try a new sire on this mare. We liked the way Clinton jumped watching him at the Olympics and the selection committee at the stallion show liked the Clinton sons presented. We now plan to breed Vuzarma to ELDORADO v d ZESHOEK a Clinton son from a Heartbreaker mare.

This is some of the refinements for breeding plans for 2010.

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Stallion Show den Bosch

We are back from the stallion show in Den Bosch via a month working with dairy farmers in Kenya. Only zebras and a few polo ponies to feed a horse addiction in Kenya !

The stallion show met all expectations with wonderful horses and many, many, people dedicated to breeding sport horses. The quality of the young horses was spectacular and many older stallions including some of the foundations stallions gave a lot of insight into the breed.

There were some wonderful young individuals shown and were the talk of the day they were presented. However, the basic livestock breeding principle that “the breed direction is determined by the sires which are selected to sire the next generation of sires”. Looking back the decision to use sires such as Jazz, Flemingh, Nimmerdor, and Voltaire has shaped the breed. Think of the impact of 500 Gribaldi offspring each year on what the breed looks like.

We saw the early results of dividing the selections into jumper lines and dressage lines. We saw two distinct groups of horses as a result of the selection decision to specialize. The neck set of the two groups is one of the indicators that there are two directions evolving.

In the mare lines of the stallions approved for the next round we saw a lot of Jazz and Krack C influence. Interestingly, the Wolfgang son , Oscar appeared in the pedigree of three of the six dressage finalists. With the emphasis on mare lines were thrilled to see the Oscar son , yet to have a name , which was named the dressage champion is from the same mare line as our Veganieta. As a breeder it is exciting to see offspring of the sires we have used presented as sire prospects. We saw sons of Johnson, Verdi, Tango, Concorde, Jazz, Orame and Sandreo, all sires we have used in our breeding programme. We also saw Johnson, Tango and Verdi under saddle. We had seen them two years ago and their development was impressive.


The dressage night was a real show, complete with fireworks Las Vegas style! The younger stallions were presented first and then it progressed to the light tour stallions and the FEI stallions. The presentation of Totilus was everything it could be. Every ride we have seen previously there is something which could be improved but there was nothing in this ride which could be improved. Totally relaxed, expressive and in front of an enthusiastic crowd !