Sunday, May 19, 2013

...and Breeding Season Has Begun!

Sorry for the delay in updates, y'all--I'm still waiting for the updated site to be active. Nonetheless, thought it was about time to give you some SSF news. Great news: Our first baby of the year is safely here. Ignazio SSF (Don Tango B x Vincent x El Corona). He's a super fancy, chestnut; very little white; quite modern in type; really well-balanced and strong. We love him. His dam, Mistral, is a new mare to us. She is the dam of the licensed stallion Thatcher, top ten star mare, V Eight, and a second ring stallion son in Holland. She herself was the Reserve Champion mare at the National Mare Show as a three-year-old. She hadn't had a foal in a number of years, so we're relieved that all went well, and now are looking forward to breeding her back to Chagall. Breeding so far: Orchis didn't take to Florianus. We bred her on the next cycle to Everdale. Should know by the end of the week if she took--it was a great cycle; caught her just as she was ovulating. Werites has been bred on once cycle to Santano--again, will know by the end of the week if we caught her. Lily (Eliscia SSF) was bred to Chagall--and, yet again, we'll know by the weekend if she's pregnant or not. D'Orites SSF did not take on her first cycle. We're breeding her again tomorrow morning with a dose of Santano. Breeding to come: As I mentioned above, Mistral will go to Chagall. BoWendy isn't due until around the Fourth of July, but I'm planning on going back to UB-40 with her. One, the cross is outstanding; two, she's foaling so late, I'd like to try to catch her on the foal heat and not mess around with frozen. We're also excited to be able to use LaVita for one more foal. We're going to start with our dose of Wynton. LaVita just presented Sean and Melissa Hardy with a full sister to Princess yesterday (Contango x LaVita). Looks like a HUGE filly! And, lastly, I think we're going to try to breed Carol's Morgan mare, Jules, with our last dose of Voyager. She's an old girl, but that pony's frozen seems bionic. Could be a fun cross. That's right; you counted correctly. We're breeding eight mares. Crazy. But, since we cut back so much when I was sick, we don't have the inventory of horses to sell to pay the farm bills. It's time to produce some babies! Speaking of needing to sell a horse...because we don't have the babies available, we're having to offer an adult: Felicites SSF (Rousseau x Orchis). We call her Ms.P because she's so perfect. She's three-years-old, about to be started, and fancy. This is the first Orchis daughter we've ever offered for sale. I hate to part with them; however, the two Totilas fillies are going no where; Werites was injured and deserves her place in the broodmare band; Dior is keur eligible and our only Donatelli offspring...so Ms.P is the unlucky one. With a pedigree that reads Rousseau x Jazz x Roemer, out of the highest ranked dressage breeding mare outside of Holland, she ought to make someone a super fancy addition to or beginning of a solid breeding program. She's probably going to mature around 16.1, so she's not super big, but she can really move. Let me know if you or anyone you know is interested. She's at $25,000. right now, but once we get her started and going, the price will go up. Other news: Welcome, Jasper Gaarenstroom. Jasper is a young jumper rider who is a recent graduate of the Deurne school and will be joining us at Shooting Star Farm for early July until after the New England keuring in September. His task is to get two horses ready for their IBOPs, get Ms. P going solidly, and work with our other young horses. We're excited to have him join us for the summer.