Early Breeding Decisions

Merry Christmas!  I'm spending Christmas Eve keeping Carol company in the kitchen, filling out breeding contracts, as she works on Christmas dinner, her one cooking foray of the year.  It's kind of nice to give over the kitchen and know that I don't have to think about cooking anything more than breakfast tomorrow.  Of course, the Jim Beam in front of me helps the control freak in me relax a little...

So, yes!  Breeding contracts.  I just filled out four contracts to Fairytale. With a little luck, our 2015 crop will include:

Fairytale x Jazz x Roemer
Fairytale x Vincent x El Corona
Fairytale x Donatelli x Jazz
Fairytale x Freestyle x Jazz

I'm also committing to our 16th and 17th UB-40 foals:

UB-40 x Sir Sinclair x Jazz
UB-40 x Totilas x Jazz!!!!

Fortunately, I still have a few breedings to vacillate over for the next few months. It would be WAY too boring to have everything settled now, but Iron Spring Farm has been too good to us not to breed at least a mare or two with them (plus, ever since I saw UB in den Bosch, I've just pretended he was my personal stallion), and Hilltop has played Santa by giving us an amazingly generous discount for our mares if we book by the end of the year--so, fortunately, we have enough mares to breed that I can both make some early bookings and still have some to entertain myself with until the last minute.

Quandry number one:  Gazania (Bon Bravour x Santano x Biotop).  She's in Holland, so the breeding choices are nearly limitless.  This year, her job is to do well at her keuring and get pregnant to the perfect stallion.  I'm hoping to import her in the Fall.  As far as talking about her man-date, that's pointless right now; the options are too exciting for me to even begin to narrow it down.  Maybe after the Stallion Show I'll be willing to make a short list.

Quandry number two:  ZaVita SSF (Contango x Elcaro x Belisar).  Carol has agreed to let me try an ET with Princess.  She continues to do really well under saddle, so I'm not taking her, or me, out of work, but I'd love another couple foals from her.  She produced one really nice UB-40 filly, who's now a coming five-year-old.  There are a couple solidly proven Contango niches out there that would be worth trying. There are a couple young KWPN stallions for whom I might be willing to break my "No Frozen without a LFG" policy, if I know the semen is good.  And, additionally, I want a grey dressage horse in the worst way, so I'm scouting all grey stallion possibilities.

Quandry number three:  Eliscia SSF (UB-40 x Pass the Glass xx)  First, there's a possibility she's sold, so I'm not going to sign a breeding contract for her unless I know for sure.  Second, I bought the 10 doses of Chagall specifically to cross with her--I've used seven doses unsuccessfully (not all on her--only two on her), so I have three left.  It might be worth thawing all three and dumping them in her for one last ditch effort at getting that cross.  Three, she needs to do her IBOP to complete her keur status this year, and it might be best to give her the year off, especially since she's going to have a foal by her side.

Did you just count how many possible 2015 foals that is?  Four Fairytale, two UB, and three undecided...nine, and not a one that I wouldn't consider keeping as either a future broodmare or stallion prospect.  We need a bigger farm.