Nov 4th, 2008 - Election Day
Well its election day. I'm glad its almost over. I voted, did my part and well....... back to the horses.
Around here nothing much is going on. Virtue is doing well with her Amorex foal in belly. Missy is getting HUGE, already. Poor thing, she just get so very big pregnant. She is due May and looks like she could foal today.
As some of you have seen, I have offered a lot of the horses up for sale. We are reducing our herd due to finances (or lack of). If you are interested in anyone listed, feel free to contact me directly on my cell at 210-204-9465. Ghiri is about to be started under saddle shortly, once I do have him under saddle, we will not be as negotiable about his price.
We have room for two more training horses as of Nov 1st in stalls and one slot for paddocks. Feel free to make an appointment to come by and watch us train and ride our horses to see if we would be a good fit for your program.
We also want to mention that we again have Michael Vermaas as another resident trainer. Mike and his family (Anabela/Laura) has been a part of our horse family off and on for many years now and is very good with young horses and problem horses.
And yes, 2009 breeding season is around the corner. With the special breeding fee we are offering on Puerto, we are already getting our book started. I am more than willing to start collecting him for now if someone needs him. Check with your registry, but a lot of them will take anything born after Nov of the year into the following year foal book. With our mild winters here (80's during they days - 50's at night) collection is not a problem.
We are planning on have Puerto frozen for 2009 as well. We are looking for a few test mares to see if he will settle them. You have to pay for shipping and return of the vapor shipper, but semen is "free" for testing. Criteria would be
1) Competent Equine Reproduction Vet with significant experience in frozen semen AI
2) Registered mare of sport quality for dressage and or jumpers. Thoroughbreds or Arabians welcomed. Puerto's babies are recognized by most breed associations and "non traditional breeds" can be registered and inspected with American Warmblood Association and can also get Certificate of Pedigree (COP's) with registries such as RPSI, etc. Please feel free to ask me and I can tell you your mares registry options if your confused.
Dreamstreet (Diamont x Waldorn x Gruenwald) is doing very well. We are excited about the show season next year on her. She is being offered for sale currently. Dream and I below.
Oct 25th - 4(ish) quarter stuff
Hi All, I have had a lot of complaints that is hard to download the news page due to the mass amount of stuff I have one there. But.... if I don't put stuff up, I get emails, asking for updates. So.... what I did, was break up the pages (above) so it is easier to download. TaDa, all better....
Ok, so....back to news.....
Halizar was taken to the AWS inspection yesterday. He scored very well with very good comments on his gaits, overall sporthorse potential, etc. Mitzi Archinal (owner) did a superb job braiding him. (she does do it for a living, so we can only expect the best) and it was a good day. Halizar was tired, Mitzi and I were tired, but it was a good day. We are also a bit baffled as we have measured him again, and he has gone from 16,1 to 16.3 hands now in the last two yrs. You would think a 6 yr old would stop growing, guess not.... or there is something in our water out here since everything seems to grow enormous in size.
November 6, 2008 - More pics of Ghiri. I have had some people interested in seeing more video and pics of Ghiri. Remember, is a 2.5 yr old who is not the prettiest thing right now. He is VERY big for his age and is still maturing. We expect him to mature much like Merlot. His body and build are VERY similar when Merlot was young (head and all!). I will post a current pics of Merlie now at age 5 (and a true 18h on the stick *rolling eyes*) to give you a "matured idea".
Ghiri above - (you can see more pics of him as baby and growing if you click on his name)
And this is my beloved Merlot now at age 5 -
Yeah, he is kinda of a chunky monkey!! LOL
November 20th -
Wow, things are on the move. With the change in the economy we have decided to cut back some and offered a lot of the horses up for sale that have not been up for sale before. Most are nego to a good show home, so dont be afraid to ask. Remember, we have two mares in foal as well, Virtue in foal to Amorex and Missy in foal to Puerto D'Azur (full sibling to Inspecktur), which are available for in utero purchase at a reduced cost of what they would be once they are born.
I took some pics the other day playing outside after riding. Here are some to share.
And then we have my most loved (well at least by ME) Dreamstreet. Sorry, she is a bit dusty.
Here we have Puerto (Handsome) hanging out in his paddock. Yes, he knows he is king!
The we have Ghiri! You know, I know all of you make fun of him because of the size of his head, but every day he is growing into himself. Remember how Merlot was so big and goofy looking at age 2 and now Merlot is filled out and really stunning. Ya'll give ol' Ghiri a chance, he will surprise all of you. He really does have a very good shoulder angle and a good hip, other than his head being a bit large, he is very well put together! Wait and see.... wait and see. I will tell a lot of you "I told ya so!" LOL
Then we have Alex and Inspecktur! Yeah, he is just insane, hu?! LOL Goes to show why most all Puerto's foals are either ridden by Adult Amateurs or Youth! They are very much "puppy dog personality!" I was talking to Ellen Brown in PA about her Puerto foal and she commented that if he could crawl in bed and sleep with them, he would! Gota love it!
Now................
There is something else I need to address to the public. Recently there was a situation that got back to me about the question of Puerto's semen quality being low. This is a outright HUGE LIE. Puerto has a 99% success rate on settling mares, even hard to settle ones. The only mare that I have collected for that we have not been able to settle was a mare here at the farm that had major reproduction issues herself and the vet has deemed her uterus a lost cause. :( Other than that, we have settled every mare we have shipped on. I would be more than happy to get you in touch with other vets around North America (East Coast, West Coast and many places in between) and Canada who we shipped to in the last two yrs and you are more than welcome to verify his semen quality. Please do NOT let silly and immature rumors change your mind if you are considering breeding to our stallion. I am very honest and upfront in regards to ANYTHING about Puerto, please call me directly and we can talk in length.
Mr. Handsome himself
Please also take note that Puerto will no longer be activated with the Belgian Warmblood of North America. We have declined to pay his activation fees which will void him from the stallion book. Per rumors again, I would like to comment that Puerto was not "declined his approval" due to any reason other than we decided not to pay the stallion dues/debt for the year and upcoming years. There seems to be some very busy bodies out there that have to much time on their hands trying to make negative of the situation. We chose not to activate him, he was not barred from the association due to any physical, breeding or other reason not noted, he was dropped due to US NOT PAYING THE STALLION DUES! I wanted to address this to shut down the rumor mill (Gota love the horse world some days!) Mare owners will have registry options as the following (see below) for any of Puerto upcoming foals, as you see you have many options and I am also not against getting a COP (Certificate of Pedigree) for non breed stock foals of our stallion if you do not want to go the inspection route. Puerto has already proven his ability to produce very high quality and show quality offspring and even though we do think inspection scores are a super tool to evaluate your offspring, the show ring is what matters most to us.
Our lovely 2008 Puerto foal, Inspecktur D'Azur, by Miss
Clever Leader xx
Puerto foals can be registered as the following -
RPSI
Swedish Warmblood of North America (for Swedish registered mares)
Dutch Warmblood North America (for Dutch registered mares)
American Warmblood of North America
Oldenburg North America
If you have any questions at all, please contact us directly.
