[stolensilver]

It's starting to get exciting. All the arrangements have been made to ship some frozen doses of Silvermoon to my vet. It's going to be used on a lovely mare I've got on loan. She is by De Niro out of a full sister to Piccolino, the German team horse and WEG gold medallist. I hope it all works out!

And this year's foal, out of my heart horse, is due in the next two weeks. Can't wait to see what she has. If that all goes smoothly I'm probably putting her in foal to De Niro for her final foal. And I'll be praying for a filly.

Who are you planning to use this year on your mares?

[ShadowsMom]

We are waiting for our frozen semen for Johnson to arrive. Will use it on our Ferro/Donnerhall mare who produced a gorgeous colt by Rashka in March for us. We also bred our Walk on Top ISR Star mare to Rashka almost two weeks ago, so are hoping for a nice black dot on Saturday. Tomorrow we breed our Zeoliet/Wagner KWPN mare to Rubignon! It is an exciting time of the year!
Good luck to everyone with their new foals and up and coming breedings...

[Tasker]

Sadly none for us this year. But that mean we get to live vicariously through you guys!!!

SS - good luck with your DeNiro's. I am most jealous and will do my best filly dance for you when the time is right.

Fingers crossed for easy foalings and successful breedings for everyone!

[stolensilver]

Good luck Shadowsmom. Here's hoping you get three back blobs on your mares' next scans.

I'm sorry you aren't breeding any foals this year Tasker as you have bred so many talented horses. Are you going to put some back in foal next year?

After posting this I've been having a dither about who to use. The problem isn't De Niro (how could it be?) It's the attitude of the buying public to foals bred for dressage out of non-warmblood mares. Soundness and performance and even full WBFSH papers for the offspring don't seem to be enough to overcome that bias. If the mare is Irish the buyers aren't interested for dressage. They are interested for eventing and jumping but not for dressage.

So I've had a rethink, just in case she gives me yet another colt! And have come up with another stallion. He stands in the UK and is young so not well known but he's competing in dressage (qualifying for the young horse championships and national championships) and showjumping (doing 1m20 already and qualifying for the Regionals) He's known for his good temperament.

He's called Cendy and is by Consul (by Churchill) who competed international GP dressage. His damsire is Come Back II who is, IMO, one of the best stallions in the world today as he competed at international GP dressage and he's sired multiple international GP dressage horses and 1m60 jumpers. His great grand damsire is Mago, a TB who competed at international GP dressage and sired several GP dressage horses, some were international competitors as well as at least one international eventer. He's line bred 3x4 to Cor de la Bryere too as an extra bonus.

The benefit of using him is the saving on the stud fee compared to De Niro will finance keeping the loan mare for a year and if I get yet another colt I can sell it for the sort of prices that dressage foals out of non warmblood mares go for and not feel too much pain. Plus, most importantly, I like him and I think he will suit my mare and also if (please, please, please!) I get a filly that should cross very nicely indeed with Silvermoon.

And now I've been presumptuous enough to make plans how long do you think it will be before they all fall apart?

[Tasker]

That sounds like an excellent plan SS! I will do the necessary crossing & dancing for you when the time comes!

As for us and future breedings - nothing is for certain but I have an obligation as a rider to develop the horses we have on the ground already. Wizard is coming along fabulously and I would like to have fewer horses to ride every day - which means limiting breeding our mares. It sucks to have so many on the brink of being real FEI horses and not enough hours/energy in a day to raise foals properly too. And for as long as I can manage to ride, that means less breeding I'm afraid. If I could make a day stretch out longer (and find more energy and a younger body), I would love to breed the 3 best dressage Waldaire daughters to Dressage Royal...and here's why. That's the giant 3 year old (almost 17 hands) and she's my keeper. But the main thing is to enjoy each day, horse and moment. Good luck!!!

[EquusMagnificus]

Lol!

[stolensilver]

Tasker I can see why she's your keeper. She's going to be jaw dropping when she's grown into herself. So much grace for such a big horse. Good luck!

I know what you mean about not having enough time! There's so much going on at the moment I don't know which way is up.

[risingstarfarm]

SS it sounds like you have lots to be excited about!

I had a lovely foal crop from Valentino Z this year and will rebreed a few mares to him and then do some test breedings with the Cassini I colt. I've also got a couple of mares reserved for Kinnaras (including the Come Back II mare). The new Lux Z mare will get Cielo B frozen semen. Very excited to have received news that my new mare in Belgium is in foal to Nabab de Reve. Going for 3/4 sib to my current Nabab colt since the new dam is the full sister of the Radco/Chin Chin/Carthago mare that I bought last year