Plans for Gussie

 Well I made the decision on a stallion to breed Gussie to next spring, pending, of course her passing a vet check for breeding soundness, which I expect she will have no issues. But it's best to be sure when one has to pay a stud fee and other related costs. 

So, here he is:

I have had my eye on him since we lived in Creston, but at the time he was about 6 hours away over 2 mountain passes. Not feasible  for me at the time. He has since been sold to a lady an hour from here, so I am so excited to get a chance to get a foal from him!

He's gorgeous and built a lot like Beamer was. Good solid bone, short back and a big hip. I have read reviews on his foals and they all say what good minded horses they are, easy to get along with and train. 

Here is some info on his sire, who I think is a great example of what a Quarter Horse should look like. 

There are not many of those old bloodline horses left, so getting this chance to perpetuate the lines of the great Leo is dear to my heart. Leo was also one off Beamer's papers, through his son Leo San, the sire of Mr. San Peppy, Beamer's grandsire. 

I think this stallion will cross well on Gussie, hopefully balance out her weak points and with any luck, I may even get a palomino like him or a palomino roan, but I will be happy with whatever hits the ground healthy!

And it will probably have some of her sass too....

Here  is hoping all goes well!

Switcheroos

Jayne and Dally were quite happy to get back into their bigger pen; Dally did laps to stretch her legs. Beamer is not quite so happy, he did a lot of calling today but Jayne ignored him.

Sorry Beamer, fun's over!

We got the news yesterday the Belle is indeed in foal to Root Beers Boots, and I think it's pretty sure Jayne caught so there will be 2 foals due around the third week in May. There will be a switcheroo happening at weaning time in September: so far, the plan is that Shayla will bring Belle here for the winter, and take Jayne to her place for a long term breeding lease. Since I will get the next Jayne/Beamer foal, and I'm trying to keep my limit to 3 horses, I won't need to have another broodmare, so Jayne will join her former herdmates in Alberta. I will foal Belle out and breed her back to Beamer next spring, and then she can go back to Alberta sometime next summer, or possibly at weaning time when I pick up Jayne's next foal and there is another twist- I will be leasing Shayla's buckskin mare Concho next spring and breeding her to a stallion who is homozygous for both black and dun. Take a look at his website: Gonedun Quarter Horses 

There is actually one more colour possibility: Smokey Grullo, which is Grullo with one cream gene, as a buckskin mare carries one copy of cream.  I have met this beautiful boy and he is as sweet as they say he is. I am pretty excited about the opportunity to get a foal from him, especially out of a Driftwood mare.  

This opportunity is solely due to selling Derby. Yes there was a little horse trading going on there too! So there is a lot of switching and planning going on at Diamond Lazy H Quarter Horses!

There will be a Gussie update coming soon, we may have switched who she is being bred to. 

Are you dizzy yet? 😆

It pays to be flexible in your plans; and take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Love is in the air!

Jayne came in heat last Sunday and as of today is still in standing heat. Yes, Beamer has been quite delighted to court his lovely lady Jayne 😉 So assuming she caught, baby will be due around the long weekend in May. Everything has gone smoothly; we had Dave handle Dally the first 2 days and then he wasn't available so we just left Dally in the foaling pen and took Jayne into Beamer's pen for the breeding. 

Oh Jayne... are you flirting with Beamer? 

Teehee- who, me?

Dally does run around when her mama is *ahem* busy but she doesn't get too frantic. The whole procedure from the time we catch the horses to the time Jayne is returned to the pen is less than 5 minutes. Efficient Beamer! However, I am really hoping that tomorrow Jayne will say no! I would like to get them back into the bigger mare pen and get Beamer back to going out to graze during the day.

One more flower for you- this is my "black" iris!

Everything is going according to plan

One of the reasons I halter train my foals early is to make them easy to handle when it's time for mama to be bred again. We have started teasing Jayne in anticipation of her coming into heat in the next few days. I like to get her used to the idea that the stallion may be in the same vicinity as her precious baby 😀

We catch Dally and Jayne and lead them into the foaling pen. Dally is leading like a champ now! Then I take Dally's halter off and let her loose while Ted holds Jayne and I get Beamer and bring him over to the panel fence to talk to Jayne. He's pretty loud! Once she shows signs of being in heat we'll get our friend Dave to come and hold baby down in the corner by the shelter while we tease mama in the top corner of the pen.

I finally got some action photos of her; not easy because she doesn't zip around as much as the boys do- I gotta be quick with the camera!

She sure has powerful hind quarters! She is really filling out now.

Cute as a bugs ear!

I got some good news today- she is 5 panel negative! For those of you who don't know what that means - it is a dna test I get done on all Beamer's foals to check for a  hereditary disease, and she doesn't have any. It is required for stallions to be tested but not many people test their mares. 

The princess

Some thoughts on horse breeding

Let's talk about horse breeding in this post. 

On so many of the Facebook pages I used to follow, whenever this subject came up the general consensus was that a person should only breed their mare to the top stallions whose get were bringing in the most money, or stallions who had the most money earned. This, because of the cost of breeding and the small time breeder wanting to be sure to have a marketable foal to get a return on their investment. Of course, with AI it's possible to breed a mare to any stallion if you have enough money. 

While financial concerns are important especially these days, for me the betterment of the breed is more paramount. 

Creating the best individual horse should be the focus of breeding, to my mind. I'm only a small time breeder myself, and keeping within the confines of my income meant having my own stallion. I was fortunate to have a mare in Coyote Belle who is unrelated to Beamer in 5 generations, hence a good example of hybrid vigor in their foals. That being said, I am not against line breeding, as it has served to produce excellent horses. Drifter was a line bred Driftwood horse, and Driftwood breeders have done an excellent job of line breeding and keeping the best individual horses in the breeding pool.

 Check out this link to an email from AQHA explaining hybrid vigor.

For me, the success of my breeding program, small as it is, is in the quality of the foals Beamer has sired. They may not be many, but they are all good individuals, and Moondance is as good a representative of them as any foal I have raised.

Who, me?

I don't know what his future holds, but if possible and the world doesn't go bonkers, the plan is to show him, find out where his niche is, and stand him at stud. I may be whittling down the number of horses I own but sometimes you have to keep the good one(s)!