The true strength of any breeding program comes not from the stallions used, but from the quality of the mares in the program.
April 2017 - We had just learned that one of our mares, Willow, was no longer a good candidate for breeding. We had also recently discovered that the sire of our 2015 gelding Seamus had been gelded without being frozen. The talented Manchester City it seemed, struggled balancing his stallion drive with his living situation. With so few breeders of ponies in North America coupled with his immense talent for sport, his owner opted the best thing for him was to live his life as a show gelding. We commend her decision for his happiness, but despair at no longer having access to breeding to this stellar stallion.
With these new developments, we turned our eyes to the future of our program and began searching for the best stallion match for either Katie or Ella. And then, the phone rang and everything changed.
Our friend, mentor and long-time breeder of German Riding Ponies, Dianna of Fox Creek Farm called with an incredible opportunity. She was long on mares and short on luck the last few years. She couldn't stand the idea of her lovely imported mares going another year without being bred, so she offered us a breed lease on two of them. This was truly an amazing opportunity! The mares are both imported; Surrender Dew Drop (FS Golden Highlight x FS Cocky Dundee/FS Pavarotti) and States Premium mare Catania (Diamond x Brilliant/ Nehros).
The only catch; we needed to decide, then go fetch them from Kansas in less than three weeks at which time she would be moving her operation to Florida. This is a reasonable time window for most people, but for the four critically analytical people of CGF, this was a very big decision in a short amount of time! Surprisingly, there was very little discussion needed and soon,the truck and trailer were packed for a road trip.
Since our route would take us within two hours, we opted to add a stop at Wally Woo Farm to meet the young and exciting German Riding pony stallion Fox Creek's Censational. He was wonderful and well worth the extra time and distance to see! After a day of driving, we finally made it to our hotel at midnight.
An early start and a short drive to the farm, we met up with Dianna as she showed us around to see the ponies. We had been there 5 years prior, but her program had grown and evolved significantly in that time. We discussed bloodlines, stallions, trends and players both in North America and abroad.
We walked among her bachelor herd of young stallions including the 3-year old Masterpiece by Manchester City. The leggy, uphill buckskin moved like none other and we were immediately drawn to him. There were other, promising young stallions there as well, but we couldn't take our eyes off Masterpiece.
After loading the girls into the trailer, we started the journey back North. With frequent stops for rest, fuel and water, it was nearly midnight when we arrived back at the CGF foaling station. We settled the girls in for the night, and dragged ourselves off to bed. Many big decisions lie ahead, but first.... rest.
