Just today, we were extremely pleased to find our heavily pregnant mares Snake Oil (our favorite) and Winged Saint nearing delivery! We had held off on breeding any more mares for quite a while in order to place more focus on the training of our older horses, but after the tragic loss of Viper's highly promising colt Frascarolo to a training accident, and those older horses nearing completion of their training, we lacked any reason not to. By evening, their light signs of labor had turned into chaos in the foaling barn! Viper seemed a bit more agitated, and soon after, we found the richest sorrel filly laying next to her.
Introducing...
Our slight disappointment in her carrying genetic disorder is easily shadowed by the promise we have for this filly. We fell in love almost instantly! As mentioned in our previous introductory post, her sire is the famed Orillo, a direct son of our legendary Nidora, the mare who started our addiction to the Azteca breed. Even if she doesn't seem to show much flair during training, we will likely carry her into the showring long enough for her to gain her BCh and retire as a broodmare, due to her very special, old lineage. The only other direct descendant of Orillo that has remained a staple in our bloodline is Ortigio, who can be found in most of our horses. It was a risk using our meager remaining Orillo straws on such an aged broodmare, but hopefully, 'Sammie' will prove to us that she was worth the risk.
Having witnessed Sammie's birth, we turned our attention to Wings, who seemed to have gone into hard labor contagiously. Mere minutes after Viper, she dropped an equally anticipated (and experimental) filly!
Introducing...
'Wisp' was an experimental breeding, as we have been contemplating selling her dam due to her extreme drop-off in fertility. While scouring ads for that perfect stallion, we came across Steppennwolf, who grabbed our attention immediately. His colorful coat and obvious ability seemed to overtake our policy of only breeding to stallions holding competition titles. For the last ten months, we have drooled over our mental images predicting what this foal would look like, and we were not let down! Wisp has a lovely color, full of corn marks that almost hide her barred legs and shoulders. If not for her roan gene, the color 'blue roan' could not possibly have been more fitting! Wisp seems to have solid lineage and has been an absolute sweetheart since imprinting, and we are excited to begin her training next month.
I don't think we could possibly pick a favorite between the two! Sammie holds such sentimental value, and such intricate knowledge of each horse in a pedigree is priceless to us. On the other hand, it will be very interesting to see Wisp grow and hopefully morph into a prestigious Dressage mare! Her blue sheen and lightly spotted coat shouldn't hesitate to catch the judges' eyes.
.jpg)
.jpg)
