So with that, I give you the first "Barnmates Edition" post. The weather has been BEAUTIFUL in Florida the past week, and by beautiful I mean, couldn't possibly be any more perfect. This has resulted in almost no time spent out in the house, and plenty of time spent outside working with, photographing, and video taping the horses! We got at least half the horses here photographed, and will be working on more.
Perhaps the most relevant "barnmate" of Durango's is his sister, Denver. Denver is my other personal favorite baby of the year. She has a personality very similar to Durango's, and has always been brave, curious, and friendly. Interestingly, she is Durango's newfound buddy in the pasture and the two have paired up... although she still wears the pants (poor Durango). She is also sired by A Chance For Romance, and is out of one of my favorite Quarter Horse mares, ML Zippos Venture, "Lucy", who is by the great Zippo Jack Bar and out of Leaguers Big Venture, a multiple Congress Champion producing mare. Denver is big, gorgeous, typy, and the list goes on. She was my second candidate to be brought in and learn all the basics, which I decided this was the week!
Romantic Venture a.k.a. Denver
I thought this was an interesting side note. This is Chance pictured as a yearling, not much older than Denver. The physical resemblance is absolutely uncanny!
So, we brought Denver to the round pen to get some video of her moving and start her schooling. Just absolutely amazing. Durango has some competition as far as smart and quiet goes. Little (big) Denver, after not being seperated from her buddies for months, never being in the round pen before, etc, did not even let out a peep. Not one.single.peep. She took it all in stride and was just incredible! She is also a member of the "Lazy Club" founded by her sire and supported by Durango and now Denver. I managed to get some video of her, but there was almost no canter. Just huge trots that didn't break into the canter, and if you stopped pushing her, she would do a little western pleasure jog or shut down altogether. We had to really get after her to get her to break into the canter... but it was mostly some scooting around and then shutting back down. I'm sure we'll get some better, more well-rounded video as she progresses, but for her first time ever in the round pen, she was spectacular. These Chance babies are SO easy!
Video, she definitely got her sire's award winning trot!:
Next subject of the day was Southern Rock Star, a.k.a "Clash". Clash is a three year old AQHA/APHA stallion by The Ultimate Fancy, and out of my very favorite all time mare, Southern Sensations, "Sendy". I have owned Sendy since she was a weanling - she is now 15. Sendy is also the dam of Romantic Sensation, Durango's half brother and nemesis. Clash was born late in the year, so is just now being started as a three year old. I don't like pushing late born babies as two year olds, and Clash is really now maturing and coming into his own. He is an awesome, flat mover, and just a sweet and gorgeous guy. The plan was WP futurities for him. Well, I still might do that (it would be a shame not to with his moves), but I have decided my real focus will be to try reining with him! His dam is reining bred, a granddaughter of One Gun (sire of Katie Gun who is the dam of Gunner, Spooks Gotta Gun, Dun Gotta Gun, etc). She has always crossed wondefully on WP sires, and Clash is no exception, but he has this look and athletism that screams reining to me. I have always wanted a serious reining contender and have been in the market, until one day I looked at Clash, and, Eureka! I could very well have on sitting in my own pasture. So, first we begin with starting under saddle, and we will go from there and see what happens!
Photos of the very photogenic guy:
Next is the three year old western pleasure stallion, Twenty Four Karat Chip, "Tator". I know, a lot of stallions here, but I consider it to be a well rounded line-up. :-) We have english, western pleasure, reining, QH, paint, Appaloosa, Palomino... choose your flavor! Anyway, my hope is that Tator will become our western equivalent of Chance. He had a very successful longe line career winning every major national futurity as well as Palomino World Champion, and NSBA High Point Open Longe Line Horse. He had his two year old year mostly off to just get started, and is now ready to get down to business as a three year old. The plan is WP, and then eventually adding western riding, trail, and performance halter. He had his first collection today actually, and everything came out great. We look forward to breeding his first batch of mares this year.
Video:
To add to the plethora of pictures (hey, people love scanning through photos most, right?), we snapped some shots of some of "Chance's Girls". They are ML Zippos Venture "Lucy", the dam of the Chance filly Denver, Skys Castle Magic "Shirley" dam of the Chance filly Aurora, Golden In The Dark "Hannah", future dam of my 2011 buckskin filly by Chance ( ;-) ) due in April, and of course, Lady Serengeti, "Sara", dam of the man himself, Durango, and back in foal for his full brother or sister due in May!
Hannah, in foal to Chance for April 2011
Lucy, dam of Denver, being bred back to Tator in 2011
Shirley, dam of Aurora
Lucy
Shirley
Lucy
Hannah
Sara, Durango's momma and back in foal to Chance!
Of course, the blog wouldn't be complete without some of our little man's antics. This is what I found when I went to the pasture to bring him in for dinner the other day. I have no idea.
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