On the Hunt for a Unicorn

By now many of our followers have heard the news... there's a new boy in town at All the King's Horses! Kyro van de Fossa Eugenia is a 5 month old Brabant colt who recently arrived from the Netherlands. Importing any horse is a big deal, but this boy is especially significant for us as he will be our future herd sire and contribute greatly to the genetic makeup of our herd. Of course, anytime we purchase a horse we are looking for a conformationally correct animal who is a good example of the breed standard, but we had several other important items on our list when evaluating a herd sire prospect. Here are some of the factors we considered when searching for this special boy:

1. Pedigree: The Brabant breed has small population numbers and suffers from inbreeding, where many of the horses are closely related. When only a handful of horses are imported to the US the problem quickly becomes compounded. As we searched for our next herd sire, we were actively looking for a stud that is not related to the popular lines that have been imported in recent years.

2. Leg Health: CPL is a known issue in the Brabant breed and something that affects most of the horses to one degree or another. As breeders of purebred Brabants, it's not likely that we will find a horse totally free of CPL but we do seek to find horses out of lines with long-lived horses that remain healthy and sound, even if their legs aren't perfect. This is the hardest factor to judge without actually meeting the parents in person (which is the way we'd like to do it, but Covid...) so we relied on feedback from the connections we made during our 2019 European tour as well as published results on leg health to identify lines that we would consider for our own herd.

3. Height: We prefer our horses in the 16-16.2 hand range, while current trends in Europe are towards taller horses. Kyro's sire measures just shy of 16.2 and his dam was comparable in size. I was surprised at how tall Kyro appeared when we brought him home, but a measurement of his cannon bone using the 'string test' popular with many breeders suggests that he will mature right at 16 hands. That would be perfect for us!

4. Color: This is a hard one for me to admit, because I am always preaching at folks to consider more than color when buying a Brabant! However, as a breeder I have to consider the fact that color sells, and blue roans are our most requested color. Since most of our mares are bay based, with bay being produced by the dominant Agouti gene, we really wanted either a black or blue roan stud to help increase our odds of the elusive blue foals. While color was not a disqualification for the 'perfect' horse, it was something that we took into consideration

5. PSSM: PSSM is a genetic condition that affects how horses utilize sugars and starches in their diet. Affected horses can experience 'tying up' of their muscles during a PSSM episode. The gene is found in many horse breeds and can affect different horses or breed types in different ways. Based on the Brabants we've tested, both imports and American bred horses, we find that nearly all of them carry at least one copy of the PSSM1 gene. Even so, on our own farm we haven't found that differences in PSSM status are evident in our horses' health or behavior so it's not something that we get too concerned about in our breeding program (more on that to come). That said, it is a thing that people sometimes ask about, especially if they plan to cross with light horse breeds that are more prone to problems. With this in mind, we tested potential stud colts for PSSM as part of the evaluation process. When Kyro came back free of the PSSM gene that was the final confirmation that he was 'the one' to join us.

Importing, when done well, requires a whole lot of time and careful analysis of the goals of your own breeding program as well as the horses that are offered to you. It is an exciting process but not something that we take lightly. To be totally honest, I'm rather glad that this will be our final import for a while! We owe a huge thank-you to many breeders and friends in Europe who helped us by providing leads and suggestions on horses to consider as well as feedback on their pedigrees. And, of course, a big debt of gratitude and admiration for the Gaal family who bred Kyro and were willing to share him with us. We can't wait to watch him mature and see how he fits into the future of our herd!

So you want to breed horses...

In my line of work, breeding and selling foals, it's not at all uncommon to encounter folks who either purchase a filly from us with the intention of breeding in the future, or reach out about stud service for a mare they own. Many of these people are new to the breeding game and have exciting plans for their program and the foals they will produce and sell in the future. We're pretty new to breeding ourselves (our first *intended* foal was born in 2015) so I recall the excitement and apprehension of starting out quite well. I love what we've attained and while I'm far from an expert there are a few things I wish I had known going into things. With that in mind, here are 3 big-picture tips if you're just starting out!

1. Know what you enjoy and play to your strengths. There are SO MANY facets of horse care and it is literally impossible to be an expert at everything. To keep costs under control, we often take on a variety of different tasks but there will always be things that we cannot do ourselves. It's good to know what parts you enjoy and what tasks you're capable of performing yourself, and to have a plan for the areas that require outside help. For example, I have always been fascinated by the breeding side of animal care and have invested heavily in education and hands-on practice in order to handle that part of our operation. On the flip side, I am no trainer and often send horses to a friend who specializes in starting youngsters or providing refreshers to mature horses when needed.

2. Know that in the end, it's about the people! This may come as a surprise, as most livestock folks don't get into their chosen profession because they especially enjoy interacting with people. But the more time I spend breeding and selling horses the more I realize that ultimately it is the relationships that we build and the way we treat people that makes or breaks a program. Between marketing horses for sale, offering advice on all kinds of issues to past and potential customers, dealing with vets, salesmen, registries, and other breeders I find that much of my day is spent communicating with others- even if it's done in the middle of the field while attending to chores. As an introvert this can be a real challenge, but I firmly believe that there are direct ties between how you handle the people side of things and how your program is perceived.

3. Be grounded. One of the certainties of breeding horses is that there will be hard, heartbreaking periods. Of course, many days are full of excitement and wonder but if you spend any amount of time at all with horses there will also be days that threaten to crush you. It is vitally important to know why you do what you do, and to remember that a failure or loss does not define you or make you a terrible horse person. The tough days can be hard to accept, especially the ones that mean losing an animal that you love, but being able to recognize the deeper purpose behind why you got into breeding horses and take the bad days along with the good is vital to staying (a little bit) sane in the process.

So if you're just getting ready to start on the horse breeding journey... congratulations! There truly is never a dull moment. Ask questions, learn as much as you can from others (who have probably learned the hard way themselves) and be prepared for the unexpected along the way!

Getting Back on the Horse

Well. I knew it had been a while since I shared a blog post on the site but I didn't realize it had been quite this long... my apologies for the 6 week break! It's been a busy and often stressful month and a half and I'm just finally getting to the point where I'm ready to stop and reflect on it.

Most significantly, shortly after doing our foaling recap and celebrating the joys of a successful year of foaling we were hit with one of the big lows of farming when we had to make the call to put a foal down. Not just any foal, but our sweet Thumper who we had nursed through all kinds of issues following his premature birth. We never expected his story to end with a call that what looked like a simple pasture bump and a limp was actually a serious injury with poor long term outlook. I'll be honest- that one hit hard. I know that it was the right call to make but losing a baby that has taken up so much of our time and our hearts was devastating. It kind of threw a fog over the usual late-summer activities which is finally starting to clear and let us enjoy the wins in farm life again.

Along with the sadness of losing Thumper, we were faced with more medical challenges when we had two young foals put on stall rest. Their issues were easily treatable, although requiring time to fully resolve, but with our recent loss it felt extra nerve-wracking trying to nurse them through the treatment process. And as if constant medications and hand walking weren't enough, we ran out of space in the barn and had to build another! I'm so grateful for Dehan's skills and drive as it took just a week to go from an idea to a functional pavilion-style barn.

Those feel like the major projects of the last six weeks, but plenty of other things were on the list as well. Second cut hay is nearly wrapped up, with the final fields drying now. We had family in town for a visit and got to show off the joys of farm life to a very enthusiastic little girl. Breeding season wrapped up with successful pregnancy checks on all but one of the mares we had planned to breed. Weaning has begun for the first round of foals and baby boot camp is soon to follow. And now that I have a few spare moments I've been enjoying doing some short refresher rides on a mare that will be for sale later this fall. I've missed my saddle time a lot with all the chaos of keeping a farm running so that is an exciting addition to my schedule.

There have been a lot of joys mixed in with the challenges of the summer and it's good to stop and think about those as well. As the old saying goes, when you fall off the horse you have to get right back on... and so here we are, plugging away and hoping for a few months of a rocking-horse instead of a bronco!