Outrageous SSF, 2019 colt by Gaudi

My god. I was sure when I retired/refocused to be able to spend more time on farm work that I would be writing more regular journal entries. Hasn’t happened. There’s so much to catch up on, this entry will be incomplete, but it’s a start. Thank you, and sorry, to those of you who have been messaging me and practically begging for a new entry. It turns out I get more done when someone else is imposing a schedule on me than I do when I create my own schedule…

Gaudi Foals

We could not be more pleased with the quality of foals Gaudi is siring. The picture top right of this entry is Outrageous SSF (Gaudi x Gazania x Bon Bravour). Yes, there’s a gate in the way, but it’s the best conformation shot of him I’ve taken so far. He lives up to his name, “Outrageous”. Thanks to my good friend, KC Dunn, I had some Blu Hors Zack frozen to try on Gazania; otherwise, she would have gone right back to Gaudi. If the frozen doesn’t work, she will. We would love a filly from this cross to keep for our program.

Hopefully, god willing and the crick don’t rise, in the next week or so, I’ll get our website updated with pictures of all the Gaudi foals so far. He’s consistently producing a big, balanced canter, gorgeous shoulders and saddle positions, and really elegant, modern foals. We are lucky to have him available in this country.

Knock on wood, he’s shipping even better than last year. Of the first 11 mares who are far enough along to be preg-checked, nine are in foal on the first shipment. One mare had an infection, and the second mare is an older mare whose owner bred three mares on one shipment, so not a full dose—the other two mares are pregnant, however.

Breeding Update

Breeding season has just begun at SSF. We have a couple new mares that aren’t updated on the website yet, so if one seems unfamiliar, we’ll get the info up soon. If you can’t wait, email or text me, and I’ll fill you in on the details.

Inseminated so far:

Eliscia SSF (UB-40 x Pass the Glass xx) to Gaudi
Gazania (Bon Bravour x Santano) to Blu Hors Zack
T.Lente (Cabochon x Farrington) to Alexandro P

Still to be bred:

Emaldine OHMG (Atleet x Manno) to Gaudi
D’Orites SSF (Donatelli x Jazz) to Secret
Werites SSF (Freestyle x Jazz) to Gaudi
Hyacintia (Charmeur x Santano) to Vivino
BoWendy (Sir Sinclair x Jazz) to Gaudi
Galearites SSF (Totilas x Jazz) to Vivino
Carpe Diem SSF (Farrington x Pass the Glass xx) to Gaudi
ZaVita SSF (Contango x Elcaro) to Roven xx, or Charmeur, or Durango, or….

I think that’s everyone. Of course, plans can change if the frozen breedings don’t work. Fortunately, having Gaudi at our disposal, the only mare we own who can’t be bred to him is Galearites SSF, our Totilas mare.

Noirites SSF and Nobilites SSF

We kept two fillies from last year for our program. Honestly, I had some hesitation, as both breedings were experiments. Noir is Belantis x Donatelli x Jazz, and Nobilites is Borsalino x Totilas x Jazz. I’m feeling fairly strongly about infusing some German blood into our program. Since I don’t know the German stallions as well as the KWPN, and I’m not used to looking at foals from German stallions, I’ve been hyper critical about these fillies. However, I’m loving the way both of them are developing.

The Belantis is super tall, but one of the most elegant horses we’ve bred, type wise. She’s kind of gangly, so her movement has never been as quick or as powerful as most of our horses, but she has lovely scope to the movement, and her hind leg is getting stronger and stronger. My guess is she’ll be a super star at her keuring conformationally. We’ll see how her movement looks once we start prepping her in a couple years.

The Borsalino started off small and a good mover, especially good balance. She has developed into a much leggier type with very good movement and even better balance. I was a little nervous, and, confessedly, excited, about the number of crosses to Furioso in her pedigree—well, she looks and moves as if she is five times Furioso xx. Of course, none of it is up close, but he brings a strong influence through the generations. Years ago, I read an article (which I may have written about here or shared on FB) about a top cattle breeder in the midwest and inbreeding. For a while they were keeping the heifers with the best market phenotype for their breeding program, but found that these cows didn’t produce as well as their smaller cows who were inbred to a certain bull. By concentrating the genes of that bull and keeping the heifers that looked like the type he threw, then outcrossing those cows, they had the best results. Nobilites is that kind of experiment for me. Except, now, she’s not so small, but she looks like our “type”. In a keuring situation, the Belantis filly is probably going to score higher, but it will be interesting to see how they compare as producers.

OK. Enough for now. I have set a goal of a new entry every Monday from now on…