I finally feel like I can break my BIG NEWS about Pmare, since I officially have an ultrasound in hand to confirm that this dream really is becoming reality.
P is officially confirmed 17 days in foal for a 2015 baby by Oldenburg stallion Don De Marco!
I've never really written about what I truthfully bought P for in the first place, just because of how horrible people were to me when I talked about breeding Gogo. I seriously almost quit blogging about Gogo TWICE because of how mean people were about the whole breeding thing, and I only ever discussed it in mild passing. People are REALLY REALLY opinionated on breeding. For the most part I agree with them - you should ABSOLUTELY rescue pets, no question about it. But sport animals (dogs and horses alike), there is a place for purposeful breeding. You would love your 3-legged chihuahua as much as anyone, but you probably would not want to use him in agility trials. (As an aside, all four of my dogs and all five of my cats are all rescues.) So when I bought P, who is Metro's last remaining daughter and who is nice but not quite as quality as Gogo was, I figured I better shut my mouth and not say a WORD about my actual intentions with her. But I bought her as a broodmare. I bought her with the intent of continuing this line in a small way, just for myself, because they are just the best. I have no interest in churning out babies, I have no interest in backyard or irresponsible breeding, I have no interest in selling. I'm keeping this bloodline for myself. If anyone has a problem with that, turn your fanny right around and get out of here. I am not interested in getting into this "breed or buy" argument, I've had it before. I made this choice for a myriad of reasons, I spent two years going through my stallion options to pick just the right one, and I'm keeping this baby as my own sport horse prospect. This bloodline means a lot to me. And P is the last living one of them.
So if you have a problem with that, then now is the time to leave.
And the rest of you..... celebrate with me and go YAY BABY BABY BABY BABY!
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This story actually starts in 2006, before I had even bought Gogo. I first found a sale ad for P (named Chloe, back then) in 2005. I still had Metro at that point, of course, but watched all her videos and loved her to bits. Metro died in 2006, and I briefly went back and searched for P's old sale ad, but she had sold by then (for about $20k). I managed to contact her seller, who passed me onto her new owner (who is the lady I eventually bought her from). We got in touch in May of 2006, and discussed creating a custom foal for me as a graduation (from college) present to myself. I had originally chosen Windfall, and was super excited about it. I even created this custom graphic for it:
So cheesy... but I was SO EXCITED.
As it turned out, the owner ended up breeding her herself first, and P absorbed the first pregnancy late in the year. They chose to breed her again the following year, which resulted in a filly named Spirit.
I didn't have much contact with her old owner after that, aside from a stint in 2009 when she called me up out of the blue and offered her to me, since she was planning her own family by then and was getting out of horses. She wanted $10,000 for her at the time, and I said there was no way I could possibly afford that, but to keep me updated on her.
I didn't hear from her again until right after Gogo died, when she called me up out of the blue again and offered her to me for a rock bottom price. You all know the story from there... I jumped on it and had her shipped down to Texas all the way from Canada. And I didn't tell anyone then, but I had every intention of using her as a broodmare.
I spent the last two years considering my stallion options, hemming and hawing, and going back and forth, all while riding her and then later leasing her out. I did consider going with Windfall, as was my original plan, but I actually looked at a few Windfalls after Metro died (before I ended up with Gogo) and never really liked any of them. They were nice, but some of them were horrible jumpers, and considering what the stallion himself did I thought their jumping ability should have been a lot better. Windfall himself has a long list of credentials, and is still sound and doing GP in his 20's, but his babies are sort of a mixed basket. Windfall's stud fee is also $3000, and that's just not something I can do for something that may or may not turn out like I want. After a long list of considerations, I went with the Oldenburg stallion Don De Marco. P is Canadian Trakehner, and not registered with any US registry, but the baby can and will be ISR/Old registered.
Why I chose this stallion, and what I like about him:
1) He REALLY stamps his kids. Even babies out of crappy mares are greatly improved by this guy. The stallion is very nice, yes, but the babies are WAY nice, and at the end of the day that is the true test of a stallion. P also out-produced herself when she was bred before, so hopefully if they both out-produce themselves, I might end up with something quite nice!
2) I need good strong straight (hopefully long) legs, and he delivers that.
2) I want to give P an uphill boost, especially in her neck and movement (she is a fairly level/flat mover with a level/flat topline), and he delivers that as well.
3) I want a knockout mover, and he delivers that as well!
4) The stallion passes on a pretty good temperament, maybe a little varied, but P's family line has a strong history of passing on that steady and bold temperament, no matter what the other parent was like. I have a good chance that the baby will inherit the same temperament that Metro, P, and Spirit all share.
What I'm not getting:
1) Size. Which is good! P is just a hair over 16hh, and the stallion is about 16.1hh and change. Hopefully I get something around the same size.
2) A guarantee for world class bascule. Which is fine by me. P is a very cute and tidy jumper, and when the jumps are high the stallion is tidy as well, but he doesn't have back-cracking bascule by any means. If I were specifically breeding for a jumper, I'm sure I would have chosen another stallion. I'm breeding in theory for a horse that can get around mid-level events without hanging a leg and killing anyone, so as long as the baby can safely get their legs out of the way of jumps, I'm happy. More important for me is movement, as my ultimate and primary interest at the end of the day is dressage. I would rather have a decent (safe) jumper and a knockout mover versus a knockout jumper with decent movement.
3) A guarantee for anything really - breeding is a complete crapshoot, no matter how well you plan it!
4) His offspring are young and are just starting under saddle now. We don't know know they're going to hold up in the show ring yet, so we don't have a total performance or soundness guarantee. Only one way to find out though!
And when I say he stamps his babies with all the things I want, I mean he REALLY stamps them!:
Yes, those are ALL different babies! He is a VERY prepotent producer. He gives them exactly what I was looking to improve - good straight legs, an awesome uphill build, a very strong topline, and some banging good movement. To see him pass all of those things that I wanted, SO strongly in SO many foals.... that sealed the deal for me. His babies really, really sold him for me.
Oh, and they tend to grow up and look like this if you're lucky:
3 year old gelding. NOT BAD. I'd be very happy with something like that in my barn! I'd be happy with something half that nice!
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I trailered P out to the vet on May 7th (a Wednesday) just to get a baseline for where she was in her cycle. (The stallion owner generally collects on Mon-Wed-Fri.) I knew she was somewhere mid-cycle, but hasn't been tracking her cycles very closely. Imagine my total surprise when my vet checked her and declared, "oh nice she has a 52mm follicle! So can you get semen today?" Wait what?? Today??
I called the owner, didn't get through, and then emailed on a whim. By some stroke of dumb luck, she emailed right back and told me she'd get semen in the mail right away. A 52mm follicle is HUGE, even for a warmblood (they usually ovulate around 40-45mm or so), so we had a minimal amount of time to work with. She has some minor fluid that day as well, so we gave her some oxytocin and an ovulatory agent, and I left her at the vet for the night. The next morning, the vet reported to me that she was checked and was clear of fluid, and that her follicle had grown to 55mm. She ovulated right on time and was bred right according to schedule, but we decided to leave her at the vet for one more night. (We also only had one dose of semen, which is unusual... usually a breeder will send two doses. Luckily, our swimmers were 90-95% progressively motile, meaning they were all swimming strongly in a straight line!) Not unexpectedly, when they checked her the next morning, she had some fluid again (not abnormal for an older mare bred via AI), which earned her a lavage, more oxytocin, and one more night's stay at the vet. She came home with me Saturday, along with four doses of oxytocin, to be given at intervals until Sunday night. (The embryo doesn't enter the uterus until around day 6, so this is safe.)
It was totally worth it to drop her off at the vet and let them do their thing. They handled all of the paperwork, worked with the stallion owner, and did all of her therapies right on schedule. My vet is very experienced in repro work, so I just let them do their thing, even though I have a college degree in this stuff! (No, I really do... I minored in repro work!)
We checked her yesterday, at day 16 post-insemination.... and we had an embryo!! I was SO convinced she hadn't taken, because how could it all have POSSIBLY gone down that easy! But, she took!!
My baby looks like this right now:
Just a little black dot. But that black dot will grow and grow! We'll recheck in two more weeks for a heartbeat. My vet has a schedule he wants me to keep, but this is generally what we'll be looking at in terms of landmarks:
Ahhhhh I'm so excited!!! This is an idea eight years in the making.... and it is FINALLY coming true!!!
