Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Spring is in the air!

Spring is just around the corner and that means one thing to us here in Montana...babies!  This is particularly true for us this year as we are expecting our second child in just a few short weeks!  Calving season is ready to begin at any time and foaling begins this year the first part of April for us.

Awe...foaling season, one of my favorite times of the year.  The possibilities are endless, well...sorta.  Four of the six mares we have in foal are sorrel.  Sorrel paired with a palomino means you have two options.  Of course the first is filly or stud colt and the second is palomino or sorrel.  I guess we like knowing our odds! ;) The other two mares are bay/brown so their color options are much more open than our sorrel mares can genetically offer. 

No matter what the color may be, these foals born here we are proud to produce.  We strive to breed for foals that have the potential and ability to do whatever is asked.  Whether it be a top level barrel horse, a horse that is handy on the ranch or one you can trust to put your kids on, our colts are bred to have that trainability, athleticism and soundness that all of these jobs would require.

By keeping our program relatively small, we are able to have a very hands on approach to our mares and foals.  Our mares were hand picked by us to what we feel will compliment our stallion, Frenchmans Elvis, and will help us reach our goals in our breeding program.  Each mare brings something special to the table, making the resulting foal that much more special to us.

As a breeder, I am pretty proud of the fact that whatever is born on our place is exactly what I'm looking for in a prospect and I have no problem keeping them for myself to ride.  This value was one of our conditions when Philip and I started out, we are breeding for horses that we want to ride and are proud to do it!

Our program is relatively young with our first foal being just three this year, however, it is showing the hard work, the hours and hours of endless thought and consideration we put into each mare, and our vision is paying off.  We are so excited for the future and can't wait to saddle up the next prospect from our program!

What will this year's foals bring? We may not know the gender or what the color will be, but we do know this, they will be the kind we want to ride! 

PA Frenchnickerbars, 2012 filly and her dam Nick Bars Babe. Babe is bred back the same way for 2013.