Dressage Stallion Production--Part 3 Vitalis
I love Vitalis offspring. I've ridden several, bred several (one coming in a few weeks!!) and seen many more in training and competition. The riders love them for good reason: Vitalis is known for putting a very good temperaments and ridability on his offspring. In general they are forward enough, without being spooky and naughty to the aids. They learn quickly, focus well on their rider, want to do the work and take pressure well. Vitalis himself is a son of Vivaldi, who
Dressage Stallion Production--Part 2 Subdivisions by Age
I think it is useful to think of stallion production in a few different groups: 1) foal maker 2) Under saddle (3-6 years old) 3) Short tour horses 4) GP horses 5) Damsire. Some stallions are known as "foal makers", which normally means the foals they produce are gorgeous with pretty heads and nice toplines, well-proportioned, and have fancy trots with good posture and front leg technique. Breeders who want to sell foals gravitate to these stallions, because it generally make
Dressage Stallion Production--Part 1 Discerning Trends
I'm going to start this blog series with some general thoughts on picking stallions for mares and deciding amongst foals by their sire. I'll follow with my observations of a few well-known sires. I want to start by stating that IMO the value in a stallion should be in what he brings to the table as a producer, not who he is himself. Breeders and foal buyers should concern themselves with discerning what specific characteristics a stallion reliably produces in his offspring.
Buying a Dressage Foal--Part 7 Buying off Bloodlines
I started my journey in foal-buying and breeding as a rider wanting to find high-quality FEI prospects and I had to somehow simplify my search as there's simply too much information out there for me to process otherwise. Entire books have been written about different studbooks and bloodlines, so there's no way a short blog post will even begin to cover the amount of information available. As a result I mostly constrict my research to popular Oldenburg, Hanoverian, and Dutch
Buying a Dressage Foal--Part 6 Evaluating Movement
(Video is Sienna (Secret x Don Marco) at 7 months) I think most people prioritize movement when they look at foals to purchase, if the big European foal auctions are any indicator. I never thought I'd see the day a foal would fetch close to six figures at auction, but I've seen it. The trick, though, since we're theoretically wanting to buy a talented adult horse, is how well can we evaluate foal movement and predict adult movement from it? I've asked this question point-bl
