September 2008 |
Scary Events
There has been a lot of excitement at WATCHMAN during the last two months. Our spectrum of experiences stretched from scary colic surgery to top honors at the Feria del Caballo Espanol Horse Show in City of Industry, CA.
While out-of-town celebrating Father’s Day, I got a call from the farm. Europa was displaying signs of discomfort out in the field. After fifteen minutes, she continued to be in pain, so she was loaded in the trailer for a trip to the vet. Knowing she was pregnant and had a 2 month old colt at side, created a deep sense of anxiety. Long story short, she was in colic surgery within an hour. With so much at risk, what started out as a holiday soon turned to anxious hours by the phone. The combination of veterinarian expertise and great luck gave us the result we hoped for. Europa came out of surgery with a good chance of survival. Her colt weathered his first separation from mom without difficulty and the greatest blessing was that Europa retained her pregnancy.
She was in the horse version of intensive care for about ten days and then progressed through 6 weeks of rehabilitation before returning to the herd. Special arrangements that included stall rest, living in a small paddock and then a larger one had to consider the needs of a small active foal. It is a testament to our horse’s
fabled temperament how well Europa and her colt handled confinement.
I learned some new things about the horse’s digestive system. Europa’s diagnosis was a torn mesentery which is the fatty supportive tissue that holds the intestines in place. We are not sure how it was torn but we are grateful she did not require resection of her bowel. It might have happened during foaling so we will be watching her carefully next spring. BTW, these horses gained many admirers for the P.R,E. breed when the mare displayed gentle submission to treatment and the foal adapted to multiple handlers and environments.
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Feria del Caballo Español 2008
Anxiety turned to pure joy when reports came from Feria. WATCHMAN sent Galea MHF and Doctora AK to compete. Both mares exceeded our wildest expectations when Galea was named Absolute Champion of the Show competing with seasoned stallions and mares for the honor. Doctora confirmed my faith in her when she was named Adult Absolute Best Movement Champion. We call her our "best kept secret" because she is an unassuming mare, smaller than some but with wings on her hooves. We guess the secret is out! I did not attend the show as another hallmark experience happened..my first and only granddaughter celebrated her first birthday.
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Celebration 2008 WATCHMAN sent Eminente WAE and Kenya WAE to 2008 Celebration of the Pure Spanish Horse. The first horses to
be branded at our farm, they conducted themselves very well at the show. They greeted many visitors with friendliness and inquiring gazes. Kenya was second in the weanling colt class but won best movement. Eminente was under the weather and did not enter the show ring. Nevertheless, his long legged beauty and elegance caught the eye of more than one visitor.
Photo: Paco Rey
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New Purchases
WATCHMAN brought back a wonderful filly from Celebration, a weanling named Skylar MHF who won first place in the weanling filly class. We have hopes that Skylar will join Europa and Galea in a fabulous future cobra honoring their sire, Navarre GF and Manor Hill Farm. Photo: Paco Rey
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Now we our eyes turn to the fall and winter season and time with family and days off driving up the west coast.
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July 2008 |
A New Plateau
It feels at WATCHMAN P.R.E. Horses like we have moved to a new plateau. It is certainly an entirely different experience to go through a foaling season than to plan one.and the past three months have been an extremely exhilarating time for us. We have the first foals born to the WATCHMAN brand.three colts and two fillies. We have had many reactions.exhaustion, anticipation, excitement, exhilaration, fear, exhaustion and more exhaustion.
Now a few weeks later, we have more mouths to feed, more babies due in the spring, more new owners, and a deeper understanding of what it takes to run a breeding business.
Our youngest babies are available for purchase.Devoto WAE, Kenya WAE and Verbena WAE. We are happy to say the older ones flew off the shelf like warm cookies.Maravilla WAE and Eminente WAE will be leaving us in early fall.
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Calificado
A lasting result of these experiences is a renewed commitment to the P.R.E. breed. Since 2004, the Spanish Stud Book has a higher level of qualification for breeding animals. The list of animals that have met the exacting criteria of the Tribunal is another reference a breeder located far away from Spain can use to guide decisions. So the word CALIFICADO will be prominent in the description of WATCHMAN horses in the future. Our plan has three parts: breed to CALIFICADO stallions. Qualify WATCHMAN mares, and purchase mares and fillies for our breeding program from CALIFICADO stock.
We have penned a new phrase to describe our ongoing program. It is…
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Quality begins with a "W"
What are we doing about it? Well, in our mare band we have two mares by Gaucho III and three mares in foal to Fugitivo XII. We will always strive to breed quality foals and certainly there are many quality horses that never are presented to a Tribunal, especially when there has only been two such opportunities in the U.S. to date…mares like Fabulilla MR, Europa MHF, Doctora AK, Galea MHF and Viuda JIM have proven themselves by earning National titles and producing beautiful babies and will remain in our broodmare band.
The current expanded choices for P.R.E. registration puts more pressure on buyers and breeders to define and identify quality horses. WATCHMAN pledges to employ every means available to show potential buyers excellent colts and fillies with top notch pedigrees, registration eligibility, and talent for sport.
We will take one more step to meet a discerning customer desires. We are willing to arrange a “custom breeding” using one of our mares and a premier stallion of the customer’s choice. Some of our better known mares are already booked 2 years out. It is a great idea if you have some experience with youngsters and have studied bloodlines, performance and show records, and are sure of your choices. Call us for details…the cost is about the same as purchasing a colt or filly post foaling and caters to those who know what they want.
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April 2008 |
WOW are we busy!
Spring has come to central California and the foals are arriving along with the clover and sweet pasture grasses. The blessings of Easter were poured on WATCHMAN with the arrival of three new babies. WOW were we busy. First, early Saturday morning Fabulilla MR gave us our first filly. Maravilla WAE, as we have named her, was born at 3:15am. She is by Sabio GF and a very large, leggy girl. Born black with silver eyeliner, we know she will soon turn gray. As soon as she learns to use those legs, we will post pictures. This filly is a genetic treasure doubling up the Indiano XVIII bloodline...with a very large dose of the Militar from her dam's side. Before we could get a good night's sleep, two more mares foaled early Sunday morning. Kudu GF gave us a very athletic gray colt who at a few hours of age was leaping, levading and galloping all around. Poor Kudu couldn't keep track of him. Her work is cut out for her once the herd is reformed in the field. We named him Kenya WAE keeping faithful to the African names given to this line by Lanys Kaye-Eddy. The third colt was presented by Kate, our AQHA mare. He appears to be a great blend of these two functional breeds...he is by Macareno and has his father's beautiful head and neck, croup, straight legs and color.
Our first born of the season came on March 15, when Doctora AK gave us a bay colt by Macareno. He is a real beauty, very correct and personable. We named him Davidoso WAE after my oldest son.
So we now have three out of the four Macareno foals we planned for this year. I was curious how similar they would be...and they all do have some common traits...the first thing to notice is the beauty and correctness of these three colts. The next trait is their fantastic temperments. All three have been eager to make friends from moment one. They are active, inquisitive, and have great movement. None have any white markings...two are gray and one appears to be bay.
We have two more foals coming: one from Europa MHF in about three weeks and one in July from Viuda JIM.
Pictures will be posted when the babies are all two or three weeks old and have tried their legs. All WATCHMAN foals are for sale. The prices are especially reasonable while they are at their mother's side. Call for details.
Office:
209.549.1268
Cell: 415.830.1346
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January 2008 |
2008 Foaling Season
Here we are on the cusp of the 2008 foaling season. Macareno's first ever babies will start to arrive in March. We expect five births...Doctora, Kate, Fabulilla, Kudu, and Europa. We are focused between now and then, making sure the mares are well cared for and prepared for foaling.
Beyond the worry and concern, is the pure joy and expectation....what sex will they be, what color? Will they look like sire or dam? Will they be alike as a group with some in-common feature.....his eyes or topline etc. Of course, we will post pictures right away and will be happy to take inquiries. All of these babies are for sale. All will be eligible for inscription except Kate's foal. This one is an Azteca and will be registered with the IALHA. Kate is a very pretty bright red bay racing-type Quarter Horse.
The second aspect of the spring season is deciding about the stallions to use for the next crop. It is a very serious and time consuming endeavor. In 2007, we wanted to give Macareno a chance to have a successful first season but this year each mare is considered separately; looking for the best mate for her. We will announce our choices as the mares become pregnant.
This year, we will focus on four things, foaling and breeding, fine- tuning our brood mare band, inscribing, revising and qualifying our stock as appropriate, and showing our fillies. Additionally we will write and publish articles in the P.R.E. Horse magazine.
We think the advent and availability of the TRC in the United States presents American breeders with a new challenge; to improve the quality of our produce and prove it in the show ring, the dressage court, the breeding shed, and at inscription, revision and the TRC. With that in mind, we will be incorporating Qualified horses into our program in three ways. We will seek to qualify our brood mares if they are worthy, we will breed to Qualified stallions, and we will purchase fillies out of qualified stock. Looking forward to hearing from those of you who want more information about our program and mares.
Until then...
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