2014 Resolutions

It's that time when everyone reflects on the year gone by and looks forward with hopeful eyes to the future. While a lot of people I know have stopped setting resolutions, I strive on goals and accomplishments. Having something to chase down and try for: it makes the journey that much more entertaining and rewarding.

Over the last year, I've done some pretty awesome things:

• got a job with a fantastic structural engineering firm, that has a great work environment
• tried NANO for the first time, and won
• purchased one of my grail GCs for a great price
• got not one, but two Stone Morgan Santa Fes
• bought my first used car from a dealership 
• in February, I bought the dog I've wanted my whole life-a Doberman

I'm sure there are many more, but I tried to focus on the brightest highlights. 

Now, I'm excited for a whole new year, with new possibilities. And even more so because 2014 is the year of the horse. That means a great many things to come, hopefully many of them equine.

My goals/wishes/dreams for this exciting year:

• Lease or buy my own horse. I'm looking for a black gelding of Quarab, Arabian, Morgan or Morab breed.
• Buy at least two more Santa Fe Morgans
• Win NANO for the second year in a row
• buy more models (yes, this is a goal. I am lucky to be in a position where I can afford to increase my collection, and I want to glory in the amazingness of it)
• Finish off my GC collection. I have ~30 classic horses left to get and a random assortment of other sizes, many of which are difficult to track down.
• Fully pedigree every horse on my website.
• Find IDs for all my orphans (and I have a LOT)
• participate in the racing and showing clubs more actively this year
• breed 100 foals from my stable, Golden Hart Estates
• get GCMHC up and running again
• finish the personal pages for all my horses (eek, but I can do it!)
• participate in IPABRAs secret santa
• host a secret santa for GCMHC
• get Naomi and Wynonna and/or Susecion and Le Fire
• post at least once a week on my blog

I have a lot of personal goals for myself, as well, but I won't bore you with all those typicals, too. 

Well, it looks like I have a lot of work to do. Better get on it!

It's Coming!

Flaxen Thoroughbreds

So, being one of the not-so-well-understood genes, flaxen is still hard to tell what sort of parents you need in order to breed a flaxen. Lacking any better options, I went with the "two parents with flaxen is sure to produce a foal with flaxen" approach.

However, finding a Thoroughbred with "proven" flaxen turned out to harder than I thought. I say proven because there are an awful lot of people who claim their horse is flaxen, but their mane and tails look exactly the same shade as their coat. In order to be sure, I wanted very obvious flaxens, so I went on a hunt.

I'm not going to detail my process here like I usually do, and instead just get to the list of flaxen Thoroughbreds that I found. I can add more as I go, but it makes for a good starting point for others looking for them as well.

Imps Baby Girl (Mr. Explosive x Imperatorial)

Tranquera (Show a Heart x Tahnee)

Trick Ski (Rory's Jester x Rossignol)

Velonski (Falvelon x Skidoodle)

Marq Dane (Danehill Star x Marq Phil)

Right of Light (Tyrant x Daisy June)


All for now. Got more? Please share!

From Lippis to Norikers

Yesterday I was researching Lippi pedigrees and trying to find stallions of the Tulipan and Incitato sire lines, and instead stumbled across a wealth of information for Norikers! (Does that make me a great researcher or a bad one? Tee!)

My flow was this:

Searching Lipizzans, I saw a neat-colored mare called 578 Trofetta VIII. If you haven't checked her out, you should! Well, one of the links I checked out was this forum discussion: http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.com/horse-forums/colorful-horses-427735-20.html which included several other neat examples of colors, but no less than a spotted Noriker. I recently rescued a spotted draft from an antique store and had planned on creating a new Sugarbush Draft, but the picture of Nacho Salazar reminded me of their spotted drafts and prompted me to investigate. The link provided led me here: http://www.muller-equine.cz/reprodukce-koni-1/inseminace/katalog-hrebcu-2013/bacar-ze-zubri.htm.

Instead of groaning at yet another non-English site, I get excited! These usually mean that I am closing in on actual pertinent information, and my hunch was right. A gorgeous website and red roan stallion greeted me, but he was not the spotted version I was looking for.

So I backed out and did a Google image search for "Nacho Salazar Noriker" and scrolled through the images. Normally I don't waste my time clicking through each one and checking the websites. If you hover the mouse over the thumbnail of the photo, it will bring up a short idea of the website the photo came from. At that point, I was looking for anything not English. And I found a photo of a spotted draft mare and her foal. The linking website was http://www.farma-stipa.estranky.cz. Perfect!

The photo must've been one of Nacho's foals, and I clicked around the photo albums until I found what I was looking for--a chestnut leopard instead of the typical black ones. On his page I found what I was really looking for: a link to his pedigree, held on a database website. SCORE!

Now, I won't take you to his because I plan on using his pedigree for myself *wink* but I will share the website:  . The webpage has a hard time loading for me, so if you don't see it at first, be patient and try reloading or opening it on a different device.

That's it for now, but it should get you started on pedigreeing your own Noriker!