Sunday, March 18, 2012

In the Spring a Broad's Fancy Lightly Turns to Thoughts of...STALLIONS!

I apologize for the mangled reference to the Tennyson poem.  I simply couldn't help myself.

Let me qualify this post by saying the following: THIS IS A COMPLETE FANTASY.  IT HAS NO CHANCE OF HAPPENING.  Not on this planet or the next.  For many reasons. Number one being that I have no idea what I am doing, number two that even if I did, I do not have the money to support the resulting foal, and number three, there are a gazillion other horses currently on the planet that need homes. There are more reasons, but those are the top three. That being said, a broad can dream, right? 

So, when Spring is Sprung and my mailbox is filled with stallion issues from the plethora of equine publications I subscribe to, I find myself looking through breeding values and picking out potential Sugar Daddies.  I've literally spent hours researching what stallion and dam lines would potentially cross well with my Indoctro ds.Nimmerdor mare.  Again, one can argue that this is a COLOSSAL waste of time, but then, I'm learning new things, and learning is a good thing, right? (Classic example of rationalization, yes?)

Why would I want to do something as silly as breed my mare, when she's not a perfect specimen, conformationally speaking? Well, I suppose because (and I know this is selfish and self-serving, but remember, this is never gonna happen!) she's the most amazing horse I've known and I want to have something of her when she's gone.  Yep, I know, bad reason. 

She also has an amazing brain, and is incredibly intelligent, willing, and rideable.  Set out a gymnastic, and Sug figures it out first time through.  My trainer has joked that when she sets a course, she swears Sug sneaks out of her stall and studies it at night, because she seems to know the questions it asks from the start.  Basically, my trainer has told me (I like to think lovingly) to let the horse do the thinking for me, because she's better at it. 

And the mare LOVES her job.  She WANTS to jump.  If she doesn't jump for a while, she will start pulling me towards fences in the ring.  I can tell she gets bored with the piddly 3' stuff I jump, so every now and then I ask my trainer to give her a little fun and school her over something bigger.  Lastly, I've done clinics with a former Olympic rider, and every time her sees her, he tells me what a wonderful horse she is, how lucky I am to have stumbled on a class animal like her, and has even asked if I've considered breeding her.  To which I answered, "Nope. I don't have the money.  I don't know what I am doing. I am completely winging it with my human children, which is bad enough, and Lord knows I have no clue how to raise equine babies."

So, it's Spring.  And I've got about half a dozen stallion issues strewn about with dog-eared pages.  And I'm up to my eyeballs in pink and blue thoughts and images of a little bay baby cavorting around green fields.  And then I imagine that baby has grown up and is in the ring with either my daughter, my son, or myself.

Somebody smack me.  HARD.

7 comments:

  1. No smack. I hope I win the lottery so you can do it. Oh how I hope you can.....

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    1. <3 You, Emme. :) You are the bees knees. And you could breed Pippi, and the babies could have playdates. (OK, NOW i need a smack!LOL)

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  2. No harm in virtually shopping for your mare's baby daddy... we can dream, can't we?!

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    1. Thanks, Calm! Yup, the dreaming part is safe. God help me if I ever do win the lottery, though! LOL

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  3. I gave up the thought after hearing of all the nightmare stories... losing the mare, losing the foal, laminitis... And, then you have the 2 years of growing pains as the foal tries to kill itself on fencing, in the stall, playing with friends...

    Yet, I want a couple of vials of Contango... I really, really do!!!!!

    {{{Smacks head again and again and again}}}}

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    1. I hear you, Suzanne, I hear you. Think there's a support group for people like us? LOL

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  4. Agreed completely with all your reasons not to breed... but baby horses are just so dang cute! That is, when they are not trying to kill themselves on every surface with which they come into contact....

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