Fast forward to 2011. Rising Star Farm currently stands four stallions - Deja Blue B, Figaro B, Kinnaras and Valentino Z. Sadly, we lost our first stallion, Cielo B at the end of 2010. Our mare band has grown to eleven mares and includes Warmblood bloodlines such as Sandro Hit, Quinar, Contucci, Rio Grande, Come Back II, Best of Luck, Contender, Landgraf, Pikadero as well as great Thoroughbreds such as Darn that Alarm. Our breeding program focuses on producing outstanding horses suitable for Jumpers, Hunters or Dressage.
January is a slow time at a breeding farm. It's too early for foals to arrive and too early for mare owners to contact us for semen, so most of our time is spent planning and dreaming! We are expecting only two foals this spring - 2010 was a tough year and many of the mares would not get pregnant and a couple of pregnancies were lost. In March, Portia (Pikadero/Prinz Gaylord) is due with a Valentino Z foal. This foal should be an extraordinary jumper! Portia competed up through Level 6 jumpers. At the end of May, Machtelt (Glennridge/Makelaar) is also expecting a Valentino Z foal. We are hopeful this foal will combine the best of both parents and be a promising hunter. We shall see!
Our breeding plans are pretty extensive for Spring 2011. Because we lost Cielo B, the plan is to try to breed a stallion prospect using frozen semen and a mare with an outstanding jumper pedigree. To this end, Rapunzehl (Contender/Landgraf/Ronald), Ouiselle M (Quinar/Lantann/Caletto II) and Rio's Best Kept Secret (Rio Grande/Arrak/Habicht) will all be bred to Cielo B.
The remaining breeding plans will be discussed in our next blog, as well as some exciting travel plans - stay tuned!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Welcome to the Rising Star Farm blog
I thought I would take the opportunity to chronicle life on a warmblood breeding farm/stallion station. Over the next few blogs, I am going to share the history of Rising Star Farm and then continue with current news.
Rising Star Farm, a small breeding farm in Central Texas, is home to several warmblood stallions, sport horse mares and young stock. Our mission is to produce exceptional jumpers, hunters and dressage horses.
Sounds simple - but in reality breeding horses is overwhelming at times.
Rising Star Farm was born in 2002. My husband bought me two horses when we got married in 2001. He generously believed that he was satifying a childhood dream. He NEVER realized that he had basically started an uncontrollable action that would take over our lives.
Once I was boarding two horses, the urge to have "horse property" took over. Little did I know that the agricultural tax laws in Central Texas required breeding stock on my little horse farm. Enter Dream Chaser - a wonderful 1991 TB mare by Darn that Alarm. I assured my husband that Dream was "his" horse - and an important feature of our new breeding program on our little horse farm. Enter Pam Norton - owner of the wonderful Trakehner stallion Onassis (and previous owner of Dream Chaser). Things started to snowball - since I couldn't have just one broodmare. Enter Wilbur's Boogie, another TB broodmare that we bred to the Florida based stallion Lotus T. Do you see a pattern here?
Of course, my husband and I reasoned that it made more sense to own our own stallion, so shortly after Rising Star Farm came to life, Cielo B arrived. A long yearling - 18 months old when he arrived on the farm on a very cold day in January 2004. Our stallion prospect would go on to make so many of our dreams come true.
Why have one stallion when you can have two? Deja Blue B - by Olympic Ferro arrived one year after Cielo. By now, the broodmare band had grown and I started to trade my TB mares out for Warmblood mares. Bala, a Trakehner mare arrived as did Cinnamon B.
In the meantime, we bred to outside stallions and waited for our boys to grow up. In 2005, Cielo B was approved for breeding with the BWP and our program took off.
Rising Star Farm, a small breeding farm in Central Texas, is home to several warmblood stallions, sport horse mares and young stock. Our mission is to produce exceptional jumpers, hunters and dressage horses.
Sounds simple - but in reality breeding horses is overwhelming at times.
Rising Star Farm was born in 2002. My husband bought me two horses when we got married in 2001. He generously believed that he was satifying a childhood dream. He NEVER realized that he had basically started an uncontrollable action that would take over our lives.
Once I was boarding two horses, the urge to have "horse property" took over. Little did I know that the agricultural tax laws in Central Texas required breeding stock on my little horse farm. Enter Dream Chaser - a wonderful 1991 TB mare by Darn that Alarm. I assured my husband that Dream was "his" horse - and an important feature of our new breeding program on our little horse farm. Enter Pam Norton - owner of the wonderful Trakehner stallion Onassis (and previous owner of Dream Chaser). Things started to snowball - since I couldn't have just one broodmare. Enter Wilbur's Boogie, another TB broodmare that we bred to the Florida based stallion Lotus T. Do you see a pattern here?
Of course, my husband and I reasoned that it made more sense to own our own stallion, so shortly after Rising Star Farm came to life, Cielo B arrived. A long yearling - 18 months old when he arrived on the farm on a very cold day in January 2004. Our stallion prospect would go on to make so many of our dreams come true.
Why have one stallion when you can have two? Deja Blue B - by Olympic Ferro arrived one year after Cielo. By now, the broodmare band had grown and I started to trade my TB mares out for Warmblood mares. Bala, a Trakehner mare arrived as did Cinnamon B.
In the meantime, we bred to outside stallions and waited for our boys to grow up. In 2005, Cielo B was approved for breeding with the BWP and our program took off.
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