July 2024, normally we should be warm; shorts and flip-flops available. The weather has been very unstable in our region, since October 2023 and even today. Fortunately, there was no disaster at the farm despite the heavy rainfall in recent months, but stress was starting to mount (haying had still not started in mid-June). Indeed, the job of breeder is not just about taking care of horses. We must also manage all stewardship, and in particular produce the fodder in the summer necessary to feed our livestock as soon as they return from the meadows (from fall).
We benefited from a short week without rain, with three days at 25 then 27°C, which allowed us to attack the hay. Excellent weed production, we have already made and returned 148 Round Ballers!
The 2024 hays are made at the Yeguada Los Siete Reinos
During the few days when we brought in the hay at the beginning of July, we noticed that our mare Quintilla Carthago, suddenly from the udder (10 days from term so nothing abnormal), we decided to bring her in to monitor foaling..
Raising horses takes time, a lot of time. We can say that we even learn patience if we are not naturally so.
For several years, we have cherished a dream, that of giving birth to a foal with the Isabello (Double Pearl) coat. Not easy because this gene (Perle or Pearl) is recessive. This means that for them to express themselves on the foal's coat, both parents must at least be carriers of the gene themselves, to have a chance of having a foal with this unique golden coat.
In 2022, two young mares carrying the Perle gene arrived at our breeding farm: Deseada VPB and Perla GM. Perla was a one-year-old filly at the time, and Deseada was a young 3-year-old mare who arrived at our breeding farm pregnant. In 2023, Deseada gave birth to her first filly: Naranja VMD, a superb young smocky black filly (the father wore Cream), but Deseada did not give her Perle gene (otherwise the filly would have been cream/pearl like Perla.
In 2024, Deseada, pregnant with a double Pearl stallion (who inevitably gave him his gene) has again not given birth to a double Pearl foal, her foal Oléo VMD is sublime, and carrying the Pearl, but not homozygous for this gene, it is therefore bay in color. It was finally Quintilla Carthago, who arrived at our breeding in 2023, carrying the Perle gene, married to a double stallion Perle, who gave us in 2024, the first Isabella filly born at our breeding.
Here is Ojalà VMD:
As you can see in the photo, the mother has a classic bay dress, the Pearl gene is invisible.
The filly, who inherited the gene from both parents, is Isabella (Baie + PrlPrl).
The foaling went very well. The filly and her mother obviously remain under surveillance, but we are delighted by this very beautiful filly, endowed with a character close to humans like her two parents. His father is the adorable Kapitan del Sol (By Tarzano GSA) from Haras des Sylves.
Ojalà VMD will be kept in breeding because, unlike Deseada and her mother, she will give her Perle gene to 100% of her foals, and will therefore produce, married to a Double Perle stallion, 100% Isabellos foals.
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