chelseaspage

One of the problems with the American method of breeding performance horses lies in the way breeders choose their mares. The advances we are making in consistently producing talented prospects is coming primarily from breeders willing to invest in quality mares. The problem is that Thoroughbred mares are cheap—and as a result, there are many, many stallions standing at stud and producing hundreds of foals who trace back to a cheap, giveaway-type Thoroughbred mares. Oftentimes, these stallions are by “big name” horses, but don’t look to carefully at their bottom lines…

Unfortunately, the pony breeding business is no different. The average breeding program is based on a fancy, pricey stallion who is bred to unproven, unremarkable mares. Welsh breeders of quality are exceptions to this in that they often have access to top bloodlines for both their mares and their stallions. However, the average breeder takes the mare they have, regardless of her qualities, and hopes that by breeding her to a fancy stallion, she will produce something of value.

And some of these offspring due SELL decently. After all, many are very cute indeed. The question, however, is: Are they talented? Can they—and are they willing to—do more than lope around over fences they could just as easily step over? How does a breeder know if the give-away Thoroughbred mare or the family pet has anything to contribute besides a ripening follicle? Alas, very few American breeders use proven mares.

IT'S ALL IN THE MARES

While some are simply ignorant and dreaming about their programs, others are realistic and recognize that it can be very, very expensive to “prove” a mare before breeding her. One way around this is to pay upfront: buy and/or use only mares with proven backgrounds. Another way is to compete the mare. A third is to breed her to different stallions, evaluate her get with a very critical eye, cull her if she doesn’t produce the quality needed and only rebreed her to those stallions she crosses with successfully.

At Sportponies Unlimited, we took a mare, Chelsea, who had competed at lower levels in Pony Club and hunters (being a small pony, her options would have been few anyway) and who demonstrated unusual traits for a pony of her size (being more forward and light-sided than your typical child’s pony, Chelsea learned to leg-yield and do walk-to-canter transitions each in only one schooling session, and has always swapped her leads automatically) and evaluated her get by 1.) two Shetland stallions, 2.) three Thoroughbred stallions, 3.) an Arabian stallion, and 4.) a Welsh stallion.

BUT HOW DO YOU PROVE IT?

Here’s what we discovered through honest, practical evaluation: crossed on Shetland, her get were not competitive movers and were, of course, too small to develop and market easily; crossed on Welsh, her get was too pony-brained; crossed on Arabian, her get was too Arab-looking for the market we were targeting, and far too fine boned; crossed on Thoroughbred, her get retained her more sensitive temperament, were bigger movers (many with the autoswap) and kept her sensibility. Unfortunately, nothing is ever perfect, so we did discover that while she has consistently produced the quality we sought when crossed with Thoroughbreds, we still haven’t achieved the quality of movement we would like to see in our stock.

One Broodmare's "Proof"

Chelsea’s get from all of the breedings entered the hunter show ring and started winning very early, showing remarkably consistent traits:

+ Karacter, her first foal, was winning in Melbourne, FL, as a three-year-old, sometimes with riders on his back that were very little older than he. By four, he had been a circuit and state champion. By six, he was one of the top smalls in the country.
+ Annie Mae, Chelsea’s second foal, won in-hand as a yearling and was a super mover. Although she and her own children turned out to be too pony-like for our program, Annie Mae went on to be successful at rated shows in a variety of pony hunter divisions. Her “autoswap” often enabled her to stand out from the crowd.
+ Norman, a 3/4 Arabian, was culled at birth, but went on to be successful locally and on the fair circuit—mainly because he swapped his leads automatically, like his mom.
+ Melody, Chelsea’s first Thoroughbred cross, was born looking and acting like the epitome of the sport pony we were trying to produce. Never broke to ride, the stakes-winning produce record of Melody’s sire, plus her movement, conformation and scorchingly HOT temperament marked her as a broodmare for us from day one. (Learning how to piaffe, in hand and under control, in a single session at age two only added to our belief that she would produce either nutcases or geniuses.)
+ Breckenridge was broke to drive in a single day (starting to sound familiar?) and by three was popping over jumps on “autopilot” with the tight form and happy attitude that marked him as, if nothing else, one fun pony. Sold unbroken at a Pony Finals sale, his new rider was riding him bareback around the show grounds before the show had ended. He went on to champion at WEF in short stirrup and to teach some of the youngest possible riders how to navigate courses.

The following foals out of Chelsea were all by our foundation stallion, Theodore.
+ I Don’t Know became a national champion in the small/medium green division. Enough said there.
+ Replica (Repo), his full brother, exhibited a stunning stride, scope and unstoppability--with that awesome autoswap. Not coincidentally, he was renamed "Out of Character" by new owners and has had a nice career in equitation and children's hunters on the A circuit.
+ Renaissance, herself the dam of five foals -- two of whom have already found success (o/f & u/s) in the show ring (Zolcor and Saint Roberto) -- sold well at the Pony Finals Production Sale with a super fancy Land’s End The Colonel’s Fox foal at side. The trainer who purchased her plans to develop her as a show pony, not a broodmare.
+ Christian, never broken to ride due to her now-well-established value as a broodmare, could step into the ring to show in hand any day with little or no preparation, and is the dam of the sweet, athletic colt Theoden who has gone on to be a consistent winner at a rather young age on the local circuit and looks to be a "very nice indeed" resale project for his new owner.

The following get of Chelsea are by Princegato, a full TB, or by Theoretical, a 3/4 Thoroughbred.
+ May Be —sold well as a three-year-old to a Connecticut trainer who developed her nicely before selling her into a nice showing career, and again not-coincidentally, through the same trainer as the filly's National Champion I Don't Know.
+ Little Kay—sold as a yearling, Kay was very pretty, but a disappointment (and possibly a dwarf—oh, well, these things happen!). However, she did distinguish herself (for her new owners) by pulling a four-wheeled wagon full of very young kids in a fair-sized parade when she was only 18 months old!
+ Solid Theory—an exquisitely built, lightly broke (bareback) by my 14-year-old neiphew, at two-years-old, he was so quiet and friendly that he sold excellently to a family with very small children with their trainer’s full approval. He’s destined to be a family pet as well as a useful short stirrup mount or small pony hunter.

Chelsea's last foal (she is now retired from the broodmare band--100% healthy, but so deserving of a break from the broodmaring!), living out her remaining days with a friend in Michigan) was bred strictly to produce a top-dollar, "select sale" type of hunter pony (not a sportpony).
+ Foxworthy Crossley—an exquisite beauty, this current weanling is by Land’s End The Colonel’s Fox and has Devon-quality conformation for in-hand showing AND later on, should do equally well in the hacks.

ARE WE DONE YET?

One well-proven mare and one on-going breeding program. Are we there yet? No, not yet. But we can consistently state that, thanks to this one mare, the sport pony prospects and made ponies that we currently have available are all fancy lookers with cute white markings who are very, very likely to be excellent and enthusiastic jumpers, good but not super-fancy movers, exceptionally quick and willing learners, and very easy to ride through flying changes.

And so, while we realize this is not all there could be, it is certainly saying one heck of a lot...with more to come!

But what about conformation and movement?

- IAHA reg. as "Esker Electra"
- 11.3h, 1/2 Arabian, 1/2 Shetland
- by JR Lyraff (Raffles line)
- out of Arbor Acres Aileen
(by Happy Hour Supreme)

Chelsea

Chelsea was purchased at age four from Jean Ohlgren of Arbor Acres Farm near Ann Arbor, Michigan. Unknown to us, Chelsea was in foal at the time to one of Jean's Shetland stallions.

As a result, her first foal, WEF Tournament of Champions Reserve Champion "Karacter" was a small, like herself. Most of Chelsea's other foals, including her most successful pony hunter foal, "I Don't Know" were by larger Thoroughbred stallions. For more about Chelsea's produce record, please scroll down.

NOTE: This is long page. For pictures of Chelsea's kids, please scroll to bottom.