Finally, the prince has arrived

Man was I excited about this one getting here! And looking at Aries at 7:30 tonight, in this condition, I knew it would be tonight. Poor girl. I went home, started dinner, fed the dogs and tried to watch the ER Finale. I should have known she would pick now. Once I decided her fidgeting was for real, I shut the computer off, put it in my bag and drove here--I swear, no more than 5 minutes passed. When I got here, he was already born! She was up standing over him and he was totally trapped in the bag, making goofy noises. I broke it open and saw the sweetest little redhead I have seen in a long time. At least a few weeks!
Then Aries laid down with him. She loves being a mom, but we did not get to see her with her first last year--just found that all was well in the morning, so I assumed they got there peacefully.
This one is kind of pissing her off, and I am not sure why. They are working things out though, thank goodness. I spent most of my time in there doing the doctoring, the ProBios, the e.coli endotox, treating the belly button...I passed on the seramune, as this is such a high dollar investment for us that the vet will come probably on Saturday to check antibodies and if they are not just right, the baby will get a plasma transfusion to help him along.
Look at that sweet baby face! I was in there too much and he started following me around, instead of his mama. That made me get out for a while.
But not before I got this different twist on the first mama/baby hug photo. I might work on it when I get time to make it better, but I wanted to share it while I still had it on my mind.

What a relief that he is here, and all appears to be well. When he gets the all-clear from the vet, I will really be able to enjoy him. I cannot wait to call his daddy tomorrow, to let him know he has arrived. You can see him at Buffalo Ranch, under Meradas Blue Sue. My next call will be to her next kissing lover, Sophisticated Catt, who you can see at Brightstone Ranch

My big buy in Fort Worth

I booked two breedings for 2009 to a horse I really really like, and wanted to breed to this year, but could not since we cannot use frozen semen. He was showing so much, we would have had to rely on it so he had to get cut from my lineup. But after showing and winning all year, including the World Championship last month, he is retired to stud and we could get in. So we did!


They made such a great offer to breed two mares that we could not pass it up. This list of his earnings from this year is not complete, as the total is actually a little over $163K--with $115K of that coming just this year.

His pedigree fills all my requirements to stay true to my breeding theory or plan or whatever you want to call it. His sire is the best in the business but I like to focus on the dams--I think they are the difference in studs. Sophisticated Catt has a great one in Shania Cee who won the Futurity her 3 year old year, won more than 400K, and was Horse of the Year.

Her dam Lynx Melody, won the Futurity when she was three as well, and won the Derby and was World Champion mare. She is also in the top 5 of all dams ever as far as producing winners goes--with produce of over $1.2 million. Not only have her direct offspring been amazing, she has also produced mares that have produced huge winners as well.

The third dam, Trona, is nothing to sneeze at either, producing almost $400K of earners back in the days when that was nearly impossible to do--when purses were much smaller, and mares could only have one baby per year and not as many as they want like they do now.

Obviously, I cannot say enough about the dam line in this horse, as it is what got my attention in the first place. When a pedigree is as packed as this one is, you are stacking the deck in your favor.

It was so crazy and crowded, that I only got a couple shots of him. He is awful cute though, on top of everything else. He is only 14 hands, but that is all right--I was actually a little surprised to hear he hit that much. He was good natured too, but as a young horse, I do not expect them to be crazy ol cranks like a lot of studs turn into as they age. He loved up on me some. Of course he did, I was writing him a check!

I could not get back far enough to get a better shot than this, as we were working in the aisles. As it was, I think I tripped over someone else's display to get this shot.


But you know I am not above thievery--so I lifted these photos off of his website, which is http://www.brightstoneranch.com/sophisticatedcatt.html

These are some show photos from this year. The photogs markings are on each shot, for credit






Now to decide who to breed to him--what I was thinking to do was use Haidagirl, but the owner may have talked me out of her in favor of using some Smart Little Lena mares. I will figure it out though--that is half the fun.

I am really excited about these breedings--I love getting in on a new up and comer early on in the game--everything about him says he should be a big time sire some day. Nena has a baby coming by him next year, too, so I will get to eyeball one right as we are breeding to him, that will make it even more fun