So another year goes by in the life that is Broken A Ranch. A little early to say goodbye to 2011 but I am eager to put it behind me.
The year started off with heartbreak, the death of Buck under the care of the “trainer” we entrusted him to and the starvation of Rafer by the same “trainer”. I am happy to report that Rafer is once again thriving and back to his old self, showing no lasting effects of his ill treatment, but I will probably never quite forgive myself for sending Buck off to his death with someone I mistakenly trusted. I suppose it was a hard lesson of live and learn.
Once Rafer was home, being fed and on the mend, the year began to look up. We had acquired our up and coming stallion; Larkin; in the fall of 2010 and we now had the time to start to enjoy him. He is a 2010 homozygous grullo tobiano with exceptional bloodlines. We will be test breeding him to a few mares in the spring if he is ready and cannot wait to see what he produces crossed on our girls. Along with Larkin came Bree; a 2009 double homozygous black tobiano mare. She is pretty and wow look at those bloodlines on that girl! She is to be bred to Rafer in the spring for a guaranteed double homozygous foal in 2013 that should be drop dead gorgeous!
We had a sudden dip in mood with the loss of Keeley’s filly in April at just 24 hours old. She was a gorgeous grullo who had offers on her the second she hit the ground. Shamus certainly did produce well with that cross.
Then breeding season came along… Twist and Illusion were both bred to Rafer for Late May 2012 foals while Emma was bred to Shamus for the same. Spook was elusive with her heat cycles and it was decided to hold her over to be bred to Larkin this coming spring.
September brought the newest addition to our family AND the beginning of a new division of Broken A Ranch - Broken A Great Danes. Ripley was purchased from CaesiaDius Great Danes in Fairfield, IL. I probably drove Barton and Kathy half crazy with questions before picking her out at 5 weeks old in the beginning of August, but they were patient and I consider them to be great people to work with. I made the 10 hour round trip a second time on the first of September to bring her home and its been chaos ever since! She now weighs nearly 80 lbs at 5 months old and I cannot imagine life without her. Kota however can ~laugh~ It is somewhat of a love/hate/leave me the hell alone puppy/ relationship between the two. Blue could really care less. She just lies down when she sees the freight train Ripley coming and Ripley just shoots over the top of her. I have plans to get our feet wet in the show ring hopefully this spring, and possibly to add a new addition to the family in the summer. That is if Kota doesn’t catch wind of it and kill me in my sleep.
The decision to move came VERY easily as we were eager to leave behind a place & neighbors that just constantly sucked the life out of your soul. Who knew that blissful peace and happiness could be found less than 20 miles away? Moving day was in October – or I should say moving 2 weeks. I swear that moving 20 miles is nearly more difficult than moving 1400 miles. All the details and running back and forth made me crazier than normal, but in the end it is well worth it. We are surrounded by 30 acres of beautiful views, have terrific neighbors and the horses and dogs are thriving in the new environment and we couldn’t be happier. Goodbye acres of swamp and hello green pastures! A wise decision if I do say so myself LOL
Let’s see. During the moving phase Painted Glory Ranch purchased Keeley. Christine had been in love with her for a while and finally we just decided to make things happen. At the same time, Sophie ( her page is coming soon) came to live at the Broken A. She is a 2009 double homozygous black mare and she is slated to be crossed to Larkin in the spring for a guaranteed homozygous tobiano black or grullo foal in 2013. This baby should be a serious performance contender and we have already had inquires on a possible sale of the match. I am thinking though we had better get her in foal first before we have such discussions ~laugh.
Wrapping things up here.. I know its been lengthy. We have decided to geld Shamus in the next few weeks. Our program is moving into mostly homozygous tobiano pleasure and performance horses, and honestly I don’t have anyone left to breed him to. He is for sale and will make someone an exceptional riding/game day/ trail buddy and just all around awesome horse and partner. Make sure you take the time to check him out. You will not regret it. I promise you that.
That pretty much sums up 2011 for us. Some LOW lows. Some HIGH Highs but all n all- we survived it. Goodbye 2011. I can’t say that I will miss you all that much, but hey you can’t have everything.
Hello 2012 – What took you so long to get here?
