So here's my cross. Merlin the Magnificent ("Merlin") a black Percheron stallion with a star, and Painted Rainbow ("Sophie"), a homozygous tobiano Tennessee Walking Horse mare. My baby will be called Rain Dancer.
To give you some background, Merlin is 16.3 hands. He is more refined in build and is built for both riding and driving. I met Merlin at the Festival of Horses in Scottsdale, Arizona in December 2008. You would never know mounted shooting was going on in the arena next to Merlin when I took this photo--he didn't even flick an ear. Merlin is what every breeder should strive for in their stallion: easy-going, excellent confirmation, willing attitude, and polite and intelligent. He is trained in to second level dressage, jumping, driving, and is even used as a trail horse. He was ridden during the stallion showcase bareback with a bitless bridle. Merlin's amazing temperament is what really caught me, though. He is friendly without being pushy, and is always interested in what's going on around him.
Here's Sophie, pictured with her third foal, Painted Guardian Angel ("Angel"). Sophie has produced three foals, all by the same stallion, all fillies. Sophie is 16.2 hands and wears size 3 shoes. She is very heavy in bone and all of her foals have been extremely large when they were born. She has a true, natural flat walk and running walk that seems impossible for her size, but it's there. Her calm nature makes her a wonderful horse for me--I need a horse that is easy to ride yet will still get up and go if I ask her to. When Sophie became available for sale, I knew exactly what I would do: buy her and breed her to get the spotted gaited draft cross I've dreamed about.
I chose this cross for several reasons.
1. I have seen gaited draft crosses before. When the stallion and the mare were good quality, and I was so impressed with what the offspring could do. They are gaited and have the bone structure and compact body to be excellent using horses that can do just about anything.
2. I did a lot of research on draft horses. It's funny, though--I had actually avoided Percherons because I always have seen them as extremely large in build and not really riding horses. However, after seeing Merlin, I did more research, and I found that Percherons are great to cross with lighter breeds. They bring in the substance and size of the draft without altering the refinement of the lighter breed. I was glad to learn that certain Percherons are toward what I am looking for in my cross. Merlin is an example of one of those Percherons.
3. Merlin and Sophie physically match. I knew if I wanted a gaited draft cross, I had to find two horses that "go" together. I didn't want to breed a small mare to a large stallion because I didn't want a mismatch. Sophie looks like a draft horse and has been mistaken for one. That tells me that she is what I'm looking for.
4. I didn't want to cross a TWH stallion with a draft mare. I would love to own a draft horse, but feeding and shoeing them can cost so much money. I have learned in my research that if I cross a draft stallion with a light mare, then I will get a horse with the bulk I want but I won't have to feed it so much. We already have Sophie and Red Hawk, my husband's 17-hand TWH gelding, and they eat a lot, but not as much as a draft horse. So I'm used to having to feed more than usual and it won't strain our budget like a full draft would.
5. I believe that temperament is key to having a good horse. Sophie is easy to handle, as is Merlin. When I saw him, he was standing a little off from a group of riding horses, a women's riding group. Their horses were in flashy saddles and bridles that jingled and jangled, and while Merlin was curious, he was not spooked by them. In fact, he was standing quietly, looking around with interest, with just a halter rope around his neck, no bridle or halter. When I went to walk past him, I looked at him and said hello. He reached out to me and even took a small step toward me. He definitely was interested in attention. He was not pushy, just wanted to say hello and be petted. I stood and ran my fingers through his mane and forelock, and he stood quietly and let me do it. It was wonderful to be around a stallion that is like that.
5. Sophie is homozygous tobiano, and black and white tobiano is my absolutely favorite horse color. So, when I cross her to Merlin, I will get a big black and white horse, very similar to my "dream" breed, the Gypsy Vanner. I dream about my foal looking like those mysterious horses. They're just too overpriced for me. My husband says since I can't buy a Gypsy Vanner, I'm going to MAKE one! Okay, that's a joke--I know that the cross does not really make a Gypsy Vanner. But the foal might just look like one!
So my Rain Dancer will be here in the Spring of 2010. I plan for this blog to be my journal of sorts so I can watch my baby grow in his mama's belly and eventually be born. I cannot wait for this little one to be in my life, even though now he is only a twinkle in Sophie's eye!
To give you some background, Merlin is 16.3 hands. He is more refined in build and is built for both riding and driving. I met Merlin at the Festival of Horses in Scottsdale, Arizona in December 2008. You would never know mounted shooting was going on in the arena next to Merlin when I took this photo--he didn't even flick an ear. Merlin is what every breeder should strive for in their stallion: easy-going, excellent confirmation, willing attitude, and polite and intelligent. He is trained in to second level dressage, jumping, driving, and is even used as a trail horse. He was ridden during the stallion showcase bareback with a bitless bridle. Merlin's amazing temperament is what really caught me, though. He is friendly without being pushy, and is always interested in what's going on around him.
Here's Sophie, pictured with her third foal, Painted Guardian Angel ("Angel"). Sophie has produced three foals, all by the same stallion, all fillies. Sophie is 16.2 hands and wears size 3 shoes. She is very heavy in bone and all of her foals have been extremely large when they were born. She has a true, natural flat walk and running walk that seems impossible for her size, but it's there. Her calm nature makes her a wonderful horse for me--I need a horse that is easy to ride yet will still get up and go if I ask her to. When Sophie became available for sale, I knew exactly what I would do: buy her and breed her to get the spotted gaited draft cross I've dreamed about.I chose this cross for several reasons.
1. I have seen gaited draft crosses before. When the stallion and the mare were good quality, and I was so impressed with what the offspring could do. They are gaited and have the bone structure and compact body to be excellent using horses that can do just about anything.
2. I did a lot of research on draft horses. It's funny, though--I had actually avoided Percherons because I always have seen them as extremely large in build and not really riding horses. However, after seeing Merlin, I did more research, and I found that Percherons are great to cross with lighter breeds. They bring in the substance and size of the draft without altering the refinement of the lighter breed. I was glad to learn that certain Percherons are toward what I am looking for in my cross. Merlin is an example of one of those Percherons.
3. Merlin and Sophie physically match. I knew if I wanted a gaited draft cross, I had to find two horses that "go" together. I didn't want to breed a small mare to a large stallion because I didn't want a mismatch. Sophie looks like a draft horse and has been mistaken for one. That tells me that she is what I'm looking for.
4. I didn't want to cross a TWH stallion with a draft mare. I would love to own a draft horse, but feeding and shoeing them can cost so much money. I have learned in my research that if I cross a draft stallion with a light mare, then I will get a horse with the bulk I want but I won't have to feed it so much. We already have Sophie and Red Hawk, my husband's 17-hand TWH gelding, and they eat a lot, but not as much as a draft horse. So I'm used to having to feed more than usual and it won't strain our budget like a full draft would.
5. I believe that temperament is key to having a good horse. Sophie is easy to handle, as is Merlin. When I saw him, he was standing a little off from a group of riding horses, a women's riding group. Their horses were in flashy saddles and bridles that jingled and jangled, and while Merlin was curious, he was not spooked by them. In fact, he was standing quietly, looking around with interest, with just a halter rope around his neck, no bridle or halter. When I went to walk past him, I looked at him and said hello. He reached out to me and even took a small step toward me. He definitely was interested in attention. He was not pushy, just wanted to say hello and be petted. I stood and ran my fingers through his mane and forelock, and he stood quietly and let me do it. It was wonderful to be around a stallion that is like that.
5. Sophie is homozygous tobiano, and black and white tobiano is my absolutely favorite horse color. So, when I cross her to Merlin, I will get a big black and white horse, very similar to my "dream" breed, the Gypsy Vanner. I dream about my foal looking like those mysterious horses. They're just too overpriced for me. My husband says since I can't buy a Gypsy Vanner, I'm going to MAKE one! Okay, that's a joke--I know that the cross does not really make a Gypsy Vanner. But the foal might just look like one!
So my Rain Dancer will be here in the Spring of 2010. I plan for this blog to be my journal of sorts so I can watch my baby grow in his mama's belly and eventually be born. I cannot wait for this little one to be in my life, even though now he is only a twinkle in Sophie's eye!
5 comments:
You do realise you could easily get a Chestnut with low white, don't you???
Also, your mare may well be H/Z for Tobiano but she has a lot of Splash as well, in fact he is far more typical of Splash than she is Tobiano.....nice enough mare, though.
You do realize that a shire crossed with a Tennessee walker DO NOT make a Gypsy Vanner.
Kiiri,
Yes, I do realize that. Unless either she or the sire is homozygous black, I could get chestnut. The photos I have in the montage are what I DREAM the horse will look like, not what I expect it to be like. I prefer black and white, but what I get is what I get.
Overo patterns like splash are extremely rare in TWHs and are not colors that are encouraged. Most overo TWHs have paint horses in their background and are not true-bred TWHs. There is no indication of an overo horse in her background. Therefore, she is considered a tobiano unless tested otherwise.
beautiful morgan,
Yes, I know that. I say so in my post. I was just kidding with the "making" a GV quote. I am not stupid and have spent several years trying to find exactly what I want in order to create this cross. Honestly, I don't want a GV because they are way overpriced and I don't want to take care of the feathers (feathers are a recessive gene, and therefore both the sire and dam must have feathers to produce the trait). I just want a large spotted gaited draft cross. I accept the fact that this horse will be mine no matter what and could end up being completely ugly and not what I envisioned. That's my choice and I will keep the horse no matter what I get.
Just wanted to point out that in the case of simple recessive genes, neither parent need exhibit the trait to produce an offspring with that trait. If both parents were heterozygous for a recessive gene (and therefore do not display the trait), each offspring has a 25% chance of being homozygous for that recessive gene. If feather is a simple recessive gene, it's possible this breeding could result in a horse with feather.
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