Breedings season = stress, anxiety, exhaustion, pure happiness. Ahhh the highs and lows of owning horses, can’t live with them and can’t live without them. Even though breeding season isn’t quite over for D and I, let’s do a little catch up.
This was D and I’s very first breeding season together. It’s always been a dream of mine to breed and raise our own horses and eventually have some to offer to the public for sale and when I envisioned our first breeding season I thought it would be a one mare gets bred to one stud to get one baby equation. But of course in true Lex and D fashion, it was not one plus one equals one. It was more like one plus one and oh wait one plus another one and let’s not forget the random one that came with a plus one last fall and then the one with a plus one and another one that got here like a week ago…are you keeping up? No? Okay, let’s start at the beginning. First we got Kitty and she came with a breeding for the 2022 breeding season to Im Countin Checks, it took us THREE tries to get her bred, but she finally took in early June last year and on May 3rd she gave us the most beautiful red roan filly, Bindi (there’s a really cool story behind her name, so a blog about that will come soon). I was over the moon about getting at least one filly this year, but typically we want colts for sale prospects, so naturally I was crossing my fingers for colts, but really just praying for healthy babies. Anyways, we bred Kitty back on her foal heat to Hashtags for a 2024 foal, but unfortunately we learned on Saturday morning that she didn’t take, so she’s back at the breeding center for take two. Fingers crossed she takes this time around.
Last year we also won a breeding to MP Sugeray from High Point Performance Horses and obviously I wasn’t going to let a free breeding go to waste, so we got Barbie off the track and again it took three tries, but we got her bred. (Hind sight is 20/20 and to be completely honest, I think our failed attempts last year on both Kitty and Barbie had a lot to do with our vet at the time, but that’s a whole other story). On May 19th, Barbie foaled out and it was…another filly. At this point we’re not sure if she’s a buckskin or a bay, but fingers crossed that she’s at least the right color (buckskin) since she came with the wrong plumbing (no peanuts). We named her Pardi, the girls at the foaling center say she’s pretty spicy, but we just got her home, so I’m still figuring her out. Barbie was bred on her foal heat to NNN Firewater Alive, we’ll go back in two weeks to get her checked, so prayers would be appreciated.
In November of last year we got J Lo and she came bred to Hashtags for this year. On May 25th she foaled out andddddd yet another filly joined our herd. She held on to this thing for a whole week past her due date so I SWORE she was a he, but of course God had other plans. We call her Chicken, Crispy Chicken to be more exact since she cooked for so long. We’re going to try to catch J Lo on her foal heat in a few days and breed her to Bama Jelly for 2024 so prayers would be appreciated on that as well.
In the midst of all of the foaling of course we needed added chaos, so we got a new mare with her 2023 Sanctus foal and she came bred back to Sanctus for 2024. What’s better than one new horse? Three new horses apparently. The new mare is named Juanita, after the Sturgill Simpson song (it’s D’s favorite) and her colt is named Miami because we bought him from a guy in you guessed it, Miami and we’re just really about the unique names around here. LOL, clearly put a TON of thought into that one. Anyways, they got here May 20th so obviously I wasn’t kidding when I said it was right in the middle of everything.
As if we weren’t crazy enough having four foals this year with all of the training and show horses and full time jobs, families, friends and hobbies, we bred two maiden mares for 2024 foals. Cardi B and Loca, my GIRLS. Cardi is bred to Turnpikers Wagon and Loca is bred to Sannman. Both girls took both tries like the champs they are and they’ve already had their heartbeat checks, so now we just wait for a 60 day check and then the countdown is on for March babies.
So to recap, that’s four foals on the ground, three mares confirmed bred for 2024, Kitty is getting rebred this week, Barbie just got caught on her foal heat and will get checked in two weeks and we’re just waiting on J Lo to have her foal heat in a few days to get bred. So hopefully in about two ish weeks it’ll be six mares confirmed bred for 2024.
Aside from all of the oohing and ahhing we’ve done over the cutest foals ever this year, we’re broke, exhausted and yet, still crazy enough to do it again next year. Now we just pray for confirmed pregnancies, healthy mommas and babies and it’s time to hit the drawing board for next year’s stallions for the 2025 foals (you know I’ve already got some cool ish up my sleeve for that).
Anyways, I’ll keep y’all posted over the next few weeks, but for now just pray for my sanity and for some sleep and of course go check out my instagram and tiktok for baby content, it’s sunshine on anyone’s cloudy day.
xoxo, lex
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