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Sunday, May 30, 2010

The Crossing




Wanchese, my Shackleford stallion, has been bred to Secotan, a Corolla mare owned by one of my students, Amanda. Wanchese's beauty has jumped out at everyone from the first day that we had him. It has taken a while for Secotan to reach full bloom, at least to my eye.

It struck me as odd that when she first saw them, Vickie Ives told me that she thought that Secotan and Baton Rouge, another of my Corolla mares, were two of the best Spanish horses that I had. Quite frankly, I could not see it. However, in the past two years Baton Rouge has muscled out and Secotan is clearly here rival in simple gracefulness and beauty. Vickie was right.

This will be our first Corolla/Shackleford cross. This summer I hope to breed, Persa, a Shackleford mare to Manteo, an elegant Corolla stallion. By doing so we will be restoring genetic diversity to the horses while still maintaining a pure strain of Banker horses.

I plan for the resulting foals from these two crosses to take a major role in the off site breeding program. We are offering for sale some first rate horses that are not Bankers in order to make room for more Corolla and Shackleford breeding stock. Some are finished trail horses, a few are 1/2 Corolla colts, and others are started horses that we will completely train before they are sold.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Steve! You stood in awe of Secotan from the moment you met her.

From an e-mail you sent dated Feb. 22, 2008: "Hard to type my hands are still a bit shakey. I just returned from seeing the best Corolla mare that I have ever seen in Suffolk, with her beautiful little filly, 6 days old."

The mare, of course, was Secotan and the foal was Pomioke.

--Liz Marshall