Choctaw Foaling Time

Last summer we brought down the spectacular Choctaw stallion, Big Muddy Miracle, from Mary McConnell's herd in Rappahannock and left him out with several straight Choctaw mares and a few Colonial Spanish mares that are very high percentage Choctaw. He spent August with us and by late  July five mares should begin foaling. A bit later on Baton Rouge, a Corolla mare should have a foal from , a Corolla stallion owned by Wendell Whitehead.

The Corollas are one of only two herds of wild Colonial Spanish horses left. Bonnie Gruenberg's great book, "Wild Horse Dilemma" explains how the native horses of the mainland, called by white's, "Chickasaw" horses were bred into the horses of the Outer Banks in the 18th century. In the book she refers to one of our mares, Swimmer," as a living example to that genetic infusion. When pastured with Choctaws today I doubt if anyone would be able to identify her as being anything but straight Choctaw.

When one looks today for the perfect family horse one would be hard pressed to find a better strain of horses than the Choctaws. The Corollas have the best temperament of any horses that I have ever trained but the Choctaws come in a close second. Their endurance is simply shocking. Were it not for the fact that they are so rare as to be nearly extinct, I have no doubt that they would absolutely dominate the sport of endurance riding.

I hope to have a stallion born of one of these Choctaw mares for our breeding program. The other foals will be available for sale at the appropriate time.

The colt in the picture above has reached the appropriate time. He is in his third year and is becoming an experienced trial horse. His mother is a formerly wild mare from Shackleford and his father is a powerful little Corolla stallion. Whoever purchases him will have to agree to keep him as a stallion and to make him available for future breedings. The Banker Colonial Spanish horse is one of the rarest strains of these horses left and to geld a stallion like MatchCoor is nothing better than vandalism.