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I love the babies! Breeding sometimes seems like a picture book with rainbows and smiles, little foals as cute as can be. Other times, it seems like a marathon event. You miss the heat cycle timing and have to wait. The stud is at a show and can’t come until Tuesday. The mare doesn’t catch and you discover an infection, which has not bothered her in 24 months but now is an issue.

And there are stories of heartbreak as well; lost foals, mares with milk but not baby. I often wonder how the Wild Horses west of Sundre survive, but I guess they have learned over time and keep only the fittest in the herd.

Breeders are a lot like garderners. Instead of studying seed catalogs and drafting out flower beds, they spend their long winter days drooling over Stallion advertisements and Magic Cross publications. We try to select the stallion that best matches each mare. Personally, I don’t consider colour at all. I believe that great horses perform at their best because of structure (conformation), temperament (personality) and training (experience). You can select a very talented stallion that doesn’t end up ‘throwing’ his special talents to his offspring. We are careful to check for the AQHA hereditary diseases that can plague our horses. Sometimes the talented ones are a surprise and other times the carefully bred, special colt disappoints. It’s a gamblers game at times.

Still, it’s hard to beat watching the babies discover their long legs and learn to zoom around the pasture. Each little one shows their own personality although I’m not sure it always holds through to maturity. The crazy babies are sometimes the quietest show horses.

I’m so fortunate to have our ranch in the Bergen area to raise my young horses. Here they have plenty of room to move and learn about jumping over logs and deeking around trees from very early days. I believe it helps them build strong bodies for their future work. I know their dams appreciate a big lush pasture to raise their baby without worrying about the gelding that always wants to steal the baby or the dominant mare that wants to chase baby away. I could sit for hours just watching them, grazing, walking, playing in the tall grass, watching the other wildlife or sleeping in the leaves.

But today, I have a newly fenced pasture, so I’m off to move some horses around and give everyone a little more room and a fresh salad bar!