Te Early Years of the 70-DAY
How two experienced horsewomen recognized and developed the potential that earned them top scores in last year’s stallion test.
stallions in 2013 were both bred and raised in the western United States. In fact, they are neighbors of a sort: one a Texan and the other a New Mexican. The highest scoring champion, Fabian (Freestyle
A
x Hierarch), was bred by Jennifer Arnoldt of Dream- scape Farm, British Columbia, Canada. He’s owned
Fabian DSF – Score: 130.04
FINDING FABIAN Martha bought the bay Oldenburg as a yearling, after see- ing him on a video on the website of Dreamscape Farm. “I was looking for stallions for my mares to breed through AI. When I look at someone’s stallions I go through their website to see what they produce, what the youngsters are like. I saw a picture of Fabian, and thought too bad he wasn’t a filly because I was also looking for mares.” Her mares had trouble conceiving through transported semen, which inspired Martha to pursue her own on-site stallion for live cover. Her veterinary clinic is a three-hour drive round trip—inconvenient if mares need repeat visits. “I thought it was worth a shot,” she says about buying
Fabian. From his picture, she “loved his eyes and the white snip. He looked smart in the eyes and very kind. Then I went and looked at his video, and watched videos of the mare move and the daddy move.” Fabian’s sire Freestyle (Florestan I x Parademarsch I) has
sired winners in dressage, eventing, and jumping. He won his 100-day performance test in Prussendorf, Germany. Oladaula Ster (Hierarch x Michelangelo Elite), Fabian’s
KWPN dam, has produced three full siblings to this young stallion who all earned Premium awards in their Olden- burg inspections. Buying a colt without seeing him face to face is risky.
Martha talked with the veterinarian in Canada. “He said, ‘If you’re a dressage rider, he’s a nice horse,’” she reports. So she purchased her yearling.
18 March/April 2014
t the annual 70-Day Stallion Test held in Oklahoma at Silver Creek Farms, open to all sport horse breeds, the two top scoring
and trained by Martha Diaz of El Paso. Reserve champion Gallant Reflection HU (Galant du Serein x Rohdiamant) was bred by his owner, Anne Sparks of Horses Unlimited in Albuquerque. Both women chose to keep their “boys” as stal-
lion prospects. Here these two friends tell how they nurtured their rising stars, and how they came to enter them in this important North American stallion test.
Fabian DSF, 2013 champion of the 70-Day Stallion Test.
SETTLING IN In his new home, Fabian seemed nervous and needed time to adjust. “He was a big chicken!” recalls Martha. “But he likes people so much and he does what you want him to do. He’s not aggressive. He is not one of those, ‘I’ll take charge’ kind of stallions. He’s very respectful and not over- bearing.” She found that his fear made him want to pull away
from her and run. Calling him “such a weenie,” one day she took command and told him to stop. “I yelled at him for getting away from me. I had to be firm and tell him, ‘I don’t like what you’re doing. Stop doing it.’ Then he never did it again,” she recalls with a laugh.
Daniel Diaz
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