By Charlene Strickland ALISON ROBITAILLE Tell us about Firestone-bred jumpers. We bought Calli-
andra’s mother Cantida (Cantus x Polydor) as a five-year-old in Germany and I competed her till she was ten or eleven. Cantida had a bad x-ray in a hind ankle when we bought her, but she was sound and we took a risk. She did very well for a while, then I retired her. She jumped at least one World Cup class and won classes in Spruce Meadows. She was a great horse. We got two babies from her. The first was Calliandra and
the second was Calou, who’s now seven and will start com- peting in the seven-year-old division. Calliandra did a few six-year-old classes, and Calou did as well. I keep most of our broodmares over in Germany. We have
better access to stallions there, and it’s less expensive to raise them. I usually wait until they are into their six-year-old year to decide if they’re something I want to bring over to the U.S. or we leave in Europe to try to sell. Calliandra was brought here as a five-year-old. The Firestone family has been breeding jumpers for a
long time. Yes, we’re just about breeding the second and third generations. Some mares were never broke, but bred to [Selle Français stallion] Olisco several times. With Arwen (In- doctro x Olisco), Christina Firestone rode on the gold medal Young Rider team at the 2014 North American Junior and Young Rider Championships. Some of our breeding came from horses that were older.
Lamplight was by Chenin Blanc, a racehorse (Chenin Blanc xx x Olisco). She competed in the meter 40 and national Grand Prix, and was half-sister to Arwen. Also from the same mare, Heartland (Olisco x Omega), was the Grand Prix horse No- vember (Voltaire x Olisco), who died from colic last fall. Zo- diac (by Burggraaf) was out of Celine (Carthago Z x Lacapo).
24 March/April 2016
I competed Celine till she was 12 or 13, then she started hav- ing foals. She’s been a successful broodmare for us. I’ve been really lucky. My parents are very supportive. They
love horses and have been successful in racehorses. One of my mom’s big loves was young horses and she passed that on to me. In her 60s, she would still get on and break young horses at our farm. She was very inspirational. I feel lucky to have learned from her and everybody else at the farm. What’s satisfying in riding the young horses? I enjoy
bringing along young horses and watching them grow up. It makes it all more special, knowing the mothers and some- times the stallion. Seeing the traits the babies take on that are similar—it makes you feel like you know the horses a little bit better. Calliandra is very quick across the ground and really
clever, and so businesslike in the ring. Sometimes in school- ing she didn’t like other horses coming at her but once
Christina Firestone and Arwen, bred by the Firestones, earned team gold at the 2014 NAJYRC in Kentucky.
All photos by Charlene Strickland except for the photo of Christina Firestone above.
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Kim MacMillan/MacMillan Photography
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