with a good adjustable canter. And, I look for horses whose bloodlines complement each other on the dam and sire side. We pay close attention to the dam line because that plays the majority role and we are continuously looking to improve. I also, of course, look to horses who have athletic, careful jumps; you can never have too much scope or power,” Taylor explains. A majority of AliBoo Farm’s horses are registered with Zangersheide since they work with several breeders in Europe who also register their foals with Zangersheide, a performance-based registry with an emphasis on jumpers that accepts horses from many breeds into their studbooks. “Léon Melchior, the founder of it, was a businessman in industry. He rode and competed horses and sponsored some of the bigger riders in Europe. He realized that there was not really a studbook that was open to performance horses regardless of breed. He wanted a studbook that was much more global; he thought that a good horse is a good horse. I think that he was the first one to design a studbook that said, ‘OK, I don’t care if your horse is a Holsteiner, a Selle Fancais, a BWP, a Hanoverian…if it is a good performance horse, it is a good performance horse,” she continues. Taylor also serves on the board of the Belgian Warmblood
Paard NAD (BWP/NAD) registry, noting the breeding goals of the BWP mesh with her own. The AliBoo Farm stallions go through their approvals and when their foals are born they register them with the BWP. “With both of these studbooks, I appreciate that they are performance studbooks and are breeding for the sport. Zangersheide is very much a stud- book for the breeders as they offer several incentives and rewards to the breeders when their horses perform well in sport. And they offer their breeders assistance in sales when necessary. Since the founder of the Zangersheide was into top-level sport, that does make a difference,” she emphasizes. Several of Taylor’s initial breeding goals have been accom- plished. She has produced an approved breeding stallion
in Diamant d’Heure ABF (Diamant de Semilly x Rio Grande), who is a fully-approved stallion with BWP and has achieved very good results in the hunter ring. She checked off another of her goals when she developed Carrasca Z and competed him at the World Young Jumper Championships in Belgium. Having him approved for breeding in Europe marked the completion of another. Still, Taylor feels she has much more to do. “I would like
to keep improving upon our breeding program, as I think you can always get better and adapt as the sport grows and changes. At present the horses we have bred are quite young
still, but as they grow up I hope they are successful in whichever ring they are destined for. Ideally, my next goal that I would like to meet, as both a breeder and a competitor, is to breed a horse and then develop it to the 1.60 meter ring successfully. I would like to do this with several horses! I told my mom the other day that I’m getting old and haven’t accomplished what I need to yet,” she says with a laugh.
TOP: Taylor jumps stallion Carrasca Z at the Hampton Classic in August 2017. He has won numerous young horse classes as a six and seven-year- old. BOTTOM: Carrasca Z when a foal in 2010.
In 2015 Taylor rode her young horse Diamant d’Heure in St. Louis at the Queenie Productions Winter Festival.
24 January/February 2018
Taylor’s Parting Thoughts Taylor has a clear vision for the direction she sees for sport horse breeding on this continent. “I would like to see North American sport horse breeders continue to close the gap between breeding and the performance ring. I think breed- ers need to continue to look at the performance ring and breed horses with a purpose,” she says. “And I think they need to find a way to make sure their horses get to riders who will develop them. There are so many nice horses being bred here
Shawn McMillen
AliBoo Farm
Lili Weik Photography
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