Lady Calido began her successful eventing career late after having many foals, and she and Robyn Fisher are competing here at Twin Rivers in September 2009 in the CIC*** which they won. It was also their last event together.
ring. “The first day the baby stayed with her. The next day the baby didn’t stay with her, but watched. By the third time, he wandered around the property, not caring what his mom did. I kept the training easy and fun. If I had had her for six years, it might have been quicker because the muscle memory might have come back quicker. So it took longer, especially since she needed to be really fit for three-day. But better to be slower than faster in bring- ing them back.” As it was, by the time the 1996
“For your mare to get pregnant and for everything to go
Holsteiner was nine years old, she was competing at Preliminary and did her first one-star. The next year, 2006, she went Advanced. “If you have a strong founda- tion at Preliminary, the horse understands the questions and it’s just adding a little more height and a little more technical- ity,” says Robyn, who now has her training business in Los Angeles. “She and I had something special. She knew when we were competing and always brought the best that she could.” In 2009 Lady Calido sustained an injury, so Robyn bred
her again. “Then she went right back to work. Then a friend competed her Preliminary. She had a few more babies. Now she’s 22 and carrying beginners around.”
Transitioning into Motherhood At the other end of spectrum, transitioning a performance horse to broodmare life also has its challenges. Moving from show barn life with lots of attention to a quiet pasture takes time. “If I throw them out with the broodmares, they’re fret- ful. They don’t always interact with the others. They may walk the fence line or stand by the gate, ‘omg, where is my structure, my stall, my attention,’” says Elizabeth, who starts these girls out in private paddocks next to the broodmare pasture. “They get to know each other across the fence. It really works well if she goes out with a mare she knows. Establishing the pecking order is a challenge.”
“The first day the baby stayed with her. The next day the baby didn’t stay with her, but watched. By the third time, he wandered around the property, not caring what his mom did.”
well, you have to make sure she’s not stressed,” she contin- ues. “You think, ‘what horse wouldn’t be happy going out in a big pasture with a bunch of horses and having free time?’ But it can take a month to six months for a mare to relax enough to go out in pasture.. These Grand Prix [jumper] mares were in sport for a long time. Some come to the Midwest when they’re used to going to Florida in the winter, and here they are coming straight from the show ring.” Another challenge is to remove
shoes. “Horses from sport arrive with all kinds of shoeing. You can’t pull shoes and expect them to be okay. First pull hind shoes to see if that is alright. I got a horse from California in Septem- ber who still had the front shoes on in December because she would get too sore on the frozen ground. And she’s under a pile of blankets and comes in
at night because she was clipped for the show ring.”
In Closing These examples and anecdotes demonstrate mares are often more flexible than we credit them to be. They can transition from the show ring to the broodmare pasture and back again, very successfully if managed correctly. Impor- tantly, this system provides information about mares that supports better decisions about the quality of their breeding programs. John Madden likely saw that with the mares he put on
the track. His harness racing mare Nancy Hank set a record on September 28, 1892 by trotting a mile in two minutes and four seconds; she ran undefeated and was inducted into the Harness Racing Hall of Fame. Blue Girl earned over $68,000 on the flat track with Madden as her trainer and in her lifetime would produce 13 foals.
Warmbloods Today 21
Photos by Josh Walker
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