Steph, a fellow blogger who is also breeding her mare this year, did a post on why she picked the particular stallion that she did. I thought it was a good idea, and interesting to follow her thought process, so I stole it. Or forcefully and unofficially blog hopped it, however you want to look at it.
Like most things with horses, the choices we make about breeding are so very personal. A lot depends on the exact mare in question, the exact person in question, what the foal is intended for, and the current circumstances. There’s no such thing as a “right” or “wrong” answer, and there are hundreds of different choices that could work just as well as the next one. Choosing a stallion is a bit overwhelming. It’s not as simple as “this one is really pretty, let’s go with him!”.
While I had always toyed with the idea of keeping one of Sadie’s babies for myself, I didn’t really have a solid plan as to which one, when, or by whom. I’ve been involved in the breeding world for a long time and have a lot of opinions about bloodlines, so just the thought of trying to pick a stallion for her was anxiety-inducing. Then on our Belgium trip last year I kept seeing young horse after young horse that I absolutely LOVED, and they had one thing in common – they were all by Mighty Magic. He ticks all of my personal “must have” boxes:
- at least 60% TB (he is 88%)
- some Holsteiner blood (they’re guaranteed to jump)
- approval by a major European-based registry (he’s approved with pretty much all of them)
- average size (I don’t want a giant horse to try to keep sound)
- a competition record in eventing (MM won the 7yo World Championship at Lion d’Angers)
- offspring competing in upper level eventing (while most are still too young to be upper level horses, there are some starting to pop up)
- a very good canter (I always buy for canter, so it makes sense to breed for it too)
Side note: not gonna lie, it was serious icing on the cake that Mighty Magic is homozygous bay, because I’m not a chestnut fan. His excellent test scores for rideability are always nice to see too. He currently shows international level dressage with a young rider.
While in Belgium I was lucky to be in the midst of breeders who had used the stallion a lot, seen/owned a ton of his offspring, and knew a lot about what he produced and what kind of mare he matched best with. MM is based in France, so they’re in a prime location to know a lot more about him than what I’d be able to glean from the internet. I spent quite a while picking the brain of one breeder in particular, and after showing him my mare options (at that time I had two), describing them both, looking at their pedigrees, talking about the tendencies of the offspring, what I wanted, etc, he told me which mare he would pick. Luckily, that was Sadie.
And ultimately, the mare is the most important piece of the puzzle. I love Sadie, had a lot of fun raising and riding her, she has a fantastic work ethic, she’s a good mover, and she has plenty of jump. If I got a carbon copy of her, I wouldn’t be upset. Ok, I would prefer that her baby be a lot less inclined to smash things with it’s butt (RIP Michelle’s stall walls, trees, truck wheel well, and pretty much 80% of things on her property).
We also discussed Jaguar Mail for her, but ultimately decided that their jumping styles might not be a good match. So I came back to the States and proceeded to scour the internet looking at more Mighty Magic foals and figuring out what bloodlines he crossed best with. Just so happened that as I watched youtube video after youtube video, the babies I liked most were out of mares with Hanoverian blood. Sadie is half Hanoverian. To go one step further, the winner of the 5yo Bundeschampionate for eventing in 2015 was by Mighty Magic out of a Hanoverian mare that shares several bloodlines in common with Sadie. That sealed the deal.
And now… we wait…
breedrideevent.com 
Your knowledge of breeding makes my head spin. Yay for bay babies, though!
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The dam of Maya Black’s Doesn’t Play Fair was posted for sale in foal to Mighty Magic. I think that would be an incredible foal to watch.
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Jackie Mars just had one born this year by Mighty Magic, too! Another super cute “Landmark” filly.
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Mighty Magic is a lovely stallion- I’m sure you’ll get a great baby! I enjoy that the warmblood registries lay out such specific criteria for their performance tests and make the scoring accessible.
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Me too! I like the ones that give the stallions an OCD or bone-joint status rating as well!
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Interesting post! I’m getting ready to breed my AO jumper (embryo transfer, another mare of mine will carry it). The semen finally arrived!!!! The girls leave for the repro clinic in a little over a week. I am crossing my fingers and toes that we will be successful!! My mare is by Landjonker out of a Ramiro’s Son mare. We are breeding her to Cornet Obolensky (Clinton x Heartbreaker). The mare has an incredible, very amateur friendly mind, but her level of scope is about 1.40m-1.45m. We chose a stallion with BIG scope. I REALLY HOPE we get a baby!!!!
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Cornet Obolensky is lovely, and from the description of your mare I think you’ll do well with that choice! Fingers crossed for a successful breeding/prenancy/harvesting/implantation!
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I know so little about warmblood breeding, but it’s totally fascinating. I do know a lot about doing homework before you breed to make the most informed decision you can, and I have to say you’ve done a lot of homework here! Fingers crossed for a super cool baby horse. Kinda sad it won’t come out chestnut, though. 😉
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NO RED!!! Go Team Brown Horse.
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I have enjoyed reading about breeding, and living vicariously through the bloggers who are into it. I’m just… not. Personally I have no desire to breed or own a foal… I’m not even really interested in baby horses. But it’s fun to read about 🙂
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I don’t blame you, they’re turds and take forever to grow up. 😉 I think you have to be a little “off” to want to breed your own!
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I’m so excited to keep following this breeding! Even more so now that you’ve shared all these photos of the family.
Also… Bay is always Best.
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I find breeding interesting and want to learn more about it! Thank you for sharing your experiences
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I think you picked the right stallion – going to be so exciting to see the foal grow up!
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Very exciting! Can’t wait to see the results.
^And that part is why I don’t have the patience for breeding.
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I’m weirdly excited about all the breeding plans in blog land. Very weirdly lol.
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There’s gonna be so many BEEBEES next year!
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I love how much thought and planning went into this! I think you are going to have one really really nice baby! Want to find an ISH stallion for me??
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Flagmount’s Freedom!
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I will check him out!!
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He’s based in TX and has tons of kids here, but lots are already running around the upper levels all over the country. Highly recommend if you have the right mare!
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Um I love him! I need to do some more research but love that he is traditional ISH with ID and TB. Definitely looking for a lighter ISH with lots of TB… He may be a good choice! Thanks for the heads up
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Formula One is probably the lightest I’ve seen, with higher % TB, but Flag is a nice middle size and seems to produce the same.
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I LOVE Formula One (and Denny)- he’s a possibility too. And I am not even sure I want to breed- that’s an entire blogpost of its own… Lol
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