March 2023 – Page 3

Does this face look familiar?

It both should and shouldn’t. You’ve never met this horse before. I’ve never posted any pictures of her here. But if you’re thinking she looks a hell of a lot like Presto, you would be extremely correct. The resemblance is uncanny, especially when looking at their faces from the front.

So who is this adorable little creature, you may be asking? Uh, well… hi hello yes, this is our new filly. Say hello to Simsalabim, a 2yo filly by Saketini xx out of Mary Lou S (Mighty Magic x Ramiro’s Son II).

Losing Gemma sucked. A lot. Especially because we really bought her to use for breeding, and we had started shopping for stallions to breed her to. Hillary’s horse is 7 this year, and Presto is 6, so like… if we’re thinking about breeding the next generation, so to speak, now is the time to put that wheel in motion. Our dreams for that died along with Gemma. We sort of discussed starting to keep our eyes peeled for another OTTB mare at some point, certainly not feeling like we were in any sort of rush. We wanted it to be the right one, whenever and wherever we found her.

And then a local friend of mine reached out to me on facebook after she heard about Gemma. The woman has bred a few foals in the past few years but has decided that the whole breeding thing isn’t for her (smart lady!) and sold her broodmare a few months ago.

The first filly she had, now a 2yo, is by a TB eventing stallion and out of a Mighty Magic (Presto’s sire) mare. Indeed, the whole reason this woman and I even know each other is because of her MM mare. Because, you know… me and MM offspring, I am a stalker. Anyway, the filly had a pasture injury that will preclude her from a serious sport career, and since the woman is no longer breeding, she didn’t really have a use for the filly. That’s when she reached out to me. She knows I like and understand the MM brain, and her seasonal boarders (a 5* rider and her wife – who does our horses’ bodywork) also vouched for us being a potentially great home.

We went last week to see her and it was a bit of love of first sight for both me and Hillary. I am of course obsessed with her breeding, and she looks remarkably like Presto so ya know – done deal for me. She’s also an incredibly nice filly in her own right though, and really exciting as a broodmare prospect. Her damline has produced some really cool top level horses – everything from a 1.55m showjumper to a 4* eventer to a 4th level dressage horse. (I’ll have to do a Family Tree post for her at some point) Of course she’s just coming 2, so it would be next year before we looked at breeding her, which gives us time to play with her, learn about her, and maybe lightly start her under saddle to give us a better idea of what she’s like. Perfect.

It wasn’t my intention to really look for anything again for a while, and we figured it would be another OTTB, but for a horse like this to just fall into our laps seems like a sign from the universe. All the best ones kind of find their way to you, don’t they? To top it all off, she only lived 10 minutes up the road. I dunno how much more perfect it can get.

We went to pick her up on Saturday and she walked right in the trailer like a pro, rode down to our farm, unloaded, took one look around, and started eating grass. We brought her into the barn to brush her and chop her mane off and she immediately stuck one of the crossties in her mouth. Yes yes, you will fit in here just fine. She’s now settled into the filly pasture like a champ, and is really a smart girl. I love her.

Her barn name is Simi but we don’t totally love that so we’ve been kicking around other options… haven’t landed on anything 100% yet. She’s already gotten the unfortunate nickname of Sis from me and Bunny from Hillary so we’re gonna have to decide fast so I can quit referring to her as NotSemiOrSisorBunnyMaybeFayOrSomething.

Her pedigree:
https://horsetelex.com/horses/pedigree/2388038/simsalabim

I’m so excited to have such a nice freakin mare in the barn and really can’t thank the people involved enough for the opportunity. ❤ Welcome home, kiddo.

When it comes to foals, I think week 2 is prime time as far as entertainment value. In their first week they’re still wobbly and sleep constantly, but by week 2 they’ve found their feet a little bit, are more curious, and have a little more stamina. They start discovering their world a little bit more and explore things without being quite so glued to their dam. It’s when you start to really see what their personality is like, as they become comfortable in the world.

This little fuzzmonster is no exception.

RiRi is… something else. Her name is very appropriate. She is sassy and confident and very curious, and pretty bold. She also likes to explore things by putting them in her mouth, which is perhaps more or less endearing depending on how you feel about that. There is not an inch of me or her pasture or her stall that her mouth has not touched.