Author: Veronique

Owner and worrier in chief at Formosus Sporthorses in Alberta she's been breeding horses for over 18 years. Warmblood, warmblood crosses, and a few saddlebreds. She loves handling mare and foals and is passionate about giving foals the best start possible.
Raising Foals
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From foal to maturity.

As foal mature they change of course, but how much? How can you tell what the foal you are looking at might look like at maturity? How do you train your eye to see into the future? One way is to look at a lot of foals as they mature and train your eye to see what changes and what stays the same. Here is some examples to practice on. Those are some of the foals we raised and we were able to get conformation pictures of later in life. The old adage 3 days, 3 months and 3yrs might be a fun one to remember but frankly,...

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Formosus Sporthorses News
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How do we breed for the amateur market?

With so many breeders focusing on breeding for the amateur market, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to define what WE mean by the term: “breeding for the dedicated amateur.” After all, here at Formosus, we breed for them, for you, we do not breed for ourselves, other breeders, breed associations, or for the judges. I think it is important to articulate this core value of our breeding program as it makes it clear to us and to others. So first of all: what are “amateurs riders”? If we look at what they have in common we can then find where we need to focus our...

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Warmblood breeder corner
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Why are we making this so hard? (and so expensive!)

I read a discussion thread online the other day that made me sad on three levels. Someone (a somewhat experienced breeder and trainer) was asking how to best price her young warmblood gelding. By all indications, this was a good-minded young horse that was easily learning his A-B-Cs. Uncomplicated, willing, same horse at home than away: you know the type we would all like in our barn? I will add that he was also well-bred with proven, known bloodlines. Definitely not a shot in the dark here. The advice started pouring in and yes; I know that this is the internet and that the advice one can get...

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Expected 2021 foals

The breeding season for 2020 is now over.   Some years, all goes well. This year was one of them: the timing was perfect and both mares caught on their first cycle. Somehow, just like last year, they ended up being bred just 3 days apart. This year they foaled about 2 weeks apart, we shall see what happens next summer! We have some interesting foals coming up next year if all goes well. It’s a long 11 months between now and then but it won’t change what we have coming up so we might as well let you know!   Kreation had a very nice foal by...

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August News from the Farm

The summer has been amazing here in Alberta, we had tons of rain and the pastures are so thick; the haying was hampered by how tangled and moist the grass grew. The mare and foals are out on pasture about 16 hours a day. Our pasture this year has everything: alfalfa, brome, timothy, and some wild grass I don’t know but that the horses love to graze. The foals are surprisingly not engaging with each other yet. It will take a bit longer. The black colt Pavarotti is certainly mischievous enough but the palomino Marcello seems lower energy and not as motivated to engage. He is cheeky however...

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Raising Foals
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We are foal raisers

  We are breeders, yes but we are, perhaps most importantly, foal raisers. All our foals are handled, hugged, scratched, groomed, and loved from day one. They learn to wear a halter in the first week of their lives and they learn to trust us over the next few months as they pick up the basics of good horse behavior. They come in from the fields every evening for some handling or simply for some attention. We pick up their feet regularly, trim them as needed, and if not we still make them feel the rasp so their first trim is not such a ticklish experience! We make...

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Formosus Sporthorses News
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Our Alumna-Ender

Consul’s End Game (Ender) is a palomino RPSI registered gelding born in 2011. Ender was a custom foal for a dedicated amateur. She loved the Saddlebred’s personality and sharp looks but wanted something with a bit more power since her goal was to event and jump. The dam: Elfin, was a refined cremello Saddlebred with the most breathtaking of movement: light, airy with good articulation in all the joints and excellent rhythm as well as long lines and a good temperament. We were looking for a very proven sire, something that produced consistently good jumpers and eventers out of more refine mares. We needed a stronger loin connection...

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Our Alumna-Allegro aka Echo

Allegro is a bay tobiano gelding born in 2009 and registered with American Warmblood Association. Allegro has a bit of a different story than most of our homebred. Of all them, he is the one that has the most extensive show career so far and the one that has changed hands the most. He has a very long record on Equestrian Canada mostly at 1.10 and 1.15 m. Clearly, he is a good horse with a good character and soundness as he shows a lot, wins a lot, and changes hand when his riders are ready to move up.   His dam was a short and compact saddlebred...

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Formosus Sporthorses NewsUncategorized
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Our Alumna-San Raphael

San Raphael is a dark bay gelding born in 2014  and registered with Oldenburg (premium mention).   Raphiola by RioGrande had so far produced some really nice foals by jumper stallions and one by Hotline that we thought was developing very well (Redline). And so we wanted to try another dressage type stallion with her and see if that adage of breeding jumper line with dressage line to produce horses with plenty of canter and jump would work out again in our favor. As you know we try to go with proven sire and frankly they don’t come much more proven then Sandro Hit and so we opted...

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Our Alumna-San Diego

San Diego was one of the three Donation babies born that year. He was an ET born by the sweet QH mare Bonnie. He was the first to arrive and he looked so much like his dam from the start except he had huge ears! He was born contracted over the knees and that took about two months to resolve. With limited turn out he got to spend a lot of time with us and with his big ball that he loved to chase around and pounce on. Once he was able to rejoin his brother and sister the three were inseparable and he spent long months with...

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