The fillies of 2024 have been weaned and are now under their new ownership. I am lucky that Unikha is staying with me for a bit to grow up here and Uphoria is up to great and fun things with her new owner and new friends.
This was the year of the tall fillies.
Surprisingly both fillies got tall really quick this year and I have to say it was not the only surprise !
Breeding keeps you both humble and amazed.
The theme of the 2024 breeding season was sticking to the relatively well known. Zigami was bred for the second time to Dauphin and Kreation was bred to Parcival after giving us 4 carbon copies of herself (well almost) therefore we though we knew what to expect.
Uphoria (Dauphin X Zigami)
We really quite like the idea of blending the Donnerhall lines with the newer more modern pedigree of Zigami (who is by Zack and out of Florestan mare: new-ish lines, well compared to Donnerhall anyway). We were quite pleased with that last pairing that gave us Suarez: a well-balanced in stature and movement (shorter lines), a smaller colt (Zigami is 16.3hh) with energy and brains well combined that was born in 2022.
When this year’s filly came out, it was obvious from the start that she was very similar to her dam. In color, in built, in expression: Uphoria is a mini-Zigami.
But not so mini! She grew quickly and showed that she would probably be close to her dam’s height making her the tallest of Zigami’s offsprings to date. (Reminder: Dauphin is 16hh and was chosen in part for his slightly smaller stature.)
As she matured out of babyhood her temperament seemed to also mirror Zigami with high energy, reactivity and a general “haughty and high headed-ness” quite different to the laid back, cheeky trouble maker colt of the last pairing.
Both have a high opinion of themselves however.
Uphoria is more generous in her effort to please then her brother. Her sensitivity makes her very easy to train with the slightest touch but on the other hand I never had a foal so reactive to needles: extremely thin skinned in that regard. As a reference I can poke her dam without needing to put a halter on her, she is completely non responsive to needles- so perhaps something that will be outgrown.
It’s quite hard to see Dauphin at all in this filly to be honest, she really looks like her dam, moves like her dam Dauphin- did not add or detract in anyway and she is really built like her. Her canter is her best gait just like her mom- at least for now. We shall see how she matures but overall, the resemblance to her dam was a bit of a surprise. Of course, the Donnerhall influence is there genetically but it’s in something deeper that I can’t really see at this point.
Zigami is a very nice mare so there is no disappointment there to be clear and I think Uphoria has a nice future ahead of her as a dressage horse.
It goes to show that full brothers or sisters will not necessarily be that alike unless one parent is extremely prepotent (hence the challenge and fun of breeding).
Unikha (Parcival X Kreation)
Speaking of prepotent parents, after 4 foals I kind of thought we had Kreation figured out.
She puts a LOT of herself in her babies: they have her head, short back, shorter legs, nice neck, strong loins and shorter stature. Despite breeding her to some pretty prepotent stallions like Morricone and Sandro Hit her babies are most definitely “hers”. There is no confusing them with the other foals. They are also usually pretty sensitive, high energy and reactive at first and complete people lover.
Her, to be, last foal (for us) was sired by Parcival, a proven stallion that also stamps similar qualities so I figured we would get another Kreation’s special and was completely surprise.
Unikha (hence her name) is the most different foal Kreation has produced to date. She was not born with the dainty head of her dam, her neck was set a bit shorter, she has a strong short back but much longer legs, her croup was different, more angled and she was a bright blood bay with lots of white (all the others were black and very very dark bay).
Parcival clearly pushed through Kreation in this one. Unikha looks a lot like her sire and is going to be by far the tallest and biggest of Kreation’s offsprings. She has lots of bone and heft, she moves with power rather than lightness, with less knee then her dam. She is quite calm compare to her siblings and almost as bold as her half brother Revelation (by Secret). A tad stubborn maybe but still easy to train. Her eye reminds me of Kreation’s but her head is not as typey. She is however as social and demanding of attention as her siblings and her mother.
It will be interesting to see if she continues to grow and develop in the direction of her sire. She bucks and leaps more readily than her siblings ever did so overall perhaps the jumping genes are indeed coming through. The hunter ring awaits this one.
