A New Chapter

I've got one more post I'm working on about preparations horse owners should make, but I'm going to skip it to share this news with you first.

3 Generations:  Meeker, Audubon, Estes (April, '10)

One of the things that was most heartbreaking to me when I put Estes down was that I felt like her line died with her.  She wasn't a big show horse, nor was she worth lots of money.  Hell, she was a Quarter Horse/Morgan mix, she certainly didn't have any "pure" bloodlines, yet she was the beginning of Ida's foray into breeding.  From Estes, she got Meeker; from Meeker, she got Audubon; from Audubon she got one of the fillies I absolutely fell in love with a few years ago.

I don't know which was Audubon's, I suspect it's the one on the left.

There have been more off-spring, but Estes-Meeks-Audubon make up the direct breeding line.  Ida bought a Friesian mare (the mother of the other baby in the picture) and has been concentrating on breeding that line for the past few years.

Today, she called me and offered to breed Audubon for me so that I would have one of Estes' babies. 

Y'all, I couldn't stop crying.  I might have freaked her out a little bit.  Certainly she knows how much I loved Estes, but I can't put into words how much her offer means to me.

Ida has a Friesian stallion that she likes to use, and is going to breed her Friesian mare, so I'll pay for the semen and the AI for Audubon and Ida will have them done at the same time. Considering her last Friesian colt sold for more money than I'd ever be able to spend for a horse, I'm getting a great deal.

I told her I had to talk it over with Mom, but who was I kidding?  I was going to do it and we both knew it.

I called the Lodge crying and almost couldn't get the words out, I'm pretty certain Mom thought horrible things had happened.

To say the whole family is excited is an understatement.

I've looked up Baby Daddy online and he's beautiful, but I'm afraid of jinxing everything if I post him here.  Once CSU has the semen in hand and we're set up for the AI, I'll put him up here.

(I posted him on FB and am afraid that I've already jinxed it, but I can't undo that, so I'm hedging my bets here.)