My road to stallion approval... Part 1

In October, I decided to write up my path to stallion testing.
In my blog series I am going to take you into a world that is strange to me, the NWPCS stallion approval! Because as an athlete and hobby breeder you don't belong there was always my thought. But I hope I can convince you to try it anyway! Because it will take some years of your life but what a cool experience! Of course, I also share the tips I received! I think everyone knows the outcome of our adventure. And if not, that will come up naturally, maybe even more fun!

Carrying purchased

For just calling with ... I have had the opportunity to speak to many different breeders. And a lot of them told me that most of them already knew at the time of choosing a stallion if it could be a pony for the stallion approval. That was really different with us!
We bought Elcon Polly Pocket in foal from Jos and Jet Snijders. She was in foal to Penboeth Axle, no studbook stallion so totally unknown to me! Not because Penboeth Axle was an unknown stallion, but because I hardly knew anything about bloodlines.
Of course, I looked up pictures of Axle and he did appeal to me a lot!

Then the time came, Polly was due on April 26 my birthday and there was a gorgeous palomino colt with 4 high white legs and a blaze. At first I cried because I preferred a mare of course. And a little crazy I said, then it must be an approved stallion!

2nd premium foal

Of course I was very proud of Jaimy, my first foal with my stable name in front of it, so I enthusiastically entered him for the regional show in Tolbert. I often got compliments on him and because he has a lot of breed I hoped he would stand out. But unfortunately the opposite was true. Jaimy got a 2nd premium and unfortunately the comments were not very positive.

And then what do you do with a 2nd premium foal? Basically a judge tells you that he is not worthy of rearing for judging. But I was very fond of that pony! Then we'll just keep him and castrate him when he's 2 years old.
Jaimy grew up with a big fan base! Many people were charmed by him though. Jaimy was always my model so I often posted pictures and more and more people fell in love with him! When I look back he had a lot of ugly phases but in my eyes he was always special.

Castrate or not?

Normally we castrate stallions at 1.5 years of age but at that age I was in doubt because I could also give him another year. In the end I didn't castrate him and had to wait and see.

In September I made the decision to take him out of the stallion pasture and see how he is in handling and if he develops nicely. Once home, he was as sweet and easy going as he had been as a foal. And although he was very youthful, I still saw potential in him, and neutering can always be done. Then by chance I met Davy Wormgoor at an auction of our foal and I took the courage to ask him for advice and immediately asked him if he wanted to present him! And so began our adventure! In case you are curious how it continues, you can read that in part 2 next week!