June 19, 2015

We are cutting hay today and raking the field we cut on Wednesday. We should have cut it 3 weeks ago but it has been raining every other day and the alfalfa is getting old. We decided to take a chance even though the weather man predicts rain (but he has been wrong before) Mike is raking and Bob is cutting. Mike loves doing hay. It is so relaxing for him and now that he is retired from being a senator, much less stressful.


 One of the most beautiful sites for a horse person.  The hay is baled and it is beautiful!!!

 

June 16, 2015

My poor mares have to deal with nothing but mud. Juliet (Malibukini) and Time To Play Girl in their dirty shelter as it is too wet to drive in there to clean it. I weaned the filly on Time To Play Girl last Tuesday.

 

June 16, 2015

Sterling arrived at his new home yesterday. It seems so different without him here. He is now owned by Rancho La Chimenea and he will have an opportunity to prove himself as a show horse and a breeding stallion. He i NN and sired by I Gotta Cool Secret, out of Juliet (Malibukini) The ranch is located in Sonora, Mexico and they raise quality quarter horses and paints, champion Charbray cattle, registered Red Brangus cattle, and big game, including desert bighorn sheep, desert mule deer and desert whitetail deer. Ranco La Chimenea was featured in a 2007 issue of Western Horseman magazine. They are also the first ranch in Mexico to be accepted into the AQHA Ranching Heritage Breeders Program. Thank you Enrique Molina and Ricardo Platt for giving Sterling the chance that he deserves. This picture was taken after his long trip from Wisconsin so he looks a bit tired but I am sure that in a few days he will be back to his own self.

"Polly Peony" is just starting to bloom. Roseanne Albert sent this plant to me years ago when I lost my beautiful Kid Clu filly to a freak accident. She kept the "sister plant" and she emailed me today to ask how I was doing. Funny thing, I had just taken a picture of the plant. Miss Bunny Tardee and Molly, our dog both have their monuments beside the plant. I sure do miss both of them.

Beautiful day in Wisconsin before it rains again tomorrow. What could be more enjoyable than to watch Rebecca and Fred's little girl enjoying her day outside in the sun.

Fred's little girl is Rebecca's (You Bet Im Cool) embryo. We implanted it in the buckskin mare last year. Not only does she get her body from Fred but she also gets it from her mother, Rebecca. And, to think that all three of them are NN.

June 22, 2015

AQHA is celebrating 75 years of being an association. 25 years ago, they sent me this 18 by 24 framed picture celebrating their 50 year anniversary. The reason they sent it to me was that Impressivist, who we owned was pictured on it. Can you find him on the picture?

 

February, 2013

February 17, 2013 

I have been procrastinating and not keeping my web site up to date for a very long time.   It is so much easier to use Facebook but an old friend of mine, Bill Lauf,  left me a message last night.  He told me that someone who works with him prints my web news and gives it to Clarence Bruell to read.  Clarence is the man I bought The Magnolia Kid from many years ago.  She is the dam of Cooleah (Olivia) and also the dam of Coolage, the mother of Azzari.    I guess it is just natural to think that people have internet and they can read everything I post to Face Book but thinking about it, I  decided that I would try to resume my news posts.   After all, why have a web site if you aren't going to use it?   Besides, Vicki Livasy is so good at designing and I love to see what she does with the things that I send her.

 


 

I have been very lucky as "out of the clear" one day, an old friend showed up at our place---Joe St Clair who used to help us when we were standing Impressivist many years ago. To be honest, I didn't even recognize him until he spoke.   He had been in Arizona managing a ranch and cooking for the crew.      Evidently the cowboys work cattle and the chuck  wagon travels with them.  What an interesting life that must be to be part of our old world heritage of ranching.  He has been helping with the horses  a few mornings a week and I so appreciate him being here.  We are teaching some of our horses to hobble and it is really a great thing to have them know.  Fred is broke to ride and as soon as the weather gets nice, we will resume riding him.    We still have Bob Luebker, who has been with us forever (it seems)   He is my mainstay help and he and I can clean the barn in no time at all.  I don't think I could have horses without Bob being here.  Over the years, I just rely on him and can't imagine trying to raise horses without him.    Also, Leah Gloudemans has been a big help with the babies.  She has so much patience and is very experienced in handling horses.  She works full time in Mike's Senate home office but finds time on her days off to help.
 


 First of all, let me tell you about Classically or Fred as we call him.  I raised him and he is the last colt out of Miss Bunny Tardee, who was the foundation of my program.  We lost her at 24 years of age so Fred and Rebecca (You Bet Im Cool) are the only two produce of hers that I still have.  She was a World Champion producer.  She was sired by Tardee Impressive and out of Bunny Nightshade by Sonnys Nightshade by Sonny Dee Bar.   She was truly my pride and joy and I feel so lucky to have two of her foals, both of them NN.   I was totally surprised when Fred was born as I never expected to get a palomino out of her and Kids Classic Style.   I feel that both of these horses are my connection to the old mare and they both have a home with me.   I feel that Classically has so much to offer  the quarter horse industry as he stands almost 16.2, is palomino, great legged and gorgeous backed.  I truly believe that a stallion should have a great mother and in my opinion, Miss Bunny Tardee was that.  Many people asked me to stand him this year, but I decided that the timing just wasn't  right for me.   First of all, I have a wonderful veterinarian (Dr Katherine Fox)  and two years ago she was collecting stallions and breeding mares out of our facility.  Last year, she decided to become a part of the Friesian Foundation and that occupies most of her time.  She still does my vet work, but I could not ask her to collect a stallion and breed mares.  Also, I feel that in order to promote a stallion, I need to have good professional pictures and have him in some of the major futurities.  Next year, things will be different and I hope that my many friends who expressed interest in breeding to him will feel the same then.  With his conformation, color and breeding and the fact that he is NN for both HYPP and PSSM, make me believe that he will be a breeding stallion.  In the meantime, I will post pictures of him and keep you updated as to how he is doing.  

 

 

My good friend from Australia, Jackie Hardwicke and her sister Jeannette bought two horses.    I kept them here until they went into quarantine and bred Telesives Touchdown to I Gotta Cool Secret for Jackie.  The girls were in the United States last September for the Breeders Halter Futurity and Rita Crundwell's sale  and Jackie bought "Te" from the online sale.  Jeanette on the other hand, bought Trademark, a World Champion from Jim and Georgia Snow.  Little did I know when she asked me if I would keep a "colt" for her, she was  talking about a full grown aged stallion.  It all turned out great as both horses were a pleasure to have.  You didn't even know Trademark was a stallion, as gentle as he is.  They are now in Australia  and the girls will be able to get their horses out of quarantine soon.   I know they will be pleased with them as they are both great individuals.   January was very hard for me.   First of all, it was cold and we had a lot of snow.  Mike loves to plow snow so he was in "pig heaven"   I think it is a break from politics or perhaps he just gets frustrated with his politics and likes to scrape  it away. 
 

Click on pictures to enlarge.


 It was a beautiful time to take pictures of the horses so I am including a few of them.  Barbie (Intentionally) is the yearling NN filly by My Intention out of Janie (Kids Classic Gal)   She is really making a nice mare.  I sold the two young mares that I  planned to keep for broodmares to Jennifer Kelley.  I decided that 4 mares were plenty for me to breed.  Of course PDS (Dandy Dee Gal) has a permanent home here. 

 
Every day I would look at Facebook and see  all the  beautiful babies that people were posting pictures of  and I just had to wait for mine to arrive.  After 10 stud colts in a row over the last years, I was hoping the change to fillies with Barbie (the last foal of last year) was going to continue.    I just couldn't have more stud colts. 

The first mare, Juliet (Malibukini) was due January 31 but she didn't even look close the day before that.   Of course, it was her first baby and you know how maiden mares can be.  I planned to have Dr Fox sew my Foalert in her when she looked closer but low and behold she surprised me. On January 30,  I was in the barn, talking to my good friend, Donna Davis on the phone and noticed that the mare was sweating.  I called MIke and we were there for the birth of a gorgeous double registered FILLY.   I could not believe the color on her.   She is sired by TD Kid and he is known to throw his color sometimes.   I am very excited about this fillly as she is eligible for the Breeders Halter Futurity, both amateur and open divisions and she is an outstanding individual.  I tested her for both HYPP and the gray color as her dam is gray and she is NH but does not carry the gray gene.     I have been thinking about names for her and finally decided on calling her "Frankie" after Frank Sinatra who was called "old blue eyes"   The filly has two  blue eyes.   Of course, right after she was born, my trusty camera broke and I was not able to get many pictures of her.  My friend and helper, Leah  Gloudemans  let me use her camera and I appreciate that so much.  You know how I love taking pictures and it will be a few weeks until my camera is back. 

 
To be honest, I thought Olivia (Cooleah) would be the first mare to foal.  She foals early but wasn't due until February 16.   Funny thing, both Olivia and Janie (Kids Classic Gal) were bred on the same day and both were bred to the same stallion (My Intention) with the same box of semen.  Jim Snow promised me "filly semen" and he was right.  On February 1, Oivia had her FILLY late in the evening.  I was so exhausted that I put Janie and the other horses outside the next morning and took a nap.  It was one of those cold days when the temperature was below zero.  Mike brought them in around 2:30 in the afternoon. and I went out about 3:30.   Again I was talking to Donna Davis on the phone when Janie layed down and had a FILLY.   Can you believe it?   Olivia is blind and she and Janie are constant companions----they were both bred on the same day to the same stallion with the same box of semen and both foaled on the same day.  Besides that, they foaled early, at 325 days and both had fillies.  Unfortunately my camera is still not back from Nikon but I still had Leah's camera so I was able to get  a few newborn pictures of them.   I love all three of my fillies.  They are all great headed, legged and backed.  I can't wait to be able to get some new pictures so that I can show you.    Our weather had been so cold and then we had rain followed by freezing temperatures and snow so everything around here is ice covered.  My poor horses are not able to get outside.    As soon as I get my camera back, I promise lots of pictures.

To see more pictures of the foals, click here to go to the foal's page.

 
I am going to try to explain my reasoning for breeding each mare to a particular stallion  I think I will do this on the foal's page.   Next year there will not be a problem as Fred will be my stallion of choice.  Of course, Rebecca is his half sister though the dam's side and Janie is his half sister through his sire's side.   I do believe in line breeding and I have plenty of tine to think about it. 
 

I hope you enjoy the news and I hope that I will continue to post it.   Facebook is just too easy and if any of you want to stay more up to date on happenings here, befriend me on Face Book as I keep that more current. 
 

 

Sandy    

  
 

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Michael and Sandra Ellis
1752 Co Rd GG
Neenah, WI  54956
Tel: (920) 722-0182
Fax: (920) 236-8842
Email: ellisqh@athenet.net

 

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