We frequently get calls from PRE enthusiasts seeking advice on buying horses,
both domestically and in Spain, as well as how to choose a stallion for stud
purposes. I am sure there are several ways to approach these questions but
rather than advise I will just share the way we selected our stock.
After a successful breeding program at Hacienda del Sol, we sold all our dear
horses and remained without any for 2 years. When we decided to restart our
breeding program, armed with our past experience, we knew the first step was
to have a plan, do our homework, travel, and make the right choices.
Our plan was to find the best stallion possible to head our program and complement
him with high quality mares. If we were to restart our program, we decided it
had to be small in quantity but of the highest quality. Of the 17,000 PRE's born
every year, 14,000 are born in Spain. It was obvious to us that the place we
needed to find our foundation stock was Spain.
It was then time to do our homework. Using the internet, contacting breeders,
checking pedigrees and show records became a daily activity. There was lots of
information to consider and we spent months doing our research.
Once we had a pretty good ideas of horses we were interested in, it was time
to travel. We are very familiar with Spain since we lived there from 1975 thru 1981
and we have visited dozens of times to see family and purchase horses. We have
imported a fair numbers of horses in the past and we have good relationships with
many important breeders in Spain which was a great advantage in our search.
In our experience we have found that it is best to stay away from brokers and many
of the newer breeders that have popped up everywhere in Spain. Many are just
wealthy yuppies that go around buying expensive horses, call themselves breeders
but actually don't have a clue. Some of these "breeders" are not to be trusted.
On the other hand, it has been a pleasure dealing with the old established stud
farms, many of which are now dear friends.
At some point during one of our trips to Spain this year, we had to make some
choices. Because in the past we bred mainly bays and blacks, initially we were
looking mainly at stallions of color. Soon we decided to give up bays and blacks
since we could not find a stallion of color that met our requirements. We then
expanded our search with total disregard for color. The stallion we seeked needed
to be "THE TOTAL PACKAGE". First and most important, he needed to have
a world class pedigree. To us, this is the most important feature, time proven
bloodlines that consistently produce excellent offspring. We wanted a stallion
with racial fidelity, morphology, movement, proven performance, temperament
and qualified status, but the emphasis was GENETICS, GENETICS, GENETICS.
It is our belief that GENETICS gives us history, knowledge, family legacy and
breeding tradition. A perfect example is Maria Fernanda de la Escalera's legendary
stallion, ERMITAÑO III, the first "ELITE". Not only was he known to be a fantastic stud, he has
been described as "THE FATHER OF THE BREED" as recognition for being the
first PRE to shine as a sports horse and more specifically in dressage. This
historic stud happens to be Triunfador's uncle. His father, GANADOR VIII is
Triunfador's grandfather, and his mother, ERMITAÑA IV (arguably one of the
three best bay mares in PRE history), is Triunfador's greatgrandmother.
NADADORA VIII the 2 time SICAB ABSOLUTE CHAMPION OF SPAIN, 2 time
ABSOLUTE CHAMPION OF SPAIN IN MOVEMENT, 8 SICAB gold medals (more
than any other PRE), also one of the three best mares in PRE history, is
Ermitaña's daughter and also Triunfador's grandmother. There is only 12 horses
in the LAUREATE SECTION OF THE BOOK OF MERITS, of the 12, only 3 are bay
mares: MACANUA (Triunfador's great grandmother), ERMITAÑA IV
(Triunfador's great grandmother) and her daughter NADADORA VIII
(Triunfador's grandmother), sired by the great LEBRIJANO III.
It is impossible to find Triunfador's unique Spanish genetic treasure in any other
PRE.
Earlier this year we visited Maria Fernanda de la Escalera's farm and spent time
with Manuel Novales Escalera, her son who now manages the 300 year old stud
farm. While looking at some mares, we saw TRIUNFADOR XXIV, it was love at
first sight. We inquired about him but were told that was the farm's main stud
and not for sale. After months of back and forth, we were able to acquire this
magnificent stallion that not only met but surpassed all our requirements. It is
still hard for us to believe that we were able to purchase the flagship of the M.F.
Escalera stud farm, described by trofeo caballo as "the best PRE today".
We also purchased two bay M.F. Escalera mares, ORGULLOSA CXLVI and
PODEROSA LVII, both with the world class Escalera pedigree and sired by multi
gold medalist, RANCHERO XIV. Our next mare was LIVIANA X, a grey qualified
daughter of the Lovera Champion of Spain, FARAON XXVIII.
Our last trip to Spain was in November where we visited the legendary Francisco
Santiago Ruiz farm in Malaga where we finalized the purchase of his two black
qualified mares: UNIVERSITARIA XIV and UTRERA XI. Both have magnificent
Escalera and Yeguada Militar bloodlines which will be a perfect match for Triunfador.
They should arrive from Spain late December, they will be our Christmas gift for
"TRIUNFI". Universitaria is one of the very few black PRE's to have been a SICAB
finalist and honorable mention. She was recommended in the ANCEE 2010 CATALOG
as breeding stock for conformation traits for dressage. Utrera XI is out of the number
one Yeguada Militar stud OBCECADO, and is the only black qualified PRE whose
sire and dam are also both qualified.
While in Sevilla we attended SICAB for the third time. What a magnificent collection
of excellent PRE's, over 300 breeders competed with over 900 of the best horses in
the world and a crowd of over 200,000 enjoyed every minute of it. In any class, 40-50
of the top horses would compete with not a lot of difference between the horse that
placed 4th and the one that was 38th. A good show outcome in Spain doesn't come
easy at any show and certainly most difficult at the top shows like Sevilla, Jerez
and SICAB. Take a well known champion like Armas Tarugo, a horse that his new owner
advertises as the best PRE in the world, who was sold to Mexico last year and returned
to Sevilla for SICAB 2010. After the morphology and movement part of the competition
he was ranking 8th. He finished higher thanks to a great score on functionality, but that
should give us an idea of the quality of horses competing in SICAB. Two of Triunfador's
gold medalist sons finished in the teens in classes of up to 45 of the world's best.
Libertada IV, Triunfador's sister, the 2009 SICAB gold medalist and Subchampion of
Spain, took gold in section 9 at SICAB this year and Jaquetona, Triunfador's full sister,
took bronze in the SICAB cobra section. It makes us appreciate so much more
Triunfador's accomplishments when he was awarded so many gold medals, including
Sevilla and Jerez, Champion of the Breed in Sevilla, Absolute Champion of Sevilla,
and 3 times a SICAB TOP 5 award. It is important to realize that 22 of Triunfador's
offsprings are competing in showrings worldwide, 1 in Colombia, 3 in Mexico, and
the rest in Spain. No PRE stallion in the U.S. has this number of offspring competing.
Furthermore, Triunfador transmits his world class genetics well as evidenced by
the 14 gold medals among his offspring, this is far more gold medals among offspring
than any PRE stallion in the U.S.
We are very pleased to have carried out our plan, our homework payed off, we
enjoyed our trips, and are very happy with our choices. We did not compromise;
all of our horses have that world class pedigree that was most important to us, and
we'll soon have 4 qualified horses in our farm, more than most farms in Spain.
Our main star, Triunfador is indeed "THE TOTAL PACKAGE", he has it all:
champion bloodlines, Escalera brand, champion offspring, 4 qualified offspring size,
homozygous black with no markings, phenomenal movement, excellent temperament,
and a proven show record in the most important shows in the world, including SICAB.
Now he has excellent mares who, like him, have world class genetics and we just can´t
wait for their babies here in the U.S. We believe he would be an excellent choice for those
needing a stud for their mares because it is difficult, even in Spain, to find a stallion
with all these qualities. Look at it this way, we did, if Triunfador was good enough
to be the flagship stud for the most prestigious PRE farm in the world, a farm with
a reputation for dressage geared breeding, the 300 year old Yeguada Escalera,
shouldn't he be good enough for your mare? Triunfador continues to breed in
Spain via frozen semen and his U.S. stud fee is $4000 till December 31, 2010.
While it is true that you can probably breed to most black PRE's for $2000-3000,
we believe it is well worth a little extra and bring to your mare a 300 year old
genetic heritage, a proven champion, color, size, qualified status all wrapped in a
stallion that Trofeo Caballo once described as "the best black PRE today".
TRIUNFADOR IS CURRENTLY BREEDING MARIA FERNANDA DE LA ESCALERA
MARES VIA FROZEN SEMEN IN FUENTES DE ANDALUCIA. WE ARE VERY
PROUD THAT OUR STALLION IS BREEDING MARES AT THE MOST
PRESTIGIOUS PRE FARM IN THE WORLD. TRIUNFADOR IS PROBABLY THE
ONLY U.S. PRE STUD BREEDING IN SPAIN AND CERTAINLY THE ONLY ONE
BREEDING AT THE HISTORIC MARIA FERNANDA DE LA ESCALERA FARM.
IF MARIA FERNANDA AND MANUEL ESCALERA CHOOSE TRIUNFADOR FOR
THEIR MARES, SHOULD´NT YOU FOR YOURS?
DOESN´T YOUR MARE DESERVE A WORLD CLASS AFFAIR WITH A
SIRE OF CHAMPIONS?
TRIUNFADOR'S BREEDING BOOK NOW OPEN FOR LIMITED NUMBER OF SELECTED MARES FOR THE 2012 AND 2013 BREEDING SEASON.
WHY CHOOSE TRIUNFADOR FOR YOUR MARE?
DR. MERCEDES VALERA, GENETICIST AND SCIENTIST IN CHARGE OF THE PRE SELECTION SCHEME AT THE UNIVERSITUY OF SEVILLA, WROTE AN ARTICLE IN THE DECEMBER 2007 ISSUE OF "EL CABALLO". IN THIS ARTICLE SHE GIVES 3 AREAS TO FOCUS ON WHEN CHOOSING A STUD:
1." STUD'S EXTERNAL ASPECT"
TRIUNFADOR'S EXTERNAL ASPECT HAS EARNED HIM 7 GOLD MEDALS IN SPAIN, INCLUDING SEVILLA AND JEREZ, THREE TIMES TOP 5 AT SICAB AND ABSOLUTE CHAMPION OF SEVILLA. THIS TALL, BLACK, ESCALERA BRANDED, EMBLEMATIC, QUALIFIED MULTI CHAMPION IN CONFORMATION, MOVEMENT AND FUNCTIONALITY, CERTAINLY MEETS REQUIREMENT NUMBER 1.
2. "STUD'S PEDIGREE"
HIS PEDIGREE TELLS US WHAT HE SHOULD BE. HIS FIRST 3 GENERATIONS CONTAIN ALL 3 BAY LAUREATE BOOK OF MERITS MARES: ERMITAÑA IV, MACANUA (SICAB CHAMPION OF SPAIN), AND NADADORA (SICAB CHAMPION OF SPAIN, 4 TIMES). TRIUNFADOR'S PARENTS ARE BOTH GOLD MEDALISTS AND HIS PEDIGREE CONTAINS LEGENDS LIKE: OCLE, LEBRIJANO III, AGENTE, FAVORITO XXX (SICAB CHAMPION OF SPAIN) AND 8 CROSSES TO MALUSO IN HIS FIRST 8 GENERATIONS.
3. "PERFORMANCE OF HIS OFFSPRING INDICATES WHAT HE REALLY IS"
HIS OFFSPRING HAVE COLLECTIVELY ACQUIRED 13 GOLD MEDALS, 8 BEST MOVEMENT, 5 BEST FUNCTIONALITY, 6 SUB-CHAMPION OF THE BREED, 4 ABSOLUTE CHAMPION OF THE BREED.
TRIUNFADOR HAS A SON PRESENTLY STANDING AT THE WORLD FAMOUS, MARIA FERNANDA DE LA ESCALERA FARM (ALONG WITH HIS FATHER AND BROTHER). I THINK IT SPEAKS TO TRIUNFADOR'S QUALITY THAT HE WAS STANDING FOR YEARS AT ESCALERA'S FARM WITH HIS FATHER, AND NOW THEY HAVE ADDED HIS SON AND BROTHER.
TRIUNFADOR ALSO HAS 3 OFFSPRING THAT ARE QUALIFIED. NO OTHER BLACK QUALIFIED IN THE WORLD OR ANY PRE, OF ANY COLOR, IN THE U.S. HAS 3 QUALIFIED OFFSPRING.
WE BELIEVE THAT A STUD'S TRUE EXCELLENCE IS MEASURED BY THE QUALITY OF HIS OFFSPRING.
DO YOU KNOW ANY STUD, OF ANY COLOR, ANYWHERE, THAT MEETS THE ABOVE REQUIREMENTS AS WELL AS TRIUNFADOR?
TROFEO CABALLO CALLED HIM "THE BEST BLACK PRE TODAY", EL CABALLO MAGAZINE CALLED HIM "THE BEST IN ESCALERA'S FARM", WE CALL HIM "THE TOTAL PACKAGE".
THERE IS A NUMBER OF GREAT STALLIONS IN SPAIN, AND SOME IN THE U.S., BUT NOT EVERY GREAT STALLION IS A GREAT STUD. THIS IS A GREAT STUD.
DOESN'T YOUR MARE DESERVE A WORLD CLASS AFFAIR?
