hump day haflinger series #15

Hendershot New Millennium Haflingers is home to a Dutch Import, Silver Classified, National Grand Champion stallion.  Just as mares are classified for breeding reasons with the American Haflinger Registry, stallions are also classified in gold, silver, purple, and white categories.  For the year 2013, only six stallions were classified as gold and only thirteen mares received the gold classification. This was out of 817 horses inspected!

Nando

Haflinger: Nando

Sire and Dam: Dutch National champion Notaris and Jessica an Elite mare. 

Age: 15 year old stallion

Height: 14.3 hh

Favorite Food: Carrots

Tricks: Nando will bow for carrots!

Personality: Nando is quite the character, loves attention and will bug you until he gets it.

Likes: He like to get well groomed, clipped, and bathed, and then go out and have a good roll in the mud.

Discipline: English, Western, Dressage, Trail, Carriage Driving, Barrel Racing, Pole Bending, Team Penning, Reining, Over Fences

Barrel Racing!

The goal of Deb Parker and Bill Hendershot was to prove exactly how versatile a well-bred Haflinger could be. . .and that is exactly what they did! Nando was trained and shown in everything they could possibly think of.

English

The Hendershots discovered Haflingers in 1999 when they were looking for a fun driving horse. Previously, they had National and World Champion Quarter Horses and Paints. The first Haflinger they had has been donated to handicap riding program. They started researching more and more of the breed and eventually imported Nando.

Western Pleasure

When Nando was a three year old, he won his halter class, then went on to be Overall Grand Champion stallion at the American Haflinger Registry Nationals. That same day, he also won BOTH his English Pleasure and Western Pleasure classes at Nationals. That had never been done before and it has not been done since.

Leaping!

The Hendershots goal is for Nando to continue to sire Haflingers that are as versatile as he is. So far, many of his offspring have been Silver Classified. They show several of his offspring who have been successful in receiving High Point in the nation in Driving, some 4H State Champions, and some ADS Driving Champions in Combined Driving.

Reining

It is great to see Nando and his offspring being so successful in their lives. He seems like such a great overall horse who does a little bit of everything!

indiana haflinger sale preview

I took the day off of work and traveled over to Indiana to check out the Spring Haflinger Sale that is held every year. I had never been to this sale, but Friday there is a tack sale/auction, a fun show, and a drill team performance. 

I picked up Beth and Haley on the way west and we headed to see the Haflingers! The tack sale was a bit disappointing, as they had practically no vendors and we did not stay for the auction. Instead we took a short trip to Shipshewana Harness to check out their store. They are at a ton of shows and we always talk to Bob the owner, but it was cool to see the store and all the driving stuff they have inside. Bob was there and has such a vast amount of knowledge he is willing to share with his customers that it is always educational to talk to him.

But on to the Haflingers!

Baby! He was curious, but scared. And so cute!

This funny guy kept curling his lip when he was being brushed.

Forelock envy

This baby was a month old. He was so cute and fuzzy!

Me (Allison) and stallion Allison of the Valley.

Allison of the Valley, he was very handsome!

This filly is a sister to one of Haley's horses, whom she bought three years ago at this auction. Her name is Butterfingers.

Driving part of the fun show, we got to see the horses that are for sale driving, riding, and in hand.

This horse went up in the cart, then came down and fell. When it was falling, a shaft broke. Luckily, the horse remained calm and stayed down, but the driver got out to keep the horse down to others could unhook and remove the cart. The audience and other horses in the arena were very calm about the situation. It was scary, but handled well and the horse was unharmed and fine. 

A team hitch

This was Nieman Marcus II. I like how he parked out. 

It was a fun day. I talked with a couple Haflinger people, got to see a bunch of Haflingers, and hang out with Beth and Haley. Kinda wish I could have taken a Haflinger home though. . .perhaps Allison of the Valley?

Also, I totally, unintentionally made a stallion ejaculate by scratching his head. It was unexpected and gross. 

hump day haflinger series #10

Have you ever seen a horse and you thought, wow. . .that horse is amazing!? This horse is a horse I would breed Shyloh to if a) I was ever planning on breeding her (but I am not) and b) if she was ever good enough to be bred to him (which she isn't).

I have met this Haflinger and spoken with his owner, Mary Procopio, who is incredibly nice. She is also the owner/operator of New Horizons Haflinger Sport Horses/New Horizons Farm LLC (formerly Lilac Farms LLC) in Laingsburg, Michigan, and has been breeding top quality modern sport horse type Haflingers since 2000. New Horizons is home to several silver and gold classified mares who have proven themselves as winners on-the-line and under saddle at breed shows and in open competition. 

Some of the awards won by New Horizons are:

• 2012 Reserve Leading Breeders of Haflinger Dressage Horses
• 2011 Leading Breeders of Haflinger Dressage Sport Horse Breeding Horses
• Home of the Elite mare R Noble Rose APF, the Gold classified National Champion mare, Poetry in Motion VHH, the silver classified AWS National Gold Medal Inspection Winner, Ricola DTA, 
• Breeders of the Gold classified mare, Rosina of New Horizons.

Their stallion is the amazing Stellar, who has had many firsts in the Haflinger world and is a very unique and special horse, not to mention drop dead gorgeous.

drool. . .

Haflinger: Stellar TVR

Sire and Dam: Straden is the top St-line stallion in Austria. His dam, Chione is out of the gold mare Clari and by Altess, full brother to three-time World and European Champion stallion, Abenstern. 

Age: 6 year old stallion

Personality: Stellar has an amazing temperament, with the disposition of a golden retriever, and is extremely sweet and easy to work with.

Discipline: Stellar displays great talent for Dressage and Jumping

leaping!

Awards: 

• 2013 Reserve Champion of the North American Pony Stallion Test
• 2012 Bronze Medal winner (over Warmbloods!) at the AWS inspection in Michigan
• 2011 USDF Dressage Sport Horse Breeding National Champion Haflinger (with the highest open and IBC scores out of all Haflingers in the Country)
• 2010 ranked fourth in the nation in the AWS National Year-End Inspection Awards Program

Stellar is the first Haflinger stallion in history to attend the 30 day North American Stallion Testing (performance test for Warmbloods and German Riding Ponies) where he excelled in all three phases of jumping—free jumping, stadium jumping, and cross country jumping. He received excellent scores, including 8s to a perfect 10 for interior scores (temperament, willingness to work, character) and athleticism, and 8s from the Training Director for rideability, canter, free jumping, stadium jumping, and cross country jumping.

Stellar is also the first Haflinger in North American history to be approved for breeding and lifetime licensed by the American Warmblood Society, and with two German Sport Horse Performance Registries, Weser Ems and RPSI into their top Stud Books.

Stellar passes on his wonderful temperament, balanced conformation, outstanding hindquarter and powerful movement to his foals. He is available to a limited number of approved mares of all breeds. If interested, check out New Horizon's website or visit them on Facebook. They also have in-utero and young prospects for sale. 

Gorgeous!

Stellar's plans for 2014 are to compete under saddle in Dressage and Eventing. He has been trained by Jennie Deephouse and ridden by Chelsea Deephouse of Dreamfield Manor Farm, Pennsylvania. I will be happy to cheer him on this season and hope that he will be showing near me as he is a joy to watch! I am also looking forward to see the new foals that he has. Who does love a cute baby?