ABOUT CHINA BLUE FARM
Top Bloodlines at a growing stallion Station produce sporthorse stars bred and raised by and for Californians.
The breeding business being all about bloodlines, it may seem odd that the namesake for Ms. Tamkin’s sporthorse breeding endeavor,
China Blue Farm, was a Thoroughbred of unknown origins. The avid amateur never knew what the lively gray hunter’s lineage was, but
nearly 25 years after China Blue entered her life, he remains her inspiration. “He was your classic amateur horse,” Priscilla explains. “He was perfect everywhere. On the trails, in the show ring and at the barn.”
The horses now growing up at China Blue Farm’s 100-acre farm in Santa Ynez are not blood relatives of the farm’s namesake, but they share his temperament and supreme suitability for amateur and junior riders. Many are descendants of China Blue’s foundation sire, the top Open Jumper Baccarat.
The breeding business is not for sissies. Priscilla is in it for the long haul, with visions of a full-service stallion station that will eventually stand and maintain between six and eight sires. “We are breeding to breed,” she explains. Colts are groomed to be China Blue’s stallions of tomorrow and mares are considered future mothers of stallions.
Three young stallions, Fair Weather, Fudge Sunday and Golden Pilot, and a few mares, are now taking China Blue’s mission to the equestrian masses via their performance on the hunter/jumper circuit. Nancy Frost, who runs her own training business, Sapphire Ridge at the Los Angeles Equestrian Center, has worked with China Blue for the past four years. She is the Farm’s breeding manager, presents the youngsters in hand, and rides some of the Farm’s hunters and jumpers as they move up the ranks in over-fences divisions.
The Baccarat son Fair Weather, out of the China Blue Holsteiner mare, Lutece, has been burning up the Yearling and 2-Year-Old Hunter Breeding divisions. In 2006, he was USEF and Performance Horse Registry’s (PHR) Zone 10 Horse of the Year, PCHA Hunter Breeding Champion and Zone 10 Stirrup Cup (“B” and “C” show points) Champion. Nationally, he was the fourth highest scoring yearling for both USEF and PHR Silver Stirrup awards. In 2007 Fair Weather was the PHR Reserve Horse of the Year 2-Year-Old. This year, Fair Weather, aka “Timmy,” will compete in the Hunter Futurity’s In-Hand and over fences classes and enter the Baby and Pre-Green ranks.
Fair Weather’s full sibling, Lady Captain, will debut in the 2-Year-Old Hunter Breeding classes this year. And his half-sister Baccalaureate, a 2006 filly, is also exhibiting great potential. Baccalaureate was PHR Zone 10 Reserve Horse of the Year Yearling Hunter Breeding.
Sired by the Dutch Warmblood, Man In Black, Fudge Sunday is a 4-year-old “who canters down to and over a four-foot fence perfectly calmly,” Priscilla enthuses. “He’ll stop afterward and say, ‘Do you want me to do that again?’” “Fudgy” will make his show ring debut this year, in the International Jumper Futurity’s 4-Year-Old classes and possibly some hunter classes, too. He’s already presenting himself as an easy ride who “will work as hard as he has to, but no harder,” Priscilla laughs admirably. Best of all, he’s blessed with a natural rhythm to his stride. “You can train a horse to hold a rhythm, but that’s not the same as a horse who has his own natural rhythm,” says Nancy.
Golden Pilot was sired by All The Gold and is out of the Thoroughbred mare Twilight Winds. As a 2-year-old in 2006, Golden Pilot was the third highest scoring contender in USEF’s Zone 10 Hunter Breeding 2-Year-Old rankings. He was Reserve Horse of the Year for PHR and Champion Zone 10 Stirrup Cup. This year, he’ll be competing in the Hunter Futurity’s 4-Year-Old bracket.
Although China Blue’s horses are bred and brought along with West Coasters in mind, Priscilla and Nancy confidently assert that these California-breds can make it anywhere. China Blue’s mare Hazel will be proving just that in Wellington, FL this winter, while campaigning in the Open Jumper division with Dick Carvin.
Baccarat Begats A Breeding Business
Priscilla started China Blue Farm in 1987 but was mostly breeding mares to outside stallions before buying Baccarat in 2000. He is the son of Quidam de Revel, the Selle Francais that has greatly influenced modern show jumping lines and is a main contributor to Holsteiner and Hannoverian bloodlines. Quidam is both producer and performer. He sired 10 horses that contested the 2002 WEG, 48 CSI winners in 2007, and earned his own fourth place individual finish, representing France, at the Barcelona Olympics. The stallion then went on to many international successes with his Dutch rider Thomas Velin.
Baccarat was a frequent visitor to the West Coast’s Grand Prix winners circle throughout the early part of this decade. His resume is highlighted by victories in three $50,000 classes. After several years of success, the stallion’s competitive career was cut short by footsoreness. There was a silver lining to that, however, in the form of Priscilla’s resolve to produce horses specifically for the frequently hard realities of the West Coast schooling and show arenas.
Athletic scope, impeccable conformation, and superb temperaments are the first priorities in China Blue’s breeding beliefs. Producing footsore-resistant horses, Priscilla asserts, is achieved more in the nurturing phase of the breeding process, rather than in the breeding phase. Thanks to the qualities of their sires and dams, China Blue babies are built for sport, strength and stamina to begin with. By raising them out in the open, on California’s natural, clay-based terrain, Priscilla expects to develop young horses whose bones and musculature are better suited for the surfaces on which they’ll work throughout their lives.
The time is ripe for well-bred, well-raised homebreds in the United States, Priscilla states. Buying horses in Europe or back East has been the rage in the hunter/jumper industry for many years, but spending big bucks for wonderful horses that soon become unsound for largely undiagnosable reasons has dampened enthusiasm for that. As the dollar slides further into the international dumper, domestic-bred horses become even more attractive, Priscilla notes.
“The market in Europe is pretty well closed, except for the very well to do,” she observes. “And even the rich get tired of spending six figures on a horse from Europe, or even the East Coast, and having it go lame not long after coming out here.”
The True Amateur Horse
Soundness issues aside, there is a perpetual shortage of “good amateur horses,” continues Priscilla, who has firm ideas about what constitutes such an equine. “A true amateur horse hates trainers because in his mind, he’s in charge,” she explains. “He and a trainer will always have a difference of opinion about who’s in charge.” Too many horses ridden by amateurs are, in fact, Open horses that need to be carefully “re-tuned” by the trainer between shows with their amateur riders. The genuine amateur horse, Priscilla adds with a knowing twinkle in her eye, is like China Blue, who she lost to colic after a too-short four years together: The genuine amateur horse knows his job at shows and is happy to do it without much fuss. He is equally happy to hack out on trail and, in general, be a pleasant partner and pal.
The inherently good temperaments of China Blue’s babies are enhanced by kind handling from birth. Mares and foals have their own grooms and youngsters learn to be groomed, have their feet trimmed, load into a trailer and, in short, be perfect little gentleman and young ladies.
In addition to raising horses, China Blue also wants to raise awareness about the significance of breeding. Although a few sires are well known on the hunter/jumper circuit, many competitors have no idea the breeding of their own horses, let alone the bloodlines of others. It’s hard to compete with the often state-sponsored production and record keeping systems of leading sporthorse breeding countries in Europe.
The racing Thoroughbred industry’s Jockey Club and the American Quarter Horse Association do a terrific job of marketing their sires and providing various incentive programs for breeders, Priscilla explains. Through active involvement with USEF’s Hunter Breeding committee, China Blue Farm hopes to help the hunter/jumper industry move toward parity there.
During the long process of becoming a successfully established breeder, Priscilla looks forward to many rewards. The first of which is obvious from the spark in her smile when she speaks of her horses: pride and joy of ownership. As her young stallions and mares make their mark on the circuit, she sees the seeds of breeding awareness planted in the minds of onlookers. “It’s great to hear people ask, ‘Who’s that horse?’”
Although it will take many years to fully gauge China Blue’s contributions to the sport, Priscilla and Nancy have sighted their next challenge: producing great ponies. They have their eye on certain sires and are contemplating pairings that will produce ponies with the China Blue hallmarks: great temperaments, athletic ability and sound conformation, and above all, suitability for their riders.
“We’ve got the weather, the grass and the land,” says Priscilla of California. “The only thing we need now is well-bred horses and ponies that are born and raised here.”
For more information and a DVD featuring China Blue Farm’s horses, contact us via e-mail or call 626-786-8159.