Blue Feather Farms

 

Hello and Welcome to Blue Feather Farms, home of a few special Gypsy Vanner Horses.

 

Gypsy Vanners are an incredible breed.  They are a beauty to behold, and their character a joy with which to work. Their size and temperament make them ideal companions for those like me, over 50.

 

I have been breeding horses for over 25 years, including; Thoroughbreds, Warmbloods, Clydesdales and Gypsy Vanners.  As I got older (and more brittle), I was looking for a horse with the kind, cooperative temperament and build of the Clydesdale in a smaller package, and then I discovered the Gypsy Vanner.

 

All of my horses are registered with the Gypsy Vanner Horse Society (GVHS).

 

I breed these horses primarily for my own enjoyment, and because I love bringing up the foals to be human interactive partners, but since I can’t keep them all, a few young horses are occasionally offered for sale.

Two foals are due this year, and can be seen below.

 

You can contact Blue Feather Farms via email at: jill@bluefeatherfarms.com

 

 

The Mares of Blue Feather Farm

 

 

Arctic Winter (aka Winter)

 

 

GVHS registration number GV00451F

Sire: Blond Boy Price’s Roadsweeper colt (by The Roadsweeper, UK)

Dam: Jo Wiltshire’s red and white mare, Matilda (by The Paddy Horse)

(Arctic Winter’s dam is also the dam of The Lottery Horse)

 

I imported Winter as a 7 year old from the wonderful Coates Gypsy in the UK (www.gypsyhorses.co.uk).  She is a calm and confidant mare that is the alpha mare of the herd. She just takes everything in stride, and has imparted her temperament to each of the two foals she has raised for me thus far.

 

Winter is a very well bred Gypsy Vanner mare, with a good deal of her parentage known for an imported horse. Her sire is a son of The Roadsweeper, known as Blond Boy Price’s Roadsweeper colt.  Her dam is the mare Joe Wiltshire’s red and white mare, Matilda - who in addition to Winter, foaled the stallion The Lottery Horse.  Winter looks a great deal in markings and conformation like her ½ brother Lottery.

 

Winter has incredibly heavy feathers, which falls to the ground and spreads out inches from the bottom of her foot. Her tail as well is very thick and luxurious, and I am very happy that it is solid black, no white to have to keep clean!  Her mane and forelock are naturally thick as well, but this has been a blessing in disguise, as she is constantly getting hunks of mane caught in all sorts of things (we found enough hair to make a wig for two other horses in a water bucket hanging contraption). 

 

I broke Winter to ride once she got to the US, and after a few days of getting used to the saddle, she has been trailing around with me on occasion, taking it all in stride. I’ve ridden her during the time she has been raising her foals, and each time the foals have had the same reaction – upset that I have taken over the ‘milk dispenser’ and chasing around us all the time we ride – which proved to be a good opportunity to see how the foals move.

 

Her fabulous colt Alaskan Winter is now in Canada at:

www.muttnwood.com

 

 

Gypsy Gold Gypsy Elite Athena (long name! I call her ‘ Thena’)

 

 

GVHS registration number GV01013F2

Sire: Latcho Drom

Dam: Crown Darby (by The Gypsy King)

 

Thena is a heavily built mare who pushes off her back end to create a long stride for such a robust mare. I’ve just started riding her, and the walk is definitely her preferred gait (second only to whoa). She likes to please, so a carefully timed ‘good girl’ generally gets her working harder. Thena is an embryo transfer foal with some of the good early bloodlines to come to the US, and her pedigree is DNA confirmed for both sire and dam. She is homozygous for black and heterozygous for Tobiano. Thena will in coming years be producing some foals with Pompeii.

 

 

Miss Abby (aka Kali)

 

 

GVHS registration number GV01063F1

Sire: The Lottery Horse

Dam: Sweet Cocoa Mare (by The Boss)

 

Kali is a more elegantly built mare with beautiful Dressage-like movement and ‘pure’ gaits.  She is a quiet and kind mare who thoroughly enjoys interacting with people (I am pretty sure that she thinks she IS a person). Kali has been DNA confirmed as a daughter of The Lottery Horse, and her dam is a DNA confirmed daughter of The Boss. She is homozygous for black. Kali will in coming years be producing some foals with Pompeii.

 

 

 

Herd Sire of Blue Feather Farm

 

 

Pompeii

      

 

GVHS registration number: GV00675F1

Sire: The Ashford Horse (aka ‘Trigger’, he is a colt bred by Fred Walker)

Dam: Blue Feather

Color DNA results:

Ee (Heterozygous for black)

aa (Not bay)

to/to (Not Tobiano)

Sb1 nn (Not sabino)

gg (Not Grey)

Rn/n (Heterozygous for roan)

 

Pompeii was imported from the UK as a weanling.

 

Pompeii, like his dam, is a true Blue Roan (he is not sabino ‘roaned’, not ‘grey’, not ‘roaned appy’).  Roan is a ‘simple dominant’ gene which adds white hairs evenly through a base coat; so exactly ½ of his foals should be roan like him.  Pompeii has a black base coat, so he is considered a Blue Roan (where the white hairs intermix with black, giving a very blue appearance). As an added bonus, he displays (as did his dam) a frosty modification of roan, which adds ‘frosting’ – light hairs also intermixed in his mane and tail.

A photo of Pompeii’s dam Blue Feather was used by Dr. Phil Sponenberg in the 2009 edition of his book: Equine Color Genetics as a representative of a Frosty Blue Roan horse.  If you have this book, you can find Blue Feather on page 177 where she is showing the beautiful ‘reversed dapples’ – a phenomenon only seen on true roan horses.  Pompeii has these same characteristic reversed dapples in the springtime.

 

Roan horses are thrilling to own, because they change color with the seasons.  In fact the term for roan in Icelandic – Litforott – means ‘always changing color’. In winter, Pompeii is nearly black, in spring a pale blue-white with black dapples, and different shades of blue-grey in summer and fall.

 

He occasionally gets distracted by one of the other stallions in his barn calling to ‘his girls’, but other than that, he is always a perfectly behaved gentleman. He is so ‘tuned in’ to me when I am in his stall, just waits to see what is wanted of him, and he will happily stand tied for hours for grooming and fussing.  In fact, if I don’t lead him off after I unhook him, he will usually stand right there where he was tied until I come and tell him what to do next.  He is a low energy boy!

Pompeii is not standing to outside mares.

 

 

Foals Due in 2009

 

 

Foaled June 15th - Colt by Pompeii out of Truffles

 

Here is a sneak peak at Pompeii’s first colt with his dam Truffles

 

 

He appears as thought he will be Blue Roan or Black.

 

 

Foal pedigree:

                                                                                                            Foundation

                                                            The Ashford Horse

                                                                                                            Foundation

Pompeii

 

                                                                                                            Foundation

                                                            Blue Feather

                                                                                                            Foundation

 

Foal

 

 

 

                                                                                                            The Old Black Horse

                                                            Royal

                                                                                                            The Mushy Mare

Truffles

 

                                                                                                            Foundation

                                                            Cassie

                                                                                                            Foundation

 

 

 

 

 

Foal Due July 21st

 

Sire: Pompeii

Color DNA results:

Ee (Heterozygous for Black)

aa (Not bay)

to/to (Not Tobiano)

Sb1 nn (Not sabino)

gg (Not Grey)

Rn/n (Heterozygous for roan)

 

Dam: Arctic Winter

Color DNA results:

EE (Homozygous for Black)

aa (Not bay)

TO/to (Heterozygous for Tobiano)

Sb1 nn (Not sabino)

 

Foal color will be:

Blue Roan

Blue Roan & White Tobiano

Black

Black & White Tobiano

 

 

Foal pedigree:

 

 

 

                                                                                                            Foundation

                                                            The Ashford Horse

                                                                                                            Foundation

Pompeii

 

                                                                                                            Foundation

                                                            Blue Feather

                                                                                                            Foundation

 

Foal

 

 

 

                                                                                                            The Roadsweeper

                                                            Blond Boy Price’s Roadsweeper

                                                                                                            Blossom’s Filly

Arctic Winter

 

                                                                                                            The Paddy Horse

                                                            Matilda

                                                                                                            Foundation

 

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