The legacy continues...

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In the early hours of May 7th, my good mare, Legacy (Wildwood Legacy Lace) foaled out a beautiful bay filly. While every foal is a miracle and every foaling a landmark event, this one was more special and more noteworthy than most. This filly is the first of a sixth generation Wildwood mares. Here's how it goes: 

Duchess and I at CFR 1974

In 1968, I bought a two-year-old mare from Doug and Nancy Dear in Montana. Her name was Ma Dear but I immediately called her Duchess. Race bred (sired by Pasamonte Paul out of a Classy Bar mare), powerful and athletic, she was to be my next barrel racing mare. That she was – she took me to a CCA championship and the Canadian National Finals – but what I didn’t know is that she would found a dynasty of Wildwood horses. Duchess lived to be 36 and was with me for 34 years. She lived to see four descending generations.






Wildwood Mahogany
In 1979, I bred to Duchess to my stallion, Seco Top Moon (a black son of Top Moon) and she foaled out a bay filly, Wildwood Mahogany. I trained Mahogany and both my daughter and I
showed her in a wide variety of classes from halter to reining.





 

Wildwood Tamarac
 
Now hooked on reining, I bred Mahogany to Solanos Peppy San and, in 1987, she foaled out Wildwood Tamarac, a sorrel mare with undeniable talent, sweet personality and a fantastic disposition. I trained and showed Tamarac in reining competitions in Saskatchewan, Alberta and BC as well as many reining demonstrations. She was my first futurity reining horse! Tamarac is not only an important link in this dynasty; she is also a key element in the gene pool of many my Quarter Horses.




Wildwood Destiny

Since I wanted a foal from this good mare, I bred Tamarac and, in 1993 she gave me Wildwood Destiny, a bay filly sired by Podoco (grandson of Doc Bar with strong King breeding on the bottom). Like Destiny’s maternal ancestors, I trained and showed her. She was a dream to ride!

By now I knew I was building a dynasty! Tamarac produced six fillies in a row before producing a colt. At this point, my focus was the maternal line as I had access to sires with performance records so I was thrilled to have so many fillies from such a good mare.





Wildwood Legacy Lace packing

Not to be undone, Destiny foaled out five fillies in a row when she entered the broodmare band. The one I selected to keep was Wildwood Legacy Lace, a bay daughter of Listo Pollito Lena born in 2003. Like the rest, she went into training but, although she is a finished reining horse, I showed her only lightly, mostly because I moved and had to make a choice which horse to show. I did use Legacy trail riding, packing and as a wonderful quiet lesson horse.



Wildwood Legacy Lace and the new generation.
 Last year I bred Legacy to my stallion, Walking With Wolves and in the quiet hours of the morning of May 7th, Legacy presented me with the next generation of this Wildwood Dynasty – a beautiful, strong, healthy bay filly that taxed her mother’s strength (and mine!) to the maximum. She's perfect and she carries the genes of five great mares that I have raised, ridden, shown and bonded with. It seems like this new addition to the dynasty should have a name befitting the occasion but I have not settled on one yet. If I can’t find one that connects the dots, I will call her Shiraz. She’s bold, full-bodied and, like a fine wine, better with age.

It’s interesting that the first foal for all of the mares in this maternal line was a filly. Even Mahogany, who went on to produce several colts, had a filly first. Duchess, Mahogany, Tamarac, Destiny, Legacy and now little Shiraz. The legacy continues…



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