Our goal is to produce international-caliber show jumpers in North America and, to that end, in 2005, we purchased an outstanding group of fillies in Europe and Canada as weanlings and yearlings with a view to raising them to be our performer-producing foundation mares as well as competitors themselves.
Each was chosen in part because of the outstanding performance-producing qualities of their own damlines as well as their own inherent quality for competitive show jumping at the highest level. Jumping talent is purported to be transmitted through the dam, so what better way to further consolidate and transmit that talent?
When appropriate, we breed to saturate the genes of those marelines and then outcross the product to a stallion that will enhance blood, scope, power---whatever may be appropriate to that given product. We were convinced early on that the blood of Ekstein would be both valuable and rare in sporthorse breeding in North America and included several Ekstein daughters and granddaughters in our selected herd. The 2008 Olympics in China has certainly proven Ekstein's value as a damsire if need there were through Hickstead. Through him, we have been able to tap into the valuable Dutch –niki mareline, renown for the sporthorses it has produced that compete at the international level. The Dutch Bella line, another proven sporthorse-producing mareline, is present in our broodmare band as well. Olympic Ahorn, again a highly desirable damsire,is also well represented. Each of our jumper breeding mares has no less than 38% blood.
Breeding Philosophy
Further, our background in the world of competition has prompted us to both breed and compete and our foundation broodmares are being proven in the competition arena and/or through the KWPN IBOP (performance test). While KWPN is not the sole registry we use, their stringent standards are the ones followed to evaluate our horses.
Training our foundation mares and putting them in competition and/or to the IBOP test give us a clearer picture of their strengths and weaknesses and we choose their mates accordingly. The different genotypical and phenotypical attributes of our mares enable us to choose from among a variety of stallions with proven production- and performance records who themselves are out of international-level performance-producing marelines. Any additions to our broodmare band will be equally wellbred mares with preference given to mares with a proven performance record at the highest levels of sport from a mareline that consistently produces the same.
To diversify and at clients' request, we added a hunter segment to our broodmare band with the acquisition of mares (including two Alla 'Czar daughters) with harmonious conformation and hunter ground-covering movement. These mares will be bred to the outstanding hunter sires on the USEF hunter sire list and producers of/or competitors in Hunter Derby classes to produce fancy hunters for the A-circuit. Any breeding program must evolve over time as the demands of the competition arena change. We are alert to those changes because of our proximity to and involvement in the Florida circuits, our participation in the Young Jumper Championship Program and our connections in the world of international competition. Sakura Hill Farm horses have been sought as future competition mounts and/or breeding stock by buyers on both sides of the Atlantic and from Canada and Mexico.
"Using stallions that dreams are made of with mares that make that dream reality."