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Considering Checkmate or Cabardino hunter stallion

I’m looking for a hunter stallion for my lovely A Fine Romance mare. She is the sweetest horse on earth. Chestnut with white. She jumps and moves well. I’d like to give the foal a better jump and stronger bone.
I previously bred to Balou de Rouet and have a wonderful 5 year old tall, black filly but I’d like something more Amateur friendly. She’s a good girl but it’s another horse for myself. Hoping for an AO hunter.

My personal experience with Cabardino is that you get lovely, beautiful movers, good jumping horses that can be hard headed and a bit tough. I’ve known several of them
I don’t know any Checkmate babies.

Search on Checkmate in the Breeding forum. He’s producing a lot of really nice, friendly offspring who move and jump well.

Do you know any that have competed over 3’? I have not been able to find any in my searches.

Sabrina comes to mind. Did the 3’6 greens
We have one in our barn that showed up to the 1.25m jumpers

I must not be good at searching in the forum! i cannot find them!

This should get you there
Search results for ‘checkmate #sport-horse-breeding’ - Chronicle Forums (chronofhorse.com)

I have a 12yo gelding by Cabardino (bought as a yearling), and a coming 5yo mare whose damsire is Cabardino (purchased as a weanling).
Both are hack winners, both have a big step with a nice jump. The gelding has shown up to 3’6" and has placed in some of the Canadian Hunter Derbies. The mare will start showing o/f this year.
They are not amateur friendly. The gelding can be very spooky undersaddle and has a pretty good buck when he feels like playing. The mare was very reactive as a baby, she’s slowly growing out of that. When they relax they’re super stars though.

I haven’t met any Checkmate’s that are going undersaddle. But the babies that I’ve met seem sensible.

Checkmate is on my list. He’ll get you chestnut with a chestnut mare (which is something I’d be looking for if I bred my chestnut mare). I looked at a Checkmate foal but we too slow to buy it. Lovely mover and really quiet minded (though to be fair the dam was both of those as well).

Stoneleigh, if you are who I think you are (we have a lovely dark bay mare of yours in the barn), you are more than welcome to come meet the Cabardino baby who lives here. He’s rising three, fancy, smart, sweet and has been so, so easy to gently start under saddle. He’s also a giant baby dinosaur, but that could come from his Rio side, through his dam? I don’t know any Checkmates to compare to, but if this guy is any example of Cabardinos, he is very, very nice.

If you’re not the person I’m thinking of, ignore the first bit and just take my opinion of the colt instead! :laughing:

My Checkmate mare is turning 5 tomorrow! Chestnut with chrome, petite. I’ve been told theories that Checkmate throws smaller fillies and Consul (Dam’s Sire) also may be to blame for the size. And sometimes genetics are just a random bag of fun.

Regardless of size, she’s an athletic spitfire. Her nickname is Cheeto Puff, sometimes white cheddar flavored and sometimes flaming hot.
She’s born to be a hunter but a spicy hunter at that. I’ve heard from other Checkmate foal owners that they can be a little fiery. She’s anything but a deadhead.

Sharing some videos. Flatting from yesterday and the jumping video was her first attempt at multiple jumps :slightly_smiling_face:

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I’ve seen a lot of beautiful Cabardino babies but they’ve all been a bit too hot blooded for my taste. I prefer naturally very, very quiet.

I am Chrisie VanCleef. I’m not so familiar with using this forum so I’m not sure how to tell who you are :slight_smile: but thank you for the invite. I think my mare can help with personality struggles with a foal- she is the easiest horse in the world. I know Balou’s have a tough reputation and her first foal is pretty sensible. I do need help with her but she’s really a nice filly. Im really leaning towards Cabardino. Sounds like there are a lot of nice ones out there.

She’s lovely! Thank you!

You’re not who I thought! (As an aside, the person I thought you might have been bred horses under the Stoneleigh name here in Ontario, and currently owns a chestnut mare with white. The dots seemed like they might connect!) The offer stands if you happen to be anywhere remotely nearby, and I bet there are a lot of Cabardino babies out there you might be able to meet if we are not close enough.

Of just those two, I would go with Checkmate. I also have ridden Cabardino horses who are a bit more reactive/spooky than I would like in my own horse.

Are there other options you would be willing to consider / how did you land on those two as the top choices?

In my Cabardino offspring sample size of one, I am thrilled! I had to come back and post again as we gave the baby dinosaur his first ever canter under saddle today. It’s cool out, he’s had a few weeks off to deal with baby teeth coming out, and since being started, he has had work that, while quality, has truly been minimal. This super young horse just loped around like he’s been doing it forever. He’s had a great work ethic, seems to enjoy being treated like a grown up horse, and has approached everything with curiousity rather than anxiety. His owner has done an outstanding job setting him up for success with reasonable expectations for manners, behaviour and exposure since day one, but I honestly can’t say enough about how easy and enjoyable it is to teach this particular baby to be a riding horse. Whether it’s Cabardino or just this individual, I can’t say, but I’ll take it! :grinning:

To be absolutely fair and transparent though, I love a horse with its own engine and grew up on TBs. I do not consider this colt to be “hot” in any way, but he’s not a slug either.

I don’t have any experience with Checkmate. We have bred to Carbardino twice and have worked with or owned about 20 of his offspring. It is like any other match. The mare has a lot of influence over the babies. We’ve earned several HOTY ribbons with our Cab babies. They are all athletic and most are decent movers.

I used to work with Cabardino and he is lovely. His babies are beautiful, athletic and smart. A lot of them I would say are more “difficult” but IMO that is because they have that keen intelligence and want to work. In comparison to Viva Voltaire (same barn) who seems to produce very consistent, amateur friendly horses. I would buy a Cabardino baby in a heartbeat. I don’t have any experience with Checkmate.

This is my Cabardino gelding to a T–smart and loves to work–needs to, in fact, to keep his active brain stimulated and focused. Athletic and a bit spooky when not working but loves his ring job.