Looking for advice on Harper offspring… any experiences, bad or good? Common personalities? Traits?
Going to go look at a mare by Harper out of an appendix mare. I’m not very familiar with the stud, so just curious if anyone has thoughts on him.
Thanks!
Oh, gosh! I knew Harper when he was in Houston. Wonderful, wonderful stallion. All his offspring that I saw were just like him.
Judy Yancy owned him. I’m sure she can tell you tons about him. www.yancy-farms.com
Thank you! Weather pending, I’m meeting her Saturday morning. I like more forward, sensitive types and think she might be a good fit.
We have a 1996 ISR registered mare by Harper o/o an AQHA dam. She is a bit height challenged (15.1h), but is stoutly built. At age 14 she scored 100 at her ISR/OldNA inspection.
We took her in as a favor to a friend who was left with a farm and two elementary age children when her husband was killed in a car wreck. The mare is named Anna owing to having been born on their wedding anniversary out of the husbands favorite mare. He had bred her to Harper hoping to produce a sport horse for his wife.
We did not know her breeding when we took her in. The plan was to use her as an ET recip. Sent her to a cowboy trainer friend to get an evaluation. She became a favorite of his. She is a bit forward, but he was actually disappointed that we picked her up a few days before his extended family was due to gather at his place. He wanted some if them to have a chance to ride her.
After learning her breeding, we bred her to carry to Escudo II. We now have two nice dark bay fillies of this cross. The coming two year old stands 15h and the weanling is shaping up similar to her sister. Anna is reproductively exceptional. Two fillies out of two inseminations with frozen semen and took the first embryo transferred to her.
This year Anna is carrying a Fabriano/Londonderry/Santano/Grandduell/Matrose embryo for us.
Judy Yancey has pictures of her Harper mare Hearts a Fire on her website. Anna looks very much like that mare. Both look a lot like the sire.
There is an ATA web page for Harper under former sires. It gives accolades and a bit of history for him.
Thats all very interesting. Any reason he was bred to so many AQHA mares? I did end up getting the mare… I’m picking her up on Saturday. She is also out of an AQHA or Appendix mare. Her papers have been lost but Im working with the ATA on restoring them.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about Harper babies. I’m hoping to foxhunt her, so we’ll see!
I think because way back then, there were not so many nice warmblood mares around - especially in Texas. And the registries were just getting started here for warmbloods.
Other than Harper, I can only think of one other good WB stallion down here and that was Granduell.
Harper was a very nice stallion and the mare owners with good TB and Appendix QH mares jumped at the chance to breed to him to get better quality sporthorses at the time.
We demonstrate Sonesta’s point. In our pasture are:
3yr old Cascani/Grandduell filly
3yr old Londonderry/Santano/Grandduell filly
And the yearling and weanling Escudo II fillies that are granddaughters of Harper
Please check back with your evaluation once you’ve gotten to know the mare. Congrats.
I Will!
Thank you both so much for the information.
I have a seven year old by Harper out of a TB mare. He is absolutely adorable. He has the gorgeous Harper head and neck. He is extremely quiet, plenty of stride, keeps a wonderful even pace around the course, does not care where he takes off from. Judges love him and will pin him even if he makes a little mistake (he is the kind of horse that judges pretend they don’t see mistakes!)
With regard to your post above, this particular one is so NOT move forward – more like kicking quiet!
As an added plus, he has textbook perfect feet according to my farrier. Granted I only do 2’6" now, but he has never needed shoes.
Here is a link to some video of him schooling with my trainer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nJkdsqqzj4&feature=g-upl&context=G2524454AUAAAAAAAJAA
Have a blast with your mare!
He’s super cute! He looks very similar to my girl. She is also a bit under 16h and has never had shoes on. She did the hunters a few years ago, but I’m hoping she’ll foxhunt. We’ll see!
Your guy is darling!
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