A friend of mine is talking about breeding her paint mare next year for a dressage-type foal. She asked me if I had any suggestions and the only stud I could think of was Indian Artifacts. Her mare is paint x TB, registered APHA and made her third level debut with good scores this year. She didn’t seem to be very interested in crossing her mare back to a TB stud, said she wants to stick with QH or APHA stallions. Anybody have suggestions I can send her way?
Are there any Rugged Lark sons out there at stud? I’d definitely be looking at that line and the Artful line, maybe.
Saw a nice one by The Hunstman for sale and doing dressage a while back. Might be worth looking at.
I’ve seen some working cow types that are very baroque type and can really sit and move, so might be worth having a look at, but I don’t know enough about any of those stallions to give any specific recommendations.
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I love stock horses and I ride dressage, but the two aren’t the best mix in the world.
I’ve seen The Huntsman IRL (paint stud), and I feel like he’s got rather posty hind legs, and a narrow chest. He’s marketed as a colored hunter sire, he does low level jumping, but really I wouldn’t pick him for dressage.
Honestly, she should breed to a nice Andalusian or Lusitano. The QH/Iberian cross is called an “Azteca” and they can be very nice.
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Unfortunately Indian Artifacts has been gone for a while. Robin Degraff is standing one of his sons, that has shown some in Dressage but not to any high level. Too bad he’s grey. https://www.degraffstables.com/dgs-replicated . Possibly Robin would know of some other IA sons that she could recommend.
I’d consider looking at Larks Oneforthemoney. He’s beautifully bred IMHO, but according to his facebook page he won’t be standing to outside mares next year.
Maybe your friend could reach out to Lynne Palm and see if she would have any suggestions? You never know, she’s a big fan of dressage, she just might answer! 
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Good to know. I’ve never seen in him person, just saw video and photo of the one of his offspring and I don’t know what the mare was, so this first had knowledge is more valuable.
I don’t know about registration, I believe the foal would only be able to be registered ApHC if the mare was AQHA registered, and AQHA and APHA wouldn’t be an option for the foal, but would one of the Waps line stallions be a possibility? Or one of the other sporty appaloosa stallions like Blue Ghostwind, BJC Asher Seven or Honkeytonk Wrangler might be worth looking at. Not sure about Honkeyton Wrangler based on his conformation photos but he is nice in the videos!
The Huntsman has a website, or did. I came across him from my interest in Paints, looked like they were breeding to nice enough OTTB mares. I did feel like the photos of his offspring, tended to inherit the post legs. I think that would be find in a hunter, especially a Paint hunter, or low level jumper, but you wouldn’t want it in a dressage prospect.
APHA isn’t an acceptable outcross with ApHC unless their rules have changed lately. The mare is Paint. 😉
Right, but I wasn’t sure if possibly the mare was dual APHA/AQHA and if that then made it an option. Unlikely, but I don’t know the horse in question and I’m not particularly familiar with any of those registries, so I thought I’d bring it up in case it was an option, as I could think of more Appaloosa stallions that were geared to sport than quarter horse/paints. It was just a thought!
I love QH but haven’t seen any stallions I really fancy in a while given how low they want them all to be. I would gently suggest she look at TBs again.
Indian Artifacts was well known for siring quirky tempers.
Well shoot, I am a bit out of the loop on QH breeding. I didn’t know that Indian Artifacts had died. I did know that he sired some quirky horses, but he was the only sport horse QH I could think of.
She is pretty firm in wanting APHA papers for the foal. One of those “in case something happens papers make the foal more marketable.” This mare is an odd mix of more ranch bred types on the paint side (dam side). I don’t think the TB sire was known for much. Mare got the nice short back from the paint side and the movement from the TB side. Conformationally I don’t think there are any glaring issues. This year she got her third level scores to finish up her Bronze on this horse. I don’t know if she plans to move to fourth level or not. From talking to her it sounds like getting her Bronze was the “end goal,” and now she wants to breed the mare.
Edit to add: I asked her about breeding the mare back to a TB and she didn’t seem keen on the idea. I don’t know why, I didn’t push the subject.
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This is correct, the mare can only be bred to QH, APHA, and TB studs.
I will mention getting in touch with Lynne to her. It’s too bad about AF being gone, and looks like the most notable son of his that I knew about has passed away too.
What about some of the AQHA hunter stallions? I don’t know any of the lines, but I have always thought that some of those horses could make decent dressage horses if they were allowed to move out more and have a higher headset, not so low.
Depends on where their necks tie in on the shoulder (more than where they are taught to carry their heads), and how straight their hocks are. And whether they track up when allowed to move freely.
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I don’t know how he did with dressage (if he did dressage) but Robin’s Scribbler was quite a successful all around paint stallion. He may have some athletic sons standing? Or what about Sacred Indian sons?
My horse is a Robin’s Scribbler grandson, half tb, and super athletic (we event). Gorgeous movement for dressage when I can coax it out of him.
I haven’t logged in in years but came to post to make some suggestions as I have QH that do dressage
Heza Smokn Sensation has peaked my interest as he has a decent record of his own but he’s new
Truly Priceless is siring a good bit of fence horses but he is grey
An Eligible Bachelor also throws nice fence horses
if you could find a Last Detail son (not The Next Detail) with a cowbred dam… I own this cross and she scores 60’s consistently
I definitely would be really careful if you start looking at HUS stallions - as mentioned, they tend to have really low neck emergences, and while they can still be functionally correct, that does not suit itself well to any real Dressage work where a higher outline is just a requirement.
I have recently seen some really nicely put together Barrel Racing stallions. As in, they are really functionally correct, necks emerge at a reasonable level, not post-hocked, front legs well in front of withers, not goose rumped, not butt-high (why oh why do those stock disciplines seem to think that’s a good thing?? 
) and just all around really functional horses. You’re not going to find a “dressage built” stock stallion, I don’t think. The Rugged Lark line was a good suggestion. These BR stallions I have seen are built a lot like he was.
I took at look at Heza Smokn Sunsation and while I can’t find a good confo pic of him, his movement pictures look very nice, and I love the look of his offspring on his FB page, including this more mature gelding
You could look into the offspring of The Spotlight(APHA) and see if any of them have been kept as studs. Spotlight isn’t around anymore, but I always thought he was a stunning stallion and so sweet too.
See if the stallion Tru Too Robin is still alive and standing. He sired a guy, out of a TB mare, who competed fairly successfully at 4th level (or at least made it to 4th level, that’s a bit fuzzy to me). He is/was a Roping horse, so that’s another discipline you might look into.
How did I forget about The Spotlight! He really did produce some really nice kids.
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I worked at the farm that he stood at in college. He was the sweetest stallion on the farm. So pleasant to work with. I absolutely loved him. I did see the farm had restarted after going quiet for awhile. They may even being standing one of his sons now that I think about it…takes moment to look up farm…sure enough…RFF Fahrenheit is standing at Red Fox Farm. By Spotlight. Also homozygous.
