Breeding Philosophy......
Get to know some of our horses and their ancestors.....
This is our first mare, Azja. She is by Razja and out of Capriola. Azja was foaled in April, 1960. She is pictured with her three day old colt by Azraff. Azja had 13 foals in her lifetime.
In 1983 I was in Denver at the World Crabbet Symposium. Lois Selby Perry had Devotee's mother PHP Gida Zeeza there and Tish Hewitt bought her. The mare was in foal to Gai Parada. That foal was Devotee. Tish ended up selling her to a University in Idaho. Neither place could get her in foal. We bought her and raised two fillies out of her. We still have her daughter, TB Liberty and her daughter.
Small world that we would one day own that foal the mare was carrying. Devotee went down in 2017 at 33 years old.
The second picture was taken in 2013. Devotee was 29 then. This young colt left his mother and went across the pasture to say Hi to the oldest mare on the farm.
This picture of Mike and Peanuts (don't remember her real name) was not staged. Peanuts was rejected by her mother. She was very skinny and tiny when born and she became our first bottle baby. She just roamed the yard during the day when I was outside. Mike sucked his thumb, but had to have something soft to rub on. I looked up and there they stood, I grabbed the camera and got a quick shot off, but as soon as she saw me, she left Mike and ran to me thinking it was time to eat. Mike said "Peanuts top teppen on me" as she almost knocked him over. (He wasn't talking that good yet) This scene was repeated often, but never had the camera again.
Not going to make "mother of the year", but I thought I would share one of our youngest son, Dan. I sent my own young child out in the middle of the cow pasture to mess with a calf.......... with the mother standing right there. Needless to say, the cows were pretty gentle.
By the way, these photos are pretty old. I think that Dan is 44 and Mike is 48 now, or close to those ages.
Ragala was born in 1934, the only daughter of the *Rifala and by *Mirage, both imported from the Crabbet Stud. *Rifala produced some of the most prominent sires of the breed including *Raffles, the most famous of all.
Ragala produced 16 foals, 10 females and 6 males (3 stallions/3 geldings), all were bred by the Bear Claw Ranch/Jeannette Morrill. Her daughters bred on and can be found in prominent breeding farms and show horses today.
Six of Ragala's daughters are found in the pedigrees at Twin Brook, and in some cases numerous times. She has become our most important tail female line. By inbreeding, we have produced lovely typey individuals, improving conformation and wonderful dispositions.
Ragala
Photo credit to Eleanor McColley and Lonny Hitchen photo collection.
Considering the importance of Ragala, it's sad there are no real quality pictures of her.
Mirage
Rifala
A short video of Ragala...........
