Sunday, June 15, 2014

Just One Mare

In an equine world, where stallions are remembered and revered, every so often, a single mare manages to steal the spotlight and create her very own dynasty.

Although, it is seldom recognized that the uber famous (in barrel racing land) Dash To Fame is a maternal grandson to Tiny Watch, TW's name also appears in another bloodline that has shaped modern barrel horse breeding.

The mare is Casey's Charm...

The dynasty actually began a generation earlier, when Frances Loiseau purchased a filly named, Casey's Ladylove as an unproven weanling. Later bred to Tiny Circus, she produced Casey's Charm. But there is no need for me to rewrite the story. Here is a link it in the Loiseau family's own words...

The Loiseau Legacy


Casey's Charm's legacy has spread far and wide. Not only was she the dam to French Flash Hawk, Kristie Peterson's $400 phenom, the Loiseau's built their entire breeding program around this mare's female line and the rest of the barrel racing and rodeo industry flocks to breed to her sons. The cross of Casey's Charm (a Tiny Watch granddaughter) onto Frenchman's Guy is considered a magic cross...

PC Frenchman's Mark...

PC Frenchman's Hayday...

Probably the most proven and celebrated of the trio of brothers, 'Dinero' is owned by Mel Potter of Arizona. Just in case you didn't know, Mel Potter is Sherry Cervi's father and Dinero is the sire of Sherry's impressive list of go-win barrel horses, including her current superstar MP Meter My Hay...aka Stingray. You'll see Mel Potter's name pop up again as I continue to talk about these bloodlines I posted earlier.

Frenchman's Fabulous...

Something that often escapes notice is the fact that this 'magic cross' has a common denominator. Casey's Ladylove. The dam of Casey's Charm is also Frenchman's Guy's maternal grandmother. This is not an uncommon feature in horses that became legendary. The older breeders had no fear of doubling up on good genetics and this often resulted in prepotent progeny...as well as the ability to reproduce that prepotency. One historical horse was particularly noted for this ability and one of his best 'nicks' ever shows up on the papers that I posted that got me to talking about all of this in the first place.

6 comments:

Shirley said...

Is Beretta bred to Dinero? THose are som fancy looking horses and an awesome pedigree behind them.

BrownEyed Cowgirl said...

No Shirley, Miss B is bred to Firewater Fooler. I thought that was a more complementary line for Beretta's bloodlines and body type than the Sun Frost or Frenchman's.

The good Sun Frost/Frenchman's Guy horses that I have been around and the ones I have are thickly made and Beretta is also very thick, I was afraid of too much bulk on the foal if I went that direction.

Laura said...

Interesting stuff - I love hearing about different bloodlines. I see and hear about the pleaure/halter side, so learning about the speedy side is fascinating!

Sherry Sikstrom said...

very interesting , and some stunning horses too!

Laura said...

I just had to leave another comment: I re-read your post on the stallions and I had to go re-read Spencer's papers because I was sure he was a Three Bars guy too. Three Bars --> Zippo Pat Bars --> Zippo Pine Bar --> Zippos Sheik. Love all the connections to the older bloodlines.

If I had more time and money it would be fun to track down some older bloodline horses just to mix it up a bit, especially around here with all of the trendy names. I would also love to show one of the older bloodline horses in halter and see how they would stack up against the newer style horses.
;-)

kestrel said...

Fabulous horses! It's interesting to look at the mitochondrial influence on performance.