DOWNSIZING!
What our Pintos are made of.
Due to no longer working on the land and therefore not needing our horses for work (although they still could) we have changed our stud direction just a little to incorporate breeding stock with proven QH blood, a dash of pony for hardiness and height and arab for heart and style. The perfect mix for your allround family horse.
WHY PINTOS....
Well we've been asked this a few times now, finally time to put it down for all to see I think!
We did not jump right in but considered the breeds we liked, being Arab (too highly strung and limiting buyers, not to mention the associatiion fees), Quarter Horse (a bit too quiet & expensive), Australian Stock Horse & Paint (too thoroughbred like). Our ideal mix is 1/4 Arab 3/4 Quarter Horse so with this in mind we also checked out the Quarab registry with the Arab Society and it also fell short of our expectations and we opened our eyes to the many colour and cross registers available now.
How many people do you know who when asked about the best horse they have had will tell you it was a unregistered nag (others might say "rubbish")? We too had these "Out of the bush, by hard riding" horses, we still do, they have proved their worth at pony club, through the scrub flat tack after cattle, around the kids etc, we would never sell them and wanted to use them as our foundation breeding stock. But of course they are all unregistered (some probably could have been when foals but that is neither here nor there) and going into breeding to sell we know the value a peice of paper can give to a foal so we went in search of a registry that would give us what we wanted.
We did not have to look far, my older sister and I had always been a fan of horses with a bit more "colour" and whilst Shane and I were out on the stations working hard she married and bought her very first pinto mare (later registered as "Dunsplashin Indian Rose" and sadly passed on in early 2008), a rare splash white, mistreated and overused as a broody she was loved back to health and came to us to be broken in. As an older mare she took it well and became a handy responsive mare under saddle but her riding career was sadly over when injured badly by another horse. This mare has blue eyes and Shane was not overly keen on them, thinking they were "freaky" looking and being a bit "loud" for his taste but overall we thought her such a good mare. My sister Lucy Philp's stud Dunsplashin Pintos first stallion was a young paint colt who's owner had neglected to get him registered, as the time to be able to do so had lapsed she registered a pinto prefix "Dunsplashin" and him under it as "Warpainter" and started breeding a few pinto foals each year.
Dunsplashin Warpainter
(more photos available by clicking on his link)
Before we had really thought about serious breeding we had spent much time with her horses and learnt to look past the colour at the horses and the good types they were, many people I think wrongly assume we back this stud for family reasons when the truth is far from it, as horses we were both not originally sure we would breed and the colour sometimes a bit to get used to they had to work so much harder to get our admiration than say a plain coloured quarter horse.
We were still unsure but on the search for a suitable stud colt when a mare we had originally bred, broken in and sold to Dunsplashin Stud foaled a beautiful palomino pinto colt who we fell in love with and bought, around the same time we became members of the pinto association and registered our stud prefix "Dustee". The colt "Dunsplashin Chico Little" hit the show scene in a dual horse and handler debut in August 2007 as a yearling with some sucess, he is destined to become our stud stallion.
Pintos are not a breed register but a colour one. Still they seem to have plenty of classes in shows and with dedicated support from those who breed them will only see an rise in this. With pintos there are many good mares without papers (whilst the foal will pick up papers) we can breed from and have the pick of because others are breeding for their "breed" papers and have passed over them. Therefore the best of both worlds.
OUR LONG TERM STUD PLAN & WHAT WE OFFER
While it is true pinto is a colour register we will be breeding to our own type standard, a good sturdy horse, in well proportion with a great temprement, the true all round horse and potential to excel in many disciplines however we hope first and foremost your next best mate.
We endeavour to keep the price of these foals at a reasonable level for the average horse owner to buy something that has been deliberately bred with attention to quality handling and bonus colour and rego. For the person who can not afford a new horse for every thing they would like to try in their riding career. Future foals will leave freeze branded and vaccinated for strangles and tetnus. Dustee Pintos offers terms on all our horses and depending on our needs at the time swap or part swaps.
Our horses run in a herd enviroment so they are generally well rounded animals who can be what they are - horses.
Along with selling well handled foals we offer a support network where we are happy to keep in contact with the new owners, help and advise them and welcome our foals being bought back to us to be started under saddle at reasonable rates.
We breed a few foals a year and have just set our colts service fee to $300 (wont be taking mares until he is broken in and only if he tests not to carry HYPP, HERDA & OLWS) with a clear plan of what we want to breed and been working towards that now, we have our three ideal broodmares in the paddock and those that were improved upon have been sold to loving RIDING homes. In all honesty it probably costs us more to breed the 3 foals a year than we get for them, we do this because for years we have been one of those families who had to "pay off" a $1000 horse, we pretty much still are (whoever said owning a horse means being broke got it very right!). Due to price those horses all had issues, people (usually new horse owners, horsey teenagers with unhorsey parents) are still conned into buying these cheapies thinking they will be the perfect horse only to find big problems down the track. We feel that if there were some purpose bred horses with all the basic care to breeding them (handling, nutrition while cooking, worming, vaccinations, branding, rego, bred from decent confo and temp) given at a comparable, competitive price then these ticking bomb horses would find less of a market and the true BYB be phased out.
We are more than happy to admit we have been back yard breeders, but you learn from your mistakes, sometime all thats needed to get from one thing to the other is a little encouragement and advice (being snarky really isnt effective in stopping the backyard breeding so why not change tune and try other tactics?). Sadly its going to be a long road due to the fact there are so many people only into breeding for the money, be they backyard breeders or not.
As people often ask why our horses should be bought when you might get the same horse (in outwards appearances) for a fair bit less at a dogger or from a backyard breeder, this is why - they dont want to know you once they have their money, WE DO!!!!
In addition to breeding though we intend to buy/rescue horses on a case by case basis that we can resell, we'll be looking for horses eligible for pinto registration which we will endeavour to get them, break them in, handle etc and sell on.