Every first-time breeder must learn the same valuable lesson: a watched mare never foals.

Forecast: Batten down the hatches [tonight]. A strong storm system across the Southeast may produce damaging wind with gusts over 60 mph and thunderstorms, as well as one-inch hail, isolated tornadoes and lightning.” (Actual forecast from WBIR news in Knoxville, Tenn. for the night of April 2, 2009.)

“I’ve been conned,” I kept thinking the closer the clock got to 3 a.m.

Colostrum is so important to a foal’s immune and digestive systems that breeders should know how to test, store and supplement it.

Within minutes of birth, a foal struggles to his spindly legs, falling and standing again until he can make his way to his mother and begin nursing. Those first tentative steps lead him to an essential element in his health—the mare’s first milk, or colostrum.

Finding buyers for the products of their breeding program is one of the biggest challenges breeders face.

You’ve stayed up all night on foal watch, invested thousands of dollars, and now you have the end results—fuzzy foals—running around in your pastures. But what do you do now?

The market for young, unbroken horses in the United States is notoriously difficult. The vast scope of our country’s geography makes the elite auction system that’s so successful in Europe unrealistic here.

A lifelong love of ponies brought this dressage rider into a winning partnership with Richard Taylor.

You would think that the highlight of Thora Pollak’s day at the Devon Horse Show (Pa.) would have been when her ponies earned the best young pony and reserve best young pony titles.

But, no, the moment she remembered most fondly from that day in May is when her 4-year-old granddaughter, Nina, toured the Dixon Oval in the leadline class. “I think that was the best part of the whole day,” Pollak said. “That’s what the ponies are for—the children.”

Veteran handler Kenny Wheeler must have been feeling a sense of déjà vu as he stood under the Oaks at the Upperville Colt & Horse Show on June 7 in Upperville, Va. He held a championship ribbon in one hand and the 2-year-old Thoroughbred gelding Holden in the other.

The pair was fresh off of their best young horse victory at the Devon Horse Show (Pa.) on May 28 (June 12, p. 44), and they’d earned their first best young horse title at Keswick (Va.) earlier in May.