How to build a show string

Many folks want to breed to the males with the most ribbons, or the "biggest names" in their lineage, or maybe who sold the most at an auction. We have always taken a different philosophy. We hand pick out males who are young or unknown in order to stamp our babies with our own name. We want to be the ones to promote these unknown males, make the babies and then show the world that, yes - we have an eye for quality. We have a full Accoyo male who babies are just now hitting the show circuit, and our full Peruvian male, MLS Peruvian Sebastian, who is doing amazingly well in the circuit, both himself and his babies. Here is the story of how we came to find our 2 top studs.

MSA Accoyo Volunteer
It was just months after than Snowmass Invincible sold for $480k at auction. We had been searching for a new amazing white male for quite some time, but were not finding something without Beuno genetics on the east coast. We already had an amazing Beuno son and wanted a new white boy to breed his daughters too. We always were and are white and light breeders first, so I wanted to make sure my white program had a head start before I move to lights and blacks.

We went to a local well know auction specifically because there was a young unproven male there who was from the west coast and pretty rare genetics east. He was 20 months old and unproven. There was also an amazing Bay Black male there MA Multomba who came home with us - and for those of you who know me, know he was my favorite of all time!! He passed of cancer the day after Christmas 2008 and there is still a hole in my heart. Special in all ways, "Mo" was my man.

MLS Peruvian Sebastian
Several years ago, my husband and I drove onto a small farm and saw this amazing male standing among a few other males. We were looking for a few more foundation females and had not even known of this male or his status. We were not looking for another male, but he was impressive!!

We asked the owners if he was for sale and they said they were not sure if they were going to sell or keep him. He was at that time, around 4 years of age. He had not been shown in halter or fleece up to that point. I thought it was odd as he was quite the specimen. It was as if the current owners did not even know of his worth, as if they did not even see him standing there.

We bought a few girls from this farm and inquired about the male several times over the next few months, finally the owners decided to let him go and we brought him home in October 2008. This male is MLS Peruvian Sebastian. Click here to see a video of him and some of his 2009 crias. The very next month was the Fall 2008 NJ show. We didn't even have the transferred ARI back yet, but decided to enter him in the show as a mature male.

Tim Lavan was the judge and since it was the last show of the season, there was some really tough competition. I asked my friend what he thought of Sebastian's chances were for the ribbons and he stated "He's gorgeous".

We easily won the blue ribbon round for the mature male class and the Color Championship. You can read here about our experience in the ring.

He went on to take 1st place "Get of Sire" in March 2010 at the NJ Show and Sale out of 4 groups, including a group of white, which is tough to beat, since we had a TB, DB and LF in our group of 3.

His children are doing well in the show ring taking multiple blues, reds and other colors. His son "WaveChaser" is a TB male who has started breeding this past spring and we expect big things from him as well !

So my advice to all of you out there is: instead of chasing the big boys and big breeding programs, trust in your own eye and make your own studs! Stamp your name on them and who knows - you may just be the next sought after breeding program in the country!!