Mike and Jane Roberts
Western riding and quarter horses first took over our lives eight years ago when we met David & Sarah Deptford over a glass of wine at a western horse show in Rheims France.
After having lessons with David for a while the time came to purchase our first two horses to improve riding skills, our fate was sealed. We had found what we wanted to do to keep us occupied when we retired.
I must start out by saying that we would never have been into breeding American Quarter Horses unless a certain Mr. Deptford had not said ‘I have a nice quiet brood mare you might like’. For Te Kisses was pregnant, we were hooked.
We have been breeding horses for 6 years, first with For Te Kisses who gave us Miss Poppy Zippo Te sired by Mr Zippo Te. She did very well in Western Pleasure as a three year old ridden and trained by David Deptford.
We then bred twice to Snippers Heirogance and had a colt and a filly. We sold the colt but kept Poppy Te Heir for Jane to try her hand at training (you have to start somewhere!). This took a long time and quite a few mistakes, but we now have a laid back riding horse which, compared to all our other youngsters, looks like a pony.
We then bought our second brood mare Sugar Coated Freckles as a riding horse for Mike, but then he ‘fell’ for Cassie (Miss Poppy Zippo Te) and it has been love ever since. Sugar was not ridden again.
We bought Sean Dillon (named after a Jack Higgins character) when we went to Oklahoma with David Deptford and have bred with him ever since. We have had five foals from Sean and he seems to be breeding big ones! Sean’s Little Te Girl, a two year old, is standing at 15.2, and has done very well at halter; Poppy Freckles SD at 15.1 and Hannah a yearling standing at 14.3. The new foals look like they are going the same way.
We become very attached to our babies and hate to see them go. Each one seems to be better than the last, but we are having to harden our hearts, cut down on our numbers and think about selling some. We handle our foals from birth and desensitise them from “scary things”. Our horses round pen wearing a saddle before they go to Sovereign Quarter Horses to be broken. They move away from pressure, cross tie when old enough and the older ones are taught to stand for halter classes.
