BROODMARES

She has only one eye, but what a pedigree!

When I bought Athena along with the other broodmares, it was the first time I had seen a horse missing an eye from that close. It felt strange at first, but honestly, she is so good at knowing where people and things are in her environment that you quickly forget she only has one eye. What an amazing mare.

I learned that she has always been a broodmare because she suffered an injury as a foal and had her eye removed very early in life. She is a granddaughter of Pilot, a foundation stallion of modern sport horses.

I really enjoy being able to linebreed on stallions whose names every breeder knows—those who helped write history. For her first breeding of the season, I chose to match her with Talisman. Even though she should be considered an older mare, she conceived on the first try with frozen semen from Talisman (sometimes you get lucky!). This pairing should give me a chestnut foal (hopefully a filly!) with Pilot appearing in both the third and fourth generations of the pedigree.

I can’t wait to see this one!