Born a few days ahead of schedule, Hemingway is a special little Marchador foal!  Hemi is a great strong boy from Azenha de Maripa and La Paz Jivago! He also represents our first success using a frozen embryo transfer to surrogate mare.

We are so happy that Valarie Giacalone took the chance!   What a reward!

Valarie and son Chris visited us in Colorado last year and we were all impressed by their connection with horses and soft, kind hearts. Just made to own a Marchador! Get to know this new Marchador pioneer, just keep reading!   More photos at the bottom too.

Valarie’s story

I was one of those horse crazy girls who lived at the stable, mucking, carrying water, saddling, brushing, anything to be around the horses. I was raised around thoroughbreds and 5 gaited saddlebreds, very high strung show horses. I bought my first horse at 44 years old as I started my PhD work as a single mom. I bought a beautiful quarter horse and discovered trail riding in the rocky mountains. That lasted about 6 or 7 years until a friend came over with Tennessee Walking Horses one Thanksgiving Day. Within a year we had 4 Tennessee Walkers, and then went up to 6 of them. We love the Walkers, but hate what is happening to the breed with all of the abuse and a National Association that will not halt it.

Horses are a huge part of our life. I raised my son as a single mom and horses have helped keep the family together and eliminated a lot of the typical teenage drama because he always had the horses and chores and “real” things to do. It lead into my job where I run a horse program at a Residential Treatment Center for teenage girls. Each of our girls has their own horse, not to ride, but to “own”, love, respect and build a relationship with. The horses help greatly in the self-confidence, identity development, and empathy.

About 14 months ago I was reading on the Parelli website about Pat and Linda traveling to Brazil to see these horses called Mangalarga Marchadors. Everyone on the site was raving about these incredible horses, so I got online and researched them. I contacted Lynn Kelley and she was more than gracious about answering my questions (millions of them) and pointing me to more resources. My son Chris and I knew very quickly this was the next breed of horses for us.

The only option we had financially was to try a frozen embryo transplant. Lynn had one embryo to try, and we loved the Azhena/Jivago combination. Everyone we knew tried to discourage us from trying this. Our vet, Dr. Chris Kolste, said he had studied frozen embryo transplants, and had done hundreds on cows, but never had tried a horse. We all decided to give it a try and Lynn arranged it for us.

We went ahead with the frozen embryo transplant before we had ever seen a Marchador in real life. A few months later we went to Colorado to visit Lynn and John and instantly fell in love with the horses. I think my first words upon seeing Azhena were “She is so beautiful!” and I started crying. We spent two days riding all of John and Lynns horses and learning all we could about the breed.

The transplant was June 6, 2012, and we have counted down every day since then. Hemingway do Summerwind was born May 3, 2013, and we are beyond excited, thrilled and looking forward to the future!