We lost Bella in March. A very sad day for many people. She was an awesome example of the Mangalarga Marchador breed.
Please take a moment to read her memorial story – with lots of photos!
We lost Bella in March. A very sad day for many people. She was an awesome example of the Mangalarga Marchador breed.
Please take a moment to read her memorial story – with lots of photos!
When I first saw Azenha, she took my breath away. Her movement and spirit were instantly apparent. Azenha was imported from Fazenda Santarem, a magical place in Brazil. We went there for another mare – a daughter of Festa A.J. Although Dr. Olavo Monteiro had bought her at auction, Azenha was bred by Marcelo Baptista, Agro Maripa. Years later, Marcelo tracked her down wanting her back and he found her with us in the U.S.
Azenha was not offered to us at first as an option to buy – until that first mare did not respond to the treatment required to ship. LUCKY ME! I loved her. She was only three years old and barely started under saddle, with the hot brand mark still showing on her shoulder.
We imported 9 Mangalarga Marchadors that year, with many of the mares pregnant. Azenha was not one of the pregnant ones, but we bred her to imported stallion La Paz Jivago to produce her first foal. Beethoven do Summerwind, a beautiful buckskin.
Azenha always surprised us at how well she would take care of her riders – throughout her life. One time we took my whole family out on a trail ride. It could have been a train wreck. John rode Azenha in front and this forward, go mare, walked calmly and carefully picking her way and making sure her flock was with her. On the dirt road home, when we knew we had made it, John cantered her up to the arena and got off – only to find the saddle slip as it was not cinched tight.
She had so much presence and potential, we sent her off to become an ambassador of the Mangalarga Marchador breed in endurance, as a demo horse and more. Before she left to compete, Azenha was our choice for our first experiment in creating frozen embryos and we made four embryos as a precaution.
Only one of the embryos was successful, creating Hemingway do Summerwind, so Azenha returned home to become a breeding mare in our barn. We wanted more babies from her! And we made sure we kept some these babies in the Summerwind program – some with frozen semen.
Her foals:
Hawke, Hemingway, Leia, North Star and Qiara do Summerwind
Her grandchildren:
Kharisma, Kadencia and Qupid do Summerwind
Que-Pasa de Harvest Meadows
Her great grandson: Roronoa do Summerwind
I see her beauty and spirit in her offspring. Her legacy will live on through them.
In her last years, she was cared for by Silver Stables producing her last 2 foals with their stallion Jedi-Knight do Summerwind and used as a lesson horse in their youth program. Thank you Elizabeth for your loving care.
Meet Laura Patterson Rosa, PhD
“A horse woman through my whole life, the first time I sat on a saddle I was only two years old – my family tells that I cried for hours after they took me off the horse that day, because I wanted to ride more. As a kid, I would ride horses occasionally, usually when we went to the farm, and my horses were already Marchadors back then: Melado and Anel, both very sweet and picada gaited. In my teen years I found out about show jumping. The opportunity to ride constantly and improve my skills drove me to be a professional show jumper in Brazil. Other Marchadors came along, because after training my sport horses, I would ride them on the beach nearby to relax: Bacana and Arizona were my loyal geldings.
Losing one of them due to colic made me decide to go to vet school. My absolute love for these animals meant that I wanted to know what to do in order to improve their life quality and expectation. During vet school I consulted and selected nine Campolina horses (another Brazilian gaited breed) for the first exportation to Mexico. I graduated vet school and got involved with equine genetics, being invited to do a Ph.D. at University of Florida, supervised by Dr. Samantha Brooks, reference in equine genetics. Currently I live in Alpine TX, establishing an equine studies program at Sul Ross State University. It’s a great place for my horse loving daughter too.
As a Brazilian and horse rider myself, I have a great respect for the Mangalarga Marchadors, the national horse of Brazil. I strongly believe that Lynn and John Kelley’s Future Foal and Summerwind Marchadors program provide the best of Mangalarga Marchador horses, selecting from the best bloodlines while keeping the Brazilian registration and selection in order to achieve the same standards applied in Brazil. My husband and I are proud supporters of this enterprise and now part of the Summerwind family.”
Meet Victor Rosa
“I am a Brazilian lawyer and interpreter. I was born in the state of Minas Gerais, birthplace of the Mangalarga Marchador breed. Growing up, I rode Marchadors frequently with my family and friends, in cavalgadas, and attended horse shows at Gameleira, where the Mangalarga Marchador National Show takes place every year.
After moving to Salvador – Bahia, I lost contact with horses almost completely, so I focused on playing sports, one of my passions. There, I played football for 6 years in Brazilian football leagues as a wide receiver.
In Salvador, I graduated from Law School and worked for a well-established law firm. I also had the chance to work as an interpreter with American groups doing humanitarian work in poor areas of the city, and later with directors of multinational companies and groups visiting schools and universities.
With Laura, I started attending horse shows and auctions again, visited farms, and met some of the best breeders in Brazil. I have traveled to Brazil with Summerwind breeders and investors, where we had a great time visiting farms and learning more about the breed.
My goals as part of Summerwind Marchadors are to promote the Mangalarga Marchador in North America, and contribute to the improvement of the breeding, selection and training of Marchadors by facilitating the exchange of information between North American and Brazilian breeders and trainers.”
During the May visit to Brazil, we agreed to purchase 50% of a young Marchador mare in Brazil. We invested in Cachaca de Tres Coracoes, a new farm and breeder for us, on this visit. It’s a new idea for us and we decided to try it and hope that it may appeal to others as well.
We thought there are at least a few strong benefits to the idea:
Obviously, we don’t know how it will work yet, but we are optimistic and excited about following this line of thinking!
If you would like to partner with us on Cachaca or another Marchador in Brazil, please give us a call! We can work with you, or just put you in touch with the coordinator of the Brazilian Saddle Horse Project in Brazil!
To see more of Cachaca – photos and her genetics, please visit her website page:
There is a promotional campaign running during the FIFA and WORLD CUP in Brasil for their horses. Designed to introduce their horses to the international community, the promotion is called the BRASILIAN SADDLE HORSE!
Horse Illustrated will be featuring the Marchador next year based on this initiative.
The Marchador is one of the breeds that is being featured as The Brasilian Saddle Horse, but there are others, including one that shares the same root, the Mangalarga (Paulista).
To read more about the 2 breeds and their split, here is a Summerwind Newsletter from the past! SEPTEMBER 2011
http://www.summerwindmarchadors.com/news_detail.aspx?CI=5289
Also included in this issue: