This blog post is way too long overdue, since our herd sire, Amberfields Luminescence, aka Lumi arrived at our farm actually a month ago, but all the preparation and excitement preceding and following his arrival got me completely distracted from our website :)
Take one look at him, and I am sure you will understand...
But let me now tell you all about how Lumi, this most extraordinary Morgan stallion came to live with us to become our invaluable asset for our breeding future.
It is our vision and goal to produce young stock that will come from a pedigree of proven bloodlines manifesting the fullness of the physical and mental capacity of the Morgan horse. In order to do just that we were looking at many options for a herd sire for ShannonVale Morgans from obtaining a great stallion prospect colt and bringing him up ourselves to purchasing a proven stallion with outstanding get already on the ground... I guess both could be a successful approach to a breeding program in the long run, however those of you out there with a long history in breeding would rightly give the advice to take the latter one... Well, that is exactly what we voted for!
As a first Morgan breeding stallion owner, our other main priority was to find one with the most gentle personality for easy handling, that he would pass onto his offspring, and last but not least we wanted to add that special touch of color to make many people's dream come true...
Do you now start to see how we narrowed down our many options and finally concluded that we will be investing into importing yet another horse from the USA, the double dilute cremello stallion, Sue Olson's favorite "spirit horse" - Amberfields Luminescence?
Lumi said goodbye to his wonderful home at Rafter Bar D Morgans in Wisconsin already at the very beginning of February and went for collection of frozen semen. I know very well how difficult moment it was both for him and his loving family, the Olsons... The state vet of Wisconsin who has been breeding Morgans for many a decade sent me an unsolicited report of how impressed they were with him... What an endorsement!
I must say that I am pleased to know that he did not have to leave the US without the possibility of more foals in his own homeland knowing that his departure is definitely America's loss and Europe's gain!
Lumi had a long journey all the way from Madison, WI where he was collected to Equiflight's quarantine facility in Texas. He spent another 30 days in the caring hands of Katie Forest Schröder and her team before he could actually fly over to AMS on 8th April.
He had a couple of days rest while waiting for his pick-up in the best horse hotel in Amsterdam and finally arrived at our place in top shape early morning on 16th April...
So after the most agonizing time for me of waiting and praying for him to make it safely all the way to Europe, our small beloved Morgan family is finally complete! Thank God!
It is difficult to put into words the emotions that I was going through as I was just standing there next to him touching him for the first time and watching him in awe...
He took a long and inquisitive look around his new home, then happily stretched his long legs after what must have been a most exhausting ride in a trailer, then he shook his beautiful head almost in disbelief as if saying in relief: "I am free at last..."
He settled in very easily and seems to enjoy his brand new paddock with a shed that he occupied immediately, and was not the least bothered with the other stallion next door to him. What a gentle and well behaving boy! Yes, I am fully in love :)
Our plan with Lumi is to breed our own mares with him, and also offer him at stud to selected mares.
You are also welcome to reserve any of his foals from our mares of your choice for the next breding season. The foals will be available after weaning in the autumn.
For further information, please contact us on this link!
