3/23/13 My 1st ASB Starheart Secret

3/23/13  This week I'm going to post about my very first saddlebred mare.  As I mentioned in one of my very early posts, several girls from my neighborhood started leasing a horse when we were in high school.  We had been taking hunt seat lessons for a year or so, and an ad appeared in The Toledo Blade to lease a horse.  As it turned out, a retired gentleman from just over the state line in Michigan had a farm and a bunch of horses.  He raised American Saddlebreds and that was our introduction to the breed.  I don't remember the process of how we got to pick which horse we actually leased, but I ended up with Secret.  At the time, in the summer of 1971, she was a 6 year old mare and already the mother of a two year old.  She was in foal again for a colt  for a spring colt the following year.  These were dual purpose horses and she did everything all the other horses did including going to shows, trail riding and just enjoying being a horse.  She was a sweet tempered girl with ears like a mule, but I loved her anyway. 

Starheart Secret 

Prince Starheart x Secret Sea by Lucky Kalarama 

Homer gave us a copy of our horse's registration papers, so that's when I began to learn the names of some of the foundation horses in our breed and some of the important stallions from more recent times.  Some of the horses I never heard of, and back then, you couldn't get on the American Saddlebred Horse Association (ASHA) website.  So I read magazines, books, and whatever else I could get my hands on. 

Secret was purchased from Tattersall's as a two year old.  I'm sure her ears prevented her from ever being considered as any type of show horse, and her breeder, Mrs. Isabel Robson, loved to raise and show horses.  Secret was surprisingly well bred, but I'm sure no one has ever heard of her sire. 

Prince Starheart

Starheart Stonewall X Chocolate Parfait (BHF) by Anacacho Shamrock

Prince Starheart was by Starheart Stonewall and out of a Broodmare Hall of Fame dam.  He only produced nine colts in all.  Evidently he died as a five year old, and I'm not sure if it was by an accident or illness.  Many years later I bought a random old Saddle & Bridle magazine off Ebay.  It was from 1964 and as I paged through it, I found myself looking at an ad for none other than Prince Starheart.  He was quite the handsome guy.  His record on ASHA shows that he produced colts in 1964 and 1965, so something happened to him before the 1965 breeding season.

CH Christmas Carol

Sired by Prince Starheart and shown here with Mrs. Robson.

They won the 3-gaited Amateur under 15.2 stake in Louisville in 1975,

so out of only 9 colts, Prince Starheart sired a World's Champion.

Secret's grandsire

Anacacho Shamrock

sire of Chocolate Parfait

Edna May's King

sire of Anacacho Shamrock

Secret's dam's side was pretty good too.  She was sired by Lucky Kalarama who in turn sired Ace's Refreshment Time and Mrs. Robson's mare CH Alluring Lady.  Lucky Kalarama was sired by Kalarama Rex.  

Kalarama Rex was the sire of Lucky Kalarama

 Rex Peavine sired Kalarama Rex

King's Genius

was Secret's second dam's sire

Bourbon King appeared twice on Secret's registration papers. 

After I bought Buddy, I still kept tabs on Secret.  Homer sold her to a woman in our area who raised a few more colts from her.  When Secret was 15 years old, she again sold through Tattersalls.  This time she went to a breeder in the Chicago area who owned Paradise Farms.  She produced a couple more colts for him, including one by CH Greenway Commander who I think was a stunning stallion. 

 CH Greenway Commander, sire of Secret's last foal

 

 

As a footnote, I wondered just how many colts Mrs. Robson bred that earned their CH champion status.  She bred seven champions, and also a BHF Hall of Fame Broodmare.  Secret's half sister, CH Christmas Carol, was Mrs. Robson's first CH status horse.  One of her later champions, CH Albelarm Supremacy, is sire to my old broodmare Loretta.