Pulsar, Patrick's 2005 Colt

Pulsar was a huge colt! His dam, Starbound needed help getting him out and she typically delivers large foals with no assistance. He looked like a big foal with grown horse legs, they were as long as his dam's and almost as big around. He is three days old in the picture on the left. It took three days for his knees to straighten and he could not stretch his neck down to the ground without almost going down on his knees. When he went to his inspection the judge came over to me after his evaluation and told me not to be concerned that he was not a premium foal. He said that the large foals frequently are gangly and clumsy in their gaits, but when they finally grow into their body, they can be really special horses, and he thought that I had one of those.

Three years later I can see that he was right. At almost 16.3 hands and still growing, Pulsar has a powerful hind end that makes both the dressage and jumper riders want him. He has already been started lightly under saddle and he really seems to enjoy the work. In fact, it is necessary to change what he is doing often because if he gets bored with the training he is harder to work with than when you give him something to think about all the time. Even though I could probably sell him easily and for a good price, I decided to let my daughter, Melissa have him (she is working off his price). His personality is a perfect match for her and by keeping him and letting her show him I have a great advertisement for both breeding to Patrick (this is what he produces) and selling the other offspring (you can't have him, but here is one that is looking like him).

I also like to have him to show people that just because a foal wasn't premium at his inspection doesn't mean that he won't become a premium horse. The inspection is one day in time of a foal's life. Some foals take a lot longer to develop to their full potential and it isn't as obvious in the beginning as it is with others. People who have been breeding a long time or who have been around growing horses a lot are usually good at recognizing these "diamonds in the rough" and will buy them before others have seen it. I'm grateful for the judges advice when Pulsar was inspected. I was a new breeder and thought that if we weren't producing premium foals, we would not be successful. The breed registries keep track of how many premium foals a stallion is producing and Patrick's statistics have been impressive. Pulsar was not one of them, but he will be one of Patrick's premium horses!