Behavior Information As a lead mare, she possesses some strong characteristics that have allowed her to keep her rank in the harem. Despite her young age, she has shown a bravery equal to that of some mature stallions and an unwavering will to get her way in any situation she finds herself in. This is most noticeable in the show ring and around feed time where she demands to be first. From a very young age it was apparent that she would be a difficult horse, but this was an understatement when she hit one year. She struggled against every act that tried to control her, even the act of following her dam on a lead seemed like a threat to her. After a few years she learned that what her rider wanted was for her to be first, and when this revelation occurred Rue transformed overnight.
When with foal, she is very protective and only allows her close humans to interact with her baby. You could not ask for a better broodmare than Rue. Not to say that she won't take a rest or act goofy for the heck of it, in fact, her favorite past time is a tie between rolling in the mud and breaking into the feed room in the middle of the night. She is a mare that respects strong leaders, can be dominant and temperamental, and needs to vocalize her opinion to everyone. Her leadership and sociable nature has secured a place in her harem but also gives her an uncanny ability to befriend shy and temperamental horses alike. She does not, however, get along well with dominant horses and her interactions must be monitored due to her natural temperament. Broodmare Information The idea of human-dictated equine breeding has been around for thousands of years, yet we have still much to learn and the success rate with human overseers is more laborious and less efficient than the 'old fashioned natural method' where the stallion does all the hard labor. Determining when a mare is in heat is an art that is time-consuming, repetitive, and rarely adored by anyone in the field. Roulette does make the task easier with her regular cycles and change in temperament, exhibiting the Pouty Mare Syndrome. She lives in the harem with the only stallion she currently breeds to, and is separated and evaluated on a daily basis by our staff through tedious procedures before being teased. When all goes smoothly, she exhibits the positive signs such as raising her tail, ears forward, and leaning into the teasing board. It takes hours of daily evaluation to uncover her cycle, which has yet to be clearly defined. However, she has had a normal conception rate and live foal rate of around 80%. She is still a very young mare, and we feel her percentages will raise through time. She has been bred by live cover methods only in both pasture and in-hand mating. Pregnancy is normal and her first foal births were well executed indoors with staff involved minimally. Overall, she is proving to be the best broodmare at the stables with strong, healthy, and beautiful foals. Biography Her first three years were with her dam in Mexico, a vivid Bay Roan mare with fire in her soul. She spent endless hours in the fields with the other foals and mares, learning acceptable behavior and nurturing her already strong personality. She was backed - trained to carry a saddle, accept a bit, and be lunged in tack - and placed back to pasture until she matured enough mentally to begin her formal training. The methods of training and day to day life was something she had gotten quite use to in the first three years of her life, until it was time for her to say goodbye to the life she had always known and was flown into the states, but would not meet her owner for the first time for another full year. Roulette was sent to get professional training from an Olympic-Class schooling stable in the Mid-West. Here, she was forced onto a chaotic schedule where everything she was use to had been taken away from her. Upon arrival, she was to undergo a rigorous set of tests evaluating her health and fitness including everything from an oral exam to an exhausting treadmill test, to a Genetics DNA test to determine her genetic code. Completely reverse of her birth stable, she was stalled much of the day, then tested and trained whenever she was out, leaving little time to relieve stress from an unnatural environment. This proved unsuitable to her active self and she soon became rebellious and developed the crib biting vice. Shortly after she started crib biting she was afflicted with a mild case of colic from not being able to graze through the day. When she was out and being schooled, she did rather well and was responsive, but often hid her discomfort when worked too long, and this is when she was diagnosed with splints. She began to challenge every request and loose respect for humans, but this was soon resolved as her entire training plan was recreated to her specific needs. Roulette could now be in a mowed pasture and her training was revamped to a schedule she thrived with. Her testing showed an impressive increase in both speed and endurance, and she proved to be a serious competitor in her main courses: Reining, Team Chasing, and Showing. [At the moment she is untested in competitions and as a broodmare, but will be put to the test soon.] Photographs |