After a couple days in Paris and a day of eating and drinking around Brussels, our new Belgian friend Baudouin of Haras des Concessions picked us up on Friday morning to take us around to see some horses. He was accompanied by his adorable little terrier Nina, who I’m pretty sure is the cutest dog in all of Europe.
Our first stop was Stal de Muze, home of many world class horses including the renowned show jumping stallion Nabab de Reve (WEG bronze medalist in 2002 and sire of Vigo – WEG gold medalist in 2012) who is now 25 and still looking great.
We got a quick tour around the barn, looking at all of Joris’ lovely horses. We saw some really big name bloodlines, from half siblings to Hickstead to foals out of Butterfly Flip. If you’re a show jumping groupie, this place is your heaven. The facilities were also, as you can imagine, world class.
I also found it interesting that he had some young eventers there by wb stallions out of full tb dams – a cross that tends to be looked-down-upon in the US. Granted, the dam was an international level eventer herself, not just a random TB.
After Stal de Muze we headed to the barn of Lara de Liedekerke and her husband Kai Steffen Meier, both 4* eventers. Lara is only 26 and has already represented Belgium at two WEG’s. Pretty crazy. Their barn is by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen. First you pull up past the castle-like house and see this view when you park:
Then you actually go inside the barn and your jaw just drops.
Then you start walking around and looking at the horses, and your mouth pretty much just stays open in amazement the entire time. The sheer number of top quality horses in this barn is pretty incredible, and from all kinds of bloodlines: Jaguar Mail, Mighty Magic, Diarado, Orlando, etc etc. Nothing that has made it to this place got there by accident. Even the young horses are accomplished, many of whom had top 5 or top 10 placings at young horse championships under their girths already.
Lara and Kai were both very nice, taking us around and showing us the horses, including a young Mighty Magic gelding that Kai has for sale. This is an important moment, because this is where I really fell hard in love with Mighty Magic and decided I have to have one.
The two MM offspring they had were quite similar looking, and both seemed really good minded. Definitely my type of horse.
After we left Lara’s place we headed out to see more of Baudouin’s horses. He breeds mostly eventers and has a lot of TB and Anglo Arab (real Anglo Arab, not tb x arab crosses) blood in his stock. As an eventer, chatting with him and racking his brain was really interesting. He’s also seen so many young horses by all the popular eventing stallions that he’s a wealth of knowledge about what crosses work well. I may or may not have shown him a few thousand pictures and made him pick which of my mares would be best for Mighty Magic.
Then we headed to another of Baudouin’s barns to see some brand spanking new babies that he had foaled out for a client – these were straight Arabian show foals, apparently worth ridiculous sums of money. It was fun to play with the babies a bit.
Then we headed to the last stop of the day – the barn of young event rider Julia Schmitz. We saw yet another Mighty Magic, this time a 4yo stallion owned by Baudouin out of one of his AA mares. I loved him too. The consistency across the board in these offspring is pretty incredible.
This was, for me, the best day of the trip. I loved being able to see all the different horses and so many different bloodlines all at once. It’s tough to get that kind of experience here in the US, with how spread out we are geographically. We also got the insider’s look on how they raise and keep their young horses – also really interesting. Some Americans would just die at the mere sight of the mud or the thought of communal stalls for babies. And of course, spending the day driving around the southern Belgian countryside was a treat in and of itself. What a beautiful place… I totally could have stayed forever. And yes, I’m looking into purchasing a dose of Mighty Magic frozen semen to use for Sadie. We’ll see what happens. 😉
Tomorrow – on to the stallion show!
These pictures are awesome! I don’t really know anything about bloodlines (shame), but all of the horses are gorgeous. And I agree, I think it’s super interesting that they use communal stalls for babies but I think it makes sense. Plus, cute babies FTW. That barn though, OMG INSANELY AMAZING 🙂
LikeLike
It’s never too late to start learning about bloodlines! 😉
LikeLike
So many beautiful ponies! Those two Mighty Magic babies make quite the handsome pair! You definitely need one 🙂
LikeLike
Agreed.
LikeLike
Oh my goodness, what an amazing experience! I don’t know what I’d do with myself surrounded by that many stunning horses. WOW. You def. need a Mighty Magic baby for sure!!!
LikeLike
I’m glad we’re all in agreement lol
LikeLike
I want to be a fly on the wall in the castle barn. Maybe that’s what heaven is.
LikeLike
Seriously.
LikeLike
“Max” is friggen adorable! Tell me you brought him home with you!
LikeLike
I mean… I’m accepting donations to bring Max home… 😉
LikeLike
Gorgeous horses and OMG that barn!!! Add me to the little to no knowledge about bloodlines club. I don’t even know how to begin learning about that.
LikeLike
Love all these pictures! What a great opportunity to see those amazing old farms. The Europeans really have this sporthorse breeding down… we have a lot of catching up to do.
LikeLike
So many pretty ponies. Want them all!
LikeLike
I think you should have brought Max home too. Surely you had room in your luggage!? 🙂
glad you had such a good time and wow that is a lot of nice horseflesh to look at!
And i would have stolen the dog if not the horse 🙂
LikeLike
Max would have required many more thousands of euros than I have lol. And I think Baudouin would have given me all of his horses before he’d let me take his dog!
LikeLike
The horseworld in Europe is soooo different. I worked at an event yard in Ireland and every single horse was International quality. I would be happy with ANY of the horses I saw there…seems similar here! Have never seen MM, but looking to maybe breed Penny in the future, so this has given me some ideas 🙂
LikeLike
I got a lot of input on Mighty Magic, Jaguar Mail, Royaldik and Grafenstolz… if you’re interested in any of those I can relay what I was told/saw.
LikeLike
Something that would compliment her….maybe a bit more upright…I have no idea haha I would have to look into them more. It would be an event prospect.
LikeLike
most of the feedback i got had to do with gaits, jumping style, rideability, and general temperament. Like it was recommended to me to only use a mare with very good front end technique o/f with Jaguar Mail, etc.
LikeLike
Agree with T Myers, the horse world in Europe is VERY different. From what I understand, it’s partly the cost involved and partly the regulations. Might as well breed quality. It’s no wonder that many of the best US horses are imported. 😦
LikeLike
I think it’s a lot easier to be an educated breeder there too. They are right in the hub of it and can see tons of offspring and stallions and mares with their own two eyes. Here we’re spread so far apart geographically that it’s hard to get your eyes on lots of breeding stock and develop an eye, much less get a really good idea of what certain lines produce. I learned more in 3 days there than I have in years and years here. It’s just impossible to get that kind of knowledge when you don’t get to see much breeding stock in person, or when all the horses you see are “unknown” as far as breeding. There they list the breeding or announce it at shows for every horse… can you imagine trying to do that here? Most people don’t even know or care.
LikeLike
Wow wow wow wow wow. So jealous in the best possible way. What an incredible day. I’ll take one of each please!!!
LikeLike
Omg. That barn. Omg.
LikeLike
What a way to spend the day & omg the set ups and horse flesh you saw *swoon* If you guys come back can i please tag along to just drool – i promise to say nothing!!!
LikeLike
So you are in love with a WB stallion that is 3/4 TB? 🙂
LikeLike
Yup. Which really makes sense… more TB is always better. 😉
LikeLike
Well, me too, but I figured I was the only one. Thanks for sharing your amazing trip with us.
LikeLike
Mighty Magic plus Sadie would give me 75% TB and the rest Hano and Holst, which sounds pretty perfect to me!
LikeLike
I am UNBELIEVABLY jealous of you right now. Those old brick barns are pretty much my favourite thing ever. And the horses! You met some amazing stallions. I definitely agree with you that all of those Mighty Magic babies are to die for and now I also want one. What cuties ❤ and good personalities! Sounds like you had an incredible day.
LikeLike
Yep I bet someone could twist my arm to take a MM baby 😉
LikeLike
what a trip – i’m so glad you had a great time – and thanks for sharing all the knowledge and pictures! the prospect of getting an MM dose for Sadie is SUPER exciting too, hopefully it works out!!! 🙂
LikeLike
I too love MM & I think he’d be a great cross for Sadie. 🙂
LikeLike
The more I find, the more I think so too. There are quite a few foals out there by him out of mares with similar bloodlines to Sadie, so that’s nice to see.
LikeLike
Carrot piles?!
Amazing barn!!!
Seriously gorgeous horses and way cute babies!
Yep sounds like a day in heaven!
LikeLike
Sooooo jealous!!! I’m glad you had such a great time !
LikeLike