This is SS Done Dreaming, known by her prior owner and ourselves as, “Paisley.”

Genetic heritages are not only physical, but also mental for many horses.  Jen’s “heart horse” on our farm is SS Princess Pur Krystallyze, “Liza.”  When we see what a stallion produces, we are much more likely to want more of that if we like what we see.  Pleasantness of personality is one of the primary things that we focus on in our breeding efforts, and there can’t be much sweeter of a Gypsy Horse than Liza.

We also like to keep our horses GHRA Section A eligible by keeping them under 14.2hh (even though that A and B distinction is now collapsed down into Section A/B to include all sizes).  We like them smaller.  For one, they are just a tad easier to handle.  For another, the history of these horses were as draft horses, so size only matters for those individuals that want horses that are larger for riding purposes.  We do not do a lot of riding ourselves due to age and medical characteristics that make us a bit more prone to life-altering issues in the event of an injury.  That made us decide to focus on smaller, draft-style horses in the lower half of the size spectrum of Gypsy Vanner Horses.

We have one Gypsy Vanner Horse breeding program for those full-sized horses from 13hh to 14.2hh.  Our other program is for “make it ourselves,” miniature horses with as many H2 markers as we can generate (some heterozygous and some homozygous, and we love all the horses in these size categories…they make fantastic “grandchildren” horses).

We had a mare on our farm that was borderline on size in the 14hh+ range that was in foal with our 14.2hh stallion (we normally like our mares shorter than him for offspring that will definitely be in our desired size range).  Her resulting offspring is likely to be around that 14.2hh size, which is fine by us, but we also knew that by the personality of this mare, and her more athletic build, she would be a fantastic riding horse with the right owner.  She was also very human-centered and she adored her human interactions.  I don’t even know how to explain how much she loves her humans.  We really felt like she was misplaced on our farm.  We loved her a lot, but it always felt like she was going to be someone else’s superstar riding horse, a life that we weren’t going to be able to give her.  She also had some very desirable color/pattern characteristics that provided her with a wow factor.

We found someone that had an interest in her.  She owned Paisley.  Paisley was likewise very well-loved on their farm.  It was a little bit excruciating for both sides, but we both let go of fantastic horses to give both horses a chance in a different place with different owners.

Paisley is straight-up 13hh, but without any H2 genetics.  This is a bit exciting, though, since layering on a pair of H2 genes on her grandchildren could put her progeny in the micro-mini size category.

She’s a half-sister to our beloved mare, Liza, and she displays those same sweet personality characteristics as Liza does…every human and every horse’s calmest, sweetest, and best friend out in the pasture.

We wouldn’t normally put a horse without H2 genetics into our miniature program, but Paisley is the exception.  Even putting one H2 gene on top of her 13hh size would create offspring with an estimated mature height of firmly 12hh, which is still a great size for driving (the discipline that we aim for with our resulting foals).

We have two miniature studs, Benz and Bruiser.  Benz is a homozygous H2 12hh silver dapple stallion.  Bruiser is a homozygous H2 11hh black stallion sporting a Pearl gene.  Our initial thoughts were Benz.  Paisley, though, like her half-sister Liza is homozygous Tobiano.  Both of their foals will always be Tobiano.  Most Tobiano horses are about 75% or higher in white concentrations on their manes.  A 50% chance at stacking a silver gene onto a tobiano horse would only wash that mane and tail out from 75% or greater white to full white.  There wouldn’t be a whole lot of visual differences on the foals.  Bruiser, on the other hand, with that Pearl gene, would have a 25% shot at putting a Cream (from Paisley) and a Pearl (from Bruiser) gene together on their foals.  Also, Bruiser’s much smaller size would all but guarantee a very small sized foal.

It also seemed to be a somewhat lopsided proposition to put this gossamer 13hh mare in with our beefy 14.2hh full-sized stallion.  Even though a mare’s uterus controls the birth size of her foal, we didn’t really want to put the body stress of a foal that would quickly outgrow her in size on her.  We want her to have a foal by her side that is much easier for her to feed and care for.  We also wouldn’t want her to have to bear Mason’s weight on her during the process of breeding.  He’s a lunk.

Paisley is open this winter and hanging out in a pasture with three pregnant mares and one other miniature mare that is open.  She’s a very timid mare, it only took her a very short time to make friends with our other timid mare there, but she’s now fully integrated and freely hangs out with all the other mares in that pasture after a few months.

Like her half-sister, Liza, she’s one of the sweetest horses on our property.  Also, like Liza, she’s not a first-time mommy.  Also, like Liza, if we can help it, Paisley will never leave our farm.  We’re going to see what she and Bruiser can produce in 2026.  There’s always a lot of exciting plans to watch come to fruition, and this plan for us is super-exciting.

We love this little mare, and we can’t wait to see how the rest of her story unfolds with us.