This marks the beginning of our journey with Gypsy Vanner horses.  There's so much to say about this, so I hope I'm not overly long with this post, but I might be (fair warning).

We'd owned Tennessee Walking Horses and our mini mule, we had dipped into Quarter Horses for a few years, and we had also adopted BLM wild mustang geldings.  I believe the mustangs helped teach me that I'm not a spring chicken any longer (haha).  All the horses stoked my passion and love for horses, and especially the love of foaling and raising of young horses.  Mason showed me that my true passion and goal was to be the very best Gypsy Vanner horse breeder that I could be, and that is now where I expend all of my energies and focus with our horses.

We were going through some very difficult family times as most people do from time to time.  Also, though, for several years we had been looking through a variety of horse breeds doing a lot of research.  Our hearts led us to the majesty and beauty of Gypsy Vanners and Friesians.  Some lessons with mustangs and the slightly more warm-blooded, non-draft horses steered us slightly toward Gypsy Vanner horses.

Winter, and Christmas, were soon approaching.  As the weather turned, we were spending more evenings absorbing horse-related videos.  During some Facebook browsing, I stumbled onto the photograph of an 18-month old stud colt.  Immediately upon sharing Mason's photograph, it was done.  We were going to purchase our first Gypsy Vanner horse (for our mutual Christmas gift to one another that year).  He was going to be a little bit of the healing salve that we needed during these hard personal times.

Mason came to us an old soul.  He was not even two years old, but he acted less flighty than horses three or four times his age.  He showed us that horses can reciprocate affection for humans even if you aren't holding snacks in your hands.  On top of all of that, he was a stallion!

We've watched Mason grow from a horse child through his horse teenage years and into a beautiful, well-mannered, and well-loved adult stallion member of our farm.

This past summer, he gave us his first foal, HF Dawn's Mizake The Mizan, who had the same gentle soul as his father, but in a black blagdon package.  Both Mason and Zake's dam, Princess Dawn, had contributed the non-tobiano half of their kit gene (W20/W20) to make this little guy without tobiano markings.

This summer, we allowed Mason four mares.  He hit it out of the park with four of four confirmed in foal for 2024.

We believe in Mason.  We believe in his gentle spirit and that he is the embodiment of the beauty in this breed.  We believe he could be a future legend in this breed.  Not for any of the show ribbons he might garner nor the competitions he wins, but for what he stands for as a member of the Gypsy Vanner breed because of what he simply is.