Altitude Arabians - Stud Focus

Altitude Arabians Colorado, USA

Stud Focus

For fifteen years Garrett and Lisa Ford have been riding, training and breeding Arabians at Altitude Arabians in Durango, Colorado, USA. Though initially focussed on Endurance with notable success, they started racing in 2012.Since then they have expanded their breeding and racing stock and have gained international recognition with horses such as RB Kindle, a daughter of Burning Sand.

RB Kindle (US) and Harry Bentley win in Qatar

Ford has been around horses all his life, starting with what he describes as ‘Ranch type horses’ and followed his mother into Endurance when he was around ten years old. He explains: “My younger brother and I travelled around the USA in a motorhome during the summer doing endurance rides. We did events like the Big Horn 100, Old Dominion 100 and the Tevis Cup. Endurance gets you out in beautiful country on the back of a horse. You spend time in nature with a horse - there are not many sports better than that.”

Lisa and Garret Ford after Garrett's win in the Tevis Cup

The 100-mile Tevis Cup is the most difficult and competitive race In the USA. For five years the Ford’s focussed on this event, resulting in a Tevis Cup (Ford with The Fury in 2012) and 10 top ten finishes. They also won a Haggin Cup each, awarded to the best conditioned horse in the top ten.

Foals in the paddocks at Altitude Arabians

It was through buying ex-racehorses to compete in Endurance that Ford got his early education into Arabian racing. He is also the President of EasyCare Inc. a company founded in 1970 that pioneered the hoofboot market to the equine industry. He had developed a new shoe for the racetrack and Ford felt that convincing a trainer to try them would be difficult. Instead he claimed an Arabian and trained it himself to prove the shoe. He laughs: “We won our first start. I should have quit after that race!”

Altitude Arabians are spread over two 16- hectare facilities and though aiming to keep the horses out as much as possible, they also have three barns, with around 30 stables in total. In addition to many kilometres of beautiful mountain trails, horses are conditioned on a 1000m Dirt track and a horse-walker. With only two fulltime staff for around 60 horses, Ford feels that is part of their success saying: “I would like to think we are very hands on compared to other breeders. I personally take care of the feet of all our horses - I’m under each horse and know each horse well.

“We also have incredible mountain pasture. Horses spend most of the time eating and moving outside. I’m not sure why, but our horses seem bigger and have more bone than others. Just something in the water I guess.”

Like many new converts to racing, they found it hard to purchase the horses they wanted, Ford explains: “The good ones are hard to buy. We figured it would be b etter to breed what we liked and control our own destiny.”

With Arabian racing now getting underway in the USA, Ford is keen to prove his breeding. This year they have 11 horses in training with Jerenesto Torrez in Texas, with 14 mares, seven foals, around 25 young horses and a handful of Endurance horses at home.

When they started they stuck to the principals of selection that had served them well in Endurance, namely, conformation and attitude. “Attitude is everything in horses. They need the will to win and compete. I can’t stand lazy,” however Ford observes: “I quickly found out how important pedigree was to racing. I was a bit slow to catch on, but I would put our last three crops against anyone’s in the USA. “My biggest take home message is to breed less and concentrate on the best pedigrees I c an. Great pedigrees with good conformation. “Looking back over the last 12 or so years here, Burning Sand, has dominated the sport,” he continued. “I wish I had used him more, but I didn’t and had a hard time affording it.” Amer of course features in his go to sires list and he believes that TH Richie (Calin Du Loup) will continue to be a great broodmare sire, praising the length of leg and straight legs that line produces. He says: “I love what I’m seeing out of my TH Richie mares c rossed to Burning Sand and Amer sons. In a perfect world I would breed mares with a strong French dam line and cross them with Amer or Tiwaiq sons. Then next generation, I would cross with

Burning Sand.” Ford is excited for his prospects in 2020 with so many homebred horses to race. Asked which are catching the eye, he selects the three-year-olds AA Dbuster (Baseq Al Khalediah x Djenuine), AA Filthy Rich (TH Richie x Royale Fanfare), AA Royalewan (Rathowan x Royale Fanfare) and the four-year-olds AA Speedball (Burning Sand x Follies Bergere) and Gouduriske Al Baraka (Nashwan Al Khalidiah x Damera), who was bred by Stephane Chazel in France.

AA Royalewan (US)

Diane Waldron with Garrett Ford and one of the Amer mares they share in partnership, Alwiya (QA), at the Arqana PA Sale

To date on the racecourse, Ford’s best results have come with horses bought from Diane Waldron’s Rosebrook Farm. The association began with his first racehorse, Noveau Rich (TH Richie) purchased from Waldron and over the years they have since become good friends. They now have four Amer mares together and are also partners in the stallion Rathowan, a brother to the recently retired multiple Group1PA winner, Gazwan.

Considering the decision to buy Rathowan he says: “We wanted Amer blood in the USA and we needed a talented Amer stallion to offer fresh semen as so many mares are difficult to get in foal with frozen. Rathowan comes from an incredible family and his value increased as Gazwan continued to win." Rathowan won on his three-year-old debut in a Nottingham maiden in 2011, trained by Julian Smart for HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Thani, later winning the International Conditions race at DIAR and was twice Group 1PA placed in the UK, most notably when beaten a nose by Djet Taouy in the 2013 Dubai International Stakes. He was also runner-up to stablemate Mkeefa in the President of the UAE Cup (UK Arabian Derby) at Newmarket and the Qatar Arabian Word Cup at ParisLongchamp.

“Altitude Arabians and Rosebrook Farm have plenty of Rathowan foals that will hit the track in 2020. We are seeing great conformation, nice feet, straight legs and lots of speed.”

Another Rosebrook product which has kept Ford in the headlines is RB Kindle, a daughter of Burning Sand. He recalls: “Kindle was my girl. Super-fast and talented too. I don’t think she really got the respect she deserved in the USA. At the end of her three-year-old season she had a mild tendon injury that set her back.”

She had won three of her four starts including the Delaware Park Arabian Juvenile Filly Championship (Grade 3) and was runner-up in the Cre Run Oaks Distaff (Grade 2).

“ I brought her home, to get her back to health in the mountains of Colorado. Her feet were the problem and needed to be addressed first - it took over six months. We worked on getting her toes shortened and eliminating her underrun heels.

“Lisa and I worked on her leg every day for around three months. I sat on a seat and iced her leg twice a day, whilst Lisa used a Class 4 laser and we also did cross friction massage on her tendon. I slowly started her back training on our 1000m track and i n the sand washes in New Mexico. She held up well carrying my 99kg, so I knew she would stand training on the track.”

RB Kindle won on her four-year-old reappearance at Delaware, before another Grade 2 placing that summer. Her next start was as a five-year-old, rattling up a hattrick of wins and just missing out in a Grade 1, but it was clear to Ford that the opportunities for a horse of her talent in the USA were going to be limited.

They welcomed the approach by Al Shahania Stud and Ford s ays: “I knew Kindle would have a chance to shine in Qatar and all our hard work with her would pay off.

RB Kindle (US) with the Ford's after winning in the USA

This winter she won the Majd Al Arab PA Sprinter Championship (Gr3PA) and the Purebred Arabian Sprint Cup.”

Horse racing in the US had been facing plenty of challenges even before the Covid-19 crisis appeared and Arabian racing in particular has been going through a tough period there. Ford is quick to point out the biggest problem, sadly a familiar story in many countries saying: “In the USA it’s all about horse numbers. We don’t have enough horses, breeders or owners.”

Looking t o the future he concludes: “My goal is to do what puts a smile on my face. Our hobbies need to be fun and rewarding, so we will race and spend time with fast horses on high mountain trails."

For Further information:

www.altitudearabians.com

Additional photos supplied by Altitude Arabians and QREC

AA Burning Daylight (US) 2020 filly by Burning Sand x Rich Craft (Virgule Al Maury)