Our APHA registered horses have excellent conformation from their halter champion lineage, and they are athletic because of their cutting, reining, heading, heeling and racing lineage from Quarter Horses, Thoroughbreds, and Paint Horses. Conformation and athleticism combine to give you a horse that can compete in any sport or discipline you desire. The homozygous black and tobiano genetics will add striking color to your herd.
During our years of research, we noticed an unfortunate tendency to focus on color instead of on the whole horse. This often results in conformational defects and emotionally challenged animals. We breed quality horses with sound minds and gentle demeanors without compromising the beauty of black and white color!
We are focusing solely on homozygous black and white tobianos because they are a genetic challenge (due to the possibility of hidden red and solid genes). Ginny Linza excelled at genetics in college, and continues to enjoy the challenges and rewards of breeding exceptional horses that will stand out in a crowd! Genetic study is based on information gathered about the two genes for each trait. We work specifically with the tobiano and black genes to ensure that our horses are homozygous. This means that both of their color genes will be black and both of their pattern genes will be tobiano. What that means for breeding these horses is that the foals will be black and tobiano. For more information on genetics, visit the UC Davis Veterinary Genetics Lab website.
Our training program sets our APHA registered horses apart. Darren and Ginny Linza each have over 25 years of experience handling horses. We follow a natural training program devised from studying trainers such as John Lyons, Pat Parelli, Chris Cox, and Monty Roberts. Many ranches simply turn the foals out to grow and then bring them in for training at a later date. We handle our foals from the first hours of birth. Our foals are halter trained and develop trust in people before they are weaned. During weaning foals are kept together in large corrals where we continue daily handling. After weaning they are returned to the herd to continue to grow socially with their dams and other members of our herd. Foals receive daily handling, grooming and round pen training until they are sold. Horses we add to the herd are trained to be ridden. This includes our maiden mares that are not bred until they are well developed and well trained.
Our horses live in an environment that is as natural as possible. While attending graduate school in Veterinary Medicine, Ginny learned about the advantages of keeping horses in a clean outdoor setting. This prevents many diseases including respiratory infections and COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). Our broodmares live in large outdoor corrals surrounded by electric straight wire with access to run-in sheds, fresh water and free choice hay. During foaling, our mares are brought into smaller outdoor corrals to protect the small foals. Our weanlings and horses-in-training also live outside in an environment like the broodmares’. They are kept in small groups of compatible herd members. This system keeps our horses healthy, well nourished and hydrated and provides a wonderful environment for exercise and play throughout the year.
We follow the guidelines from the Humane Society of the USA at a minimum when caring for our horses and we strive to sell our babies to similar homes. We are also financial supporters of the local Humane Society where the staff rescues and rehabilitates neglected animals, and works to educate people and place horses and other animals in safe, loving homes.
- Paint Horse Link http://www.painthorselink.com/
- Horsetopia Directory http://www.horsetopia.com/
- Frank Bell http://www.horsewhisperer.com/horse_links.htm
- Horse Galore http://horsegalore.com/
- Equine Now http://www.equinenow.com/
- The Lazy WJ Ranch http://www.esteppaints.com/