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Welcome to the 2009 Plaintree Spring Catalogue

Heather Pascoe

We are delighted to present this, our fourth Catalogue, to our fellow breeders, trainers, clients and friends. The success of this catalogue is proof of the power of communication – and the extraordinary power of the world wide web.

We are constantly astonished by the amount of web traffic we attract, the thousands of hits and the number of emails we receive from horsemen and women in all parts of Australia – no matter how far flung or how distant they might be. We are also amazed by how international our industry has become, with constant communication from respected breeders and trainers in places like Texas, Oklahoma, California, Argentina, England, Italy and South Africa. It seems that the world has opened up with the click of a mouse.

While we were putting this catalogue together, we decided to take a nostalgic look back at just a few of the horses we have produced over the years and use some of them in our advertising. (we have included them below for those who missed seeing the ads)

They reminded us about the kind of outstanding qualities we really value in our horses: they were brilliant, they were good looking, they were physically sound – and most importantly, they were tough as nails.

We have strong beliefs about the kind of horse we want to produce at Plaintree. We are strongly opposed to the use of drugs in competition, as we firmly believe that they only disguise unsoundness in horses and will ultimately destroy the breed. We are also deeply concerned about heavy line-breeding, because we know it will eventually break-down our horses even quicker than drugs can. As a result, horses get smaller, they get weaker, and their legs have a habit of breaking down when we least expect it.

David Pascoe

Breeding good horses gives both David and I a great deal of joy and satisfaction. While we use cutting edge science, including embryo transfer, we both believe that cloning is an entirely negative step for our industry.

As far as we are concerned, there are no shortcuts: the past is the past, and our challenge is always to produce something better for the future.

For the past four years, we have told clients that the horses listed for sale come from the core of our current breeding program. Looking back at some of the horses listed in previous catalogues underlines this fact: one of the colts we listed was Nonda Sting (Conman/Nonda Midnight Boogie) who unfortunately contracted a severe eye infection that required immediate surgery while he was still listed for sale. We removed him from sale to allow him to recover and he was later started under saddle with other colts in his age group. He soon showed that he was outstanding, and he will now be campaigned for Plaintree.

Another of our sale team, Nonda Happy Ever After (Docs Freckles Oak/Nonda Night Bird) was listed for sale in foal to Acres Destiny. After being available on the site for some months, she foaled a magnificent filly. In fact, the filly was so outstanding we made the decision to return the mare to our broodmare band. The filly will also be campaigned in our show team when she is old enough.

Along the way, we have sold a lot of other horses who have come straight from the same breeding program, and the response from buyers has been very positive, evidence that we are offering Australian breeders, owners and trainers, horses from the core of what we believe in.

This year’s catalogue is no different. The mares and fillies we have chosen to sell this year come from the heart of our breeding program. We offer a first in Australia this year with both a daughter and a granddaughter daughter of Reminic, one of the greatest Reining and Cowhorse sires in America. Our catalogue also includes a filly from the first crop of Nonda Redford (Semipalatinsk / Nonda Lets Talk Later), a daughter of the legendary super-sire Doc’s Freckles Oak as well as good outcross geldings by thoroughbred sires from some of our best broodmares.

The Nonda horses have 100 years of history and we have always believed in the power of great families. Every horse available for sale comes from some of the best female families in the country.

After several tough years of severe drought and a year of EI, we are now enjoying one of the best seasons we have seen in years and the Darling Downs has never looked better.

There is always balance to life, however, and we are now seeing the effect of the Global Financial Crisis. We have always taken the long term view of the horse industry, and we believe that once corrections are made, prosperity will soon return. Good horses – like real estate and gold – never really loose their value.

As always, there will be challenges and there will be opportunities. For us, the cup is always half full, and we currently have the best crop of weanlings that we have bred in years. We also have a team of 2YO’s that – as the old saying goes – make you want to get up in the morning.

We hope you enjoy your time visiting the Plaintree web site and look forward to meeting you in person some day. In the meantime, we wish you the best of everything – good horses, good friends and good seasons.

Kind regards

Heather and David Pascoe

Nonda 100 Years of History