June 16, 2014
Just outside Kingaroy a boutique horse stud is breeding a very special type of quarter horse … so special that there’s no one else in Australia, or the southern hemisphere for that matter, doing anything similar.
Alice Brooke-Hurley’s name would be familiar to local residents because of her “hair artistry” skills (she still operates a hair salon from her home), but these days, she’s also very concerned about the hair colouring of horse coats, and eyes …
ABH Performance Horses, operated by Alice and husband Waide at Booie, is concentrating on breeding “grulla” coloured quarter horses, a rare grey coat colour which comes in two varieties, “dark steel” and the even rarer, “silver grulla”.
There are only a few bloodlines in quarter horses in Australia that carry this gene.
But even rarer would be a silver grulla quarter horse with blue eyes, which is what Alice is aiming to produce.
To this end, the stud has imported the stallion Black Tie Gunner from the United States, a four-year-old quarter horse with a white splash and stunning blue eyes.
Black Tie Gunner has already sired nine foals in the US (one was sold to Germany, and one to Mexico) before Alice snapped him up.
He arrived last July and has been working hard at the stud since then.
ABH Performance Horses has five mares in foal, with the first due in August, and has already exported a mare in foal to New Caledonia.
There’s a 50/50 chance that some of these foals will have the colour / eye combination that Alice is looking for.
She has been promoting the stud on the internet and has had inquiries pouring in about the foals from all over the world.
Alice began horse breeding as a hobby, focusing on “paints” before she switched to quarter horses.
It’s now a business, especially after Waide suffered a back injury at work.
However, the breeding program doesn’t come cheaply.
It cost Alice about $40,000 to land Black Tie Gunner in Australia after six weeks of quarantine in New Zealand.
And then there were the stables, fencing and special yards.
But if everything goes to plan, each foal could be sold for up to $10,000.
NB. Quarter horses are so named as they were bred in the United States for sprinting over short distances (a quarter mile). Originally a cross between English thoroughbreds and Native American horses, quarter horses are now recognised as a breed in their own right. They are popular in campdrafting, cutting and reining competitions, and stock work.
