Connie Fisher breeds warmblood horses—a cross between Clydesdales like Joe, above, and Arabians—for dressage competitions.
Big. Strong. Calm.
Horse
breeder
and trainer
team up
to promote
blood line
4 April 2009 Douglas
C
By Craig Reed
onnie Fisher and Leanne MacFarlane
needed only minutes to bond, thanks to
their shared love of horses.
Before their first visit ended, Connie
offered one of her horses to Leanne to train
and ride. After 2½ years of training, Leanne
and that horse, Thor, are in their first year of
dressage competition.
Both women are proud of their progress:
Connie as a warmblood horse breeder and
Leanne as a rider.
“Our first meeting was pretty amazing,”
Leanne recalls of her first visit to Fisher
Ranch Warmbloods, located a couple of
miles west of Camas Valley. “To me, it was
an answer to prayer. I was flabbergasted
that Connie literally handed me the reins
to ride a $15,000 horse. I’m helping her by
promoting her breeding line and she’s helping
me by allowing me to have a horse I couldn’t
otherwise have afforded.”
Connie and Leanne not only have a bond,
but a strong appreciation and respect for each
other as they have each progressed with their
horses the past several years.
In January, the American Warmblood
Society (AWS) honored Connie as its
2008 Breeder of the Year. Five foals born
on her ranch last spring to Spring Water
Black Powder Joe, a Clydesdale stallion,
and to Thoroughbred or Arab mares,
earned the highest average score at a recent
AWS inspection. The colts are judged on
conformation, movement, temperament and
potential.
Joe, a 10-year-old black Clydesdale,
considered a “cold” or calm breed in horse
circles, is the foundation of Fisher’s horse
breeding business. Paired with “hot” racing
Thoroughbred or Arab mares, Joe has sired 36
warmblood offspring on the Fisher Ranch.
Connie’s goal is to develop a warmblood
line in the United States that can compete
with the older and more expensive lines of
warmblood horses in Europe. She says so far,
all horses in Olympic equestrian events, even
for U.S. riders, are of European descent.
“Horses are my life,” Connie says. “They
mean everything to me. I’m trying to show
people they don’t have to buy European
warmbloods to be successful. We have some
wonderful, wonderful animals right here in
our own backyards.”
The draft breed provides strength and heavy
bone characteristics. When paired with a “hot”
mare, the ensuing foal is lighter in its frame
and has the stamina of its mother’s breed.
Thor, a 6-year-old gelded son of Joe and a
Thoroughbred mare, has those characteristics
and is competing in Northwest dressage
events. Thor and Leanne competed in the
Oregon Dressage Society League show in
March in Salem. They placed third in two
adult amateur classes and fourth in another.
They also are preparing for the United States
Dressage Federation show in Central Point in
May.
Dressage involves the horse and rider
carefully following a pattern that includes
20 to 25 elements, such as walking, trotting,
cantering, stopping, turning left and right,
circling and reversing. Each pattern takes about
five minutes to complete, and horse and rider
are judged as they progress through the test.
Leanne started Thor out at Level 1 rather
than at either of the two lesser introductory
levels. Level 1 is the third of the 10 levels
needed to reach the Grand Prix, or Olympic,
level.
“Connie has worked for quite a few years
to produce horses like this,” says Leanne. “It’s
about time people realize her horses are not
only athletic, but are capable of taking them
pretty far. She won that award because she
has been striving to achieve the kind of horse
that’s capable of competing on the national
level. She deserves the credit.”
Connie was originally in the car business
in New Jersey, but dreamed of starting a
horse breeding business. She began fulfilling
her dream about 10 years ago after moving
with her husband, Dennis, to their 13-acre
property.
“It then took me two years to find my
stallion, to find the perfect stallion,” Connie
says.
She found Joe as a 6-month-old colt
in Eastern Oregon. While Joe grew and
matured, Connie searched for “just the right
mares.” Breeding began after Joe turned 2.
Connie begins teaching “ground manners”
to the foal the day it is born. She has been at
the birth of all 36 of Joe’s offspring. Riding
the horses doesn’t start until they are 3 or 4.
At 2 years old, the horses are available for
sale at about $7,500. Connie’s horses have been
sold throughout the United States. Many are
involved in equestrian horse competitions
such as dressage, stadium jumping and
eventing (a combination of dressage, cross
country and jumping).
“I’m extremely proud because the horses
my horses are competing against are topdollar horses—a lot in the $50,000 to $60,000
range,” says Connie. “My horses are big, solid,
athletic and their disposition is so important.
There are 13-year-old girls winning on
these horses and older women who can feel
competent riding these horses.
“I’m very pleased because this is a tough
road, but Joe’s an amazing horse.”
Connie is only the third West Coast
breeder to win the breeder award in the
last 12 years. In 2006, she was named AWS
Volunteer of the Year.
“People who want to compete in dressage,
jumping, eventing are looking for these
larger horses that have the muscle and bone
structure to handle the stress of those kinds of
competitions,” says Leanne. “Connie’s horses
are strong, solid-boned horses with very few
bone and lameness issues. They’re calm,
they’re intelligent and they’re beautiful.” n
Leanne MacFarlane,
above and left, trains
and rides Thor, one of
Connie’s horses. Photos
by Barbara Riebold.
Douglas April 2009 5