December 2019/January 2020 Issue

By Marcella Peyre-Ferry Sometimes, our best horses come to us from unusual places. For Mary Ann Luke of Earleville, MD, fate intervened at many points along the way to bring her a very special mare that would produce three premium foals. Back in 2001, while scanning the Internet Luke came across a site called Foalquest. To produce pregnant mare urine (PMU) for use in hormone replacement ther- apy drugs, mares are repeatedly bred and foals taken from them at an early age. The foals that are a byproduct of the process general- ly end up at auction where there is a good chance they will be purchased for slaughter. At that time, Foalquest was encouraging farmers to breed better foals so that more would have a better chance of selling to a private buyer instead of the slaughter- house. They also were arranging adoptions of foals before they went to auction. Luke saw one foal pictured on a list of foals for adoption that piqued her interest. “I came across Aurora’s photo. For some reason I never happened to have a gray before, and I thought this one was kind of cute,” she said. At the time, Luke was not interested in adopting a foal. She was planning to breed her mare, and even had a vet check sched- uled for the next day, but through some error, the vet never arrived for the appointment. “That made me think, maybe I’m supposed to adopt this foal instead of breeding this mare, and that’s what I did,” Luke said. All Luke knew about the foal’s background was that her sire was a Percheron. The photo online showed only a portion of the dam’s hip. She was black and looked like she was probably a Quarter Horse. Odd connections continued to happen. Adopted foals were shipped from Alberta to various drop-off points across the United States. Organizing the shipping took time, but while she was waiting Luke saw photos of the foal and took time to think about a name. “My old show horse, his name was Northern Prince. She’s from Canada, she’s a filly, maybe I’ll name her Aurora, but I won’t really know until she gets here,” Luke remembered. After picking up the filly in Annapolis, they headed for the Fair Hill area, where Luke lived at the time, and the name took on meaning. “We’re just about home and they’re talking on the radio about how you’re going to be able to see the northern lights that night,” she said. Following the theme of light, Lumineir became Aurora’s show name. “I didn’t really expect much out of her, just to have a pleasure horse,” Luke said. “I took her and got her inspect- ed and registered as American Warmblood as a 2-year-old.” Aurora went on to fill many roles for Luke. “I love draft cross- es as pleasure horses. She was a lovely mare, great character, The brands you know. Sundowner I Cotner The team you trust. Sales I Service I Parts Driven by You. PineHillTrailers.com 2969 Lincoln Highway East l Gordonville, PA I (888) 897-1925 EAST COAST EQUESTRIAN December 2019/January 2020 Page 5 From Humble Beginnings to Filly Champion: A PMU Success Story the type you trust to do anything with anybody. She was better at dressage than jumping - she liked jumping, but she was heavy,” she said. “She would do pretty much any venue you wanted to do.” Luke purchased Silver Fern Farm in Earleville in 2012, where she trains and teaches hunters, jumping, eventing, and dressage. Soon she began thinking of breeding Aurora. She had worked at Hilltop Farm while in college and had always wanted to breed to their stallion Riverman. “I’d always loved Riverman since he was imported. Always in the back of my head I thought I’d like to breed to him, but I wouldn’t do it ‘till I had my own place.” Luke said. “I hemmed and hawed about it because she’s an undocumented mare.” Luke intended to keep the foal and hoped she could get into the ISR Oldenberg registry. “Pro- viding the mare passed the mare inspection, you can get the foal registered.” Aurora was inspected with her first foal at her side. Her scores put her in the middle of the pack for her inspection, with better scores than some of the warmbloods, and no score under a 6. Breeding to a draft cross with unknown parentage is not some- thing Luke would recommend. “The educated guess worked out really well, but I would not sug- gest it to most people,” she said. (Continued on page 11) At the 2019 ISR Oldenburg Inspection at Hilltop Farm in Colora MD, Silver Fern Rangiora, handled by Michael Bragdell, was not only top filly but also had the top score of the inspection. She is the product of PMU foal Aurora, who died three months after her birth, and Riverman. She is accompanied by her adoptive mom, Oldenburg mare Cara Mia. Photo credit: Jim Barnes