Cypress Creek's Steeplechasing Shetlands

[Cypress Creek Elites]

I've decided that I will eventually give these shetlands a name. They're no longer recognizable as the conventional AC shets- they might as well not even be of the same breed!
I'm planning to name them Cascade Range Shetlands (if custom breeds ever happen)- the Cascade range is one of the major ranges in Oregon, where I'm from/live (and I singlehandedly developed these shets, so they may as well be named after my birth state).

Here's my plan.
When I finally get GP where I want it, I'll start freezing foals until I have a pretty good amount of fillies and colts, and age out the older horses.
Then, I'll name the studs after Oregon rivers and creeks. The mares can have other names.
Foals will be named as follows: "____ River's" or "____ Creek's" _____
Example:
Sire: Rock Creek
Dam: Mayflower
Foal: Rock Creek's Flower Field, Rock Creek's Sunken Ship, etc.

Future generations will keep track of the sire's sire. I'll avoid breeding horses from the same tail sire together at all costs- probably won't have the same issue with dams, because I tend to end up with more usable mares than studs anyways xD

Potential Stud Name List:
Willow Creek
Rock Creek
Succor Creek
Rattlesnake Creek
Columbia River
Willamette River
Snake River
Grande Ronde
Crooked River
Nehalem River
Silvies River
Burnt River
Sycan River
Imnaha River
Siletz River
Lost River
Yaquina River
Sandy River
Nestucca River

[Cypress Creek Elites]

Well, I didn't intend to go to Very Light, but I did just pop a filly who IS Very Light, so I thought I'd show her off.
How did we get to here:



From here?



(still no greens though. it's getting really annoying.)

[Cypress Creek Elites]

failure

[Cypress Creek Elites]

Within his first day of testing, Golden Hour has scored under 11 minutes in SC. Still almost a full minute away from my goal- but it's a lot of progress!
Golden Hour

[Cypress Creek Elites]

I've tested a few more horses since last posting and I'm pleased to say that we are slowly edging under 10:50.

Also, my most recent studs have been popping out colts with the highest GPs around 56-57K, and I'm finally starting to get regular 50+ speed in foals! I've kind of resigned myself to what happened when I did my Karabair program- no speed comments till the confo gets really high ;-;

[Cypress Creek Elites]

I bred my first green stamina AND green speed tonight! Very excited to see how they produce once they age up. Will link later, too lazy right now.
I was honestly a bit shocked by both- I had pretty much given up on getting greens until I broke 60 speed (which is how it went with my movement project), so I'm very happy to have not needed to wait that long. The stud that did get the green does have Lp, but he has a blanket so hopefully I'll be able to still weed out his children pretty easily.

[Cypress Creek Elites]

Progress:
To date, I have bred four total colts with green speed comments.
Two of them were bred today- all four are under the better GP I was working with (one of them significantly so, as he was sub 50K and my best studs are around 57K).
I will not be tossing any of them for the time being, but I am planning on freezing the lowest GP one once he reaches breeding age, and then using him the next time I add fresh blood into my lines, since is COI is relatively low at <99% (this is a highly inbred project).

[Cypress Creek Elites]

well, that was unexpected


My best mare by easily 2K GP. I'm excited to see what her conformation scores look like.

[Cypress Creek Elites]

This little man is not the first >50 speed or 57K+ GP foal I've bred, but he's the first horse to have both of those (and not be lp!) so I'm training him.
He's got a pretty decent stat spread, so it'll be nice to see where he lands compared to the last horses I bothered to train.

[Cypress Creek Elites]

another 56K+ filly!

this is really exciting! it's been ages since I've really felt like I was making headway on the GP side of things.