2012 Arabian Horse Times Most Beautiful Baby Contest Winner
Fontana by Linda White
(pending)
“I didn’t vote for my own horse!” confesses breeder Donna Wright of the flashy youngster who was selected AHT’s Most Beautiful Baby of 2012. “The night he was born I lifted the tail, saw it was a colt, and went back to bed. I haven’t had a colt born for years. I’ve always gotten fillies.” Three weeks later, when photographer Tex Kam saw the foal, his reaction made Wright take another look. “He looked at him and told me, ‘This colt will stand out in anybody’s pasture!’” she says. “So, when he was 5 or 6 weeks old, I got him all slicked up and Tex took the picture I submitted to the Beautiful Baby contest.” Plenty of other people voted for the colt she now calls Fontana (name pending). “He is elegant,” Wright admits. Small wonder: he is the progeny of two national champions. Fontana’s sire, Magnum Chall HVP (Magnum Psyche x Taamara HVP, by Don El Chall), was 2004 U.S. National Champion Junior Stallion 3-5 and 2005 Canadian National Champion Junior Stallion 3-5. The colt’s dam, Fawnette (ATA Bey Starr x Fawgnicks Gold, by WA Fools Gold), was the 2011 Canadian National Champion Arabian Sport Horse Mare. Wright has been breeding and showing Arabian horses for a long time. She bought this colt’s fourth dam, Desert Gayla (*Naborr x Galigay, by Galimar), through Ron Palelek in 1980. “He had a sale here in Alberta,” she says. “I went and looked over the horses, saw this beautiful *Naborr daughter and said to myself, ‘I’m going home with this horse!’ I bought her, trucked her to Arizona the following spring, and bred her to Cognac (*Bask x *Gdynia, by Comet). I got several good foals from her. “The result of the Cognac breeding was a filly I named Fawgnac. She produced 15 foals for me. In 1994, I went to work in Edmonton and sold all my horses except the Cognac daughter and another mare, and boarded them in Grande Prairie. About five years later I saw an ad for WA Fools Gold (Barzik x Bold Brilliance, by *Bask) that Tex Kam owned. I had kept my trailer, so I dropped both mares off at Tex’s, and they both got in foal. Fawgnac had a grey filly, Fawgnicks Gold, in 2000. Fawgnicks Gold was a good, big-bodied mare, but she didn’t have the exotic head I prefer, so in 2004 I bred her to ATA Bey Starr, who was much prettier than she was.” 156 | A R A BI A N HOR SE T I MES
ATA Bey Starr (ATA Echo Bey x Kirscha, by *Fawor) was a 2001 U.S. and Canadian National Top Ten Stallion. In 2003, he followed with U.S. and Canadian National Top Ten Stallion 6 and Over honors. “She produced Fawnette by him in May 2005,” Wright continues. “Fawnette was 2011 Canadian National Champion Arabian Sport Horse Mare with Todd Ehret. I always condition my own horses, and I had conditioned Fawnette. I have always had the horse power. I just didn’t have the money. “Fontana is in Arizona with Sandro Pinha right now, getting ready for Scottsdale. Sandro is really excited to have him down there to market and show.” Wright owns only two horses: half-sisters Fawnette and Fanciful, who is Fawgnicks Gold’s 2009 AD Magnitude foal. This August, Fanciful earned two titles, the 2012 Canadian National Reserve Championships in Arabian Sport Horse Mare and the Arabian Sport Horse Mare ATH with her owner. “I have owned two *Naborr daughters, an *Aladdinn daughter, a *Magnat daughter, a Cognac daughter and a Serinask daughter,” says Wright. “And I hope to be a stiff contender for the Times’ Most Beautiful Baby Contest next year with my ZT Marwteyn filly out of Ginuine, who is out of the same dam as Gitar MF. I might be a small-time breeder, but I always breed to the best and hope for the best. “And I want to extend a very special thanks to my friend and photographer, Tex Kam, for the beautiful photo of Fontana.” n