Beaute Is Big, Black, Beautiful
The black stallion is alive and well and living in San Juan Capistrano.
He may not be the black stallion of legend, but Beaute is a legend in his own right among breeders and aficionados of Trakehners. The warmblood breed from Germany, known for its willing temperament and floating trot, is generally used in the Olympic disciplines of dressage and eventing.
A 17-hand black beauty, Beaute is standing to a limited book of mares at Classic Crest Performance Farms, where the breeding season got under way this month.
Gary and Kim Tulypan, who bought Beaute in 1986, say the 23-year-old stallion will live out his life with them.
“We love this guy,” says Gary Tulypan, stroking the horse on the neck. “He’s our breeding stallion, but he’s also my riding personal horse. I take him out on the trails as often as I can.”
Beaute is considered a foundation sire of the Trakehner breed in North America. His lineage reads like a Who’s Who in the Trakehner world and includes such notables as Totilas, Handschelle, Humboldt and the legendary stallions Buzzard and Pythagoras.
Beaute has produced hundreds of offspring across the United States and in Canada, where he was born. Because he spent most of his life on breeding farms on the East Coast and in Texas, few of his offspring are on the West Coast.
One “Beau baby,” as Tulypan calls his stallion’s offspring, is stabled on the same property with Beaute in San Juan Capistrano. The 4-year-old Anglo-Trakehner gelding, who looks like Beaute but is a dark bay, is competing at first-level dressage.
The Tulypans also own several thoroughbred brood mares, two of which have been bred to Beaute. One foaled in February; the other is due later this season. The couple recently purchased a purebred Trakehner filly, Porsha, who is approved for breeding by the American Trakehner Assn. She will be bred to Beaute when she matures.
Adolar, one of the two ATA-approved breeding sons Beaute has produced, stands in Corona on the farm where the Tulypans board their other horses. Because Adolar is 16.1 hands, Tulypan sometimes refers mare owners to him if he thinks their mare’s size is incompatible with Beaute’s hefty, 1,600-pound frame.
“My goal is to own three Trakehner stallions that are at different ends of the spectrum, “ he says. “That way I can offer the mare owner a wider selection and the opportunity to breed for the desired characteristics.”
Beaute often throws his trademarks--large size, quiet temperament and smooth gaits--to his foals. Many also end up with the same white star he has on his forehead and one or two of his white socks. The primary colors he throws are black and chestnut, but Tulypan says he can’t guarantee specific results.
The inexact science of breeding, he says, is “almost a moment-by-moment thing” that depends upon the time of conception. “If you breed the same mare and stallion today, you’re going to get a different foal than if you breed them tomorrow. You’re really rolling the dice when you breed,” he says.
The best way to get the kind of foal you want, he says, is to study a stallion’s bloodlines.
“You’ll come closer to getting what you want with paper work (pedigree),” he says. “Unfortunately, because it takes years for a foal to mature and be trained, you don’t get to see the offspring perform until the stallion is middle-aged or elderly.”
While the stallion’s background and characteristics are important, Tulypan cautions that they should not overshadow the mare.
“You don’t want to clone a stallion over and over again,” he says. “People bring a mare to breed to your stallion because they love her. You want to see some of the mare in the foal too.”
Beaute’s stud fee is $1,450, which includes a live foal guarantee. (If the foal is not born alive, the mare owner may breed back to Beaute.) For more information, call (714) 458-6434 or write: Classic Crest Performance Farm, P.O. Box 10333, Newport Beach, 92658.
Darlene Sordillo, an author of two books on horses and a former breeder of Trakehner horses, covers equestrian events for The Times. Her column appears every Saturday. Readers may send horse-related news to her at: Orange County Life, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa 92626.