And now for the other half of Marqui's pedigree, her sire. And honestly, as I went through the exercise I felt like I was looking at a whole other breed when compared to her dam. It's fascinating how much variation there can be within one breed when they're focused on different goals. They're all recognizably Welsh Cobs but the differences are pretty substantial. Marqui's dam comes from US breeding, as did both of her parents. They were all bred to perform first and foremost. Her sire, on the other hand, is from the UK and from halter based bloodlines. I have experience with how different working Quarter Horses are from their halter focused siblings but I didn't really know that happened with the Welsh Cob.
Taraco Mourinho, aka Mario, is an eleven year old Welsh Cob imported from the UK as a foal by his owner. He was described as scruffy and naughty as a foal, then grew up to be a lovely show horse. She's ridden him and trained him up the levels in dressage and he has great scores right up to Third Level. Rumor has it that he's schooling PSG right now but his owner is focusing on Intermediare with her Lusitano stallion and materiale classes with Kiki's half brother. His inspection noted his uphill tendency in all gaits, excellent type for his breed, being masculine without it being excessive, and for being cooperative at all gaits. He was awarded Premium as a Welsh Cob and is in the Westfalen Stud Book I. As he's ridden by an amateur and I've seen pictures of him trail riding and playing in the ocean, his temperament is definitely part of what sold me on the pairing. Those that have met him describe him as very level headed but with a cob sense of humor.
Marqui is Mario's first purebred Welsh Cob foal. Before her, he'd been crossed with WB mares with great success. His filly Mata Hari was the #1 KDR in the Westfalen inspection tour 2021.
Mario is an import from the Taraco Stud and his breeding was not performance focused. The Taraco stud is more focused on color and breed show performance. The did start producing partbreds aimed at the dressage market in 2020 but the cob program is focused on buckskins and palominos that do well at Welsh shows. Genetically speaking, Mario was supposed to be a buckskin or a palomino or even a double dilute with a smoky cream (homozygous dilute) dam and buckskin (heterozygous dilute) sire. Naughty, naughty Mario from day one.
Mario's sire was Danaway Flash Jack. Flash Jack was a multiple time champion at the Royal Welsh show as a colt and as a stallion and is a popular stallion in the UK for the halter breeders.
Mario's granddam on the sire's side was Trevallion April. She's a bit of a chunky monkey but was also a champion at the Welsh breed shows in the UK. Little butt high but not like Danaway Flash Jack.
Hard to tell much about her from this angle but super sweet face, I think Mario got his expression from his mother. He also seems to have gotten more from his dam's side than his sire's side when you look back one more generation. Rockset's sire was Paith Magical Meredith. The bottom of his pedigree is mostly Paith. Comparing Mario to his grand sire Meredith, there's more than a bit of family resemblance.
Given his parents, smoky black Mario must have been a disappointment for the breeder. He's definitely a dilute but he's not palomino or buckskin. Instead he's the perfect coloring and markings to be a dressage horse. Marqui does seem to have taken after her dam more than her sire (not a shocker from what I'm learning) but you can see her father in her longer neck and her expression when I get side eye.
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