By KRISTINA LOTZ
A tragic turn of fate, a premature foal, and a lifelong passion led to the creation of something unique for Ashley Adler. She was your typical horse-crazy girl whose parents couldn’t afford to own a horse, so she rode every chance she got, taking lessons and hitting the trails with her two best friends, Lindsay and Nicole. After graduating college, Nicole tragically passed away in a car accident. Her parents left Ashley her friend’s beloved mare, Ella.
When Lindsay was breeding her mare, Adler decided to breed Ella, too. It was a decision that changed the course of her entire life.
“Ella was a Thoroughbred cross, and looking back, and having the knowledge I do now, I would have never bred her,” Adler tells The Plaid Horse. “We didn’t know her pedigree, she had terrible conformation, and her mind just wasn’t super sound.”
The foal was named Olivia, born three weeks premature. She was a dummy foal, a nightmare for a first-time mare breeder and owner.
“It was early February, so it was freezing cold, and she had to be rushed to the University of Georgia’s vet school,” says Adler. “She was there for three weeks.”
In the first four days of her life, Olivia’s bladder ruptured and she had to have surgery. Adler got to watch. The foal was also in a coma for part of the three weeks. She had to learn to walk along with other basic functions. When she came home, she was raised as an orphan because her dam rejected her.
“Ella was a maiden and never had the chance to connect with Olivia at birth since it was such an emergency situation,” says Adler. The foal was formula-fed around the clock, and when she was older, Adler taught her how to eat grain.
“I literally was eating grain out of a bowl to show her how to do it,” she recalls with a laugh. “She never turned into the fancy show horse that I was hoping for, but she is my total heart horse. And she led me down a whole other path of horse ownership.”
A Passion for Foals
While Olivia’s birth hadn’t been an easy one, it taught Adler a lot, especially about proper foal development and training.
“She was neurotic,” Ashley says of Olivia’s dam, Ella. “She was not always fun to ride. And back then, I thought, ‘Oh, breed her to a nice quiet stallion, I will get a nice baby.’ What a lot of people don’t realize is that so much of breeding is the mare. It’s not just the stallion. So, if you have a good mare with solid foundations, good pedigrees, it’s hard to screw up from there when using a reputable stallion.”
Those early lessons in breeding were the foundation on which Adler built Oasis, her 80-acre facility in Cumming, GA, that specializes in breeding and foal raising. She has clients all over the East Coast—from Massachusetts to Florida—that board their young warmbloods at her farm.
“Overall, it’s hard to find a barn that will take weanlings and young horses,” Adler says, “because they want the space for full training show horses. And that totally makes sense to me.”
But she loves raising foals. “I find so much joy in developing the young because they are genuinely curious, innocent and impressionable. If you raise them right, handle them right, give them their first experiences correctly, they grow up to be such well-behaved, solid citizens and that, to me, is incredibly rewarding.”
Oasis—named for the “O” in Olivia and “A” in Ashley—has a 60-acre turnout for the broodmares, an arena, and smaller paddocks for the younger foals before they go out into the bigger turnout. Adler also takes in retired horses and helps clients with end-of-life situations.
Growing Up At Oasis
Young horses are not just boarded at Oasis. Adler ensures each young horse gets age-appropriate training as well as the correct environment for healthy growth and development, starting with being turned out as much as possible.
“My preference is 24/7 turnout for the babies,” she says. “They can come into stalls to eat if the owner desires and have that handling of being led to a stall, or come into a run with a shed, but I think people miss out on crucial developmental years by keeping babies in stalls. The horse’s body is meant to move. People want to bubble wrap their horses, but I think bubble wrapping them at an early age creates a self-fulfilling prophecy: they will need to be bubble-wrapped the rest of their lives. There is a lot of research and data that really speaks to the benefits of developing horses getting ample turnout.”
She notes that most of these horses are destined to be show horses, spending a lot of their life in stalls, so why not let them have freedom while they can? The experience, she adds, helps them to strengthen muscles and joints, explore the world, and gain confidence. The result is longevity and a sounder mind.
Along with plenty of turnout, Adler handles each foal, including training that starts when they are still at the dam’s side. While with their dam, foals learn to wear a halter and to be led, how to load in a trailer, and how to be tied.
“We put mom in the crossties and foals on a safety release tie right there with them,” says Adler. “Mom is relaxed, baby is relaxed. They can learn the importance of being patient so that when we do it later without mom, it’s no big deal. They take it in stride.”
Young horses also learn to have their feet picked up and be respectful for farrier visits. Grooming, blankets, baths and clipping are also on the list. Once weaned, they continue their education, like taking individual walks around the property so they can learn to be confident alone and get exposed to new things. When they aren’t learning big horse stuff, they get to run and play with each other. It’s like summer camp for foals.
As for Olivia, who turns 13 in February, she is the world’s best babysitter. “When I wean the mares and foals, I put some of the foals with her,” Adler says. “It’s hilarious because she never had a mother figure, but she is such a good babysitter. She is not mean to them, but teaches them manners and personal space. Everything a young horse needs to have from an equine socialization standpoint.”
Some Color for the Hunters: Kiss of Gold-J
Recently, Adler added a splash of color to her warmblood breeding program in the form of a palomino stallion named Kiss of Gold-J. Sired by Burberry-9 out of Kora, Kiss of Gold-J wasn’t something Adler had planned on, but she instantly fell in love.
“His owner posted photos of him on Facebook and I messaged her to see if he was for sale,” says Adler. “She said he wasn’t for sale. I asked her if he could be for sale. She said maybe…and that was it.”
Adler flew to Poland to meet her new horse. He was everything she was hoping for.
“His temperament is perfect,” she says. “He’s like a puppy dog in horse form. I opened his stall door to meet him and he came up and nuzzled my cheek, as if he was greeting me with a kiss. He is calm and sweet, just like a respectable stallion should be.”
Adler is a firm believer that if a stallion doesn’t act like a gelding behaviorally, he should be a gelding. There is too much risk in maintaining an aggressive stallion. Kiss of Gold-J doesn’t just have a great temperament; he is also a beautiful mover. “He moves like a hunter should, with that beautiful trot and those perfect knees over fences” she says.
Kiss of Gold-J is currently in training in the Netherlands, where he will focus on his early show career before coming to the United States. Adler is excited to see him grow in the show ring. “His color is going to make him really stand out,” she says. “Most hunters seem to be bay or chestnut. It will be awesome to bring some color into the hunter ring.”
Currently, Adler has frozen semen in Europe and in the United States. To inquire about space at Oasis for your mare or young horse or breeding Kiss of Gold-J, contact Adler on her website oasissporthorses.com.
