Our Story

“The spotty addiction started when I was 14. I started working for an Appaloosa Sporthorse breeding program close to my house. Spending all my hours out of school learning every single thing I could; from old school cowboy tales to reading every piece of equine color genetics research UC Davis published.

There was an opportunity to work with an orphaned foal in 2015, that then imprinted on me. Of course it was a black leopard Knabstrupper x Appaloosa filly. I will never forget the nights of bucket feeding this filly then snuggling under a blanket together with her when she slept. This introduced me the magic of the relationship you can have with horses from a very young age.

I continued my passion by moving from the Bay Area in California to Lexington, KY. If I was going to chase the horse dream, I figured there wasn’t a better place than the horse capital of the world.

I worked at a Dutch Harness breeding farm and training facility which threw me in the trenches of herd management and young horse training. I worked with a herd of about 40 horses including mature stallions, broodmares, stud colts, yearlings and foals. So I learned a lot by doing, but I didn’t own a horse until 2019.

I found a Facebook post of a black leopard filly that I just couldn’t get out of my head, so I messaged the breeder. I knew from the moment I saw Gale (Nightingale OHF) in person that she was the one. Being fresh out of college and in a sales role, I didn’t really have the budget for a colored warmblood cross. But the breeder believed in my mission and gave me a generous deal on the filly.

I developed Gale in dressage for a few years before I could bred Gale to Epic Eastwood. I chose this stallion for a few reasons. I do enjoy gambling on young stallions with cool bloodlines. Epic Eastwood is by Escolar. Escolar has sired quite a few stallions who have also thrown some fancy moving foals. Epic Eastwood is also homozygous black which I wanted at the time as well.

I was lucky enough to get a bay leopard colt out of that cross who I named Epic Leopard. We call him Joe, after ‘Joe Exotic, the Tiger King.’ My husband likes to use the quote, ‘I’ll never financially recover from this.’ I’m afraid he’s right. Joe has always had that sparkle in addition to floating when he moves. I’m really excited to keep developing him and just enjoying the ride.

I networked with some other Warmblood breeders in New England to come show groom for their breed show circuit which has really helped me grow as a breeder. I get to work with a wide variety of bloodlines which has given me first hand data/opinions of what certain sire and damlines produce. It has been incredible to continue to grow and learn from so many incredible breeders.

My goal is to breed quality warmbloods with a leopard coat. It is so fun to be spotted!”

-Gabbi McErlean