by Emil Romando Jr.
E-Mail: eromando@taconic.net

from Hudson Valley Magazine, May 1998

Every new enterprise requires a first step to transform dreams and aspirations into reality. With horse breeding, this first step starts with the soil. Soil, climate and available water supply work in conjunction to produce the favorable conditions necessary for a successful farming enterprise.

In the Hudson Valley, an area framed by the royal enclosure of the western foothills of New England and the eastern highlands of New York with the celebrity of its dark polished river splitting the heart of its pastoral image, the patiently expressive high ridges, distant views and lowlands combine with water gardens of lakes, swamps and streams to offer vivid impressions of a diversified topography shaped by glacial recession some 14,000 years ago. There is an abundance of fertile farmland among this panoramic land mass suitable for the breeding and raising of Thoroughbred racehorses. Its native pastures contain many desirable grasses, especially bluegrass and white clover. Warm humid summers alternate with dramatic episodes of cold snowy winters. Seasonal changes provide adequate rainfall which is well distributed and provides for the systematic renewal of pastureland. Prevailing winds are swept from high promontories of mountains and through the undulating rifts of soft hills and kames.

From the weight of tons of ice that crushed and shifted rock from glacial action, deposits of rock laden material crumbled into the mixture of soils prevalent in the valley today. A layered mantle of sand, silt, glacial outwash and clay accumulated in varying depths as the tremendous force of the icemelt water slowed and receded. This freshly renovative landscape formed soil profiles as the structure and consistence of this bedrock material differentiated sedimentary nutrients and organic matter. Hudson Valley soils are rooted in the strong tradition and slackened pace of small scale farming and animal husbandry. A profound sense of place reposes in the testimony of previous cultivation. With the introduction of horse breeding, the swirl of imagination has expanded upon this heritage scribbled and sketched on the farms throughout the region. These green fields of pride and passion rank high in productive granular composition of the soil. There are numerous soil types throughout the valley all classified by county soil conservation departments. Soil conservation agents can help sort out the productive value and management requirements of land conductive for horse farming activities.

Soils essential for the development of young stock and nursing mares are the well drained or moderately well drained associations of glacial till or alluvial fan aggregates. Lacustrine or lake-laid deposits of very fine soil adjacent to the Hudson River also provide excellent grazing pastures. Pastures that integrate grasses and legumes support prolific yields during the growing season. In addition to native bluegrass, smooth bromegrass, timothy and orchardgrass are high protein food sources for horses. Wild white or ladino white clover along with red clover and Empire birdsfoot trefoil are persistent warm weather forages and offer the advantage of holding nitrogen in their root structures. In most cases, the physical condition of soil can be improved with top dressing of dolomitic limestone which enhances soil Ph and encourages the growth of good solid bone in horses.

Fortunes are tied to the quality of the land and the Thoroughbreds which illuminate that land with the spirit of three hundred years of their own history. The poignant simplicity of an ancestral landscape is now marked by the harmonious welcome of a sensitive, evocative and striking animal. The Thoroughbred has the power to convert an ordinary piece of land into the best of all possible worlds from which we can draw a fascinating picture of our own reactions.