Truffles & Donatello
100% Santa Cruz Island Stallions
Now breeding at EL CAMPEON FARMS’ facility at
WINDY HILL RANCH, located in Hidden Valley, Thousand Oaks, CA.
The Santa Cruz Island Horse is a very rare pure descendant of the Colonial Spanish horses imported from Spain to North America by Conquistadors in the 18th & 19th Centuries.
A very small number (15) of the descendants of the herds originally taken to Santa Cruz Island were left on the island after ranching ended in 1980, and thrived as wild or feral horses until the Nature Conservancy removed them in the early 1990’s to “protect the indigenous plant species.”
Careful breeding by Christina and Troy Nooner at the Sunshine Sanctuary for Kids & Horses, in Los Molinos, CA, with the dedicated academic research and advice from renowned equine veterinarian and geneticist, Dr. Phillip Sponenberg, can be credited with saving this beautiful breed from extinction.
The Livestock Conservancy keeps registration/breeding records, which are invaluable in the effort to rescue this gentle breed and preserve a very important genetic history of the Colonial Spanish horse. The Livestock Conservancy’s Technical Director, Jeannette Beranger, has extensively documented the history of the Santa Cruz Island Horse and her personal interest has been invaluable. The population is growing and it is estimated that 35 mares and stallions capable of breeding (out of a total of approx. 60) now exist in the United States. No others are known to exist in Spain or anywhere else in the world.
EL CAMPEON FARMS is proud to be a Breed Steward and assist in this important effort with a foundation herd of 6 beautiful mares: Ixchelle, Mystica, ChaCha, Carmela and Coleta; two handsome stallions: Truffles and Donatello; and the frozen semen we successfully collected in 2014 from a magnificent stallion named Gus. Mares are expecting first foals in July 2015!
EL CAMPEON FARMS is also training four geldings, Cochise, Prancer and Monterey, in the original riding style of the Californio Vaqueros, to be breed ambassadors and show their beauty and abilities to the public.
It can be said that the Santa Cruz Island strain of the Colonial Spanish breeds is as close as we may get to a pure California Native Horse.
Contact: santacruzislandhorse@elcampeonfarms.com
or Christy Reich (manager): creich@elcampeonfarms.com
