Celebrating 20 years with American Quarter Horses!

When we look back, the memories fill us with nostalgia, and with pride, because in twenty years we have walked a long and arduous path of learning and working, progressing in every way.
They are also interwoven with disappointments, losses and great sadness.

So do join us on the trip down the memory lane…

On 4/15/2003, we officially became the owners of our first American quarter horse. A palomino mare named Skipster Lucky Pop turned 20 that year. We taught her to drive – yes, even an older horse can be taught something new – and she taught us how to care for an older horse and got us excited about western riding.
She helped Marko realize that in order to have good relationship with a horse, you have to work hard, learn, and improve. And she reliably and patiently carried baby Pia around, no matter the wind, snow, sun, heat or cold.

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The stallion that left a lasting mark in the breeding of American quarter horses in Slovenia and beyond, Snapper MP.
He came to VQH in the fall of 2003, and since his breeder Marjan Skubic let us choose the name, we started a tradition that we still follow today. Every foal we breed has the letters MP at the end of its name, the initials of the names Marko and Pia.

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Let’s rewind to 2006, when our website was registered.
In its seventeen years of operation, it has already undergone several renovations and refreshes; we started in Flash, switched to WordPress, where we edit it to the greatest extent ourselves, and our dear Špela has been taking care of the most demanding interventions and amazing transformations since the day of its creation.

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April 2007. Daisy, nice sorrel filly, came, for a short time, to our place to be trained, and Bine, her owner, got accepted in the family forever. Since then, Bine has also been our official photographer and the only person we dared to trust to take care of our menagerie of animals when we were away from home for a few days.

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In order to better acquaint Slovenian enthusiasts with western riding, which was still in its infancy in Slovenia at the time, we organized several workshops with Mauro Taccia in 2007. Wonderful times and wonderful company.

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A tradition we still follow today. In 2007, we published the first calendar for 2008 and our first VQH flyer.

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In 2010, we got acquainted with the concept of AQHA Horsemanship Camps in Austria and realized that we had to bring the matter to Slovenia as well. Marko gathered knowledge at Long View Ranch in 2010 and 2011. Horsemanship Camps, as we used to know them, were an extraordinary opportunity not only for the participants, but also for students of equine science from the USA. They brought with them knowledge and skills that we only dreamed of, and they took away valuable life experiences and knowledge about, for them, a completely different world. The friendships remained and, as the professors chose their group members deliberately and carefully, we are not surprised to see their careers progressions in the equestrian industry today.

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In 2014, Marko joined the organizing team of the European Championship of American Quarter Horses in Kreuth (Germany) as a volunteer, and the following year (and until 2019) he returned there, together with Eve, as an integral part of the team.

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In 2017 Marko acquires the status of AQHA Professional Horseman and with his motto »True to the Horse, honest with the owner,« begins his professional journey in the equestrian industry.
Despite of numerous clients and pressure of long client waiting list, thus the lack of time for training and competing with his own horses, his personal ethos stays the same: »No gimmicks or special equipment, only commitment to understanding the horse; no salesmanship, just good horsemanship.«

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In 2019, we had the extraordinary honor of working with Texas A&M University. We have been asked to organize a Horsemanship Camp and participants from Slovenia, Croatia and Hungary gathered knowledge with the exceptional TAMU team. Memories for life.

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In 2022, we signed up for the AQHA Quality Samples program. We applied with three mares and all three were accepted, which was a bit unexpected for us and at the same time emotional. In some other times, we tried to make a breakthrough with this program, but the scene was not ready at that time…
All three, Thelma is still by far the best-rated mare in Slovenia, Julia was and always will be Pia’s, and Classy, who, despite the injury she suffered as a foal, has developed into an extremely high-quality and excellently rated mare, are performed excellently at the first insemination with frozen semen and pleased us with healthy foals with exceptional character – what more could we ask for!
The trip down the memory lane came to an end, but at the same time we are going full steam ahead and already at the beginning of next year we’re planning something new again 😉.