In my oldest daughter's quest to begin breeding she used some money that both her aunts gave her for her birthday.  In honor of that she named the first purchase, a sow, Mary Mary.  Our second purchase was a boar for her that she soon named Felix.  Little did we know how we would set the foundation for our caviary in our long hairs from this simple cross.  Knowing we had outstanding American Broken stock with years of heritage made us wonder if we could build that in the Silkies. 

 

Now Mary Mary was a nicely built Red/White Silkie whom we did breed to FFF's Hershey's Hugs one time.  The offspring were two boars named Mystery and Midnight.  Mystery stayed on with us and developed a nice line himself with absolute no faults.  He had his Mama's build and super sweet personality.  Felix came into the scene later and we also bred him to another sow named FFF's Cinnamon with a couple of very nice babies including Rainbow colors and satins.  Some of those made it into our foundation as well.  But it was the one litter (yes just one) that was the most important.  When we crossed Mary Mary with Felix, a litter of 3 boars and 1 sow was born. 

 

The foundation litter was named after some famous horses in their own right...and a famous toy.  After all, this was the responsibility of a young horsewoman who was also a kid!  The boars were as follow: TSW= Cowgirl's Lightening Bar; Golden Agouti/White= Cowgirl's Cowboy; Red/White= Cowgirl's Peppy San; and of course the Toy of the bunch and by far the most playful the sow: Golden Agouti/Red/White= Cowgirl's Sparkleworks.  "Sparkie" as we called her never left our caviary.  She was coated and shown and resided in honor in a cage in the house.  We sold Lightening Bar and Peppy San.  After coating and showing and even off to another youth and back, Cowboy finally retired to help build another foundation in Keepsake Caviary.  He had won some wonderful shows and was a ham who begged for attention.  Cowboy was most noted for one incrediably thick coat. Last we heard Cowboy moved on to another caviary in Colorado and now and then we get wind of offspring out there.  Lightening Bar changed hands a couple of times and sadlly no offspring ever became what it could have.  Peppy San who was nicknamed "Jose" stayed with Susan of Platinum Pig Caviary for a long time.  Jose was a more serious boar, but very laid back and with a set of wide shoulders not easily able to beat.  He produced some fantastic offspring for Susan and even got to come home and refresh some of our herd during his lifetime.  There was a magical cross for Susan as well and Jose was half.  He is responsible for the incrediable Sillkie Satin Himalayan Line that is known now at Platinum Pig Caviary in his son PPC's Hemingway.  To date, Jose is alive and well although retired at the age of 7 years old.  I think his calm disposition has allowed him a happy long life beyond his sibblings.

 

Sparkie won a good list of acheivements on the show table.  Once retired to the breeding pens she produced incrediable type in her babies.  Some of her noteable offspring include: Cowgirl's Half n Half a Sparkle, Cowgirl's Gabriel, Cowgirl's Electric June Bug, Cowgirl's Sparks New Image, and Cowgirl's Paigeworks. 

 

The best part of this original foundation cross was the lack of faults.  When bred closely, linebred, or even inbred we have yet to produce coat or confirmational faults.  Now when outcrossed we had to be careful as faults would pop up from outside lines.  So as much as refreshing blood is thought of as good, we have bred closely to this line for the good of our caviaries health. 

 

Below are some pictures of the cavies in this story.  And some of their offspring.  I hope this will help in anyone looking and interested in pedigrees. If I knew what I do now, I am not so sure any of these babies would have made it beyond our immediate caviary and Platinum Pig's caviary.  However, it is nice to see their lineage live on and help build foundations in other caviaries.