Ben and Jaye Hall have a selection of highly performed broodmares which would be the envy of most campdraft enthusiasts. They breed up to twenty-five foals per year and the majority of these are home bred to their resident sires.
There are two reasons for this. Firstly, geography dictates how Jaye needs to make things happen. Being so isolated it would be time consuming and impractical to relocate mares and foals to breeding centres and A.I. programs are equally difficult because of isolation. Secondly, their home sire for the last fifteen years, Daleys Playrio, is producing progeny that are first class and are competing at an elite level week after week.
The oldest of the Playrio mares are now moving into the broodmare band and this has created a need for a new home sire. Ben and Jaye have been considering this problem of replacing Playrio for the last couple of years and the need to either buy a new sire or breed one has been discussed. So, with this in mind they have bred a couple of foals out of mares they consider to be exceptional, but not closely related to Playrio and by outside stallions.
Halls According is one of these foals. He is out of Daleys Bling, a homebred mare who is from Jaye’s mother’s mare line and by Conman. Bling was an exceptional mare herself winning a Maiden and two Novice Drafts before she lost an eye in a paddock accident. Unfortunately, she was retired from competition before she was able to show her true ability to the outside world. Being very distantly related to Playrio they felt she would be a good prospective mother of a new homebred sire and with this in mind she was sent to Acres Destiny.
Ben broke According in and took him mustering to do the big hours and the long miles and Jaye was happy when he passed Ben’s test. He was great to work with, he has good feet and legs, is a good size and was showing plenty of ability so the decision to try him as a sire with some Playrio mares was made. He now has two foal crops on the ground and Jaye is quite excited with them. They are solid foals, and show good temperament and type. She is also very practical and says we will certainly see how good he is soon as he has had several of their good Open mares joined to him.
According has only been lightly shown with Ben taking him to the Cloncurry Challenge finishing 2nd in this prestigious event. From there the future looks extremely bright as he will receive every opportunity with Ben and Jaye and we all look forward to seeing him on the big stage in years to come.
