BREYER Releases GG Valentine & Heartbreaker Model Horses

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GG Valentine and Heartbreaker. Photos: BREYER and Courtesy of the Client

Buffalo, NY – December 16, 2010 – Legendary mare GG Valentine has done it again.  This time not in the show ring, as she was retired from showing in 2007, but as a mother after having another legendary baby. Due to her incredible success both as a championship hunter and a fantastic broodmare, BREYER has released a new model horse of GG Valentine with the colt Heartbreaker. GG Valentine and her rider Jennifer Alfano were one of the leading hunter combinations in the nation from 2001 to 2007. In 2007 at the Devon Horse Show, GG Valentine was retired in a special ceremony, accompanied by Alfano, owner Barbara Kearney, and trainers Susie Schoellkopf, Emil Spadone and Sharon O’Neill.

GG Valentine’s third foal was born in February of 2010 and will be shown under the name Heartbreaker. The beautiful weanling is by Oh Star, a 2000 U.S. Olympic show jumping team alternate ridden by Todd Minikus. “The birth went perfectly,” noted Kearney. “GG was a perfect mother and he was full of himself for the first six months. He really enjoyed running around the field carrying his feed pale and learning to be a horse.” This is incredible mare and foal duo can now be yours by purchasing the replica BREYER horse and foal model at any local tack store or at www.breyerhorses.com.

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In addition to Heartbreaker, GG Valentine is the mother of two coming three-year-olds by Popeye K, Arrow and Romance. Mindy Bower has been working with Heartbreaker’s siblings since their arrival in Colorado as weanlings. They are making fantastic progress with Bower and she will soon begin a relationship with Heartbreaker. Bower has been breaking colts for over 30 years and in recent years she has been featured in natural horsemanship training sessions for the USHJA’s Emerging Athletes Program. When Bower feels they are ready, the horses will travel to SBS Farms in New York to train with Schoellkopf and Alfano, with the hope that they will be just as successful in the show ring as their mother. Although there are no further plans to breed GG Valentine, the talented mare is happily enjoying retirement at Kearney’s Valentine Farm in Norwood, Colorado.

GG Valentine started her career with an unbelievable winning streak in the First Year Green Working Hunters, where she won the championship at the Devon Horse Show, the Washington International Horse Show and the National Horse Show at Madison Square Garden, and she was named the USEF Horse of the Year in the First Years.

In 2002, GG Valentine was the Second Year Green Working Hunter and Grand Green Working Hunter champion at the Pennsylvania National Horse Show. She repeated success at the prestigious horse show when she was the Regular Working Hunter champion in 2003 and 2004. The Regular Working Hunter championship came again in 2003 and 2004, this time at the Syracuse Invitational Sporthorse Tournament.

During the 2006 Devon Horse Show, GG won the handy hunter class and was named the Best Mare in the Hunter Division and was awarded the Bunty Sellers Perpetual Trophy. She picked up numerous championships throughout her career, including at the HITS Ocala Winter Circuit, Saratoga, St. Christopher’s, Atlanta, Chagrin Valley, Saugerties, Kentucky and Buffalo.

A team of people for GG helped make everything happen, including Kearney, Alfano, Schoellkopf, Dr. Steele, DJ Johnson, and her grooms: Steve Young and Jake Marriott.

For more information on SBS Farms and the Buffalo Therapeutic Riding Center, please visit www.thebtrc.org.

Media Contact: Mason Phelps
Phelps Media Group, Inc. International
phone 561.753.3389  fax 561.753.3386
pmginfo@phelpsmediagroup.com

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