When it comes to making an impact on the Ontario Quarter Horse breed you don’t have to look much further than Black Moons Arising. Now 20-years-old and in semi-retirement from stallion duty, Black Moons Arising, or ‘Magic’ as he is affectionately known, is the horse that changed the life of René and Darlene Hunderup.
The Hunderups operate Heste Sport Inc. which races and breeders Quarter Horses raised on their King City, ON farm. The farm is called Norse Ridge, and is also a full Thoroughbred facility.
But it was Black Moons rising, a gorgeous, almost jet-black stud, who was been the couple’s bread and butter for more than a decade.
René Hunderup vividly remembers the first time he laid eyes on the stallion at a 2-year-old sale at Heritage Place in Oklahoma in 1997.
“He was the first horse ever in my life that I looked at and said ‘I have to have that horse’,” said Hunderup. “I was looking for a racehorse and possible stallion prospect and he was just the most perfect horse I had seen.”
The colt was by the World Champion racehorse First Down Dash who was even more notable in the stud as a sire of multiple champions and superior runners.
“It didn’t matter to me {how much he was going to sell for}. My wife was kicking me and I kept bidding, I think we finally got him for about $55,000.”
Black Moons Arising raced from age two through six for the Hunderups, winning four of 22 starts and placing in five others including a stakes race. He entered stud in 1999 and began a pedigree-line that you find in dozens of horses racing at Ajax Downs today.
His leading runners have included Canadian Hi-Point Aged Gelding and AQHA Superior Race Horse Rising Up the Charts, a 14-time winner of over $220,000, Canadian Hi-Point Aged Mare and AQHA Superior Race Horse Touched by the Moon, who won 20 races and over $170,000 and the promising stud Look at Magics Form, a Canada Hi-Point Stallion. In 2012, Black Moons Arising’s progeny earned over $1 million.
“He has been the best stallion for Ontario for many years and sired lots of winners,” said Hunderup. “He has sired a lot of top barrel racers too.”
Hunderup credits the stallion for the family’s five Canadian Breeder of the Year Awards and six Ontario Leading Quarter Horse Breeder Awards.
“He’s living a good life at the farm these days,” said Hunderup. “He is still siring foals and I still hear from other horsepeople that they are really excited about the young ones they have by him coming up this year and next year.”
(Photo below - The Hunderups)
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