When Don and Lisa Camacho met, each was already involved with horses. Lisa had grown up with horses and enjoyed English performance horses with a penchant for Half-Arabians and American Saddlebreds. Don enjoyed purebred Arabian horses and his focus was on breeding and halter competition. When they joined forces, they were able to find common ground and also maintain their individuality.

Don and Lisa have busy careers and an active family. Their daughter Katie is a very accomplished rider. For example, in 2010 she was unanimous NSH English Pleasure Equitation Champion and she also has big plans to show halter in the future. Whatever the Camacho family does – they do it well or not at all. They share a commitment to excellence and that is reflected in their horses and breeding program. Lisa candidly remarked, “The horses are our hobby. We don’t have unlimited resources and that dictates that we keep our numbers small. We are definitely into quality, not quantity. We made a conscience choice to keep things small and simple, we want to enjoy our horses. Our focus is on breeding the most beautiful purebred Arabian horses possible.”

The foundation of every successful breeding program is established with the mares. It was a principle used by the ancient Bedouins and it remains the same today. Lisa explained how she and Don acquired their own very special foundation mare, “In 2001 Don visited Geneva Arabians in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. While he was there, he saw a filly that stopped him in his tracks. Her name was Major Love Affair (DS Major Afire x HL Infactuation). The filly was all Don could talk about for weeks. Finally I told him, “Please, just go buy her!” and he did. Although she was really lovely and had a great pedigree, we had no idea how great she would be as show horse or as a broodmare – horses don’t come with that kind of guarantee. We had several offers for her, but Don loves her so much we could never sell her. As it turned out, she has given us more than we could ever dream of. She is just an awesome mare.

We tried to be very careful in selecting a stallion for Major Love Affair. We bred her to a couple of stallions and decided we really liked her foals by Magnum Chall HVP. She had a colt and also a filly by him and we decided to try that cross again – the third time was a charm. In 2008 Major Love Affair had a colt and right from the start there was something different about him – something special. We named him El Chall WR. It seems that Major Love Affair’s fillies are very good, but her colts are great! El Chall was a very good colt and he just kept getting better. When I would take him out to work with him, I could not believe what I saw – it was greatness. It was a difficult decision, but we sold El Chall. We are very proud of all of his show ring accomplishments, but I think there is the potential for him to be truly great sire – I believe that is his destiny.

If we were to give some advice to other small breeders we say; don’t own a stallion – there are too many really good ones out there. It takes a tremendous amount of resources – time and money – to properly care for a stallion. Instead, invest whatever you can afford in to a really great mare – a proven producer if possible – and then breed up. Use the best stallion you can afford and again – study their offspring to see what they are producing – don’t decide on a stallion purely on their show record. If you can, go to Scottsdale and watch the first classes for the yearlings and see who are their sires. It’s a great way to see a lot of horses and how stallions are producing. And have fun with your horses!

I think Don and I are proof that small breeders can be good breeders. We are very excited for El Chall’s owners, Dixie and Robert North. We trust they will guide his career and provide every opportunity for him to achieve all he can. We retained breedings to El Chall and when the time comes we will select a very special mare for him. Hopefully we’ll find a mare as great as his dam, Major Love Affair, and produce another little super star. That’s our goal, to continue to breed the next generation of beautiful Arabian horses.