Our 120 acre farm in Southwest Iowa has been in our family since the late 1880's.  Rod and Mike's late grandfather, Delmer Bell, was born on the farm in February of 1900 and he passed away in June of 2000.  Delmer was very diversified on the farm caring for his dairy, beef cattle, horses, hogs, as well as his crop land.  Delmer lived on the farm and still chored twice a day until he retired from the farm in 1985.

    Bellevue Farm Classic Shetlands has been in the business of breeding and selling Classic Shetland ponies since 1995.  We started in the business with Eldon attending area pony sales after his retirement from 38 years of teaching math and coaching football and track.  In 1997 Rod and Mike made it a family business by joining Eldon in the pony business.  Rod was doing a lot of the chores as our herd size was increasing, so he figured he might as well have a say in what he was feeding.  Rod has always had a very good eye for quality stock and has a lot of input in our breeding program.  Mike got started in the business by starting the Bellevue Farm web site.  Our site has increased in size each year and we want to make your visit to our farm over the internet as informative and helpful as possible.

    In 1996, Eldon was at a pony sale and made the acquaintance of Vern Benna.  The two became quick friends and the rest is history.  Before meeting Vern, Eldon had bought a little of everything in terms of breeding.  It was after several visits and chats with Vern, that Eldon decided to pursue more of breeding program.  Eldon bought several mares and yearlings from Vern from the Cody and Hillswicke Oracle lines.  Eldon also purchased some of Vern's breeding from Jim Drenth who was retiring from the pony business.  Eldon acquired two terrific stallions from these breeders:  Roadrunner Cody's Copy and Roadrunner Cody Grey.  It was from these two stallions that Bellevue Farm built a solid broodmare herd from and developed a reputation for breeding and selling top quality breeding and show stock at consignment sales in the Midwest.

    In the year 2000 Bellevue Farm purchased Frisco Cody's Prince VB from Jean Brown in Maryland.  Prince was bred by Vern and went on to have a very successful show career winning the Congress in 1985, becoming "Pony of the Year" in 1987 and becoming the 1st Classic Shetland to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.  The following year Bellevue Farm purchased another top stallion bred by Vern Benna, Baron's Benny VB, from Wa-Full farm in Nebraska.  Baron's Benny VB is an intensely bred Hillswicke Oracle stallion.  This beautiful blue roan stallion is used as an outcross on our Cody bred mares.

    When Vern Benna passed away in 1999, the pony world not only lost a great breeder, but they also a great friend.  After his passing we bought a few mares from his estate, one of them being, Pro's Last Lady, a daughter of Ruoff's Protester.  Pro's Last Lady was bred to the afore mentioned Baron's Benny VB when we acquired her and the resulting offspring that blessed us in September of 1999 was McCall's Blue Chip Cody.  Blue Chip is a stunning blue roan with conformation and action and is the future of our breeding program.  Blue Chip was one of the last ponies bred by Vern.

     Vern Benna of Albert City, Iowa was the definition of a true pony breeder.  His initials, VB, that he put on his pedigrees are found in a lot of the pedigrees of the ponies in the Midwest and across the United States.  He started by buying top mares from area breeders and then using a variety of stallions on them.  Vern was not afraid to experiment in his breeding program and he came up with some great crosses.  Vern also strongly believed in line breeding and in-breeding.  He did this quite often and the results speak for themselves.  Vern bred many great ponies while using a variety of different stallions.  The following is a list of stallions that he primarily used from 1973-1998.

    In May of 1998, Eldon brought home a couple of mares from a sale that changed our breeding program forever.  The two mares that he bought from the sale were: Red Rock Tomorrow's KL Queen and Red Rock Bullseye's Janice.  These mares were both consigned and bred by John Vriezelaar of Red Rock Pony Farm in Monroe, Iowa.  For years John had bred quality ponies, but it wasn't until he started to disperse that his life's work of breeding finally was starting to be appreciated.

    John Vriezelarr is truly one of the breeds best breeders of Classic Shetlands.  He built his herd of mares from a variety of different bloodlines:  Wink's Showdeo Kid, Kid Lee, Sweet-Lee, Lucki-Lee, Red Crescent King, Seth Thomas, Rip's Little Masterpiece, Ramble Ridge's Cocky Corky, Early Winn, Duke's Royal Master, Rangemore's Royal Rebel, and Queen Ann's Jet.  John used Kid Lee, a black and white son of Wink's Showdeo Kid, from 1979-1992 and Red Rock Jet, a sorrel and white son of Queen Ann's Jet, from 1983-1988.  He built a strong herd of mares while mainly using Kid Lee as his foundation stud.  Red Rock Jet died in 1987 when he was only seven.  John said that he came home from a day at the Iowa State Fair and there laid Jet, he had been killed in a lightning storm.  John used Kid Lee back on some of his daughters and granddaughters, which is called in-breeding and line-breeding.  John utilized this breeding practice just like Vern Benna and a few other great breeders did to increase the quality of their foals.  Having a good foundation in place, John then used Bullseye, a dark bay and white son of Queen Ann's Jet.  John and his son-in-law, Greg Gildersleeve, used Bullseye from 1986-1998.  John said that this was one of his top crosses and produced some of his best mares.  John then used Red Rock Tomorrow, a grey son of Kid Lee, for the 1990 breeding season.  He kept back his top black and white colt, Red Rock Tomorrow's Kid Lee, out of a Kid Lee daughter and used him on his herd of mares from 1993-1999.  John is known for breeding ponies that have great overall confirmation, but excelled over other breeder's ponies having long hooked necks, having some action to their trot, and mainly being pinto's that matured anywhere from 42-45 inches tall.

    Mike had talked to John several times on the phone in 1999 discussing how he built his breeding program and asked him that he would like to buy his remaining mares when he was ready to sell.  At the 2000 Master's-O'Keefe Sale in Des Moines, Iowa, John had told Eldon and Mike that if they wanted to buy the mares, they had first choice.  So after a long day at the Sale, Eldon and Mike headed out to Red Rock Pony Farm and bought four of John's top young mares that he was keeping.  Another breeder, Tom Taylor from Taylor Pony Farm in West Unity, Ohio, also has several Red Rock mares and was at the farm as well, since he had second choice.  Eldon also bought Red Rock Jet's Taffy from John in 2000, which was the last of John's foundation mares.

    Bellevue Farm Classic Shetlands and Hopwood's Pony Ranch in Palmer, Nebraska bought two stallions in partnership from John in the fall of 2000.  G&S Charlie Brown and Red Rock Tomorrow's KL Big John have turned out to be two fantastic stallions that are 100% Red Rock bred and are siring top foals for both farms.  Eldon was so impressed with Charlie Brown that he bought his dam, Bullseye's Wild Thing, from John's son-in-law, Greg Gildersleeve, in 2001.

    Probably one of Eldon's best purchases was made in the fall of 1996 when he purchased Bright-Eyed Rock C&M from Charlie Graves of C&M Pony Farm in Chariton, Iowa.  Rock was just a weanling that was eating on a old round bale of hay with a few other weanlings.  Eldon was looking for a Black and White stallion to use on some of his Vern Benna bred mares, so he made Charlie a fair offer for the young prospect out of his top Red Rock mare.  Rod and Mike were not impressed when they first saw him, as he was wormy and had a large hay belly, but Eldon said "give him time, he has great breeding behind him."  Rock has turned into Bellevue Farm's Senior Herd Sire, his fillies have topped three Midwest sales since 2000 and we are building a young herd of mares sired by Rock, except that is hard, since they are always in demand.  Charlie Graves dispersed his herd in the summer of 1997.

    We hope that this history page gives you a little background on the McCall Family, Bellevue Farm and how we have built our herd of Classic Shetlands.

Thank You for visiting our farm,        

The McCall Family

Please enjoy the following collection of pictures of our family and our ponies.  

Eldon watching Rod hard at work breaking Snickers to lead.
Jessicia & Rose winning again.	Rod & Jessicia with Fancy at the Shelby County Fair in 1998.
Eldon gives instruction to Mike, Rod, & Jessicia before the MCSBA Sale.
Eldon & Rock	Eldon & Cody Grey
Ashley gives Freckles a well deserved brushing.
Rod & Charlie Brown	Mike & Blue Chip
Allison working with the weanlings, her favorite job.
Eldon and Robin (Little King Farm) with Grey Doll, the top selling pony at the Central Illinois Sale.	Eldon caught taking a break.
Mike & Allison poise with farm favorite "Prince".
Jessica & Nicolle with a Reserve Grand.	Ashley and Jackpot take time for a picture.
Eldon & Mike poise with the buyers and the Sale Committee from the North Texas Pony Sale along with Tana, the top selling pony.
Rod & Shooting Star	Eldon holds Taffy while Laffy Taffy gets her picture taken for the web site.
Mike & Silver - 1975
Eldon & Nicolle at the Shelby County Fair in 1998.	Jessicia & Rosie after a day at the show.
How do we get their attention?? The hat works best!!

The McCall Family are members of the Following Clubs and Organizations. 

American Shetland Pony Club

Area VI Shetland Pony & Miniature Horse Breeders' Association

Midwest Classic Shetland Breeders' Association

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