Some memories of...
The old saying "things change but things stay the same", is so appropriate when summing up our involvement with Arabian horses. Our life has changed, of that there is no doubt, but with the passing of time there has always been sameness about our goals and aspirations as we consider our long-term association with the Arabian breed of horse. How lucky for me, a horse absorbed girl from the city of Melbourne who meets, falls in love with, and marries an avid animal and nature lover from a dairy farming family in Gippsland, Victoria. The beauty of the Arabian has been many a person's motivation for taking up the challenge to assume the mantle, as breeder, and I would love to say it was a more profound motivation that attracted us, but it was not. Purely and simply it was the captivating beauty of the Arabian horses head, and their expressive faces that drew us like a moth to a flame. Maybe that's why the heads and expressions of our horses are such a driving force within our breeding program some 25 years later. In those early years as we went about the horse shows and the breeding farms we marvelled at the expressive faces that stared at you with a curiosity that travelled right to your soul. This expression had gentleness and an understanding, which appeared almost human like. Now today, I know that our Arabian horses parallel our own emotions, they can be cross, sleepy, happy with a sense of humour, tricksters, playful, serious and motivated with their work and impatient. I knew none of this, back all those years ago, but it was there to see in each interested glance that drifted your way. It feels like yesterday, that we decided, that Arabians would be the horses we wanted to breed, much to the disappointment of fellow riders and competitors.
Part Arabians were acceptable, well just, but purebred! Inevitably purebred Arabians did follow the part-bred horses, so during a six-month working holiday around Australia, we took advantage of the opportunity to visit Arabian farms, as we travelled about. It was finally in Queensland that we met a stallion that was irresistible to us and ordered a foal. It had to be ordered in those days, as purebred Arabian horses were in great demand. Leaving Queensland on the final leg of our working holiday, we left with a promise from the breeder, that when a suitable foal arrived we would be contacted.
Harness Practice
So in September 1975, a letter arrived, telling us about a colt, requesting confirmation to the question, did we still wish to purchase him? Photographs followed, as did discussions with our parents who thought we had taken leave of our senses at the thought of buying a colt. Yes, it had to be a colt, as a filly at that time was completely out of our price range. Our parents threw every obstacle at us, we still had no house, and what were we thinking! We did however have our land. Eventually all the discussions fell silent and our baby colt arrived from Queensland early in 1976 to a lovely new railed paddock, a new stable, while we continued to live in our twenty-two foot caravan! We then proceeded to launch our new colt onto the show scene. This era was just prior to "American stand up" showing, so we taught our colt to stand nicely and to trot out energetically and then every weekend we loaded him in the horse float and headed off to Agricultural Shows far and wide.
Don & Carmel at a show
We showed this colt in everything from Arabian classes to Galloway classes, head classes, movement classes, double registered classes and we amassed a staggering number of sashes. The unfortunate flip side to all of this showing and winning was that eventually the friendly, companionable competitors, became no longer friendly, just competitive! In many ways we were fairly oblivious to this attitude, we really enjoyed our horses so the people at that stage were not such a big concern. In the winter of 1977 we decided to accept a request from friends in Queensland to oversee their Quarter horse stud while they went on holiday, so this time the caravan stayed at home and we hitched up the horse float, packed the car and the dog, loaded the colt and headed north for three months.
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention we had purchased a weanling purebred filly and our parents once again were about to put us into psychiatric treatment. It condemned us to a fate worse than death, living in the caravan for another three years! I must mention that the purchase of a purebred filly in those days was equivalent to the cost of building a small house, so in saying our parents were angry is a little understated. So we escaped all the fuss and headed to Queensland. With the resilience of youth, we showed our colt in Queensland with good results, exercised the quarter horses and three months later loaded up our colt, the new filly plus the dog and headed home. Once home we concentrated on breaking in our colt and showing our filly (yes, we did live in the caravan for another three years!) We also began showing one of our geldings under saddle, in costume and in harness.
Tartuffe
under saddle
The halter ring was now becoming specialized with the American way of showing, and it was obvious the time had come to (overseas judges were now coming into Australia, judging our horses) somehow learn exactly how to train the horses to stand the American way. So off we went again around the country this time to seminars given by people such as Mr. Gene La Croix, Mr.David Gardner and others and we wondered why our wonderful Australian handlers decided it was better to train the horses to stand the American way (a way we personally associated with American Saddlebreds) rather than persist with their own Australian approach to the halter ring.
The early 1980's were a time of change in Australia, and change is generally not a bad thing, but it seemed that Australia had well and truly adopted the USA training methods. It looked very impressive, but at that time we were very naive and ignorant of how the results were achieved. As time progressed we watched many of the breeders around us, become very wrapped up in the glamour of the now specialized Arabian horse shows. It appeared to be no longer about the horses but more about "winning at any price". We noticed also the effect of the training methods on the some of the horses, and were distressed ourselves, seeing the fear in the eyes of the beautiful horses. We had come of age, so to speak, and ceased being ignorant of what was happening around us. Many emotions were felt and a strong responsibility towards our horses was one of them, so the decision was made to step back from the halter ring and to concentrate on breeding foals from our mares and to simply enjoy our horses. This decision provoked much deliberation about our breeding program and what we really wanted to achieve, so with that in mind we became increasingly aware of the Egyptian Arabian horse. Horses within Australia during the earlier years were predominantly of English bloodlines and with the importation of straight Egyptian, Egyptian related, Russian some Polish and Spanish bloodlines, in the early and middle 1980's, introduced bloodlines that appeared to add an exciting incentive to breeders in Australia, and the Arabian horse seemed reborn.
Odenuel as a yearling
It was a time of change for us also; over the years we had become more aware of the dedicated breeders around the world and what they were achieving. We found it hard to find mentors within Australia and it seemed unless you purchased a horse from a breeder, they really wanted nothing to do with you. (Harsh words, I know). It was an unfortunate reality; no real support, encouragement or information was offered so we turned instead to books, videos, (when we could get them) and magazines. Magazines from everywhere, all over the world were subscribed, until they threatened to overtake our house, like sponges we soaked up all the information we could acquire. We learned about the breeders that had, and have, dedicated their lives passionately to the Arabian horse and we were inspired. It became so increasingly evident that horse breeding, if done seriously is a long-term commitment and like many before us we have adapted and changed how to achieve our goals along the way.
Never having had the desire to own large numbers of horses, we maintained a type of 'Boutique" size stud and it was on a holiday back in Queensland in the middle 1980's that we saw the young stallion that would introduce us to the family that now dominates our breeding program. This horse offered us the image of our minds eye come to life and in 1985 a tiny advertisement in a New South Wales paper selling a yearling black/bay colt by pure coincidence mapped out our future! The colt Odenuel was purchased and has Jamil (Madkour I x Hanan) as his grandsire on his paternal side so began a near obsession with the Hanan family.
Don & Odenuel
Following the purchase of Odenuel, Egyptian horses of a specific type and pedigree were introduced into our breeding program. Simeon Sarah was purchased with a request that she be in foal to a young imported double Aswan stallion of Russian bloodlines, that mating produced Pearsons Sarchi.
Don & Simeon Sarah
I have to say however that the most significant purchase was in 1987 when a colt was born by a much-discussed young stallion imported from Germany. The purchase was made but not without heart palpitations and lots of sleepless nights wondering if we really should spend our savings plus some inheritance (the parents again threatened madness, but we did after all have our house, by this time!) Never, never have we regretted this purchase, the colt we purchased has been the very heart and soul of our lives and we have watched him go through many experiences in his fourteen years, this colt, of course was Simeon Stav.
Simeon Stav
as a weanling
Not to escape our poor suffering parents, we sold our property in Gippsland, Victoria and finally fulfilled another dream, and that was to move to Queensland, so in 1988 that's just what we did. A newly purchased Simeon Stav and eight other horses and two foals made the BIG trip (1,000 miles) to our new home in Toowoomba. Regardless of all the worry surrounding his purchase, and the dramas we went through with Simeon Stav pushed us into realizing we could pursue our breeding program our own way, without conforming to what everyone else expects and does. We dismissed the importance of the show ring for us; we show only occasionally, and quite honestly we could never condone some of the practises associated with this medium.
Today: Simeon Stav & Don
We learned about the Arabian horse scene realistically, trying to understand people's motivation, and then set about sharing our life with twelve wonderful Arabian horses that inspire us every single day with the beauty of life. We breed Arabian foals that sooth the soul, delight the eye and most importantly make you smile and laugh, creating for us an ideal life. Life is full of change, but the Arabian horse is primarily still the same and after all, that's really what it all about, isn't it.the horse.
PS: Dedicated to our long-suffering parents!