Arabian Horses:MB II Arabians~CMK/Fadjur/Azraff/Ferzon~...One Mares Story

I love the arabian horse! It has to look like an arabian. It has to have that dished face large eye,huge cheekbone,balance,high tail set,fire, and that"in your pocket" attitude. And it has to built so it moves like it's floating. That is what every Arabian breeder works for in their breeding program.

But when push comes to shove,breeding horses is always a crap shoot. You can study pedigrees, strains, genetics, and you will breed your mare to that one stallion, who according your research is the perfect nick for your mare, and guess what, you'll get nothing like you had hoped. And sometimes you can breed a mare and a stallion, and you have a starting point on which to base your breeding program. But that's okay, the journey is marvelous!

I have always felt that a good foundation horse is priceless. You have the infusion of that horse' traits on which you can outcross on anything and keep those traits you love. That is the premise behind my breeding program, and hey, everyones ideal breeding program.

This is the love of my horsey life. She is the most remarkable being. If the good Lord sends us angels, he realized how much I love arabians, and sent me an angel in equine form.

I bought this mare in 1984, at the age of four. She had been gentled and had 30 days work on her, and she was found by her trainer to be a good trail horse. I took her back to the barn where I had been riding and had leased a thouroughbred mare. I put some more training on her, and then decided to take her home. By then I had bought a gelding too. Now, if I could just convince Michael to get a horse property so I could take them home. We did, and we lived and loved horses with no thought of breeding, just riding and enjoying them. I came to realize that I loved this mare so much that I needed to breed her. Such a beautiful, healthy, smart, and kind animal should go on in someway. Thus began my journey into the pedigrees of Arabian Horses.

I knew that I liked a certain look. I knew that I would breed her to a horse who was typier than her, and she's typey. I knew I wanted to shorten up her face, and back, and add some length of leg. I had met a nice lady who had allot of stallions, and she helped do my mares' pedigree. She had a friend who had Arabs too, and we went out to see her new foals. That day I met and fell in love with a stallion that to this day I miss, and have never found another like him.

El Azraff, one of Azraffs' last sons. A beautiful, white stallion, with a face to die for. There was that dish, that cheekbone, his eyes were huge and kind. What a gorgeous animal!

I visited every chance I got. I loved his daughter, Some Are Fancy Free, but knew I couldn't afford her. I made arrangements to breed Sadra to El. The breeding season was late, and she didn't catch. She was 14, and had never had a foal. The next summer though, she did catch. I was so excited, I was going to have an El baby.

I got the ultrasounds, I made sure she got all of her prenatal care, and I was counting down the days. In march, which was her eighth month, I had some horrible news. El Azraff was in Kidney failure, and was going to die. I was so beside myself, I couldn't have been more heartbroken had he been my own horse. Donna Simon-Becker, his owner had had him up at the Equine Hospital at CSU, having semen frozen, and trying to do what ever she could for him. But alas, on March 4th, 1995, she called me to come and say goodbye, because he was to be put down that day.

I took the last pictures of him. I got his halter with his name as a gift as Donna knew how much I loved him. I hung on him and cried,fed him carrots and apples, stroked him,and said goodbye. I thanked God again and again that I would have an El baby in a few months to love in his stead. I stayed in the house with Donna as the vet, Dr. Lee Mueller who was heartbroken too, as he had done all the breedings, and was Els' bud, put him down and he was buried next to the drive of Desert Wind Farms where he could still look out over his girls and babies.

Four weeks later, on Sadras'15th birthday, I went out to feed, on my way to a Horse Expo, and when I opened her stall, she whinnied at me, she was down, and next to her where dead twins. One a male much smaller, and the filly who was of right size but had been much too immature to survive. I ran screaming into the house, in shock, my worst fear.

All I could think of was my mare. I had to get my vet out. Mike called and my vet was off that day but they would send out a new vet they had and she was on her way. Dr. Debbie Mayo, my hero came and took care of the mare, she said that she hadn't dropped the placenta, and that she would come back and check on her, but didn't want to give her oxitocin for fear she would prolapse her uterus.

Late that night Sadra went down with contractions and expelled the placenta and her uterus with it. Debbie rushed out, we had put a towel around her uterus to keep it as clean as possible. We had to give her a spinal block to stop the contractions, and then proceeded to remove any pieces of placenta from her uterus. Debbie sewed up tears and tried to put the uterus back in but it had swollen down to her hocks. Debbie said to me,"Go get a five pound bag of sugar, hurry!" I ran to 7-11 in a bloody jacket and told them I need sugar and don't ask, we're trying to save my horse. I got back and Deb instructed me to sprinkle sugar on her uterus. I did and just like sugar on strawberries, the edema in her uterus started coming out. She gently squeezed the uterus and we worked on it for hours to get it back down to size. Debbie was so tired that she called out Dr. Steve Long, to help, he came rolled up his sleeves and squeezed. All I could think of was I was going to lose Sa, her uterus wouldn't survive this. He got the uterus back in and Deb sutured my mare up. We all collapsed. Deb ran home, and came back every hour all day to check on her, and give her shots for the pain. And she continued to do so all week for me, because I thought that if the mare was not in pain, she would eat, not be stressed, and maybe I could stave off a founder. It worked, and in six weeks the mare went team penning for the first time.

I had her uterus biopsied and sent to CSU, it came back that her uterus was fine, glands were fine, I should breed her. But to who, my beautiful El was gone.

What to do, what to do. I had seen an ad in Arabian Horse World for Jack Tone Ranch, home of Fadjur. In the add was a picture of Fadjurs Prize. I LOVED his face. What I was worried about was length of back, since Sadras' back was already long, and gait. I was hoping for at least a hunter gaited horse. But I called and requested a video, and was lucky enough to be able to chat with Marge Tone, and then got to do my dealings with Kathleen Tone Hammer, and she was wonderful.

When I received the video, I watched and watched, looking at the horses, and liking the fact that the horses bred true. They screamed ARAB, and I saw something I hadn't expected. I was liking the looks of the Prize son,New York, better than Prize. Hmmm, he was extremely typey, shorter back, higher neck set, good shoulder, balanced,moved out, and used his hocks well. I called Kathleen and told her that instead of Prize, I was going to use New York. So the baby in the bucket extravaganza was about to begin.

Off to the vet hospital went Sa to stay there where she could be palpated and ultrasounded and AI'd at the optimum time. Nothing.

I took her out to a person in Bennett who had a stallion who could hopefully tease her in to heat. With a small follicle, CSU said use that last shipment of semen, inseminate her, and Debbie will give her a shot to make her ovulate. We did, and on the 14 day ultrasound,not pregnant, on the 30 ultrasound and palpation, not pregnant. So I took her home for the winter, reconciling myself to the fact that there would not be any Sa babies either.

Nine months later, on May 15, 1997 to be exact, I noticed that Sa was colicky. Out of habit I put my hands all over her and when I reached back, there was a bag! I ran to the house to calculate the days I had had her AI'd and called Deb. She came right out, and palpated her and said,"this mare is pregnant, and she's due in four weeks." I'm thinking well, this was the easiest pregnancy I've ever been through. On June 17th at about 2 in the morning Sa gave birth to a bay filly. My miracle mother and daughter.

Sas' wonderful genes will go on through her daughter.

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