Postcard from Utah

Our 3 travelers, (our trainers, Sarah and Jamie and one of our boarders Paula) arrived in Utah safely last night. The road wasn't without adventure - including snow in Texas (whod've thunk?), an almost desperate stay at a Bates Motel wannabe (because of said snow) and a late night drive through the most beautiful country "...and we didn't see a LICK of it!"

Hopefully they'll get to enjoy it in the daylight on the way back.

The horses took to the journey well, which is wonderful since it was a first multi-day trek for all 3 horses. They are all now taking in some R&R today in their turnouts (the horses, not the people, lol). Tomorrow the clinics begin along with some promised rides thru some beautiful mountain trails.

Waking up this morning, all 3 were greeted by the most beautiful panoramic view of the mountains. Paula is threatening to stay put - but she's not allowed to (because I said so!)

More to come soon....

Westward Ho!

Three adventurers left our barn Friday morning for a long journey west. Two of our trainers, Sarah Sanders and Jamie Lamborn, along with one of our boarders, are trailering from our little corner of the midwest to St. George, Utah.

What would lead them on such a long journey? They are hauling their horses out to a multi-day clinic with Janiece Wilson, certified Monte Foreman trainer.

We benefited from a visit from Janiece Wilson this past year at our farm, who spent a week giving clinics to our trainers and boarders. Her method is the Horse Handling Science, developed by author and trainer Monte Foreman. Wilson has been teaching students in the Monte Foreman methods for multiple decades.

They are looking forward to several days of intensive training, along with some R&R time just enjoying the trails out west. Sarah is taking one of our younger stallions, DB Ibn Jalam (pictured here with Sarah riding). Our boarder is taking her two Desert Bred geldings. Can't wait to hear about their adventure when they come back in a week (with loads of pictures too)!

Fun Fun Fun!

Another Peek into the Archives

Desert Bred Arabians was blessed to have found quality horses early on to form the foundation of our breeding program. Our horses are of Saudi Arabian bloodlines, or Saudi related thru the old classic lines. In these bloodlines, you'll find names from the strains developed from the Bedouin tribes of the Arabian Peninsula: Hamdani, Abayyan, Dahman etc. The history of how these horses came be and then found their way to teh USA is very intriguing. Some sources to visit for the history is www.desertbredarabians.com, www.alkhamsa.org and www.bluearabianshorsecatalog.org.

Pictured below is Al Fea, one of the many mares responsible for passing on her tremendous qualities to her descendants.

This conformation shot of Al Fea is adorable - doesn't she have the cutest expression? I love the perky ears! lol

Al Fea's tail female line is Hamdani. Her lines include Al Hamdaniah, Nasr, Exorchorda, Turfa and Fadl.

Here is Al Fea being shown, years ago, at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield.

One of the daughters Al Fea produced, by imported stallion Furtha Dhellal, was Desert Feall. Feall produced several horses for our program, all who share many common traits - her sweet personality, stamina and a canter to fall in love with!

At left is DB Bey Barz, one of Al Fea's 'grandbabies' :). Bey Barz is one of our young stallions in training for sporthorse events.

Here is Bey Barz warming up for the Al Khamsa convention earlier this year.

Full sister to Bey Barz is DB Fatima (left) who is coming on 5 years old this year. Fatima shares her brother's athleticism and agility. Endurance or showing, we are sure she will shine in whatever she finds herself.

An older full brother to Bey Barz and Fatima is DB Fame. Because of his sweet personality, Fame earned the nickname Friendly around the barn, and he just oozed personality :). DB Fame went on to carry his junior rider owner on many endurance rides and always top ten'd. HIs canter was smooth as silk and his owner had a great time competing with him.

Do you have any Al Fea stories or pictures of her descendants? Please share!

Sunshine, on my shoulders....makes me SLEEPY!

After a cold gray blustery day yesterday, we were blessed with a sunny (but still blustery) day today. If you could find a spot out of the wind, it was a great day for sunbathing....or is that sun-napping?

There were sleeping foals.....

Sleeping stud colts......

And some even managed to sleep standing up! :)

The cold is on its way out I'm sure, and it won't be long for spring to warm things up!

Alwal Bahet

Still too cold to do much riding, so am gathering old photos of Desert Bred Arabians and their ancestors to scan and preserve. Thought this blog would be a good place to share them.

Here is Alwal Bahet (110016 AHR). His bloodlines are from two sources in Saudi Arabia - The Royal Stables of His Majesty Sa'ud Ibn Abd'Al Aziz-Al Sa'ud and His Highness Amir Sa'ud Ibn Abdullah Ibn Jiluwi.

Alwal Bahet passed on tremendous atleticism, stamina and heart (besides his incredible good looks :))to his descendants which are many. At Desert Bred Arabians, we are proud to have numerous progeny from this stud. These Alwal Bahet 'kids' can be found in all disciplines.

In endurance, we've enjoyed seeing DB Marah, DB Dahmah, DB Bolero, DB Khrush and others go on to win a variety of races.

One of our friends, Kay, owns this Alwal Bahet look-alike, DB El Danjah (Runner) and hasn't found anything they can't do yet! Here is Runner in one of his many H/J shows - Kay has also taken him on endurance rides and has recently been tearing up the Polo Crosse fields with him. Go Kay!

Desert Bred Arabians recognizes the value of Alwal Bahet's bloodlines and has preserved his lines thru several stallions. such as Desert Jalam (chestnut at top), DB Khrush who has achieved a lot of recognition in regional sport horse shows. Two young stallions, DB Ibn Jalam (chestnut in halter) and DB Bey Barz (black in halter) carry on those tremendous genes as well.

And speaking of the show ring, here is another Alwal Bahet descendant who is earning her fair shair of ribbons in the H/J arena - DB Caprih! She completed her first show this past fall and is a tremendous pony jumper. She's also been foxhunting recently and is exceling at chasing hounds and jumping hedges as well!

Do you have an Alwal Bahet descendant? Share your pics with us! We'd love to show them off!

Come Back Soon

Just getting the hang of this blogging thing, and unfortunately will be going on a brief hiatus. Will be out of town for a few days, so there won't be any new news for a week or so. So please don't forget to come back and visit again in a couple of weeks for more stories on adventures at The Riding Center, home Desert Bred Arabians in Freeburg, IL!

(left, young fillies on their home on 'the hill')

Snow GLORIOUS Snow!

We FINALLY got snow this winter! Soft, powdery, luxurious snow! And even better - it was the perfect texture to go riding in, not too slippery, not too crunchy. And Saturday was perfect riding weather - the sun was out, barely a breeze and warm weather - one HAD to go riding.




Or that's what I told my horse, the look I got in return made me think she didn't agree :). But after two weeks off braving the cold and not doing much but eating hay, she could use the exercise.









So off we went to the trails. I was excited - no trail markings to follow, it would just be us and the snow, bushwacking through the trees.


The 2 and 3 yr old stud colts at the end of the road came to see us off. If they could talk, I think they would've said:
Where you going? Can we go? What are you going to do? What are the trails? We never get to go anywhere!

DB Kalif, too mature for these young colts, hung out in back, too grown up to be impressed by our little adventure we were going on :).

Our little ditch we normally jump was now a frozen creek.

With all the tracks we saw, it would seem inevitable we'd run across some critters, but no such luck.
















I would love someone to tell me what all the tracks are - are they all deer? Seems some are different then others - raccoon?























It was a perfect, wonderful, magic day, but we couldn't stay out forever. Time to turn back toward home.








Nothing like a good roll in the snow to cool off after a workout on a warm winter day.
















Hmmm, and now lookey here - is that grass under this white stuff?? mmmmmmm







Who says the winters are too cold in the midwest? You're missing out! :)