Congratulations Paula on 1st Place Win!

Applause all around to Paula Kaigh, and her gelding, DB Dahman, for finishing 1st Place in the AERC Eagle Ranch Endurance ride in Missouri last weekend!  Paula won the 50 mile ride just seconds before her nearest competitor.  The picture left is the race to the finish line  - I like how determined and focused both horse and rider look :).

Paula and Dahman have accrued 1030 endurance miles together, that include 7 first place wins and 6 best condition awards.

Baby Pics!

We got to hear from MaryAnne (below) about her ride at DVE, and now we get BABY PICS!  How lucky are we to hear from our friends with Desert Bred babies (even grown up ones like MaryAnne's!)

Recently our friend Jenny e-mailed us pics of her new filly, Labwah Al-Shaykhah, out of her mare HS Marayah.  Marayah was bred to our stallion DB Khrush.  Khrush's tail female line is Davenport, going back to the rare mare Werdi, along with a sire line that goes back to Furtha Dhellal, A Hamdani bred by Khalid Hamid al-Dawsari, a Dawasir Bedouin living in al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia.






Jenny says "Labwah’s a great kid – super friendly, sensible and very trainable. She’ll make a terrific companion, and has lots of athletic potential. She also has Khrush’s beautiful soft eyes…".  And judging from this picture, Labwah is loaded with flexibility!











Labwah was her mare's first foal. "Marayah was a great mom! Protective, but let us do anything with the baby, and not too permissive."

Labwah looks like she can't wait to start jumping just like her dad :).  Thanks Jenny for sharing these pics, we're so glad you're enjoying Marayah's first filly.  Please keep us posted on your adventures to come!

Desert Breds at Death Valley Encounter (and family trees)

It's always exciting to get updates from the owners of our "Alumni" Desert Breds out there.  They're doing everything from crossing the Tevis finish line to dressage, sport horse champions to a child's pony.

Recently, Maryanne Riley was kind enough to send us pictures of her and her gelding, DB Blue Al Ashab (Desert Jalam X DB Blue Danieh) from their adventure at the Death Valley Endurance Ride (photo above).  Isn't the scenery GORGEOUS?!  How lucky they are to be enjoying the winter sun, dry trails and beautiful mountains to gaze at. 

Maryanne shared their most recent success:  "Al-Ashab completed 4 50s back to back, doing 200 miles in 4 days at the Death Valley Encounter multi-day ride. 10 out of 70 riders did it on one horse. He is awesome!"  Al-Ashab has accomplished quite an endurance record in the short time he's been out west with Maryanne - 760 endurance miles with 300 LD miles, with 26 completions out of 28 rides - he truly is awesome!  We look forward to hearing more from Maryanne and Al-Ashab!


Maryanne rode with April Cyrek, who also  completed 150 miles at DVE on her stallion DB Air Alamahn (DB Shahhat X DB Yuniya) (Maryanne and April pictured below).  April and Alamahn together have completed 620 endurance miles (so far :)) with 255 LD miles.  Don't they look like they're having WAY too much fun?

Alahmahn's dam, DB Yuniya, has produced incredible performance athletes.  Her tail female line goes back to the rare Davenport mare, Werdi.
Our stallion, DB Khrush (out of DB Yuniya by Desert Dhellal), has been very successful in sporthorse events.

DB Airs Aidah (above) is incredibly light and responsive as well, and will be a joy to her next owner in her future performance career.

And this beautiful girl, DB Bint Yuniya  - above(AAS Nader X DB Yuniya) shows every sign of being able to follow the hoofprints of her older brothers and sisters.  What a family tree!

Do you have news to share on one of your Desert Breds?  Please let us know - we'd love to share!

They Grow Up So Fast

Our little DB Khrush QH/Arab filly has a new name!  She is now DB Luminaire, a very fitting name for a bright little girl certain to shine in her future career!

Pretty soon, she will be old enough to join the other young fillies, where they grow up together and learn how to be social, and run and play, and to be loved and adored and get plenty of kisses on the nose.  Pictured below is DB Yuniya's filly, DB Bint Yuniya, who just like her mom is not shy about begging for kisses.  A trait she shares with her sister (DB Khrushah) and niece (DB Empress). 

 Then soon after that, Luminaire will learn to carry a saddle and rider, then learn even more skills like rollbacks and spins (DB Zarah below doing a spin with Jamie  - no bridle!)

She may even go to Tevis one day!  (Sarah below on Reno)

If she does, we'll be waiting for her at the finish line! (Sarah below with Reno)

But for now she's busy being a baby and staying close to mom and content with being adored :)

FIELD TRIP!

photos by Sarah Sanders



We actually had a break from the cold, and ice, and rain, and mud, and more rain....and got some horses out for some outdoor conditioning.


Jamie and Fatimah sailed across the pasture, loving the fresh air. I love this shot - all 4 legs off the ground like she's floating :).

Our friend, and Volunteer Trainer, Paula, took Airs Aidah out to stretch her legs - Paula really enjoys riding her when she's not doing endurance rides with her two geldings (DB Dahman and Ibn Desert Dhellal).

Airs Aidah is out of the same Dam as the stallion DB Khrush - she's going to be a great performance horse just like him.

And here's Jameela, getting to enjoy her run across the fields. Jameela is an easy going no nonsense sort of girl, but with an engine...just like her mom :). Her full brother (DB Bolero) is kicking up the dust on the endurance trails and taking blue ribbons, thanks to his owner Lori.

And here's DB Zahrah with Jamie, love the look on Zahrah's face - focused and all business - let's go let's go!

A Pasture Ballet (photos by S. Haege)

It was picture day at the farm and a call out to the mares in their pasture brought them running.


DB Fatima (left) and DB Kalila (right) moved in like minds - "they're calling, there must be FOOD!"

Fatima pranced around knowing she would get oohs and ahhs

Is Fatima giving Kalila a dirty look here? "You're not getting the bucket before ME!"












As they got closer, they started moving in unison, almost like a Pasture Quadrille :).

Fatima notices there really isn't a bucket. No food! Dirty trick!

No food - no pictures!

A Spooktacular Open House

We had an Open House on the 31st this month - a SPOOKTACULAR Open House actually :).

Everyone got to enjoy plenty of Halloween goodies, along with Chili and Hot Dogs catered in which were just the ticket on a fall day.

It was great to see everyone who came - lots of friends and horse buddies, and quite a few new ones as well. And plenty of little ones in adorable halloween costumes. The best was our friend Trish who came as Tippi Hedren from Hitchocock's The Birds - complete with dive bombing birds bombing her head - awesome!

While everyone enjoyed the smorgasboard, The Riding Center staff put on a horse demonstration exhibiting The Basic Handle and how it builds a foundation for a well rounded horse for any discipline.

Some of the principles of The Basic Handle as developed by Monte Foreman was described and demo'd. First Rodger Davis explained the history of how it was developed and who Monte Foreman was. Then Sarah Sanders brought in DB Ibn Jalam (pictured above). Sarah went thru some of the elements of the Basic Handle with Ibn - spins, rollbacks, lead changes, stops - to show what a finished horse looks like and explained how these could build a light and supple horse for reining, cutting, or even a pleasure trail horse.

Then some of the assistant trainers came in and went thru some of the basics with less finished horses (DB Bint Dahmah, DB Kalila and DB Zahrah) to show how to go thru schooling a horse in some of the moves. Besides the spins and rollbacks and stops, they added some hunter jumps into the mix.

And for the grand finale, Sarah brought out DB Khrush (pictured below from a dressage show)and showed how the Basic Handle can be used for a dressage horse to become lighter and more supple.

It was a great day!