ASAV Shagya-Arabian Newsletter Autumn 2010

American Shagya Arabian Verband Newsletter

American Shagya Arabian Verband Newsletter November

2010

Bucking Horse Drive somewhere in the Dakotas (as seen through the ears of LC Danzig)

… ASAV Jumpstart 2009 foals ...

… ASAV and WEG ... … ASAV member rides ...


Summer is over and Autumn has arrived. The summer has brought some exciting milestones for ASAV. The

membership continues to inch up and NEW members are joining every year. We are still hoping to reach a member-ship of 100 this year. Our bank accounts continue to grow as we commercialized several product lines. At the moment, we should have close to $6,000 in our accounts and the vision of reaching $7,000 by year's end is achievable. The increase in our bank accounts will allow ASAV to initi-ate several Shagya-promotional ideas. For instance, we desire to profession-ally produce a video that can be shown to everyone in the country if they are interested in learning about Shagyas. We have an estimate of cost---about $3,000. We cannot fund this all with ASV funds, so a pledge drive needs to be initiated. Our National Championship Distance ride was held in Illinois this year. The

winner was Ellen Rapp riding Zar. They completed the ride in a spectacu-lar time, even with one shoe missing. Zar was also one of the 2 horses rid-den by Ellen chosen for the World Equestrian Games Endurance team. Unfortunately, he was not on of the 5 chosen to run on September 26th. We hope to see great things from Zar in the remaining months of 2010 and in 2011. The ASAV judging clinic was held Sep-tember 25 & 27 in Finchville, KY. Head judge was Dr. Walter Huber with Dr. Egon Kamarasy and Hallie Goetz assisting. Several learner judges par-ticipated (Denis & Irmi Atam, Darlene Stevens, and Chris Evans). Denis Atam and Darlene may have enough points now to become full fledged ISG judges. We also had a Board of Directors meeting during the event. It was de-cided that the next National Challenge Cup distance ride be held in Ft. Howes, Montana. This ride is sanc-tioned by AERC and FEI. The next ASAV National Meeting will be held in the San Francisco Bay area at the ranch of Carolyn Tucker (Amara Farms). Her ranch is south of San Jose in the town of Morgan Hill next to Uvas Dam. We should have a date set by the end of the year. Please join me in welcoming our new liaison from Canada Chris Evans! See his stories on page 9 and 19.

By Kilian Dill Attention: Salmonella Alert Salmonella infection has made the headlines again these days. One usu-ally associates an outbreak with hu-mans eating poultry products, whether it be chicken meat or eggs. A recent case comes to mind of the outbreak of salmonella tainted eggs from farms in Iowa. This resulted from contaminated

feed. One does not usually think of other animals and a salmonella outbreak. However, this can also occur, if their environment becomes infected or their food is tainted. A notable case of this is the Purina recall of a number of horse feeds, which may have become contaminated. On or around early June, Daunna Sell-ers noticed that her one month old foal (Fatima) was acting unusual. She was acting disoriented, circling and backing up. In addition, her jaw was hanging down. By evening the foal was into convulsions and it died shortly thereaf-ter. An autopsy was performed by the University of Kentucky in order to as-certain the cause of death. The only discerning factor they could find was that the liver had deteriorated and di-agnosed with multifocal necrotizing hepatitis. Further testing eliminated a host of potential diseases, A cell cul-ture of the colon and small intestines showed the presence of Salmonella. Not the normal Salmonella, but rather the c2 strain, which is a rare and a multi-drug resistant strain (Newport strain). It is making the rounds and has been detected by other equine facilities; it has also been detected in humans. To this date, the source of Salmonella has not been located, but it could have come from anywhere, including food sources. We wish for horse owners to be aware of this bacterial infection as it appears to be becoming more preva-lent. References [1] Multi-drug Resistant Salmonella in Horses http://www.agmkt.state.ny.us/salmonella.html [2] Equine Review. Kentucky Equine Research: Salmonella Infection is Something to Avoid. http://www.ker.com/library/EquineReview/2007/Healthline/HL44.pdf [3] Pathobiologics International: Antibiotic Resis-tance-Enteric Disease. http://www.pathobiologics.org/ivphc/ar362005.html

ASAV President’s Corner . . . . . . Salmonella Alert Inside this issue: Salmonella Alert 2

Endurance News 7

Membership Stories I 9

Jumpstart/Judging Update 12

Membership Stories II 13

WEG 2010 Update 17

Cerebellar-Abiothrophy Update 19

Contact ASAV 22

Bucking Horse Drive SD 3

WWII Stallions Legacy 5

By Kilian Dill

Page 2 American Shagya Arabian Verband Newsletter


Shagyas in the Black Hills of South Dakota From Kelly Kennedy This July was the first time I took all three of my Shagyas to our cabin in the Black Hills of SD. Lily Creek Da-moots (Lily Creek Diva Dance x Lily Creek Dante) had just been started over the winter and had only been camping two times, both rides within an hour of home. This was also the first big trip for my newest Shagya, Lily Creek Danzig (Lily Creek Stefani X Lily Creek Dante). The third Shagya to make the run was Lily Creek Dakota (Stetson x Dynamos Dancer), aka Porkchop. The Pork has seen many miles of trails and this would be his third trip to the Black Hills. The trip started off with a bang. Liter-ally. We had two tires blow on our trailer during the 12 hour drive, turning the trip into a 16 hour voyage. I was worried Danzig and Damoots would never get in a trailer again after this trip, however at every stop both the new boys were happy, ate treats and most importantly drank water when-ever it was offered. Danny seemed to enjoy the whole trip, hanging his head out at every stop and checking out the scenery! After a stop at Tires Plus in Rapid City, we drove on to Custer.

After giving the horses a day of rest and grazing on the lush pastures we were ready to ride! Damoots got his first pair of shoes and was an angel for the farrier. We spent many days riding off of our land into the surrounding national forest. The riding is a real mix of prairies and really big rocky hills with beautiful overlooks. All of the horses did great. This was Danzig’s and Damoots first time crossing big rocky streams, and they handled it like pros. We live right near French Creek where gold was discovered in the 1800’s, starting the Black Hills gold rush. It is always fun to know you are riding where Custer and his troops explored. When you are riding in the hills, it is common to ride by old gold digs where the prospectors simply found a spot and started digging, leav-ing big holes in the ground that are still there. The highlight of the trip was the buck-ing stock drive. An old friend of mine who grew up on a ranch in SD invited me to ride with his friends as they drove bucking horses across the prai-rie 43 miles from Eagle Butte to Tim-ber Lake. The drive was a recreation of the old days before there were big trucks and trailers to haul rodeo stock. The contractors used to drive the bucking stock from town to town for rodeos. Since it was Timber Lake’s 100th year Anniversary of their rodeo, the Halloway family who are stock con-tractors in SD, decided to have some fun and do it the old way! My friend Cathy Tauer who owns Hillview Farms, and I were lucky enough to attend this

private drive. I took Danzig on this ride simply be-cause he was more fit than Porkchop since he spent the winter in a hunter barn learning to jump. When we started the ride, I realized that I had selected a very green trail horse that had to figure stuff out pretty quickly. It was the first time with full packs bang-ing on him, his first time seeing 4 wag-ons ( chuck wagon, buckboard, flatbed and surrey), and certainly it was his first time seeing 70 head of horses being run in a herd right towards him! The first 15 minutes of the ride were wild. All the horses were amped up. Riding Danny felt like sitting on a pow-der keg, but I could not blame him for being worked up! We all were; horses and people included. The big draft cross hitched to a single cart that I was standing (jigging) next to decided to rear straight up and almost fall over backwards onto the driver. He contin-ued to rear until two cowboys ap-peared out of nowhere and roped him and pulled him forward so he could not rear. At the same time, one of the cowboys had been bucked off his horse and was unconscious on the highway. His horse continued to buck and kept bucking right up to us. Once again, two cowboys swept in and roped this horse. It was amazing to me how quickly the cowboys saw is-sues and solved them with their ropes throughout the entire trip.

We were off to a rocky and fast start. Once we got moving everything settled into place over the next hour or two.



Shagyas in the Black Hills of South Dakota (con’t) Danzig was fascinated with the horse herd, but behaved beautifully. The scenery was stunning. In two days and forty miles we saw one house. It was easy to see how this land could have supported the millions of buffalo that once roamed there. The ride was action packed with a runaway horse herd, rattlesnakes, and bucking horses. The cowboys were amazing riders and ropers and it was a treat to watch them rope saddle horses out of the herd when they needed a fresh horse to ride. At the end of the first day we had to cross a river. Of course at this point a thunderstorm rolled in. As the lightning struck in the distance, we had to hold the storm worried herd on the side as all of the wagons got stuck in the river. Once again the cowboys rode in, roped the wagons and pulled them

across. We then drove the herd across the river. Once we reached the other side, the skies opened up with pelting rain. The entire herd and all of our horses turned their butts to the storm, but our trail boss told us to keep going so we did. At a dead run. We

could barely see it was raining so hard. At one point as we passed round bales, 4 of the horses hit a bale and started rolling it right next to me. It was a free for all, but Cathy and I were laughing and having a blast. We ran for about 3 miles before the herd slowed down. We got to camp and thankfully the sun came out to dry out our very wet crew. Danny was fine and looked like he could go again. He was having a blast. The second day of the ride was a little tamer as the horses were much more settled. The finale was driving the en-tire herd led by Chuck Halloway in one of the wagons through downtown Tim-ber Lake and into the rodeo arena. Of course, we did it at fast trot which turned into a run. It was a once in a lifetime experience that I would not have missed for the world. Danny was fit and happy. I think he wants to be a cow horse now! I am very lucky to have found this breed and Donna Coss. I am constantly amazed at how easy and willing Shagyas are to work with and own.

Saddle Pad with ASAV Logo on both sides for (price will be pub‐

lished shortly)

Cap – adjustable size Color: black or beige



With Inspiration from World War II stallions Lapis and Fetysz Page 5 American Shagya Arabian Verband Newsletter

stud, was one of the very best of his era and became one of the chief sires at the original Trakehnen Stud before World War II. Although evacuated to Graditz in 1944, Fetyzs’ own story ended tragically when he was appar-ently killed as the Russian forces in-vaded the Prussian region. His blood-line lives on through many Arabians and Trakehners including Olympic medal winners such as Abdullah. With the well known bloodline already so successful in Trakehner breeding we had to look at that breed as an option for our Diva. A Shagya influ-ence within that breed indicated the cross has already been positive…… Historical interest in horses, with some research, uncovers the fanciful made-for-movie story of the Shagya Arabian stallion Lapis, foaled in 1938 in Yugoslavia. His story starts in the center of the “Balkan powderkeg”, a crossroads of European, Middle East-ern and Asian conquests. Immediately north of Greece is Mace-donia: the region is the historical homeland of Alexander the Great. (From 1929 until 1991 Macedonia was part of Yugoslavia) The stud farm of Dusanowo, founded in 1918, was situated near the capital Skopje. In this Balkan state the Shagya Ara-bian was bred to help refine the local horse population. From Shagya and Arabian lines im-ported from Babolna, Radautz, Gorazda and Innocencdvor, the Du-sanowobred half Arabian mare 16 Phanomen gave birth to an excep-tional grey colt by a Siglavy line stal-lion in 1938. Formerly known at La-hor, this horse was eventually to be named Lapis. During World War II he was captured by the German forces and sent to the army equitation school at Krampnitz , near Potsdam. There, Cavalry Lieu-tenant Walther Schmidt-Salzmann was recovering from wounds and fell

From Chris and Pierrette Evans of Orangeville, Ontario, Canada With a lifelong interest in horses, his-tory, geography and hiking we had a natural passion towards long distance trail rides and of course the horse with the greatest history and the best long distance horse….the Arabian. With only a slight deviation in enthusiasm for these horses’ great characteristics of beauty, soundness, stamina, intelli-gence and disposition we were easily won over by the Shagya Arabian. Only their relative rarity in North America held us back. With a small herd of mainly Polish bred Arabians we added to them with the purchase of Lily Creek Diva Dance in November, 2010, from the dispersal of Donna Coss’ Lily Creek Ridge Farm in Illinois.. Diva is an 11 year old ½ Shagya ½ Arabian mare which had some prior dressage train-ing. This was evident as our first ride showed she was easy to get “on the bit” and could sidepass without much effort. She has turned into a marvel-ous trail horse on our many miles of forest paths and trails surrounding our

home. (it has been great to hear her full sister Lily Creek Dancin placed very well in major Endurance rides this year.) Having already produced some beau-tiful foals for Donna Coss, we looked at new possibilities for Diva. Our in-

tention was to find a nice Shagya stal-lion. They are very limited within Can-ada. Frozen semen from one of the beautiful European stallions are high risk success rates. Also, unfortunately this year, semen from the USA had to undergo lab tests for CEM prior to importation, thereby lengthening the time it would be in transport. Again, the risks were apparently too great and we decided to pursue an alterna-tive closer to home. So our first breeding was decided upon by a whimsical fantasy of sorts – hopefully with some sound genetic principles! Looking back through the pedigree of Diva’s Polish Arabian dam, we discovered she is from the well known foundation line of Milordka. We also found that another

more re-cent mare in this line (Siglavy Bagdady) showed Diva was from the same ma-ternal line of the “immortal”

Fetysz. This beautiful Arabian stallion, bred at the renowned Janow Podlaski

Lily Creek Diva Dance is in foal, 2010

Fetysz Gray stallion foaled 1924 by Bakszysz out of Siglavy Bagdady by Sig. Bagdady


in love with the handsome gray stallion while training with him. He took Lapis as his mount when returning to the front in 1941. They were inseparable

for three years cover-ing almost 4000 miles enduring continual hardships of war. During the defeat of

the German army, Schmidt-Salzmann had to make his way home from cen-tral Russia. Saving his master’s life the faithful grey stallion carried him through enemy lines during a frigid Russian winter. Forage was scarce and often had to be straw stolen from thatched roofs as they made their way West. In one story Lapis swam along-side his rider’s boat while crossing the Elbe river to escape enemy forces. The courageous Lapis arrived home

healthy and sound, after the entire journey with only front shoes. Although then taken as a prisoner of war by the British, Schmidt-Salzmann‘s eventual release included permission to bring his stal-lion home with him. There, at Salach, just east of Stuttgart, the Lieutenant helped the evacuated Babolna Stud Farm staff return to Hungary. In grati-tude, Hungarian officials gave him his choice of a broodmare. From the national Stud at Kisber Schmidt-Salzmann selected an elegant chestnut mare of Anglo-Arabian blood-

lines. This was 68 Fenek V, a Kisber Felver, who of course was mated with his beloved Lapis. The first foal of this breeding was the mare Amsel, foaled in 1947, whom in turn founded her own popular female family in West Ger-many. The follow-ing year’s foal was Burnus who proved his ability at the Ger-man Olym-pic Com-mittee

eventing sta-ble at War-endorf where Dr. Reiner Kimke be-came his rider. Burnus was such an

out-standing event

horse that an exception was made to accept him as a Trakehner approved stallion. Normally the only non-Trakehners approved for breeding in their Verband are Thoroughbreds and Arabians.

Burnus became a European warm-blood superstar. The outstanding

eventer Habicht was sired by Burnus in the Trakehner breeding program. Habicht, with rider Martin Plewa, suc-cessfully represented Germany in In-ternational competition. With many outstanding horses coming from this line we were lucky to have two full brothers out of the Habicht mare Palma Nigra, not far away. In Ontario, at the Whispering Pines Sta-

ble of Dave and Deb Brown, the two jet black stallions Prinz Habicht and Patras Vom Rappenhof of Connie Kempter breeding were available at stud. Hopes are high that Patras has Olympic possibilities with rider Jessica Phoenix! Whether through romantic inspiration or sound genetic back-ground Lily Creek Diva Dance is now in foal to Patras Vom Rappenhof. His sire Carino also has a line going back to Fetysz. From a Shagya mare of the female line of Fetysz we cross back to a Shagya bloodline of the Trakehner…..another experiment of Shagya and Arabian bloodlines in the Trakehner breed. We look forward to the spring of 2011!

With Inspiration from World War II stallions Lapis and Fetysz (con’t) Page 6 American Shagya Arabian Verband Newsletter

Lapis Gray stallion foaled 1938 by 561 Siglavy II-22 out of 16 Phanomen by 6 Mudir

Burnus Bay stallion, foaled 1948 by Lapis out of 68 Fenek V by Fenek V

Habicht Black stallion foaled 1967 by Burnus out of Hallo by Goldregen

Patras vom Rappenhof Black stallion, 2001 by Carino out of Palma Nigra by Habicht

Lily Creek Diva Dance gray mare, foaled 1999 by Sarvar PFF out of Dynamos Dancer by PR Dynamo


From Donna Coss LILY CREEK STETSON and his owner, Brian Coss, just completed two back to back LD rides, Fort Val-ley AERC in Virginia. The first day he came in second place and won the Vet's Choice (BC) The second day, he came in First. Brian stated that he just rode his ride without paying attention to the other horses--mostly trotting and did not know he was even in the lead. This was Stetson's first AERC ride since his injury a year ago. He pulsed down below the 60 almost immediately with-out any water or ice and had excellent recovery rates. As a side note, Carol Federighi, came in fourth the first day, riding an Arabian gelding, named Pre-mier. Both Carol and Brian were wearing their ASAV Tee shirts, that I had sent to them! (Comment from Donna Coss, Brian's mother) I Spoke with Brian this am. There were 45 entries in the ride that he won yesterday. Stetson wore Easy Boot Gloves with Goober glue. Brian used the glue in an unor-thodox way and if anyone is interested, he will be glad to share his experience. It has been year's since Stetson wore steel shoes. He does have nice, big, well formed hooves--farrier's always say, "I wish more horses had feet like this"! Brian’s input is on page 6.

Our new member Becky Bianchi was also riding the 50 that day, here are her comments The ride went very well. I ended up doing to back to back 50 mile rides on my Polish Arabian geld-ing; Batez. This is the former halter horse that I've been working with for the last 5 years. He was a very good boy and did everything I asked of

him. We are both very tired and I think he is happy to be back in his own pas-ture with his mare and gelding bud-dies. The weather was absolutely gorgeous though a bit nippy on Friday night. Someone said it went down to 28 degrees (brr) and I believe them because the water in the horse buck-ets was frozen on top Saturday morn-ing. Happily, the ride didn't start until 7:30AM because often they start much earlier. On the other hand, the young woman that finished last on Saturday came back into camp in the dark. She was riding alone which can be pretty scary. I met Brian Coss and his friend Carol and passed along the Shagya t-shirts Donna bought for them. We really did-n't get much of a chance to talk but I did get to meet Stetson. He is a lovely horse and quite personable consider-ing he doesn't know me. Brian and Stetson did really well at the ride tak-ing second place and BC on the first day 30 miler and then coming in first on the second day. Go Shagyas!! We hope to get together for a ride some time soon. My daughter, Julia, rode our new little Morab in the 50 miler on Saturday and finished. This was a big accomplish-ment because she has only ridden him twice before and he has only done one other 50 miler with me. Let's just say he was full of high spirits and thus kicked up his heals more than he should have. But, he was willing to go when asked and though tired at the end he had great heart rate recover-ies. I think he will be a good hundred mile horse some day.

From Kristen Camper So we made it to the AERC 55 mile National Championships. We had our best time so far of approximately 4 hours and 40 minutes and came in

19th out of about 99. To qualify, we had to have 300 miles together from at least 50 mile rides. That's 6 rides from April to October, and since I would be out of town for the month of Septem-ber we had to try and do 2 in August. I felt that was pushing it, but what a fabulous horse I have, because we made it! We started with the Fox-

catcher in April, Biltmore in May, OD in June, Sandhills moonlight in July (which I can honestly say was the hot-test I have ever been), Ride Between the Rivers and VA Highlands were both in August. That was 3 rides in 5 weeks. Each ride had me questioning what Lily was capable of. Can we really do a 50, or 55, without get-ting hurt? Can she trot the whole way without walk-ing? Can she take such speed over those OD mountains? Will she act horribly at a night ride? Can she do a sandy ride completely bare-foot? Can she take it if we canter more? Can she canter off immediately leaving the 2nd and 3rd vet checks? Can she keep up this speed through the sand? Can she canter the majority of this ride? Can I handle her at this speed? Well the answer to all of these ques-tions has been yes. How wonderful it is to really get to know my horse and test the limits of her endurance. She con-tinues to blow me away! The champi-onships were a dream come true, as a child I remember dreaming of canter-

Endurance News



ing my horse forever and ever through the country side. And I finally did! It was hands down the most fun I have ever had. So now I am asking myself a few new questions. Can I trust her enough to just let her go as fast as she pleases? Can we do a 100? Does she possibly have what it takes to be FEI? And with all that she has proved so far how can I doubt that the answer is yes? On a different note, we will actually be looking for another Shagya sometime in the near future for my daughter. We have a nice cute little pony for her now, but he just doesn't have that inborn friendliness like Lily does. Finally after a year of loving that pony but never being able to catch him without food, she came in the house crying and de-clared "My pony just doesn't like me, I want a Shagya!" How can I argue with that when I know how great they are? Just an update, we finished the San-dhills Moonlight in 21st. It was quite a night she was barefoot, it was our first night ride, and our first in the sand, we also had an issue with loosing our sad-dle, but found it after borrowing some-one else’s for 14 miles. Also we just finished the ride between the rivers, this one I went by myself, and we placed 15th. These rides were only 2 weeks apart! Lily never disap-points! We have the VA Highlands coming up in 3 weeks, this one I am doing with my daughter and her pony, but we will have the miles we need to qualify to the national championships in Oct! So far so good!

From Marty and Chris Powers We were at the Louise Riedel ride last weekend and had another great ride. Te was 4th over the line, 2nd LW, and got BC. He’s stood for BC two of his last three rides and won it both times! His BC trot out was awesome. Several

people commented that he didn’t even look like he been ridden. We got home from that ride on Sun-day night and left for the final selec-tion trials on Monday morning. Lori Windows rode one of Doug Swing-ley’s two horses and she asked us to come and crew for them. It was fun to see all the horses and riders (even though the weather was terrible). Zar and Smokey looked great!

Endurance News (con’t)

AHDRA: Endure for the Cure 50 1 L 05:18 Ellyn Rapp on SA Belshazzar 150/150

2 F 05:45 Alisija Zabavska Granger on Merlin 150/125

3 L 06:57 Marty Power on SA Te Jat 125/110 BC

4 F 06:57 Olivia R. Rudolphi on Wineglass Lambrusco 125/100

5 M 07:31 Jen Allen on Saleros Legacy 150/90

6 L 08:04 Scott Campbell on Monachers Charm 110/80

7 H 08:20 Bryan Eckmann on Legacy's Imakeeper 150/70

8 M 08:20 Michael D. Mocilan on Count On Psyche 125/65 9 M 08:27 Bonnie Mielke on Ola Loki 110/60

10 F 08:37 Sheila Schneider on Gypsy B Miss Behavin 110/55

Lame Guy Worthington on PA Hi‐Spirit

SA Belshazzar and Jeremy Olson

Marty Power on Te Jat Picture ©2009 GenieSS, Inc.

www.geniess.com



Member Stories I

From Chris Evans Just a brief hello to ASAV from Can-ada to remind you that we Shagya people do exist here, albeit in small numbers! With the second largest country in the world and a colder cli-mate than you, it is easy to realize that it is not an easy task to visit each other or see the horses. From the West we have Connie and Landon Good of Lightening Ridge Sport Horses near Pritchard, British Columbia. This is the interior of BC with mountains every direction from there. However they are close to the Okanagan Valley which has one of the mildest climates in Canada and is fa-mous for its grape and wine produc-tion. The area is also well known for some of the largest cattle ranches in the world and of course some of the best cutting horses. Competing for the attention of horse lovers in this area is the Good's Hungarian stallion Baron Gyemant who is by the Shagya Hun-garian Bravo. Connie is very inter-ested in the Shagya contributions to Sport Horses so I am sure we will hear more from them in the near future. A few mountain ranges away to the south east is Booth Creek Ranch of Allan and Anke Brander. The geo-graphic isolation there is evident to me as it became the main problem in ac-quiring semen from their beautiful per-formance tested (In Germany) Shagya stallion Murad. Anke advises that the collection facility nearest her is about a six hour drive from her Ranch! I’m hopeful this changes in the near future! Anke's website is very informative on Murad's accomplishments and the move to Canada from Germany. Now if you drive from Cranbrook for at least 13 hours a day for three days covering 4,000 kilometres you reach my place! Having Arabians my Shagya involvement started in late 2009 when I acquired Lily Creek Diva Dance from the Donna Coss' disper-

sal. We are near Orangeville which lacks orange production but we may have a lot of that color here in October each year. The forest covered hills around here do become very beautiful in the Autumn with the great horse trails and paths. We are an hour north of Toronto, the biggest city in Canada. Heading due East almost 3 hours away is Stirling, near where Shannon McCracken has her Shagyas. They include the European imported stallion Olivero and SW Selebration and her Dante colt. Sele and baby shared a ride from Illinois to Ontario in 2009! While there aren’t any mountains or wineries in this area it IS on the way if you ever want to see the gorgeous black horses and stables of the RCMP in our capital of Ottawa. Hopefully the four of us can introduce Shagyas to our separate regions of this country and expand the member-ship and breeder base. We hope to present a more detailed version of this introduction in the New Year. Meanwhile Merry Christmas and best wishes for a better New Year (both countries need that!!!)

From Brian Cross I'm a bit of an experimenter. I’ve tried many modern boot setups - even Renagades but those were a few years ago. We have lots of rocks and water where we are. I’ve been using the Ad-here glue by Vettec on the outer wall of the hoof for races, but the boots would often fly off at some point along the race. The back boots were especially troublesome for me. So in general my problems have never been boot stuck on foot after race. For that problem I suspect I’d just try using a little less glue. We train using Easyboot gloves. On a good hard ride we’d use athletic tape under the top edge of the boot down to the back of the heal. This seems to

give us working shoe protection most of the time. But after standing in water, you need to wait 5 minutes before run-ning. Lots of water is like a lubricant. Let it dry a little with some walking. After the tape gets wet, and is allowed to dry a little, is seems to hold even better. Back to races - I tried Goober glue – the new stronger stuff in place of Adhere and sent boots flying during the race and had to quickly wrap with tape and slap on a glove. It doesn’t take that long with practice. The Goo-ber glue hardens with water, unlike Adhere. This last two day race I tried something new - the older Goober glue hoofpack. I just shot the hoofpack in thru pre-drilled holes after a proper fitting of the gloves with tape. Some glue came out the back of the boot. But I just ignored that for 24 hours then tore the excess out after it set. This 24 hours set time is critical. Don't run a race sooner - is my suggestion. The whole process was simple and relatively no mess. And the Goober glue is cheaper than Adhere. Getting the Goober glue out of the tube can be hard. I suggest putting the tube in a plastic bag with a ziplock and dropping the whole thing in a bucket of hot water for 30 min. Also I’m aware of a battery powered caulking gun for sale I suspect I will get soon. As for the question about how long I keep the boots on – it depends on the plans for the horse. But not longer then maybe two weeks. My experience is that when they are ready to come off, they fly off, if you leave them on long enough. But generally I take them off at the race once we are finished. The horse needs a break for a week or two anyway. Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t that hard to get the gloves off. I didn’t need any tools for the Goober. The Adhere sometimes requires two screwdrivers. Yesterday I simply used the same holds and peal-ing-action I’d use with the Gloves after a training ride. I believe that after a while of tugging using various grips



eventually figure out the moves that work and you remember them. Also, I suspect it is possible that over time the horse figures out how to help you. Also, another trick I suspect is worth-while is to put a huge, serious, bevel around the toe of each boot. Just as much as you can take off without compromising the boot. This, I under-stand, is sometimes called a mustang roll. But what I tried for this race was to bevel all 180 degrees around the front of the boot. I used a beltsander. It wasn’t that hard. Took maybe one min-ute per boot. Another idea I read from Garret Ford is to park your horse (overnight) with loosened gaters. Just tighten them be-fore the race. Although, honestly, for the first half of the first loop last Satur-day I had forgotten to tighten the gat-ers. But it didn’t seem to matter. In fact, I’m thinking about trying the Goober glue injection on Easyboot glue-ons for the next race (no gaters). Maybe use a touch of Adhere on the hoofwall in places. That would be lighter weight - and one less thing to manage and rub. To sum this up, because of so many variables, no single solution is likely to work for everyone, so we tinkerers just keep on trying new things and learning how best to deal with the situations we face. There are a lot of common goals. Cheap, not messy, simple. Easy on the horse - the boots need to stay on the horse during a ride and replace-ments during a ride need to be fast. The boots also need to be easy to re-move and be reusable if possible. Keep the horse barefoot most of the time back at the barn if you can. We don't ask for much do we? :)

From Kilian Dill at Redwoodranch About three years ago we were on the verge of moving from one farm to an-

other in Sultan, WA. Our Arabian stal-lion was housed in the upper pasture, behind the house, and appeared lonely. It was the middle of winter and we decided to give him a roomy to keep company. After all this was a mare that was 24 and she had not been successfully bred in several years. No signs of coming into season late in the year and It had become very cold. What could happen? We had no intention of breeding anyone until we found a new farm to buy and then set-tled in (that took until almost April of the new year). We never thought anything had “happened” even by next summer. However the older mare also never came into season. About September we had our suspicions. By November,

we were sure---she was way to big around the belly. Can a 25 year old mare still deliver? We could never be sure when she was bred, so we would have to watch her “bag up” and esti-mate delivery date. That winter was terrible in the north-west—at least two feet of snow outside near the upper stalls. We had en-closed an outside area for her, but the temperature was pretty cold for a deliv-ery. The next best thing was to bring her into the house. Not truly a house, as we live in a converted barn where the lower section is still somewhat in-tact (one stall available for horses). The place was once the early breeding

facility of Pilchuck Horse clinic/breeding facilities. The stall below was quite nice but a bit small. We really wanted to use the breeding stall next to the available one, but it had been con-verted to storage and also contained the hot water heater for two houses (ours and the in-law rental). So we waited and waited. The mare was happy because she was warm. We thought perhaps Christmas day—that would be great. Not to be. Next is New Years. New Years approached slowly. Drena did notice that her stall was starting to get awfully wet over-night. Urinating too much? There are no pipes in that stall (in fact just one fawcet downstairs? Our renter Troy, decided to dig one night to see where the water was coming from—found an old pipe that went nowhere, but it con-tained water. It was located near the outer wall and apparently “froze” and split. Here I was on New Years eve running around small towns and look-ing for pipes and fittings in any store that may be open. Loews managed to still be open and we purchased parts to either seal the pipe or just cap it off. We determine the pipe went nowhere and was a remnant of a pipe going to an outer office building at one time. Cap it off. Move the mare next door? After the pipe was capped off and the stall cleaned and load with a bale of hay, nothing happened that night (New Years eve). Drena kept saying--”Any day now”. On New Years day we were relaxing, but we took turns watching the mare. It was getting late that eve-ning and I started to fall asleep. All of a sudden there was lots of yelling down-stairs--”get your butt down here quickly”. I ran down stairs and Cham-bourd had just delivered. The stall was a bit tight and worried about the baby. We waited for the baby to get up. We thought that this would take a while. For hours I tried to get the baby up and standing (and boy was he heavy). It would seem that the one back leg

Picture of the barn house that winter. Stalls still remain in the lower section, as well as a full bath facilities for humans.

Member Stories I (con’t)



would not support the weight and ap-pears a bit crooked. We didn't know what to make of this in the middle of the night. Baby could not eat and boy was he heavy just to hold him up. We knew we had to get milk into him and did not wish to waste the colostrum. After working with him for 2 or more hours, I said--”get the baby bottle”. We had been that route before and the past vet had trained us well. Drena proceeded to milk mom several times and then feed the baby. After the third feeding we tried the “hold the bottle between mom's legs” trick. Did not seem to work. We called the vet and he said—can't make it there tonight or tomorrow. Here is a list of vets you can call for the AM. By then we did manage to get him up (wobbly as can be) and the vet did get the bottle be-tween the legs trick to work. Baby was nursing away. Vet also got the placenta out (with oxy-tocin) and checked over the foal. He was just TOO big for momma and was badly windswept. What can we do? Wait it out? We spent months going through splints, glue on corrective shoes and the special trimming quite often. Baby also grew so fast that we had to strip the double stall next door and cover the water heater with a wood type structure. He grew excep-tionally fast and ate as if he was two grown horses. Mom could not produce milk fast enough and at over 25 years foundered. The option was always to put her down, but we refused. She had special “medicine shoes made” with a drill press and a tap for screw holes in the metal shoes. She is doing remarkably well and will be 27 this spring. The foal remained nameless until a week or so afterward. Neighbors sug-gested a host of names, but I was looking for something more dynamic. After much searching, he became RWR Zawabi. Zawabi still is growing like a weed and reminds us of his grandad, Shobako Shaklan. Zawabi's

pedigree is exceptional. His sire (Sirokko Shaklan) is a grandson of “El Shaklan”. El Shaklan was brought over from the Back Forest of Germany and lived at Om El Arab in the Santa Ynez valley of central California. El Shaklan was sold as part of a divorce settlement and lived out the remainder of his life in Brazil. He is one of the greatest known stallions in the world. Sirokko is also a grandson of Pat-trone* . Zawabi's dam Chambourd is also one of the few Cognac daughters remaining alive. Cognac was a Bask son. On Chambourd other side, she is a granddaughter of Cometego, also a Bask son. Zawabi can be hot at times, but he seems to have the mild disposition of his mom. He is shy with strangers, but is most curious once he relaxes. He has deep throated calls, which come from grandmother as well as his mother (as Drena says--”he sounds

like a bull”). His coat appears to be from his grandmother and the Pattrone line. Zawabi (desert whirlwind) is our pride and joy. He does not act like a stallion at 22 months (he is aware of the mares and wishes to control them). Even the neighbor's 5 year old girl goes into his area. She worries as he tends to pull her pig tails and plays a bit rough. Other than that, she isn't afraid.

Zawabi at 20 months old. Standing in front is Drena. Our trainer LeAnn is to the side.

Member Stories I (con’t)

Please contact Valerie Bullock at

[email protected] to order.

Check out the ASAV Web‐Site for further details

& more merchandise! www.shagyaregistry.com



Dante Jumpstart foal By Christy Johnson Last summer, I purchased a breeding to Dante through the JumpStart pro-gram. Here is the result, just three days old. He is a fine colt out of my Purebred Arabian mare RH Scarlette Onfire.

The ASAV WEG judging clinic and membership meeting in Kentucky, end of September 2010, was again a great success and a milestone for ASAV. The 3½ day program was packed with a variety of events and high-lights. ASAV was able to welcome new members, who decided to sign up to become members with ASAV during the event. ASAV is thankful to the three international ISG judges, who conducted the judging clinic for inter-ested ASAV members during that

extended weekend. ASAV wants to thank everyone who participated in making this such a great event!

ASAV JumpStart 2009… …Shagya-Arabian Judging Clinic

ISG‐Judges: Dr. Walter Huber, Dr. Egon Kamarasy, and Hallie Goetz conducting the ASAV Shagya‐Arabian Judging Clinic



The Recovery From Brian Coss The act of rapidly labeling an event as good or bad causes unnecessary stress and saps energy. The truth is we won’t always have what we need to direct desired outcomes. Stuff hap-pens. We can’t change the past, but we can think, and perhaps we can agree to move towards desired out-comes and work at it. Really, this is all we can do. I’ve been with my Shagya gelding Stet-son for about 3 years now. He is 11 years old. A little more than a year ago Stetson went lame for a reason I will never know. He tore a suspensory ligament in his right front leg. We were facing treatment options. With encouragement from my close and dear friend Carol Federighi, I opted for one Platelet Rich Plasma (PRP) injec-tion at the site of the injury. Stetson was a stallion only a few years prior, so stall rest was hard for him. Gabapentin is a drug that was used to help him get through the days – chill him out. It was hard for me to watch him. I was told he’d be out of action for a year. I recall it looked bad… Winter was coming. My friend Carol lives in downtown Washington DC where I work as well. An opportunity for a stall opened up at her barn in Rock Creek Park. Not much turnout there, but turnout wasn’t on Stetson’s menu, and RCP was more accessible to me then where Stetson was, and frankly a more interesting place to hang out for both Stetson and me. Then one day we got an “assignment” - from coach Carol. She was following the vet’s direction, but I trusted Carol. She had been where Stetson and I were with horses of her own. “Walk him every day,” she said. We did. We started out with short distances on flat surfaces. I had decided to follow the program and not

fight it. It quickly got boring for me. But Stetson liked it. I found that through the repetition and boredom I started to focus more on Stetson – what he was doing – what he was likely thinking. I found that over time I was getting more “in shape” my-self. The hill work at a walk was doing it. Soon I was allowed on his back for our walks. Lots of bareback rides. I played with new ways to communicate with him that, for whatever reason, be-fore this I never took the time to experi-ment with. Leg pressure. Standing still during mount-up. The coach as-signments gradually grew more chal-lenging. We were out on trails. Rock

Creek has a very nice trail system. It is a National Park. A busy park. People, dogs and lots of bikes. Given Stetson’s a Shagya, he managed himself quite well in the mid-dle of all the hubbub. I learned a lot about dogs last year. One thing is that dogs pick up on fear body language fast. This fear talk generally comes from the rider, or the owner of the dog. I use to challenge unleashed dogs with a “horse charge” if I “thought” there was going to be a prob-lem. I never saw a dog that would not back off when faced with a charging horse, or at least a horse that was fac-

ing the dog. But over time, we (the horse and I) grew to simply ignore dogs, and owners. If you act like you are supposed to be there and don’t care, dogs seem to agree. Sure I watch the dog, but not in a challenging way. What you don’t want to do (as a rider) is to shout at the owner “get that dog on a leash!” Because what will happen is in this order. The dog hears your aggressive tone – dog owner re-acts with panic – the dog sees how uncomfortable you made its owner - then the dog faces the source of all this trouble and the dog’s nature is to fight back. Or at the very least bark its head off. My advice to other riders is to not react to dogs at all. Don’t change your gait. Keep moving, and simply monitor the dog as you move on past. It is very rare, but if a dog starts to take chase, monitor, but don’t change a thing. If a little distance fails to work, face your horse towards the dog and charge it for a few yards. Stop and wait for the dog to figure out that it has an owner that it just abandoned. And the dog’s face-saving move will be to retreat to “protect” the owner. That has worked for me every time. This was not intended to be a story about dogs, so allow me to get back to the rehab of Stetson. Eventually Stet-son’s outings with me were enough of a workout to where Stetson did not need the Gabapentin. The Summer of 2010 had arrived and coach had Stet-son and I cantering for 10 min-utes. Stetson wasn’t ready for any endurance rides, but he was getting close to being a healthy horse and Rock Creek had become our play-ground. Have you noticed how some kids love horses up close and other will scream their heads off when a horse is within a few feet of them? Stetson and I have. We see a lot of tourists at Rock Creek, and a lot of crazy loud kids, but Stetson will just stand and wait. He will maybe get a puzzled look on his

Member Stories II



face. Kids! Once I was bareback and a whole family wrapped themselves around Stetson. He could not move. I quickly slipped off his back and worked quickly and quietly to scrape the kids off him. Frankly I was astonished at how uninformed parents can be about horse safety. But through all of it Stet-son just stands and waits for my direc-tion. I suspect this is because of his breeding and perhaps because we had just spent a long Winter together. Endurance racing is our sport. Stetson and I started out together doing endur-ance back in 2008. I wanted to get back into it as soon as Stetson was ready. We were back to “normal horse” and coach says he’s ready to train for an endurance ride. So we did. The daily “rehab” quickly morphed into training rides. Lots of them. Stetson had been barefoot for two years and now we were getting serious with Easyboot Gloves. We experi-mented and eventually found a setup that would stay on Stetson’s feet – most of the time. It seemed that if Stetson wanted to, he could run so fast that a boot would fly off. Well that was no fun, so I worked at controlling Stet-son’s surges in speed. This “problem” was eventually brought under con-trol. With Stetson it seems to help if you simply set boundaries. “No, you’re not supposed to sprint,” was the message for a number of weeks. Virginia Highlands Challenge 08/28/2010 During this race the plan was to just take it easy. We were going to “enjoy the scenery.” And we did for the most part. But admittedly there was a stretch in the middle of the last loop… A rider had just passed us. The fire road was grassy and wide enough for easy moving and Stetson was warmed up and able to move freely. After a bit I looked behind and coach wasn’t there. Carol had tossed a boot a ways back. Not good team-work! Stetson and I eventually re-

versed course and we reconnected with coach. Coach wasn’t very happy. Stetson and I had acted like kids and wasted a bunch of energy on what was supposed to be an easy ride. The team crossed the finish line in 14th and 15th place out of 59 rid-ers. We were surprised that we placed that well. It was an easy 30 mile ride. Virginia Fort Valley 10/22/2010 At this race the plan was to do back-to-back 30 mile races on Friday and Sat-urday. Again we were not going to kill the horses. We simply intended to do a lot of trotting and do everything “right,” like one would in a “normal” endurance race. Carol’s horse had been tested with LD endurance, but neither of us was the owner of the horse so we worked to minimize the risks with his health. We stuck with the plan. But what seemed to happen is that after a bunch of attempts to canter by Stetson on the first loop, attempts I quickly converted back into a trot, Stetson seemed to “channel” his completive spirit into the most beautiful long strided trot you could ever hope for. This was a trot he held for hours. Honestly, the trot did not seem to tire him at all. And after a while he’d only break out of the trot for the technical parts of the trail. We rid-ers did dismount and walk up the two steep sections of the trail, but it was a fast walk and I was really breathing hard on those. But we managed. If you recall, Stetson’s trot was setting the pace. After many miles we had no idea what position in the race we were. We thought we had done well, but we didn’t know. About a 1/8 mile from the finish line Carol and I dis-mounted to walk in. Then, two riders zoomed past us at a canter. I was thinking “maybe we dismounted too soon?” And maybe we did, but not by much. When we arrived at the VC I checked Stetson’s HR and he was down. So we just strolled in and

locked in second place. Stetson was cool as a cucumber. Coach took 4th place. Later, at the handing out of the awards, Stetson was awarded “Vet’s Choice.” Three vets had voted him the horse in the best condition at the finish of the 30 mile race. I love this horse… The next morning I’m honestly feeling better than I expected to feel. We mount up and we are off to do it again. But on Saturday there were 45 riders. There was more dust and more congestion on the singletrack seg-ments, but we didn’t really care all that much. We just did our trotting thing when opportunity presented it-self. With 30 miles, you tend to get plenty of opportunity to trot. This time navigation was much eas-ier. We hardly slowed down. Each turn was made with confidence. I sus-pect even the horses enjoy this. I think horses know when their rider has them off course. At one point a truck was cruising to-wards us on a gravel road. Stetson and I were in the lead, as if we were at RCP, we didn’t falter a step. It was as if the truck was a big dog. We kept an eye on it, but we didn’t change a thing. We simply trotted on down the road at a really good pace. Towards the end of the ride we were all feeling really good. On the last few miles I pushed Stetson into his “I’m all warmed up” canter. You just have to smile to ride it. No surge, just a nice lope into the finish line. I held off on the final dismount a little longer. I wanted no repeats. Again, just like the day before, no water and sponging needed. He was down to 60 beats with hardly a pause. We took 2nd place again. Super. Then later we were told that the first place rider, our friend Judy Ricci, was pulled for miss-ing a loop. Apparently, through no fault of her own, she was too fast and got out in front of the race crew that

Member Stories II (con’t)



was to manage a busy trail intersection on the last loop. That was a bummer, but it did put me and Stetson in first place. It was nice finishing first, but taking the finish from Judy, a much more capable and experienced horse and rider combination, was bitter-sweet. But no one could argue that my friend Stetson was recovered from his suspensory injury, and now better than ever. Looking back on the year - who is to say what was good or bad about a given situation? Stuff happens and you are faced with choices. We can’t change the fact that “it” happened. But we can choose to “deal with it” – and move on, and salvage the good that does come along. During the year I learned so many things about horse-manship, teamwork and trust. Maybe it doesn’t matter so much that bad things happen sometimes. Perhaps what matters is staying focused on the game at hand while setting goals for the future.

Shagya’s In Central Oregon’s Dressage Scene From Holly Rouska Last month we received one of our nicest comments yet by my dressage instructor Nancy Stearns of Stone Pony Ranch & Dressage Centre in Redmond, Oregon ... “she gives Shagya’s a good name” . Malvasia, better known as Mallie is catching the eyes of many folks in the Central Oregon dressage scene. She started lessons at just 3, more for the exposure then the actual act of dres-sage but now at 5 she has been turn-ing a few heads. During the spring and summer of 2009 we attended the ASAV Meeting in Bend and did a short presentation and participated in 2 local schooling shows competing at Introductory Level. We have also attended 3 clinics with Dieter Riedinger of Austria with our most re-

cent one on September 26 where we were so honored to have him ride Mal-lie (he usually never rides). She too was a little shocked but I think she in-trigues him and he wanted to feel what I am experiencing. He had some inter-esting comments about her and even said she was a little bit arrogant ... we all had to remind him that she was from Europe too, many laughs pro-ceeded.

In the last few months we have really seen some wonderful breakthroughs and not just with her but with myself as well. She needs and requires me to be very specific with my aids, to have per-fect timing, to prepare her for the cor-ners, changing direction across the diagonals and transitions but most of all patience. On my older kids (Priceless at 19 and JoJo at 11) they tend to know what I want even if my

aids are telling a different story. This year I have learned so much about my two different riding styles, endurance and dressage. In endur-ance I ride with more of what we (my dressage instructor and I) call my “up” seat, a more forward seat like you would use for eventing compared to my “down” seat for dressage. This seat is my passive, following, slowing and driving seat.

Many times when Mallie responds correctly to one of the aids I feel it at the same time Nancy’s sees it. She said I am very fortunate to be able to feel so much on her when she responds. This past year we have struggled a bit with our canter as I tend to want to do my “up” seat and scare her, yet she can do the most beautiful canter in the pasture when I bring her in and ride her bareback. You know what you used to do as a kid, flip flop sandals, shorts, halter and lead rope. She feels no pressure, I have to have my “down” seat and magic happens. The suspension in her canter is beautiful, I feel like we are a very tall, well trained dres-sage horse ... ok like all of the big Warmbloods at Stone Pony. Next up is her balance. A well trained dressage horse must bal-ance themselves, it is not the riders job but this takes years to achieve and a very conditioned dressage horse so we take great pleasure and pride in those few perfect bal-

anced, collected and straight strides we may get in 30-60 minutes of riding. She does try and balance on the bit and my hands (she gets extremely low, heavy and deep) so we have been al-ternating from the reins on the bit to the reins on her dropped noseband and I just experimented with a sidepull bridle, wow does she do some beauti-ful trotting on this bridle but does get tired quickly. Without the bit or my




hands she must balance herself, this is much harder and uses more of her body (muscles). When we are using the bit if she gets heavy we have been letting her go (something like dropping the connection) for just a stride or two so she has to balance herself then picking up the connection again. Connection ... yes another key function in dressage and endurance but they can be very different versions. I think

in endurance many times the “connection” may be hanging on for dear life, slowing them down or just trying to get them to stop. In dressage, without connection you have nothing to push your forward movement into and dressage is moving forward from be-hind. Yet again I cherish those perfect strides with soft and supple connec-tion. Right now we are doing lots and lots of giving and taking with the con-nection, tiny squeezes but staying very soft. Also on our “to do” list is straightness - aligning her shoulders with my hips

then her hips. Just like the watch hand turns “straight” and the carousel horse goes in circles in a straight position so too should we, but we can’t forget to remain supple and incorporate just a little bend ... but keeping her straight. We have much to learn and to strive for and plan on a few local shows in 2011 whether our canter is perfect or not. I am so honored to experience this journey with her as she is going to

teach me to be such a better rider. Holly Rouska, Ter-rebonne, OR Proud Owner Of Priceless Art, 19 year old Polish Arabian, Malvasia, 5 year old Shagya Arabian filly and Josada, 11 year old Polish Arabian and I can’t forget Chief, my hus-band’s 13 year old Mustang/Quarter horse.

Malvasia - Fall Fling Dressage Schooling Show 10/11/2009 Introductory Test - our Score was 65%


Come & join ASAV!

ASAV the Shagya‐

Arabian breeders and owners association in North‐America, for the registration and promo‐

tion of horses with Shagya‐Arabian blood‐

lines.

ASAV provides an affordable membership friendly & open platform for breeders, own‐ers and interested people of horses with Shagya‐Arabian bloodlines. The association is managed by its Board of Di‐rectors, a group of profes‐sionals with many years of business and also Shagya‐

Arabian experience.

"A Shagya in every barn & stall"


A table full of ASAV Awards in 2010 – in case you want to see your name on one of the awards in 2011 – sign up to the ASAV Award-Program!


From Ellen Rapp It was an amazing experience being able to represent the United States Endurance Team with a Shagya horse. The process to get the horses qualified just to make it into the top 12 was very intense. Having to get them through their qualifiers, take them to the "time trials" and have them per-form at maximum ability, keep them sound, fit, and healthy for the one month training camp before the WEG if they get selected in the top 12, and finally peak them for the games. SA Belshazzar's ability to maintain his exceptional strength and soundness was amazing! Zar never quit at any point in this process and in between all of this he also was able to recapture his title for the top Shagya Endurance horse at Endure for the Cure race. He had an amazing race there and proved his ability once again.

Zar is absolutely a love to be around, always wanting to get in an extra scratch or rub every time someone is out in his pasture. While riding Zar you always feel the power, yet he is so fluid and balanced running out on the trails. Zar prefers a faster speed, how-ever is more then happy to follow horses or lead, go alone on the trail, or be in a group. His mentality is truly exceptional and to have the ability that he does, there is no question in my mind on why he made the top 12 train-ing squad for USA Endurance. It was an amazing day when both of my horses were picked to go to Ken-tucky for the training camp for USA. Zar was the only Shagya that was go-ing to be representing the United States. We were very happy to pro-mote the Shagya breed while in Ken-tucky and Zar was loving his camera time as well. Interestingly enough, a lot of people from other countries came up to me asking to see Zar be-cause they were interested in the breed. During the month in Kentucky Zar was feeling at home and was in the best condition of his career. He was happy to be back in Kentucky where he was born and loved the heat and the terrain. On the final day of trot-outs before they chose the team Zar looked amaz-ing. He trotted out beautifully and there was no question in any ones mind he was fit and capable to repre-sent team USA. Zar was second alter-

nate for team USA and after his adopted brother Smokey who made the team came up lame it was Zars turn to step in. Unloading Zar at the WEG grounds was exhilarating and an unforgettable experience. Zar walked

off the trailer and was the first horse to be inspected for team USA. He walked off the trailer and into the tent very proud. Ears forward, head up, as if to say ok guys.....I’m here. He was very "cool" and proud to be there. Zar settled into his stall very relaxed and never once was concerned about be-ing there. Zar worked out beautifully on the steeple chase track where we were allowed, he was moving amaz-ingly and was fresh. After our first workout I had three different people

come up to me when we were wash-ing Zar telling me how beautiful his workout looked. It followed with a small discussion on his breeding and where he came from. Everyone was very interested in seeing the Shagyas on the grounds. Since Zar moved into first alternate he had to vet in with the team and be

WEG 2010 Update



ready and prepared the morning of the race in case something was wrong with any of his teammates. The morning of all the horses were healthy, so Zar waited patiently in his stall for the duration of the race wish-ing he was out there. Immediately after the race we took Zar out for a long walk discussing the race with him and how he could have excelled. Zar was very happy to be there repre-senting the Shagya breed with team USA and hopes to continue on with his career. Zar was excited to be going home after a very long process. He is now on a vacation for the winter and enjoying his time rolling in the dirt and running in the fields. Zar wanted to thank ASAV for all of the support and help throughout this proc-ess. We could not have done it without every one’s help. He also wanted to thank all the rest of his sponsors, Zilco, WW Boots, Toklat, Irideon, Succeed, Tipperary, Chapel Hill Farm, and Craig Olson Horseshoeing.

WEG Update (con’t)

WEG 2010 Endurance Impressions & Ticker: … 108 starters …

… 55 riders finished … ... UAE‐Team won Gold, France Silver, Germany Bronze ...

… Riding time of winner: 7:35:44 hrs. …

Lindsay Graham on Monk – US Team



Update on CA (Cerebellar Abiothrophy)

FromChris Evans Dear ASAV Board of Directors and membership:

I am taking this opportunity as a new member to submit my thoughts and observations on the Shagya breed.

Briefly, my background includes some kind of involvement with Arabian horses since the 1970s. We have bred them on a small scale since 1992. While I had always known of Shag-yas of course they were rare, if not unknown, in North America in those early years.

So after surfing the internet I did find Donna Coss and with her sale in pro-gress, we were fortunate to purchase Lily Creek Diva Dance who has been a joy to ride and we are enthusiastic about her future breeding possibilities. So this is where the purpose of this letter was conceived. My background consisted of detailed pedigree re-search and genetic inheritance. Obvi-ously most matings are an educated guess at best….the old racing adage being “breed the best to the best and HOPE for the best”. They didn’t all be-come Secretariat!

Now from the Arabian involvement we all became aware of genetic inheri-tance problems in the Arabian breed. First SCID and later CA. Both recognized as being common in Arabi-ans, while not other breeds. Both are carried in a similar fashion to colour and other genes. In layman’s terms each horse carries two sets of each gene. Each parent donates one of these two to their foal. Since our in-volvement in Arabians began, labs have been able to identify genes…..both those that are obvious and those that are carried. You can test to see if your horse carries the color chestnut…..which is recessive and therefore not seen when a bay gene is passed on by one of the par-

ents. Similarly there are now tests to determine whether or not a horse car-ries the diseases SCID and CA. While color inheritance is an interest of mine, and many others, it is not nearly so

important as the genes being carried which can potentially kill a foal.

Therefore it has become common for Arabian stallions to advertise their test-ing results re: SCID. As the CA test is more recent, advertising CA test re-sults is now becoming as important. To breed my Arabian mares, having some knowledge of the status of the stallion re: CA and SCID is somewhat impor-tant. Of course that is in addition to other qualities of soundness, correct-ness, beauty, disposition and athletic ability that I would look for. While the SCID “clear” has been in common use for Arabian advertising, the CA test isn't as common…YET. The World Champion Arabian stallion was found to be a CA carrier and this news was published on thehorse.com last winter. This was “sensationalist” type of news, especially since this revelation was endorsed by the stal-lion’s wealthy Middle East own-ers. The website www.cerebellar-abiotrophy.org became known and on this site anyone can see the (approved by the owners/breeders) CA test re-sults status of a great many Arabian horses. Whether tested clear or as a

carrier, these findings are high-lighted. Besides Marajj, you will find a great many very popular names com-mon in the Arabian breeding world.

Continuing my obser-vations, I recently received an email advertisement for the beautiful but extreme Arabian stallion Ajman Moniscione… at stud in Italy but by a stallion listed as a CA carrier in the US. However Ajamn Moniscione is adver-tised as SCID and CA clear. Of course this stallion is a great result being from a mating with a stallion

that is a carrier. As the UC Davis site explains two carriers when mated have only a 25% chance of a fatal foal if the disease is passed on by BOTH sire and dam. There is a 50% chance of a healthy foal that is a carrier. There is a 25% chance that the foal does not inherit the disease from either parent.

This indicates that breeding to an oth-erwise top stallion, you may be lucky and avoid transmission of this trait. If your mare is clear, the WORST that can happen is that your foal becomes a carrier, but is otherwise healthy. Fur-ther, as the UC Davis study indicates from these test results, the probability is that 55% of all Arabians are de-scended from CA carriers.

Therefore it is not practical to disqualify carriers from the Arabian breed. How-ever the testing that is now available does allow for the knowledge of these inheritable traits before breeding. Some great stallions are available , known as carriers, and it is for the breeder to determine when and where they choose to take the “risks” that are now available as factual data.

This article is republished in its full length as requested by the author



Not being a geneticist I offer these ob-servations to the North American Shagya breeders and owners. These diseases ARE a known hereditary de-fect in Arabian bloodlines. I certainly don’t condemn the Arabian breed as their other qualities are superior to all other horse breeds. Other breeds have their problems too. Quarter Horses have isolated the HYPP genetic dis-ease as coming from the World Cham-pion stallion Impressive. They have taken regulatory steps to isolate this and all Impressive horses used for breeding must be tested for HYPP and once negative tested they are ac-cepted for breeding. Additionally the Quarter Horse has problems with HERDA..again traced to certain very popular bloodlines in reining/cutting horses.

While I worry about our Arabian inherit-able diseases I choose the breed be-cause I can take them barefoot down a gravel road and onto forested trails …and go fairly fast for 4 to six hours and still have a sound horse. I have a nice quarter horse mare I love dearly…but she cant do that as well! Or keep up! Besides the fact that Arabians are simply more beautiful than most oth-ers, they do have the practical advan-tages. Which I expect is why they were developed in the Austro Hungarian Empire as superior cavalry horses. All practical use, I don’t think they had to have a beautiful horse..that was just a bonus!

So in researching Shagya stallions, KNOWING that Arabian traits have been passed on to them, I found that advertised test results for CA and SCID were exceedingly rare. WHY?

Like a “kid in a candy store” I am look-ing at all the Shagya stallions in the world. I was lucky enough to obtain from Valerie Bullock the first two Ger-man studbooks of the Shagya breed going back to foundation stock. I pur-chased the Zeunert Hengstbuch Inter-

national and got a copy of her recent Shagya Araber edition to which I've now subscribed. The horse pictures and pedigrees are self explanatory and the editorial has me practicing my Uni-versity German! The Lene Moellgaard website is a fantastic site for Shagya links worldwide. She has just included the ASAV link and we should all thank her for that inclusion. But to my point….all this research and informa-tion showed no referral to the SCID and CA problems. I felt I just could not be wrong …..that these dis-eases MUST have been inherited by Shagyas!

Last week I noticed an attractive sport horse type Shagya stallion at stud in Germany…named Kabu-Khan. Sur-prisingly I noticed he was advertised as “CA clear”…..Wow! the first and so far the ONLY Shagya stallion I see adver-tised as negative for CA. I had previ-ously seen the Atam’s Shagya stallion as clear for SCID..so these were the first two I’ve noticed. I expect there are more …I haven’t read everything yet!

I enquired about Kabu-Khan and asked about the testing as I had not seen that before and what was the status of this testing in Germany and Europe. I will attach Irene Noll’ s letter from her viewpoint. (she has given me permission to present to ASAV) . In brief, the German registry VZAP is considering mandatory testing for stal-lions to be approved.

I contacted the ATA…American Trakehner Association…and inquired about their regulations as they also have heavily infused Arabian blood ( I love this breed too!) . They currently have required SCID testing for any Trakehner with an Arabian in the previ-ous two generations. They are consid-ering CA testing for the future but no decision as of yet.

Therefore, in conclusion, my request to the ASAV board is to encourage the

Shagya membership to test their horses for SCID and CA. I readily ad-mit I have not tested my own horses and cost is a deterrent, but I'm not about to dismiss the future responsibil-ity. As the Arabian breed is heavily infused with carriers of both SCID and CA I think it is not practical to disqualify carriers from breeding. We are not at the same stage as the Trakehner where it is probably a much smaller percentage affected…. Less Arabian blood should result in a lesser probabil-ity. However to “pass” all Trakehners and Shagyas based only with Arabi-ans in the past two generations is na-ïve. Many of those carriers listed on the CA website go back to the exact same ancestors as the Arabian stal-lions used at Babolna and other Euro-pean studs 100 and more years ago.

Therefore my “practical” suggestion is to encourage testing for the immediate future. In the near future make testing and their results mandatory details in registration. At that point every Shagya breeder would be able to determine the risks and proceed with the risks of their own choosing. Having prior knowledge is valuable in responsible breeding decisions and therefore is good for everyone. This knowledge could be as accessible as melanoma risk from the phenotype of any Grey colored horse.

At some point in the distant future the registries may choose to disqualify car-riers from breeding. I believe we are far from that goal and humbly suggest that for now, knowledge of known heredi-tary risks is available for the benefit of us all.

Hypothetically ,when testing becomes mandatory, it should be understood that not every foal thereafter would have to be tested. The offspring of two “clear” parents (whether SCID or CA) can not inherit the disease. These foals would never need to be tested and should be given a “clear”

Update on CA (Cerebellar Abiothrophy) (con’t)



status,. This may help make it clear that having mares tested as well as stallions would make good sense eco-nomically.

Following are two letters from Irene Noll, Germany, of the Orgis Family Shagyas:

Dear Chris Evans, Now I'm back at my box there are a few things I would like to let you know about the situation regarding genetic diseases in Germany. There was no obligation but I had a stallion tested for SCID years ago. He went straight back to Skowronek through Ajeeb but was negative. Then we had all the en-tire horses screened for CA as soon as the test came out. 1 mare and her son were carriers. The mare is now retired from breeding and her beautiful son is now a beautiful gelding. A painful but necessary decision. The VZAP in Germany has a breeding committee which has already dis-cussed the problem and will recom-mend the following to the AGM: As from 2011 all stallions must be proved CA and SCID-clear before being pre-sented for licensing. In the past there was no such regulation for SCID but when the first breeders began advertis-ing their stallions as SCID-free many others took the leap. A few outed their stallions as carriers but drew attention to other (positive) features. Indeed, many carriers are extremely attractive individuals. We should admit the weak-nesses in the breed and at the same time show the public that we are doing something about it. There will probably be price reductions for our association members for dual testing. It's no use sticking our heads in the sand.

Can you remember the scandal about hip dysplasia in German Shepherd dogs? It's practically disappeared now because the carriers of this unphysi-ological feature were sorted out. Hope-fully the VZAP-recommendations get a majority vote. They're not even asking

for mares to be tested! One could ar-gue that this should remain within the judgement of the breeder but really both sire and dam should be screened for deadly recessive diseases other-wise they will persist in the population, albeit at a low level. So I do think you and I are on the right track and any small preventive step should be wel-comed. Because ignoring the problem will only increase the damage. Inciden-tally, many horse owners in Europe stopped breeding due to the shock of witnessing their small foals suffer and waste away with no hope of treatment whatsoever.

Dear Chris, The AGM I mentioned takes place in April and this is the 2nd time in a row that the magazine takes the opportunity of enlightening its' readers.

Here's a rundown: SCID and CA are once again described and addresses for testing in Germany are printed. Di-ether von Kleist, Breeding Officer and CEO of the VZAP is again quoted on the necessity of testing and publishing results for all breeding stock. However he admits the difficulty of getting such a motion passed; many breeders who had already tested for SCID have been cut by the small remainder.This in spite of the overwhelming importance of re-ducing genetic diseases in Arabians and all other horse breeds.

The legal aspects are then dealt with. Under German law a buyer can return "breeding stock" within 2 yrs if he finds out that the animal carries a testable disease he was not informed about. The seller must return the money and all costs incurred. Then there's the question of animal protection: a breeder can be brought to court if he pairs animals whose progeny has defects causing suffering and pain. So these are addi-tional and also weighty aspects....... Hope this helps!

Update on CA (Cerebellar Abiothrophy) (con’t)


The annual ASAV meeting and North America Shagya-Arabian judging clinic was held at Darlene Stevens’ farm in Finchville, Indiana.

Dr. Egon Kamarasy and friends at the September ASAV meeting. Dr. Egon, the guest of honor at the meeting, is a very young 90+.

Four participants passed an exam and received their judging certificates at the end of the clinic. Congrats to: Darlene Steven, Irmi Atam, Denis Atam, and Chris Evans!


ASAV Board of Directors/Contact Information: ASAV‐President: Kilian Dill [email protected]

Vice‐President: Valerie Bullock [email protected]

BOD Founding Member: Daunna Sellers [email protected]

BOD Founding Member: Darlene Steven [email protected]

BOD at Large (International Contacts): Denis Atam [email protected]

Regional Directors:*

Region 1 North: Donna Coss [email protected] Region 2 South: Valerie Bullock [email protected] Region 3 Pacific: Kilian Dill [email protected] Region 4 West: Carolyn Tucker [email protected]

ASAV‐Officers: Secretary: Karen Bish [email protected] Registrar: Daunna Sellers [email protected] Treasurer: Darlene Steven [email protected] Membership Chair: Valerie Bullock [email protected] Promotions Editor: Donna Coss [email protected]

Newsletter Editor: NL Committee newslet‐[email protected]

Web‐Master: Denis Atam [email protected] Youth‐Program: Kesleigh Lehman [email protected]

ASAV‐Committees: Breeding Committee: Daunna Sellers [email protected]

Irmi Atam [email protected] Darlene Steven [email protected] Kilian Dill [email protected] *ASAV‐Regions:

Region 1 North: New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut , Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan ,Rhode Island, Maryland, Delaware, Vermont, Massa-chusetts, District of Columbia

Region 2 South: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Ala-bama, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, West Virginia

Region 3 Pacific: Washington, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Colorado, Iowa, Oregon, Nebraska, Idaho, Canada*

Region 4 West: California, Arizona, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii Kansas Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri

Canada: Chris Evans is the Canadian Liaison to the ASAV BOD [email protected]

(information about regions below)

ASAV Corporate Mailing Address: ASAV ‐ American Shagya Arabian Verband 15918 Porter Road Verona, KY 41092, USA

Email: [email protected] ASAV Registrar: ASAV ‐ American Shagya Arabian Verband 15918 Porter Road Verona, KY 41092, USA

ASAV Membership Services: ASAV ‐ American Shagya Arabian Verband 95 Maple Drive Waverly Hall, GA 31831 USA

ASAV Treasurer: ASAV ‐ American Shagya Arabian Verband 15918 Porter Road Verona, KY 41092, USA

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ASAV Studbook 250+ Pages With Colored Pedigrees $38


ASAV Shagya-Arabian Newsletter Autumn 2010

Documents

Transcript of ASAV Shagya-Arabian Newsletter Autumn 2010