Two Prognoz Daughters

I checked out Nurei and her sister Phara today.


I have to talk about the barn first. It's the first level of the house, the residence being above the stalls, and it's been recently renovated to total amazingness. It's the barn I would design. It's all white plaster and there are only 5 stalls because they are so huge, about 7 meters square. Rubber mats with straw (rubber mats are rare here). American buckets, all brand new, and steel and dark stained wooden doors. The stall walls are all only about 1.5 meters tall, so almost any horse could easily jump over, but it made the whole place so open, it was amazing.

Diamond shaped windows, Ikea fixtures, alu and smoke glass barn lights, the place was shining and modern. Two of those huge stalls had outside access doors to the paddock. The paddock, built on the side of a hill, has the most amazing manure removal system - she just rolls the manure to the cliff side, opens the gate, and dumps it over the edge. There is a high roof at the paddock level, and the bottom is about 5 meters below. Monthly a farmer comes by to pick up what she drops.

She can open her gates so that the horses can come and go, and the paddock has a lovely stone run-in shed. The barn/house/paddock is amazing, but I wouldn't buy it - they're surrounded by other homes and, just like here, there is not a single flat spot, not even enough for a roundpen. Her fields are even steeper than mine, and they just go straight up a hillside, all 10 acres.

OK the horses. The two sisters of the mare I wanted (Wiszi) were 3 and 5. Nurei is 3, the racehorse. Her sistser Phara foaled this year and the baby is another liver chestnut with flaxen mane. I never liked flaxen manes until today - at least when the mane isn't too light.

Phara nosed me and licked me and nibbled my watch, and rubbed her eyes on my chest gently. She is a sweetheart! Nurei was a pawing frantic mess so I visited her a little, but didn't spend a lot of time with her. I rode Phara, shown below:

Anyway the ride went exactly as I'd expected, frantic snorting, whirling, blowing, spooking, leaping, one terror after the next. Long, rattling snorts came from Nurei at every turn.

Even getting started, we were just outside the paddock girthing up again and someone opened a door or window (neighbor houses very close, all around) and all three horses spooked and whirled around on the pavement. Yah, I had to ride on pavement again, on a spooky young Arab. 


I ask myself, as always, if my trepidation at the situation made it worse, but I watched Nurei spook several times under her favorite, familiar rider, who was having fun, she really loves that mare. When the owner asked the girl to take Nurei trotting out ahead, she did, but Nurei slammed on the breaks twice when she saw sunlight on ferns. The girl just laughed. I noticed the girl talks to Nurei constantly as she rides, telling her "Careful, there's a root, and careful, puddle." I think I used to do this with Baasha when he was that age, but mostly with half halts when something was tricky on the trail. Of course Phara wasn't used to me, and she's green enough that it made her uncomfortable, probably, but I have a basis for comparison now. I've been shopping long enough that I know that even a very young horse can be brave and relaxed on trails. I trotted Wiszi and Amja and had fun, actually, riding them. Yah at first I was nervous but as I rode on, I was able to enjoy them. They were both also 5. With Wiszi I also split off and rode her another trail away from her buddy, and though both mares were unhappy about it, she did it for me. To separate Phara would have been impossible. The owner took my reins a couple times to lead her, because she didn't trust her to not bolt in some circumstances.

Funnily, all three horses (the owner went along on foot leading Nurei's mother, Novizna) did not hold their tails up like Arabians do, even though they were pretty animated the entire time. At one point I did opt to leap off the horse, because some guys were chainsawing and she was beside herself. It didn't matter, chainsaw, bike, person with dog, anything would send these mares over the edge. (See how Nurei's holding her tail in this photo? This is as much elevation she has, apparently. Tonight when I fed Baasha his dinner, as he ate, I noticed he holds his tail up in an arc, higher than this, even when relaxed.)

At one point my mare ran right over the owner who was on foot, trying to avoid a puddle. She got yelled at for that. You cannot see from the photos how gorgeous Phara is, and I really liked her except for the crazy. The bay Novizna was also a sweetheart, cuddling with me. You can see the stone run-in behind her.

Here's an attempt to zoom in so you can see Phara's face.

Nurei is gonna be something special someday. I can see that she might even surpass her mother's quality someday.

She's just off 12 pounds of grain everday and wired accordingly. I did ask what drugs German racehorses get and she said, "None, no drug is allowed, not even Lasix." Sadly there was an outbreak this week of EIA at Cologne's racetrack and horses have had to be put down, and many others quarantined. I asked about a Coggins but Nurei has never had one. What a different world this is. She said no worries, Nurei never raced in Cologne, and it's spread through mosquitos. I said, "I'm in Cologne everyday!" But I doubt a person can carry EIA.

My cell phone photos suck, but you'll have to take my word for it that these mares are both beautiful and have nice legs (not perfect, but good enough for me). Both mares are 5KEuros. The bay Novizna is 250,000 - that was my favorite of the three, but that's a little out of my price range.

I liked both mares a lot. If I had more patience, and if I wanted to breed, Nurei would be my choice. I could take a chance on Phara that she might learn to enjoy being out on trails...or I can keep looking for one who already does.

I should mention that this lady knows the people who own Amja. In fact, they live 2 km apart, so it was kind of deja vu to be there. She said she talked to them on the phone before my arrival and they told her about me. And obviously she knows the people who had Wiszi, they own Prognoz, the father of these two. The Arabian horse world in Germany is small.

Anyway, tomorrow I go see that Quarab. Praying for team sensible.

But for now more pretty liver chesntuts. I like the darker mane on the first one much more than the blond mane on the last one. Both Phara and Nurei are lighter now because of their Winter coats coming in.