Al Najma

Baasha comes from a stable in Auburn, Washington called Saarem al-Najma.

Saturday I visited an Egyptian Arabian farm called Al-Najma. I drove 2 hours to see a stable full of *ONLY GREY* horses because of a sentimental pull toward this name. This is a photo of Ovid, thier lead stallion. (Not my photo.)

I also spent 2 hours one way today driving to a car dealer looking at a Honda CRV...oh, you don't care about that. OK.: )

When I pulled up I saw two young girls riding two beautiful Arabian mares on the street. I found pics of them on their website. The first is Ophelia, shown here looking very pretty.


This stable has a motto:
"Schönheit darf sein - Leistung muss sein" - nach diesem Motto züchten wir unsere Pferde.
"Beauty may be there, but performance must."

This is the other mare I encountered on the street, Medina (not like Bill Gates' Redmond neighborhood, no, it's pronounced "medeenah").




The girls followed my car back to show me their mares. Their father came out, the owner of this stable, and I instantly took a liking to him. He is wearing sandals - like I was - and shorts, like I was. He was scruffy. Like me.



He had the girls ride around the arena to show off their paces. I immediately noticed the darker mare had a really springy, but slow-motion trot that looked dreamy to ride. The white mare trotted around just like Baasha. He's not known for his gaits.

I so don't want a grey horse, but I need to visit every possibility.


The youngest daughter on the white mare asked her father for her jacket as it was starting to rain, and the mare shied a little but the girl soothed the horse and very slowly put her jacket on, while insisting the horse stand still. I was impressed. She's about 12 years old and responsible for continuing the training of this horse.

The man asked me if I wanted to ride but I'm not at that stage yet. I'm just looking. It was a nice offer though.

He's an endurance rider and the dark mare has already been started in endurance. He says she's very rateable, very easy to ride compared to her father Ovid, who is competitive.

I said my gelding was never easy in a group and he said, "How long was he a stallion?" Uh....measured in days or minutes? Remember in Germany animals are not altered as often nor as early.

I asked to see Ovid. I already knew about him from their website.

Ovid comes from Marbach.

Marbach is the German state stud for Arabian horses. The government plays a role in controlling the breeding of their horses. They have a whole 'nother world of standards than what we have in America for Arabians. I dream of visiting Marbach someday.

I walked up to a stall to see this extremely beat up looking stallion, bobbing his head toward the man, asking to be let out, and when he did, I saw beyond the war-torn front end and saw an amazing endurance horse.

Ovid did 1200 endurance km in 2009 with this man.

OK One more pic from their website and now I have to show you mine.

He apologized that the horse might seem thin. I said, "He's perfect." (I'll take him! *lol*) This horse reminded me of Priceless Gold (a Kanavy horse). Tall, fit, calm and restrained (and war-torn).

I immediately noted the big hooves and big bone. He's wearing easywalkers on the front, and has for every endurance ride. The man told me he did 700 competition miles last year in easywalkers.

I love him. He was sweet natured to me, and his legs are so good. He keeps himself fit by running in his field every other day. The stallions here run in their fields a lot.

I am so interested in conformation, especially leg and hoof, and he seems to me a worthy individual. I really don't care about his head. Will his babies have such nice structure?

The man and his stallion. I truly hope to stay in touch because I really like him. This photo also shows the "workmanlike" nature of their farm, in contrast with the wealth of Amelich (who BTW I'm still waiting for a call back from, just to see if I'm elligible to own one of thier Russian Arabians.).

I will wait a bit.

My story of my visit to Al Najma is not finished, but it is getting too long so I'll post what I have now.

More to come..