In February, Tzviah Idan passed away suddenly at her home in Israel. Tzviah had a long connection with The Arabian Magazine and in honour of her memory, we are sharing this feature – A Breeder’s Journal: Remembering Alhambra – as written by Tzviah in 2018. The loss of this remarkable horsewoman has been felt keenly around the world, and it is a privilege to share her words here with you.
We continue with Tzviah’s insight into life as a breeder. For part one, please click here.
The same year that Alhambra produced Suqara, Ariela Arabian’s senior stallion Laheeb (Imperial Imdal x AK Latifah) was preparing to leave for the US on what was to be a three-year stay. Laheeb is my very favourite Arabian stallion and his blood so extremely valuable that we seized the opportunity and covered Alhambra before his departure. We were extremely fortunate to be rewarded the next year with a classic filly of exceptional beauty and refinement – this one also had the sterling character we desired! The filly seemed truly heaven-sent and Kuti named her Atiq Ayla, Ayla being the Hebrew word for ‘goddess’. We felt that she was one of the most beautiful of Laheeb’s straight Egyptian daughters and hoped that she would remain with us her entire life, but this was not to be.
Ayla began her broodmare career with a breeding to the influential and prolific sire Nader al Jamal (Ansata Sinan x Savannah CC), bred by Two Silos Farm in the US and twice leased and imported to Israel by Ariela Arabians. We felt that by combining the three eminent sires – Salaa el Dine, Laheeb, and Nader al Jamal – in one individual, we might produce not only a lovely and rare pedigree, but a potential genetic powerhouse. Eleven months later, in late March of 2010, Ayla lay down right beside me in the middle of the day in our front paddock and delivered what was a very refined and promising colt. He was the most well-balanced newborn that I had ever seen and I felt that we had been blessed with something super special. It didn’t take long before we named this colt Atiq Abir; Abir in biblical Hebrew translates both to ‘brave knight’ and ‘great steed’. Abir has since developed into a show champion and, more importantly, a very consistent sire of lovely foals, and has remained throughout the very gentlest of stallions. Looking back upon a lifetime of breeding Arabians, Abir is the horse in which I take most pride.
In a perfect world, a breeder would always keep for his or her own self the very best of the foals he produced. But in the real world, there are bills to be paid and obligations to be met and sometimes the bank comes calling. Several years back, I found myself in the position where I needed a large sum, and in a hurry, and a quick sacrifice would have to be made to meet this obligation. Ayla became that sacrifice. As a direct daughter of Laheeb out of an imported Salaa el Dine daughter, she was the most ‘liquidible’ of our equine assets. We sold her to long-time friend and astute breeder, Muhsen Onallah, the former owner of Atiq Altega, with the stipulation that we retain for ourselves the foal she was carrying by Al Ayal AA (Al Ayad x The Vision HG).
Although this sacrifice saved the day it was, all in all, a very unhappy affair, especially since soon after moving to her new home Ayla was struck with severe laminitis. She received the best of veterinary care and ultimately recovered to deliver an extremely refined Al Ayal filly who was duly sent to us after weaning. Our joy in this filly, whom we called Atiq Amira, was very short-lived. At just one year old she managed to twist an intestine and then quietly laid down and died.
Fortunately, Ayla gradually made a full recover from the laminitis and eventually was again back safely in foal, this time to Muhsen’s own stallion Almurtajiz Al Fawaz (Ansata Malik Shah x Farid Nile Dream). She produced a filly from this breeding, and it proved an important one for her owner, as Almurtajiz was tragically lost in an accident just before Ayla came to term; yet another example of the bittersweet lives that we breeders live.
Alhambra’s next pregnancy produced the second and last colt of her career. This was a tall and very engaging colt of great expression and breath-taking movement who I eventually named Atiq Allegro. Allegro’s sire was a horse we quite admired and had used on a number of our mares; this was the imported MD El Sperado (Thee Desperado x Izara Blue CA by Ansata Hejazi), bred and imported by Danny Miro, who eventually became a sire of champions. However, Allegro proved an unlucky colt and as a yearling he was struck with a stubborn intestinal bug that caused severe and relentless diarrhoea, debilitating dehydration and loss of condition. The treatment protocol lasted over several months, leaving Allegro to spend most of every day standing in stocks attached to an IV drip.
By the time he was pronounced cured, Allegro was extremely emaciated and had lost all of his muscling and physical allure. We made the decision to geld him and gift him to a loving home as a riding prospect, there being virtually no market for Arabian geldings in our country. Happily, Allegro’s health and fortunes steadily improved and he wound up in the hands of a lovely woman who used him as a pleasure mount for many years and then placed him with another lifetime rider. Since we consider ourselves ‘parents’ to every horse we breed and responsible for the welfare of each throughout his or her lifetime, this was a most happy ending for this unlucky colt.
Just one year after foaling Allegro, Alhambra foaled what eventually became her last viable foal. This was the filly Atiq Adara whose story appears further below. To learn more about the fate of Alhambra herself, the reader will just have to simply keep reading.
Meanwhile, here are the tales of two of her daughters.
Part three in this illuminating Journal of a Breeder will be published next week.
