The editorial from the 2025 Collectors’ Edition of The Arabian Breeders’ Magazine.
The life of a breeder is rich, rewarding, challenging, heart-breaking, enlightening, and soul-destroying. There are extreme highs and devastating lows. There are moments when all your dreams come true – and then those when they lay in smithereens on the stable floor. And yet, would we have it any other way? Even with the lowest of lows, I somehow doubt it.
I write this editorial a week after we lost our homebred mare, Rosaliah Gold (Golden Silver x Siala). She was 29 years old, and she was born when I was in my second year of university. We did everything together, from competing at county shows to showing in Europe. ‘Rosie’ was our superstar, and she taught me so much – being a strong-willed, foal-proud, straight Crabbet chestnut mare. Writing this, I still cannot believe she is gone, yet but believe it we must.
One of the recurring comments from friends was how lucky Rosie was to spend her whole life, and to reach nearly 30 years of age, being owned by her breeders. Too few horses can say that these days. And that is rather a startling thought.
There has been so much change in the past twenty years, even less than that, in the way that horses live their lives. As Monika Savier talks about, “the loss of natural reproduction in Arabian horse breeding and the effects of modern reproductive technologies affect breeders and horses all over the world.” Horses are no longer allowed to be just horses anymore. Horses are conditioned according to mankind’s idea of what is good for them – from wearing rugs all year and being stabled for most of the day to, as Monika reports, artificial breeding and the effect that has on both stallions and mares.
For many, their Arabian horse is still the heart of their family. They are the ones who teach young children about routine and respect. We all know stories of quiet children being brought out of their shells as they spend more and more time with horses. And we all know how healing time spent with this remarkable breed can be. They are the lucky ones – or rather, we are.
The Arabian horse brings us so much. I truly believe that they bring much more than any other breed of horse can, because of their incredible intelligence, and the deep bond that they create with us. When they are gone, it leaves us devastated and heartbroken. And yet, we carry on – for to not, is not within our genetic makeup. I honestly believe that once you have owned an Arabian horse, something within you changes forever.
For us personally, we have gone from the heyday of being breeders and showing horses in halter and under saddle to having just two Arabians left – Rosie’s maternal half-brother, Spirit of Dreams (by Grecian Idyll), and her daughter, Shams al Thahabiyya (by Psadisho Ibn Esstashan). Rosie’s passing marks the end of an era. We are not the first breeders to have felt this stark changing of the guard, and we won’t be the last.
Rosie, this editorial is dedicated to you. Thank you for everything.
Samantha
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