Jubilant June!

June is always a busy time at Michael Byatt Arabians and June 2011 was no exception.  With breeding season in full swing, plus foaling, and the all important horse shows, we are off in all directions.  In addition, we like to keep tabs on the success of our clients, making it a very busy time indeed!

Laian AL Shaqab

One of the first Events we are always keen to know about are the Ecuadorian Nationals held the first weekend of June.  Many years ago Mauricio Cuesta from Cuenca, Ecuador scheduled a trip to New Ulm looking for mares and a colt.  Over the next couple of years, he purchased several horses; among them was a dynamic colt by Marwan AL Shaqab out of our foundation mare, Majalis.  The colt, Maarjan has not been disappointing on any front.  Once again in 2011, he was named the Supreme Champion, a title he has earned 3 times!  In addition to his own success, this year he sired the National Champion Filly and Colt.  The dams of both of these National Champions were part of the initial group he purchased when coming to Michael Byatt Arabians.  The dams are daughters of Parys El Jamaal and Besson, both stallions owned by and standing at Michael Byatt Arabians.  As always, we send our hearty congratulations to the Cuesta’s on their great success!

Perignon

Checking in at a couple of Regionals, we were pleased to learn that two stallions we bred and sold claimed Regional Championship titles! Perignon was the Region 8 Champion Stallion being shown by Sandro Pinha for new owner Jose Alves of Brasil.  And *JA Urbino was Region 13 Champion Stallion being shown by Andy Sellman for David Ross of Australia. Of note, both of these stallions have their first foals on the ground and have done exceedingly well!

Friends from AL Shaqab and Gazal

Next up in June was the Egyptian Event.  Michael Byatt proudly presented horses for Al Shaqab of Doha, Qatar.  Once again the title of Supreme Champion Mare was claimed by an Al Shaqab entry.  Laian Al Shaqab, by living legend and World Champion Al Adeed Al Shaqab won the 3 yr. old filly class, the Champion Mare title, and the Supreme Championship for females!  In addition to Laian, Michael presented *Ghasham Al Shaqab, another son of Al Adeed, to the Reserve Junior Championship in colts.

Following the Egyptian Event the team split up and David

Shakira

Botha, along with Michael Carpio, headed to Region 9, while Michael was off to Menton and the Mediterranean Championship.  In Ft. Worth, the Marwan filly Bessolina, owned by the Koort Family of Houston claimed the Filly Championship while Francessco, owned by Prince Mohammed Bin Faisal Al Saud of Saudi Arabia, won the Colt Championship.  And, in a thrilling climax to the Regional show, the great and exotic Shakir El Marwan was the Champion Stallion!  Shakir is owned in partnership by Taylor Arabians and MBA. Noteworthy, Shakir produced his first National Champion this year, a filly named EKS Shakira, owned by Elkasun Arabians of Cape Town, South Africa.  Shakira is out of a Besson daughter!

Ghazalat in Menton

In Menton showing for Al Khalediah, Michael showed Marquis, by Marwan, to the stallion championship. In route to winning the championship title, Marquis won his class with a score of 95.2!  Marquis was also named the Supreme Champion male. Marquis was also awarded a special trophy for being awarded the most 20’s of any horse at the show.  Michael debuted the exotic filly Ghazalat Al Khalediah, a granddaughter of Gazal Al Shaqab, for Al Khalediah, where she won the yearling filly class and was named Junior Champion.  Of note, in the yearling filly class, the first 3 places were claimed by grand daughters of Gazal.  Khahil Al Shaqab, born at our farm in New Ulm, and a son of Marwan, was named the Junior Champion Colt.  All the success of Marwan as a sire enabled him to be named the Best Sire of the Mediterranean Championships for a 5^th consecutive time.  Congratulations to Al Shaqab for your amazing influence on Arabian horses around the world!

Marquis in Menton

Leaving Menton, Michael headed to Halsdon where he checked in on several horses bred by Shirley.  Very exciting results! The foals of WN Star of Antigua were very strong as a group.  Uniformly, they have beautiful faces, are beautifully made, and conduct themselves like proud show horses!  Of course their mothers offer a lot to the combination but “Star” has done a great job; hats off to Shirley for her belief in him.  In addition Shirley has bred an Al Adeed filly that is a super star! She will be a stand out in any ring any where!

View at Marieta's

Leaving the UK it was time to check in at Ses Planes, the famed breeding farm of Marieta Salas! I had several reasons for wanting to check in. One being that Marieta is the best host in the world. Any trip to see her is a memorable time.  And of course the horses! I wanted to see her new foals, some of the older ones, the mares,

JA Ultima

and for me a big surprise awaited! At long last my Besson daughter, JA Ultima, foaled a Marwan son and I couldn’t wait to get a look.  And he was beautiful.  I named him MB Uffizi.  Art lovers will recognize the name as one of the preeminent names in the art world from Florence, Italy. Marieta’s babies looked great and their births assure the “Abha” prefix will be in the winners circle for years to come.  If anyone ever wants help organizing a tour of Ses Planes, call MBA and have them help you set it up!

That’s a wrap of June!  July promises to be just as busy with lots happening in the America’s – both North and South!