Change is
the Only Constant...
Update/Blog 2007
© 2007 Roxanne Rogers
Six years have passed since this website was last seen on the
internet. During that time my son
has grown from a child to a young working man, we have relocated
twice and I have been struggling
with Multiple Sclerosis and single parenting through it all. MS
and divorce were two of the reasons I
quietly sold the huge horse setup known as Kaszmir Stud and Racing
Stables and liquidated my
Arabian herd except for Arieadne whom I will never part with as
she is my totem. The death of
*Falat was the harbinger. When he died it was as though the wind
went out of my sails even though
I thought I was prepared for it. One thing that didn't die though
was my deep love for the horse.
Then, I became very aware there was something not right with my
health when I could no longer
force myself through the long days of shovelling shit, feeding
and leading, exercise riding, bandaging,
starting babies, breeding mares, foaling mares, doctoring colics,
wounds etc. Anyway, as I was saying
with just my old and not too healthy father and I to do all the
work my health vanished.Then came
years of going to doctors and neuroligists and finally after three
MRI's in as many years and a spinal
tap to confirm, I was diagnosed to my absolute horror with MS.
If anyone knows anything about MS
as you are reading this you can imagine what this stress did for
my condition. I thought a wheelchair
would be coming soon as I was hobbling on a cane and struggling
with trigeminal neuralgia (think of
the painting "The Scream"- the artist Edvard Munch had
it too) and many other lovely things that I
will not bore you with. I was desperate. So I sold the farm to
the first buyer which got me one quarter
of what it was worth and dispersed my horses. I didn't tell anyone
through all of this what I was
dealing with, not even my parents until diagnosis, and because
I thought I would never be back in
the business my brain lesions, anger, depression and complete
tail ringing sourness spilled over
into some of my equine relationships. My personal relationships
also suffered but I guess these are
the times when you find out who your friends are. Although many
people have criticised me as I went
through the changes that relapsing/remitting MS puts people through
nobody bothered to ask me if
there was something going on in my life. I was only too happy
to get out and stay out. However, as
time passed I realised that I could still have the odd remission
and if I kept my stress levels low,
almost a semblance of a normal life. There is one person in the
biz who has been supportive and
even taken my guff with aplomb all the way through and that's
Ina Lohmann. Perhaps it's because
her husband also has MS and/or perhaps its because she is a friend.
I think both. Thanks Ina.
So I quit the horses for three years and I am being very honest
in saying I revelled in those three
years. I took a spiritual journey and did a lot of work that was
not physical. I try to practise
non-attachment and emotional distance and though I am better at
it I have a million miles to go.
Gregg Braden and Llama Surya Das have been my mentors on this
path and I am truly grateful for
their wise words. My personal spiritual advisor is Miriam Palfy
whom I met at a music festival in
Salmon Arm where she was reading cards. She has done more spiritual
work than Shirley MacLain
and almost as much as Madonna (joking). But that's another page
and there will be more on that
topic on this website at a later date.
Also living in BC during this time, having moved a few years before
me, was my friend and co-worker
(technically employee), Rob Kimber. He took the best of the remaining
herd off of my hands and has
a variety of stallions all from my breeding programme and/or collaberations.
He has a stallion by
Eldans Wotan that was never used, of very royal Polish racing
blood that he named Wotan. I, had
Arieadne. The inevitable occured and a very excellent filly ensued.
Dad says she is the best one I
have bred so far. Maybe he's a little forgetful but she is a superb
creature and she is also the first one
from Wotan who is not exactly a baby himself any longer. I think
Rob has bred a couple of mares to
him now after my excellent result. (Link to follow).
It's my feeling that since the advent of shipped semen the creativity
has gone from breeding Arabians.
No longer do people search for the hidden diamonds, they just
open up the glossy Arabian fashion
magazine of the moment and go for the cheap airbrushed centerfold.
It seems very few people even
pay attention to bloodlines any longer and its certainly not about
the horses. Not at all. Its about the
social folderal and the ostentatious bling more than ever. The
first thing any good breeder should do
is eliminate their egos and focus on the horses. I see a lot of
very expensive, domestic/common-bred,
poorly conformed show horses that I would personally consider
unfit for breeding. Any horse can win if
he has the "look of the moment", comes back enough times,
gets enough advertising dollars behind
him and has the right pretty boy on the end of the line, but not
any horse can win at the track. There is
a true test and bloodlines more often than not prove out. I personally
know my horses ancestors in the
flesh as far back as 6 or 7 generations and from there I have
studied pictures and histories. I have a
very good notion what my horses will produce and it will not likely
be for any show ring. Although, I
guess many have excelled at things like dressage, and other sport
horse tests. My first Arabian stallion
was a *Gaypolka son which my father wisely convinced me to geld
before using him as he was just not
up to the level required of a stallion due to a bit of *Bask showing
through from the dam line. He is
now quite a famous dressage horse at the coast though he is about
27 yrs. old. He is known as "the
little horse that could" and mastered all levels before retiring.
He even has a class for juniors named
after him so his beaming owner tells me. Dressage is a discipline
that I find too restrictive for both
horse and rider (yes, I have tried it and studied under some good
ones in my youth) but it's an
industry and at least it's not done with a cutback, and a lot
of ropes and pullies. The *Falat son,
Fallkon, whom I thought I would never sell has gone onto a dressage
career also, after being a very
successful racehorse. Another good thing about racehorses is they
can have many careers if started
properly.
Living in BC proved too stressful for this redneck (the government
is ceerazy there after 10 years of
socialism) so we all packed up our duffle bags and came back.
(If only it were actually that simple - it
took a huge moving van, flatdeck and Pat Tracy's horsevan to get
us all back). Once the stress and
the heat were off I began to feel a lot better. Then a funny thing
happened. I had no sooner unpacked
my computer than I started getting emails from France. After all
these years, Monsieur Alain Benarrous
looked me up again. For those of you who don't know I went to
France to study the magnificent French
Arabians and learn about their bloodlines on two different trips.
The second one I was actually a judge
at the prestigious Cheval Passion in Avignon. Both times Alain
graciously hosted me but we lost touch
as people do over so many miles of distance. And for those of
you who do not know who Alain is he is
one of the foremost breeders of racehorses in France. For some
reason all this correspondence started
a renewed flicker of interest in me and as I phoned people on
Alain's behalf I felt the old gnawing
racing addiction coming back. I decided to contact some of my
American horse friends and ended up
buying two mares. I had always wanted to cross a *Wiking daughter
with *Falat but simply couldn't
afford it as the prices were through the roof when I had *Falat.
Not just any *Wiking daughter either
but Linda Fratianni's mare, Brazilia. I had followed Brazilia
since she was a baby as Linda and I had
met once and became fast phone friends forever and I really admired
her taste. Linda did quit the
horse business some years ago though, just as I was also bailing
out so I was not able to take
advantage of the situation. However I managed to help her place
Brazilia with Kelly Brown the girl who
bought Fallkon so I could keep track should I wish to. Linda still
had her gorgeous Monarch daughter,
Siberia however so we struck an agreement and I acquired her.
I also contacted Kelly and bought
Brazilia - finally. Although almost everything that could go wrong
with a horse deal did go wrong, it was
all worth it when I finally got her here. What a classy mare.
When Siberia arrived from Indiana Dad's
comment was, "she's quite the machine" which sums her
up nicely. Then I needed a French connection
of course, if I am going to seriously breed for racing so I bought
a mare back that I sold to a friend of
Rob's. I hadn't seen Elspeth since she was a baby and WOW did
she turn out nice. Mother says its just
like having old *Harpia back and Brazilia looks uncannily like
*Arwistawa. Siberia, well she looks like
Siberia but Linda tells me she has the build of her father who
I have only seen videos of but I think
it's probably very accurate. Monarch was *Wiking's most successful
and famous son, of course carrying
the blood of the great "blue hen" Sasanka. So, I have
all the bases covered that I need to at the
moment and am slowly getting back into the swing of things. Thank
God, Dad still loves to have a few
chores everyday as this is not always an option for me. I am not
too sure what I am going to do when
it comes time to start babies again but I am hoping some of my
old Thoroughbred friends might be
able to help me with that one. I don't kid myself that I will
be able to train again as I used to as
fatigue is the monkey that stays on my back and I have some permamnent
loss of use in my legs but
I can still do a bit of ground work.
You may notice as you delve into the website that even though
it is the same format it still looks darn
good. My site was up long before either registry and 99% of other
farms providing useful content and lots
of free reference material. Please feel free to read away and
share with your friends but do not use pictures
or reproduce my articles without my permission. I will be continuously
updating and adding further articles
and pictures.
One thing that is not in the cards for me at this time is another
stallion. Shipped semen has made
having a stallion a logistical nightmare that I want nothing to
do with. If I ever do get another stallion
it will likely be a Thoroughbred as the good old JC doesn't allow
that nonsense.
Racing for Arabs is in a bad state in Alberta although there are
a couple of very attractive $10,000.00
purses waiting to be taken at Lethbridge. Unfortunately the management
is hostile towards Arabians
but I will try with a little help from my "friends",
to address this issue with the management in the
spring. I will keep everyone posted on that. The racetrack in
North America is a fairly hostile
environment anyway and its not for the faint of heart but there
are a lot of good people too and its a
rush like no other. It's like anything we do with our horses,
once you wade through the sea of egos -
it's all about the horses and how we prove them out for subsequent
generations. Do you wish to be
known as a breeder of horses you just feed and lead or as a breeder
of horses with grit, heart, strong
athletic build and the class that can only come from great ancestors?
Tanglewood
Breeders of Polish and French Arabian Horses and Thoroughbred
Racehorses
RR1
New Noway, Alberta
Canada T0B 3L0
Tel (780) 352-6413
roxannerogers13@gmail.com
This document © 2007 - 2009
Roxanne Rogers, all rights reserved.
