Desert Rose Ranch Arabians

Our Percheron mare Maggie provided us with our second filly of the year and she has made quite a hit already.  We will be naming her “DRR 44 Degas” which is a mouthful but she was born this June very close to our 44th wedding anniversary.  She is likely the nicest half Arab foal that Maggie has ever produced which is saying something given the gorgeous babies she has had in the past.  She likely will also be the end of an era as we are determining whether to continue our breeding program beyond this baby.  If so, she has put an exclamation point on one of the most interesting times in our lives.

Our first foal of the year is a filly and was born 26 March 2008 to our Friesian mare Hilde.  The new filly was sired by the Arabian stallion Diadhem who we have used for several of our recent foalings.  DRR Gijs (Dutch) is a full brother to the new filly and is absolutely stunning (view him on our Sold page).  He was a multi champion halter winner as a yearling before moving to Colorado and the new filly gives every indication that she will follow in his footsteps.  The new filly will ultimately be dual registered as a 1/2 Arabian where she is sweepstakes nominated and with the Friesian Sport Horse Society.  We have reserved the name “DRR Desert Rose” for an exceptionally nice filly and are considering using this name for her.  She will be ready for purchase upon weaning. 

\Our two foals had a rude awakening today when they were turned out into our first snowfall of 2007.  DRR Jamil Degas (Jamil) is on the left with his half brother Al-Zauba (Zab) on the right.  Both seem to be enjoying the new experience.

Our second foal of the year was born in June and is shown here during his first turn out.  He has now been named “DRR Jamil Degas”  - Jamil means “handsome” in Arabic which he certainly is turning out to be and Degas is the foundation bloodline of his Percheron dam.  Jamil is now nearly 13.3h at only 5 months and is the tallest Arab cross foal we have had when compared to others at the same age.  As an example, his half brother “Thee Patriot” (Pat) was 13.1h at 5 months but is now over 17h as an adult so we expect that Jamil will have good height when he is grown as well. 

Al Zauba is our first foal of 2007 and he was born in May.  His dam is Curundu Siiri and she is the dauther of one of the most famous black straight Egyptian Al Khamsa stallions of all time - Bahim Hisan.  Bahim had the most black Arabian foals registered at one time and was the horse used in the Busch beer commercial a few years ago.  This is our second colt from Siiri after she produced four fillies in a row when bred to pinto stallion Black Tie Affair.  Siiri is still a wonderful riding horse and she will now be retired from our breeding program.  Zab will likely be gelded in the spring and then offered for sale shortly thereafter.

Our first foal of the year was born 8 May 2007 to our mare Curundu Siiri. The entire birth was filmed and will be used as part of our breeding to weaning DVD which is scheduled to be released in the near future. The foal has been named Al Zauba which means “The Hurricane” and he is a full brother to our yearling colt Al Rakkad. We chose that name because of his star which resembles the weather map depiction of a hurricane coupled with the fact that Bob graduated from the University of Miami and we are called the Hurricanes. He has been an absolute joy thus far to imprint and train and we are more than pleased with the outcome.

Bob’s mare’s and two new foals were recently featured in the May issue of The Arabian News on pages 144 & 145. The article included pictures of each mare and foal along with a nice description of them as well. Much thanks goes to Galen McBride who is always very generous about the information she provides the publication on Bob’s activities.

We had two beautiful black foals born here at the Desert Rose Ranch this year. One is a purebred Arabian and the other ½ Friesian & ½ Arabian. Both are sweepstakes nominated colts and sired by the stallion “Diadhem” and owned by Gloria Davis. We plan to sell the ½ Friesian so look for him soon on the “For Sale” page of our website. The purebred will be kept and evaluated to see his potential as a breeding stallion. We plan on re-breeding both mares – plus our Percheron mare – back to Diadhem this spring since these foals turned out so nice.

We are in the process of collecting tape footage for a video that we hope to market that would discuss practical tips on breeding, mare care during pregnancy, a live foaling or two including imprinting, foal training, and finally weaning. This will be an effort of at least a year in the making so look for a product some time in 2007.