Rallying Around Youth
October 16, 2018
The enduring flame of silver fire
August 18, 2020A Life with Arabian Horses
Pshania KA
I can’t remember a time when horses were not part of my life. My first pony, Tammy, arrived courtesy of Santa Claus, tied to the front of my Dad’s ute one Christmas morning...
KRISHLAH ARABIANS
Words: Olivia Cleary | Photos: Samantha Taylor
As children, we would saddle up early on a Saturday morning and arrive home sometime late in the afternoon, riding to the bush, the shop and friends’ houses around the neighbourhood.
Arabian horses entered our lives around 20 years ago when my mother, Sharon, purchased a purebred Arabian, Silmaril Krisha (Windsor Park Jalaab iid GB x Talquah Leah by Arim) and Krishlah Arabians was born.
There were two significant moments in our story. Probably the most influential was meeting Pam and Rob Morris of Avondale Arabians in Victoria and then going on to purchase several purebred mares bearing the Avondale prefix. Today, if you stroll through our broodmare paddock, it’s hard to find a mare that does not have some Avondale blood within her pedigree. The next significant moment would be the introduction of the amazing sire CraveFF into our breeding program, and the rest, as they say, is history, as the wonderful combination of the Avondale bloodlines and CraveFF was the start of a golden era for our stud. The champions A’Diva, Gameelah KA, Cruze KA, Chase KA and Georgio KA all resulted from a combination of these magical bloodlines. In 2017 we excitedly welcomed the second-generation foals of Krishlah breeding!
We have a tough gelding policy at Krishlah and as a result we had not kept a colt for future breeding. This changed dramatically in 2013 when a handsome, attention-grabbing colt sired by Vitorio TO (US) was born. Named Vitorious KA, his dam was Breathless sired by Abu Shaklan from a daughter of the first Avondale mare we purchased, Avondale Special (Jantason Cass Ibn Rish x Spring). Vitorious KA was a successful show horse as a junior, winning reserve champion in his yearling year at the NSW National Arabian Stud Show, East Coast Championships and Australian National Championships. He was also awarded Supreme Entire as a three-year-old at the Victorian Classic.
We bred A’Real Diva KA (SF Sir Real imp/exp US x A’Diva by CraveFF from Avondale Fanfare) and Farrah KA (CraveFF x Avondale Flamingo now deceased) to Vitorious KA and we were extremely pleased with the resulting colt foals, Volt KA (from A’Real Diva) and Vitori KA (from Farrah KA). We have chosen not to stand Vitorious KA at public stud but will continue to use him over our CraveFF daughters and grand-daughters.
One of the great things about owning this wonderful breed is the people you meet, the challenges you experience and the adventures of travel. I have been fortunate enough to travel within Australia and overseas with a number of people I have met through breeding and showing Arabian horses.
The most memorable was the 2012 adventure when we took Gameelah KA to compete in the USA. Doyle Dertell from Future Farms had trained and shown Gameelah KA in Australia, so it was a given that he would take the lead over in America. The vivid memory of when her number was called out as the winner of her amazing class at Scottsdale, one the world’s largest shows, will remain with me forever. To go on and be awarded Silver Champion overall was an incredible achievement for a young Aussie-bred mare. It was such a thrill. I have had many wonderful trips to Scottsdale, Mexico and Las Vegas – always travelling with large groups of Australian Arabian enthusiasts. And catching up with Aussie friends who now call America home is always fun too.
For the first time in a long time we are not expecting any foals for 2018. I think we are in a very interesting time for the Arabian breed in Australia. The market is becoming smaller and it is not always easy to sell quality horses for reasonable prices. With this in mind we will carefully consider our future breedings.
This coming season we will be campaigning a number of our junior horses including the lovely yearling filly Pshania KA (Pshalomor imp US x Asher KA by CraveFF from Avondale Fanfare) and Volt KA. Vitori KA and the yearling gelding Geo KA (CraveFF x Bint Georgie Girl) will also join the show team later in the season – I just love this cross and it rarely lets us down.
We have always been proud of being able to consistently produce national quality Arabians from relatively small foal numbers and will aim to continue this in the future.
