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MOMENTS IN TIME FIFTY YEARS ON
St or y a n d p h o t o g ra p h s b y B e t t y F in ke
I’M WRITING THIS TO CELEBRATE A SPECIAL OCCASION, BUT WITH SOMEWHAT MIXED FEELINGS. THE YEAR 2021 MARKS THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF MY ASSOCIATION WITH ARABIAN HORSES. WHERE DID THE TIME GO?
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ifty years. in Germany when the That’s half a War was over. The Ismer century. Am Stud can be seen as I really that Achental’s successor, old? It doesn’t since it took over part feel like it ... of their horses when On the other hand, Achental closed down there is no denying in 1964. Those first two that the world is very mares I had personal different now from contact with in 1971, what it was when Wiszkha and Inazzah, I first encountered were bred at Achental Arabian horses. So is and were daughters the Arabian horse itself, of the Polish stallion and almost everything Wisznu. They formed the around it. foundation of the Ismer The mare pasture in 1971: the chestnut Inazzah (Wisznu x Isabell) A few years ago, I and the grey Shaika (Wisznu x Shari I), plus an unidentified donkey. Stud’s breeding program already wrote in detail along with the Marbachabout that first, life-changing encounter with Arabian bred mare Shari I, a full sister in blood to *Sanacht. horses at the Ismer Stud, so I won’t repeat any of that The 1970s saw a rapid increase of Arabian breeding here. Let us look at the larger picture instead. not only in Germany, but across the globe. International In the fall of 1971, I was still a high school kid and shows, WAHO, the Pyramid Society, the Asil Club – it Arabians were few and far between. If you counted all happened during the 70s. In the 1980s, Arabian the number of private stud farms in Germany using breeding began to global, with a steady increase in both your hands, you’d still have fingers left over. international shows and horses being imported and There were no shows, not even central inspections for exported in ever increasing numbers. It was a time of Arabian stallions, and the German Arab Horse Society big auctions both in the USA and in Eastern Europe, in its present form was still some years in the future. with Polish and Russian Arabians going for prices that The Ismer Stud was the only fully established major made your head spin. In the U.S., Arabians became part breeding farm in the country other than Marbach. To of investment portfolios and tax shelters for business put things into perspective, Om El Arab was only just people who had nothing to do with horses otherwise. getting started and Estopa hadn’t had a single foal Stallions changed hands for seven figure sums. Until, yet. Ismer, on the other hand, had already been around inevitably, the tax laws changed and it all collapsed. for nearly a decade and was the second significant But when one thing goes down, another comes to pure Arabian stud established in Germany after the take its place. During the 1990s and approaching the War. The first had been Achental, which was founded new century, the Arab countries rediscovered and with Polish and Hungarian horses that were stranded reclaimed their ancestral heritage, the Arabian horse,
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// which resulted in the market shifting firmly to the Middle East in the new millennium. These days, it’s mostly about showing on the one hand and racing on the other, both scenes dominated by Middle Eastern horses, and specialist bloodlines developing in every field. The Arabian horse seems to be splitting up into several distinct breeds – show horses, race horses, and sports horses. Many people involved with Arabians today have never known anything different. But for those of us who have been there from the start, it has been a whirlwind ride filled with changes, not all of them positive. Take the division into specialist fields, for example. In the 1980s and even up to 1990, it was still possible for one and the same horse to win at the racetrack and at halter. Wileika, bred by the Ismer Stud and a granddaughter of Wiszkha, was the first Arabian race winner in Germany in 1977 and National Champion Mare in 1982. The Tersk-bred Drug won the Russian Derby and other major stakes and was named European Champion Stallion in 1990. Such double successes were remarkable even then; today they would be unthinkable. Versatility, once the hallmark of the Arabian breed along with its unique combination of beauty and athletic ability, has been sacrificed in the name of specialization and quick success. Within this rapidly changing world, it comes as a blessed relief to find some continuity, and the Ismer Stud is one place where you can still find it. And this is where I come to the two accompanying photos. You see, after that first visit in 1971, I became pretty much a regular. I returned several times in the 1970s, and once they started to organize an Arabian show at the stud, I went there nearly every year. I still do. Today, the Ismer Stud is the largest as well as the oldest Arabian Stud in Germany, run by the third successive generation of the family, and the show is also the oldest, other than Aachen. There is plenty of continuity, and, even if modern bloodlines have been introduced during the last few years, this continuity includes the horses. When I visited the farm this year, on the day after the show and 50 years after that first visit, it felt special. It also felt oddly familiar. Since everyone was busy cleaning up after the show, I found myself wandering around by myself, just like I had done back in 1971, taking photos of mares and foals across the fence without anyone to tell me who they were, trusting I’d get them sorted out later (I did, on both occasions). To add to the
general sense of deja vu, the mares and foals happened to be in exactly the same field as in 1971, which meant I was taking photos from near-identical vantage points. It was the perfect thing to do on this special occasion. These two photographs, then, were taken in the same field, from the same side, 50 years apart. In the blackand-white photo, the chestnut mare in the middle is Inazzah (Wisznu x Isabell) from Achental, one of my original first encounters. The grey mare walking away to the right is Shaika, also by Wisznu, out of the Marbachbred foundation mare Shari I.
The mare pasture in 2021: Shaika’s and Inazzah’s descendant IS Ella Nora (El Mariachi x IS Exentrica) with her filly by Ascot DD.
The mare you see in the color photo is IS Ella Nora (El Mariachi x IS Exentrica) with her 2021 filly by Ascot DD. IS Ella Nora is a fifth generation tail female descendant of Shaika and also an 8th generation descendant of Inazzah. It’s perfect coincidence that I happened to photograph her against the backdrop of the same building, or rather its successor. Like the breeding program, that building has undergone some modification since the 1970s. But it is still intact and recognizable. This photo makes me happier than any I took at the show. Not only because Ella Nora is my favorite mare at the stud now and a super broodmare, with a show champion daughter and a son in the stallion barn, but because it illustrates continuity. Representing eight generations of the oldest private stud in the country with a solid foundation of old German bloodlines, she personifies the fact that, yes, traditional qualities and modern requirements are compatible. And that is something that gives me hope, even in an increasingly unstable world.
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