Posted by carol on 11/24/2004, 3:26 pm, in reply to "My Khemo Story" --Previous Message--
216.211.61.126
: I raised Arabians in the 80's in
: Tennessee. Before investing in the
: "real" thing I decided to buy
: a 1/2 Arab mare and breed her locally.
: I bought a large, pretty Chestnut mare
: and took her to a 3 or 4 year old grey
: stallion who was owned by the only real
: Arabian people I knew.
: We bred her but before she foaled I
: got what I thought was the biggest
: windfall that could have come my way
: when a show/breeder from the great
: Northwest moved into town and due to
: circumstances way beyond hia control
: had to disburse his show and breeding
: stock fairly quickly.
: Suddenly available was a coming three
: year old Jr Champion halter show filly
: from the West Coast that was mostly
: polish, tall, dark bay, undefeated at
: halter and in need of a home.
: Breathlessly I bought her, her mother,
: who was back in foal to the Jr
: Champions father, and I purchaqsed a
: breeding later for the mom to Khemo.
: All those horses turned out pretty well
: for me during the 80's. They won some,
: sold for good prices and made my time
: in the Arabian business fun and
: profitable.
: But the diamond in the bunch was the
: somewhat overlooked 3/4 filly that the
: aforementioned half arab mare foaled
: in the woods next to my house in the
: west Tennesse hills. Imagine our
: surprise when this large half arab
: chestnut mare, bred to a smallish grey,
: backwoods Tennessee colt produced an
: exquisite, typey bay filly.
: By this time my focus was on the
: purebreds I had acquired. The mom
: produced a carbon copy of the Jr
: champion show filly, and was then sent
: off to California for her meeting with
: Khemo. The typey bay 3 year old was
: beginning her show career in the
: Southeast under Jackson Thomas Jr, and,
: honestly, I just didn't have the time
: to focus on the little bay 3/4 filly.
: Or the inclination. Or the wisdom.
:
: By the time she turned two I was well
: bit with the show bug, and she still
: had that gorgeous head, and something
: else too, so I sent her off to a
: trainer in Texas, who cleaned her off,
: threw a halter on her, and won her
: first halter class. Two weeks later, he
: took her to the big regional show in
: Texas, where, in her second show, at
: the age of two, she was placed Reserve
: Champion Regional halter mare. She was
: two all right, but barely.
: Well, here I was with all these fancy
: pure breds about to begin their show
: and breeding careers and this little
: bay filly. Wanting to impress the IRS
: with my business acumen and needing (I
: thought) to focus on "my pure
: breds" I sold the typey bay to a
: young girl somewhere in the midwest for
: what was a lot of money for a half arab
: 2 year old at the time.
: Ah, now, all these years later, I think
: back and I remember most fondly not the
: pricey pure breds, but the little bay
: Khemo granddaughter who so resembled
: her grandfather. She was one of
: Khemo's first grandkids, cause her
: daddy, Kaiyoum, was one of the great
: stallions first sons. Kaiyoum would go
: on to a stunning placing as Canadian
: Reserve National Champion Stallion and
: would eventually migrate back to
: California where he came from and would
: sire some gorgeous pure bred Champions
: of his own.
: But I eventually moved on and out of
: the horse business and lost track of
: all my old favorities. I still
: remember the gorgeous bay filly though.
: A Khemosabi grandaughter who was born
: untended in the Tennesse woods, blazed
: briefly but brightly in her two shows
: and then disappeared to the midwest in
: a horse moving van.
: I had a picture of her, in full stride,
: one leg bent up, almost like a
: Tennessee walker.
: But shes not showing the look of the
: land she was foaled in. She is a
: veritable reincarnation of her
: grandfather. Khemo's genes had skipped
: their way across the greys of Khemo,
: across the outcross of her mother, and
: landed squarely in this little filly.
: I'll never forget her first show. A
: local breeder happened to be walking by
: when the texas`trainer pulled her out
: of the stall to show me what she had
: learned in the two weeks he had her.
: " Where did you get THAT," he
: asked in astonishment. "Oh,
: her" shes a half" I
: stupidly answered.
: In fact, she was Khemo transfigured
: into a 2 year old filly. That and
: nothing less.
:
: I love your story
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