Michalow Stud-bred Polish National Champion (2002) and European Champion (2001) Stallion Emigrant (Ararat x Emigrantka by Eukaliptus) was recently sold to Valley Oak Arabians and arrived in the U.S. in June. Manny Vierra of Valley Oak Arabians purchased the 1991 grey after negotiations that began during his visit to Poland last spring. According to Vierra, Raymond Mazzei of Furioso Farm in Temecula, California, was instrumental in the negotiations.

“Michalow director Jerzy Bialobok was gracious enough to let us take this horse. He’s 17 but he looks like he’s about eight years old. When they turned him loose, he just took my breath away. I knew I had to bring that horse to America.”

Vierra plans to breed Emigrant to his mares and a “select group” of outside mares. After spending 30 days in quarantine in Oregon, Emigrant will stand at Mazzei’s Furioso Farm in Temecula, California, along with Vierra’s breeding stallion *Al Maraam, on lease from Ariela Arabians, Israel.

Emigrant’s pedigree includes the significant influence of Palas tracing to the Saklawi I sire line. His dam Emigrantka was 1992 Polish National Champion and 1991 European Champion Mare. His son Gaspar (x Gaskonia) was Polish National Champion in 1998.

“My wife and I are honored to have this horse,” Vierra said. “This is the kind of horse that puts strong, positive energy into the Arabian horse world.”

Although AHA’s resolution on modification of the scoring system relating to halter classes in Class A shows went into effect April 1, officials at the Scottsdale Arabian horse show have decided to wait at least another year to adopt the new system for the Scottsdale show. The new scoring system is being used in Regional shows and will be used at the U.S. National show in Tulsa in October.

AHA will not sanction them because the halter classes at Scottsdale will not be incorporating the new scoring system. The 2009 show will be held February 12-22 at Westworld in Scottsdale, Arizona.

“We’re keeping our show the same way it’s always been and we’re using the three-judge system out of the AHA handbook,” says Scottsdale show director Bill Flood. “We wanted to give it a year to work itself out and we’re not sure that it has. The judges will use the comparative process instead of the score process. We felt this way all along, that’s why we brought forth our own scoring resolution last year.”

Flood points out that the Scottsdale association is not opposed to the resolution, but because of the show’s early February date “We don’t have time to examine how things have gone with the other shows until the end of the year. Unfortunately, our prize list has to be done by then. Also, because of the sheer number of classes at our show, we want to make sure that things run smoothly — whatever system we use. Waiting another year gives us one more year to observe, train the judges, and get comfortable with it. We’ll look at everything at the end of this year and after our 2009 show. And then we’ll decide what we’re going to do for 2010.”

Glenn T. Petty of Wake Forest, North Carolina, has been named executive vice president of the Arabian Horse Association. AHA President Myron Krause made the announcement May 23.

“Glenn brings a unique set of skills, background, and talent to the Arabian Horse Association,” Krause said. “He has been involved for many years in the equine industry both as an official and as a member of many important national-level committees. Several equine groups have honored him for his accomplishments. He brings tremendous experience to AHA.” Krause said Petty will visit the office in the coming weeks and will officially assume his duties the first part of July.

Petty, a North Carolina State University graduate, is the retired manager of the Gov. James B. Hunt Jr. Horse Complex at the North Carolina State Fair and has been show manager of the 19-day 2,300-plus head North Carolina State Horse Show for 25 years. For 15 years, he served as North Carolina’s state horse specialist. In the past, he served on the USEF board of directors.

Currently, Petty is chairman of the USEF Event Management Committee that oversees approximately 2,800 USEF-sanctioned events. In addition, he serves on the USEF Hearing, Legislative, Date Rotation, Federal Representatives, and Saddlebred committee and is a former chairman of that committee. As a senior show steward, he regularly officiates at virtually all USEF divisions and some of the nation’s largest breed shows. He and his wife Joan own and operate Triangle Farms, a professional hunter-jumper farm and show facility at Wake Forest.

“Many on the board of directors have worked closely with Glenn and praised his organizational and people skills, both valuable assets in a member-driven organization such as AHA,” Krause said. “He also has an impressive background in fundraising and has successfully led major fund drives. I am anxiously looking forward to working with Glenn Petty as the executive vice president of the Arabian Horse Association.”

The morning of May 24 dawned rainy and cold, as had the previous several days, and we worried that no one would come to the 2008 Celebration of Our Arabian Horses. About half an hour before the event was to start, the rain stopped and did not start up again until the following night.

This was our first-ever big event, and we had been planning it all winter. Now the big day was here. Would anyone come? Precisely at 10:00 a.m. the first cars drove in, and they kept coming. We ended up with over 200 people, and they all seemed to have a good time. Many guests were new to horses and many were not familiar with Arabians. I think they all left with a most favorable opinion of our breed. We had guests from Oregon, California, Utah, and Hawaii, and we had two troops of Girl Scouts working on their horse badges.

The celebration took place at two different farms, Gregory’s Arabians, owned by Pat and Marie Gregory, and Scarab Farm, Inc., owned by Sara and Laurence Bagg, both located east of Malin. The Gregorys presented their beautiful stallions and the Baggs presented their Friesian/Arabian crosses, and both farms showed off their 2008 foals by Noble Rhyton, EF Kingston, *Hun and the Friesian stallion Knight Invader.

At the Gregorys’, the local carriage club assembled their horses and wagons and gave people rides in two large wagons and two small carts. They took a scenic drive along the base of Bryant Mountain to Scarab Farm, where guests en

oyed short rides before loading up with passengers and heading back to Gregorys’.
Scarab Farm had an equine art show featuring ceramic sculptures and vessels by California artist Alice Horst and paintings and necklaces by Sara Bagg. It was set up in a large hay shed along with the barbecue and a coloring table for kids. “Each farm sold at least one horse and we introduced so many new people to our breed,” says Sarah. “Are we going to do it again next year? You bet.”

Legendary halter horse and sire MS Santana (*Bask x SW Saruchna) passed away June 10 at the age of 30. MS Santana is the only *Bask son to be named unanimous U.S. and Canadian National Champion Stallion (1986 and 1983, respectively), as well as unanimous Star World Champion (1986). He was also well loved at the barn and an excellent sire for Mystic Sands Arabians, West Olive, Michigan, who bred the bay stallion.

“He was always easy to handle, and broke to ride — just a really easy horse,” says owner and breeder Ken Topp. “His show record speaks for itself — he was unanimous every time we showed him at a big show.”

Santana was the only *Bask son of hundreds that was U.S. National and Canadian National Champion Stallion.

MS Santana’s show-winning offspring include 1992 Canadian National Champion Western Pleasure Horse Chears (out of Khemogina), 1989 Canadian National Champion Pleasure Driving Horse WA Gala (out of EW Galaxy), and 1992 Canadian National Reserve Champion Western Pleasure Junior Horse Iris Anne (out of Irridescence).

“Santana’s been a real inspiration to us and our breeding program. We’ve retained several of his daughters and granddaughters for our breeding program and it’s worked out really well for us. We have a yearling and a couple of two-year-olds by him on the farm - he was still breeding late in his life. He was the best horse we ever raised,” says Ken Topp.