The history of Habibi Arabians
Growing up in the city of Amsterdam, I never had anything to do with agriculture in general and horses in particular. I belonged to the kind of children that new all sorts of cars, not birds. But whenever the waste food collector came along with his horse and cart, I was there, giving the horse a lump of sugar or a piece of bread. I was just fascinated by this huge and gentle animal.
Inevitably, one day I took up riding and sometimes I went to a riding school outside Amsterdam to ride out. That is how I met Shary, a chestnut purebred arab stallion. His whose owner was not interested in him anymore and had him used as a riding school horse. A stallion as a riding school horse, well, it says something about the horse’s character. I was allowed to ride him and I completely fell in love with him. Shary was for sale but with the end of the temporary job I had at that time coming near ….I wasn’t looking forward to the time that somebody would buy him and he would be out of my hands.
Then I found a new job. I’d have to move far away from Amsterdam, where I had spent my whole life, I’d have to take on further studies, it would involve a very busy time with lots of new things to get used to, but the pay was enough to keep a horse. I decided to take on one more new thing to get used to and I bought my first horse, the purebred arab stallion Shary, 1971-1991 (Nisry x Chavali) of mixed Crabbet-Spanish blood, bred by Dr. Houtappel, the founder of Dutch arab horse breeding. It was the start of my life with arabs. I used Shary for riding; he was the gentlest of gentle horses but nevertheless lively, a perfect first horse. It wasn’t long before I also got involved with the AVS, the Dutch registry, in which I was elected secretary of the board. This deepened my interest to other disciplines than riding.
After some years I changed my job and moved even further away: to Munich, in Bavaria, the South of Germany. I had to quit my work for the AVS, but Shary went with me. However, after he had been my companion for nearly 10 years, he became very ill and I had to take the hard decision. After two horseless months, I came to the conclusion that I had become addicted and could not live without a horse anymore. Arabitis was diagnosed. I went to the Kossack Stud in the Netherlands and Adler 1988 (Amper x Actia), a bay Russian gelding bred in Khrenovoe, entered my life.
In the meantime, I had become the secretary general of ECAHO and got more and more interested and involved in the many aspects of the purebred arab horse. But after some years, because of enjoyable developments in my proper work, I had to discontinue the secretariat, although I still do some work for ECAHO now and then, as need be.
A passion developed - Straight Egyptians
Halwa BEarly 1996 the Annual General Meeting of ECAHO was held in Bábolna in Hungary. For me it was a holiday, not being the secretary general anymore, and having enough time to visit the stud. And there I fell in love with Halwa-B 1995 (El Thay Mameluk x 247 Rajan), a bay yearling Straight Egyptian filly with a face that I could not get out of my mind anymore. I had to have her and she was the beginning of my passion for Straight Egyptian arabs.
In order to find a suitable husband for Halwa, I started studying Straight Egyptian bloodlines, bought books, talked to experienced breeders, and went to shows and visited stud farms with quite different eyes. This again opened a whole new world for me. I became more and more conscious of the desire to breed these gorgeous animals and I started looking for another special broodmare.
With the help of Joanna and Pat Maxwell, the wonderful bay yearling filly Bint Baahtem 1998 (Thee Desperado x Baahtem), who was born at Marsal Arabians in Texas, USA, was selected and imported to Europe.
Princess NourahA year later she was followed by her half-sister, the chestnut yearling Princess Nourah 1999 (Thee Desperado x Bint Nourah), who I fell in love with when I visited Marsal Arabians on a trip to Texas. These mares provided, in my eyes, a good basis to establish a small breeding program, suitable to be crossed with the stallions of bloodlines available in Europe.
A few years later the group was joined by RF Fa Moniet, born 1988 (Prince Fa Moniet x Bint Samim), purchased from Smaroel Arabians in the Netherlands and owned together with R. van Willigenburg. Unfortunately, due to her passing away too young, she could not contribute to Habibi Arabians.
After their successful presentation at shows, the mares are kept quietly at home to get their foals. It will be interesting to see how the ladies will produce and which stallions will fit best to them, following the background idea of combining the best of prevailing European and American bloodlines.
I hope you will enjoy your visit to this site. Thank you for taking an interest!
