S & J's SUNSET FARM

2682 Della Road, SW

Albuquerque, NM  87105

Born To Be A Mother

by

Marie Johnson

   A fantastic purebred Arabian mare lives at our house, and she is the best example of the breed we all love. My husband's exact words to me were, "Marie, she was born to be a mother." Who is this mare and why is she so special? Her name is Shantilly CVS. She's a Crabbet bred, 14.3 hand, 15 year-old chestnut angel out of CA Serrina by Vanity's Shadow. This past summer she was not only busy raising her own foal, but also the foal of a mare that we lost to an extreme case of colic. It was a foal that was a "dream come true" for my husband and I.

   My husband and I have loved Arabians for quite some time. We were first enthralled with them after attending the U.S. Nationals in Albuquerque in the late 1980s. What an exciting show! The horses were absolutely the most beautiful creatures on earth. Shortly thereafter, we purchased our first purebred Arabian mare, Shantilly CVS. We both had very demanding careers, and Shantilly was purchased to enjoy as a trail horse on the weekends. As time went by and we had children, we decided it would be great for me to stay home and enjoy the children and possibly breed some Arabians. At first, we were interested in the western disciplines but as time went on, we became more interested in the driving and English disciplines especially Country English pleasure. So, we decided to start looking for a broodmare that might produce a Country English or English Pleasure foal. After many months of searching, we found the pure Polish mare Annobility (MHR Nobility x Arnaborra, by Naborr) in the state of Washington.

   Simultaneously, as we were searching for an English type broodmare, we were also searching for an English sire. My husband finally decided on Hey Hallelujah at the 1999 U.S. Nationals in Albuquerque. He was beautiful and boy, could he trot!

   Annobility arrived at our house in late January of 2000. She was big and beautiful, not big as in tall, but big as in wide. She was expecting a foal in late April or early May. On April 29, 2000, SSF Dreamobility arrived. Born a beautiful black-bay, he was destined to be grey. Then as we had been anticipating for months, we bred Annobility to Hey Hallelujah. What an easy task! Our vet told us not to get used to things going so smoothly. It wasn't the norm for a mare to get bred with the first shipment of semen.

   After Dreamobility was several months old and Annie was bred back to Hey Hallelujah, our 7-year-old son, lane, started riding Annobility. The previous owners had told us she had been used as a lesson horse, and we were overjoyed with her abilities. She proved to be a great children's horse. In just a few short months, lane was ready to take her to his first class A show and exhibit in the 10 and under walk-trot class in saddle seat. He won first place, and we were elated with how well the two performed together.

   When school re-started, lane and Annobility had less time together and soon she was too pregnant to be ridden. We turned her out to pasture, let her be a broodmare and anticipated the arrival of her Hey Hallelujah foal. Our other mare, Shantilly CVS, was also expecting a foal. We had bred her to our own stallion, Shai Al, a *Simeon Shai son. As the time approached for both mares to foal, we started bringing them into the barn at night and when it got close, my husband and I started sleeping in the barn. Of course, horses will be horses, and all of the planning in the world doesn't make them conform to our human expectations when it comes to foaling. Shantilly foaled on April 30^th about 6 p.m., in our arena where I had turned her out for some fresh air and light exercise. I turned around from ground-driving a filly in the round pen and she was in the process of foaling.

   Annobility foaled two days later on May 2nd. I had slept in the barn all night waiting for her and, when I went into the house to take a shower, she had it without me! Now we had two beautiful fillies on the ground, but Annie's was special or so we hoped. It would be great for her foal to have even half as much motion as we wanted or half as much motion as its sire or grandsire. Both of the foals and mares seemed to be healthy. The next six weeks went smoothly. Then one night, we had a bad windstorm. I went out to check and make sure everything was alright outside and everything seemed to be in order, but the next morning when I went to feed at 7 a.m., Annie was down and very sick. My husband was gone on a business trip, and I ran in the house and called the vet immediately. He was here within a half an hour, but Annie could not be saved. Things had progressed too far and she had to be euthanized. My son, lane, and I cried a river as she was given the injection.

   The vet said it would be great if Santilly would take the foal but he wasn’t very optimistic and neither was I. After everyone was calm, I led Annie's foal, SF Hey Nobility, over to Shantilly's pen to see how Shan would treat her. Shan pinned her ears as if to say, "Stay away from me," so I returned the filly to own pen and decided to try Foal-Lac. I managed to get some Foal Lac down her in a few hours, but had to use a syringe. I had a dreadful, sinking feeling.

   That afternoon about 4 p.m., I decided to take Shantilly over to the orphaned foal's pen and leave her own foal, SF Shai Anne, by herself for a while. I haltered Shan and led her into the orphaned foal's pen. SF Hey Nobility was ravenous and immediately started nursing. Surprisingly, Shantilly let her nurse about 20 minutes. Things seemed to be going well, so I led Shantilly back to her own foal and let the orphan follow along. I put them back in the pen with Shantilly's foal and she let them both nurse. It's been that smooth ever since!

   Several friends told me how fortunate I was. A veterinarian technician told me I should hang on to her; mares like her were hard to find. No one really had to tell us how special Shantilly was. We already knew. It would have been hard on us and hard on SF Hey Nobility without Shantilly. With Shantilly's help, SF Hey Nobility is growing up as a normal horse, and she's healthy as can be. Now we just have to wait and see if that little filly has the motion we've anticipated and dreamed of. She's certainly bred for it, and she's certainly built for it.

   After weaning both foals, Shantilly was been given a four-month rest and, if things go according to plan, we'll breed her to Brass in 2002. She was our first  Arabian, and she definitely has a home with us for the rest of her days.      

Mike Sullivan & Marie Johnson