2011 Arabian Horse Times Most Classic Contest Winner
Majic Of M arwan by Mary KirKMan
When discussing the pedigree attributes of a Marwan Al Shaqab son, the first thing an owner usually mentions is his superstar sire. With enough national and international championships to write a book, and an army of successful offspring on his record, Marwan is an asset to anyone’s family tree. Nevertheless, when Roxann Hart, who co-owns Majik Of Marwan with longtime friend R. Kirk Landon, talks about their young stallion, the first thing she mentions is his damline. “Majik Of Marwan’s dam and his granddam have produced four or more champions,” Hart says, “so he has the kind of pedigree that really anchors a breeding stallion.” To complement Marwan Al Shaqab, Majik Of Marwan is out of Lily Marlaina, a Thee Infidel daughter out of the Polish-bred Probracja— which makes for a diverse pedigree, but one in which nearly every line is proven for quality. The year 2011 is proving to be a breakout one for “Majik.” Now 5, he is just beginning his show career in the stallion ranks, and made his first appearance under Rohara guidance at the Shenandoah Valley Classic in June, where he won the Stallion Championships. The following month, he was named Region 15 Champion Stallion, the unanimous choice of the judges. Now plans call for him to compete at the U.S. Nationals with Rohara’s Joe Alberti on the lead. As welcome as the show titles are, Hart observes that for her, Majik Of Marwan’s breeding potential is most exciting. He covered his first mares at the age of 3, in 2009, when he was purchased by Landon and Rohara, but since that did not transpire until late March, his breeding season was limited. That first foal crop numbered just 17—but they are already making an impact in the show ring. Hart is elated; she has been told that statistics reveal that in Sweepstakes Yearlings, Majik Of Marwan tied for first in Half-Arabians and was in the top five as a sire of purebreds. “To me, for a young sire in his first foal crop, that’s outstanding,” she says. “And two of his best have not been shown in this country.” She is already looking forward to the foreign market, as Majik’s semen has been shipped to Europe and Ecuador. As bright as the young stallion’s future seems now, that was not always the case. Hart and the Rohara staff already have had a taste of his quality in the way he fought a freak medical condition—he developed an enterolith—that could have claimed his life last year. An enterolith occurs when a horse ingests a small foreign object (in this case, perhaps a sliver of a shell) and its body fights back by encasing the object in calcium; when the calcium builds, the object’s size is increased and can eventually cause colic. “We had vets checking him, but they couldn’t find anything and his blood work always came back all right,” says Hart. “Then he started having intermittent colics, and when they became more frequent, we finally did exploratory surgery. That’s when we found that he had an enterolith larger than my hand, and it had broken loose and was periodically blocking his intestine. Thank heavens, the vets don’t believe it will recur.” Through the ordeal, Majik maintained his typically easy disposition, and she reports that even when he was in pain, he understood that they were trying to help him and never resisted. “He was always so trusting,” Hart observes, and adds that it is great to see him coming into his own. “Now it’s fun to take him out and show him, and see him be the strong competitor I thought he would be.” n 268AA | A R A bI A N HOR SE T I MES