Bloodline
Bloodline
Hagunia
H
agunia was the most influential of the mares imported from Spain by my parents Pat and Joanna Maxwell in the late seventies and early eighties. Their visits to Spain were inspired by the sight of the Spanish-bred mare Estopa (Tabal x Uyaima), who they saw on their first visit to the Salon du Cheval Arabian in 1975. At that time, the fact that Spain also bred Arabian horses was not particularly well known; although Estopa and Abha Hamir, the 1976 US National Champion Mare bred in Mallorca by Ses Planes, did a lot to popularise them. In fact there were already several in England belonging to Pieter Houtappel, a Dutch breeder whose Spanish-bred mare Kadidja (Alcazar x Chavali) was the first British National Champion of Spanish lines in 1972. If you look at the pedigree of Estopa, there is a curious gap at the bottom with no parentage recorded for her great-granddam Verana. The story is worth retelling as Verana belongs to the group of mares rescued
Scott Trees
Massey
1975 (Jabalpur x Iama by Tabal)
Words and photography by Emma Maxwell (unless stated)
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Hagunia British National Champion 1985
from the Duke of Veragua’s farm after the Spanish Civil War in 1936. The Duke of Veragua came from a very ambitious Spanish family and his ancestor was none other than Cristobal de Colon, better known here as Christopher Columbus, the explorer who brought news to the known world of the continent of America. The Duke made his own imports from the Crabbet Stud in England, including several Skowronek daughters, to breed his own type of Arabian crossing them with the desert blood that was already in Spain and his horses enjoyed a meteoric rise in reputation. However during the Civil War, he was killed, his house burned down, and his most famous stallion shot. One groom kept his mares going as long as he could in one corral for five years until the Civil War was over. The Yeguada Militar, the Army division in charge of horse breeding, conducted an investigation and decided it was impossible to identify these horses after five years when all their paperwork had been destroyed with the property. However they believed the groom had maintained the purity of the herd and that
they would take the unusual step of renaming the few survivors with a Vera- prefix and accepting them into the stud book although their parentage could not be verified any other way. Thus the Veragua mares
were not lost to posterity and in fact have become some of the most powerful mare lines from Spain. Hagunia also came from the family of Verana, as did Kadidja and several of the other Houtappel mares. One of these, Faquih (Borni x Paita) started anther famous dynasty in Europe through her Belgian-bred granddaughter Navarroné-P (El Khadir P x Navarra P), All Nations’ Cup Champion Mare in 2003 and the only mare to be dam of two World Champion Stallions, double World Champion Eternity Ibn Navarroné-D and Escape Ibn Navarroné-D. This cluster of noteworthy mares come from a family that is vanishingly small in terms of percentage of the world’s breeding mares and is even tiny within the Spanish Stud Book. I don’t think it is fanciful to say that the best members of the Verana family have a ‘look’ that defines them, and while the most frequent outcross has been Egyptian blood, those recent champions from the lines with Russian or American blood still have that extremely round eye and attractive expression that has made the family the favourite of breeders and judges for the past thirty years. Hagunia was imported to the UK in 1980 as a five-year-old mare leaving one son in Spain, Abutig who was a Spanish Supreme National Champion Stallion and sire at the Domecq Stud. Hagunia was an elegant pale grey with a fine neck and very round eyes. She was dry and not inclined to the heaviness that some Spanish lines are and she always looked a little Polish in our eyes. She was not the best of movers in the show-ring, being a rather nervous mare as was Esperada The Collectors’ Edition 2012 • The Arabian Magazine • 83
Bloodline
and he was swiftly bought as a herd sire for the Royal Jordanian Stud by HRH Princess Alia al Hussein and was World Reserve Champion Colt in Paris also in 1985. Hamadahn was a successful sire in Jordan and is probably most remembered for his son Scudsly (ex Shela), born during the first Gulf War on a night when a wildly fired Iraqi Scud missile landed within earshot of the stables. Yet it was not initially Hagunia’s most promising foal that set the family on its way. Straight Spanish Hashemiya was by Cala d’Or (Garbo x Opalina), also from the family of Verana. Cala d’Or was imported as a yearling and was our best known import although we credited him with being the cleverest. He was also very energetic and you could tell when he was in residence in the indoor school by the mushroom cloud hanging over the roof as he regularly raced his daily thirty circuits, hurtling over any jumps that had been left out. Cala d’Or was in fact my chosen mount for some years as I enjoyed the fact that he thought for himself, although I confess we did not always arrive at the same solutions to a problem. Hashemiya was born in 1986, a
Heloua was a neatly put together but substantial mare but with a very fine throat, excellent tail carriage and a very large round eye and boundless bonhomie. Her ideal breeding quickly turned out to be with Crusader (Salaa el Dine x AK Kastana) and in fact she left for Sharjah with him at the farm’s dispersal. Their first daughter, Harka, was sold, albeit reluctantly to Jack Maritz of South Africa and it was
at all disciplines. We repeated the breeding and were rewarded the next year with a truly glorious filly who was named Heloisa, as was the original Girl from Ipanema, which pretty much summed her up. Heloisa was not supposed to be for sale but we were convinced to part with her as the most expensive foal we ever sold and she won her class at the Europan Championships in Verona for her new owners Helaliya
Gregor Aymar
(Tabal x Berlanga), the other famous mare we got from the same breeder Alfredo Erquicia. At the time we attributed their suspicious nature anxiety to their early nurture but after a couple of generations, realised that excusing a horse by its upbringing is not always valid. Nervousness was a trait both families could exhibit, but treated with respect many of them have been superb show and performance
Bloodline
Sidi Obsession Hamadahn
wonderful see the WAHO Trophy for South Africa awarded in 2008 to Harka’s daughter Sidi Obsession (by Magical CAF), South African National Champion and winner of over 40 classes in performance
horses, although they all have memories like elephants about who did what to them when and do not forgive errors easily. Although aloof, Hagunia was a beautiful mare and was swiftly promoted to the show string and she was not so nervous that she could not be handed over to the junior handler… I was fourteen years old when I took Hagunia to her first show at Haydock Park where she was Champion Mare and the following year at Ascot, she was my first National Champion Mare. Further afield, she won her mare class at both the European Championships and in Paris. Heloua
As a broodmare, Hagunia was not entirely consistent and her most successful direct offspring was the beautiful Hamadahn, Champion Foal at side on her debut at Haydock. Hamadahn was something of a rarity, a pale grey son of our El Shaklan son Maleik el Kheil (ex Muneera) 84 • The Arabian Magazine • The Collectors’ Edition 2012
Sweet Photography
Aja Angelica
Gigi Grasso
Hashemiya
year in which we had sixteen fillies, the star of which was twice World Champion Atlantica (El Shaklan x Aliha) and this rather large deadrat grey filly was not on our keep list. In fact, Hashemiya had a pretty high opinion of herself and I ended up show training her from the winter barn because she was so determined to be considered that I could not get any other fillies out the gate unless I took her for a spin first! A scopey filly with big eyes and long legs and neck, but rather large bones and a very enthusiastic nature, she is best visualised at that age as a Great Dane puppy, and despite not being on our keep list, we could not convince anyone to put her on their ‘buy’ list either. At the age of three we decided that the best thing for her was to breed back to Maleik as he had been a successful cross on her dam and she duly foaled the outstanding filly Heloua in 1990, who was the best of her foal crop and Hashemiya disappeared overnight from the sales list. As a yearling, Heloua won her class at the British Nationals, and was the first of five winners at Malvern foaled by Hashemiya, three at halter and two under saddle. Heloua also won her yearling filly class and was Reserve Junior Champion in Aachen, an accomplishment that was repeated by her full sister Hazika, born two years later, and these two fillies were the basis of a new dynasty.
FS Ronaldo
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AJ Asyad
Bloodline
have those very prominent round eyes that remind me strongly of his granddam. Ronaldo’s grey full sister FS Anastasia was bought by Malcolm and Jane Hickford of Aja Arabians and she has been a
also dam of Aja Angelica (by WH Justice), sold to the Crown Prince of Ajman, Sheikh Ammar Bin Humaid al Nuaimi of Ajman Stud.
Haleyla
Gregor Aymar
Hawanem
Hawanem with breeder Joanna Maxwell
Aja Angelo
Gregor Aymar
Hazika
broodmare supreme for them producing Aja Aisha (by Ruger AMW), dam of the 2011 UK International Colt Aja Angelo (by WH Justice), who is turning out to be a very promising young sire in the footsteps of his father. FS Anastasia is Al Khatab Al Thani
the Kirschner family in Germany. The granddam of the 2012 Champion Bourhani Aldebaran (Ajman Moniscone x MF Helona), Heloisa is now owned by Aja Arabians in the UK. The third Crusader filly from Heloua, Helaliya, was the high selling lot in our auction as a foal, also sold to Germany to Axel and Suzanne Reiter and is now with Frank Spönle and Ralf Heckenbucker. Her family has also wound its way back to Britain with the 2010 British National Champion Stallion Ronaldo (Kubinec x Helaliya), a successful sire whose foals 86 • The Arabian Magazine • The Collectors’ Edition 2012
Hidalgo
Aja Angelica has been a champion in the Middle East and is dam of the multiple 2012 Gold Champion Filly AJ Asyad (by Marwan Al Shaqab). AJ Asyad is the superstar of this family to date and takes the Gold title everywhere she goes.
Hazika followed Heloua to win Reserve Champion in Aachen as a yearling. She also won there at two years old and, like her sister, was a push button show filly with correctness and a lovely eye. I remember a couple of young lads that came from the Middle East to have a day’s seminar on show training and Hazika must have been trotted up and down and stood up by them for three hours on repeat, and she never stopped placing her feet, putting ears forward and her tail up. She was bred to Crusader several times as well, with the most memorable of this cross being the delectable Hanan with her curled back ears. Hanan and Heloisa, in fact, taught us a valuable lesson about extremely beautiful foals. Don’t stop to exclaim your admiration of them every time you pass the stable door! Both of them grew up with ‘princess syndrome’ and believed that they were entitled to unfailing praise whatever they did or did not do. We developed a policy of trying to ignore gorgeous fillies after that... Hanan was exported to Saudi Arabia at the farm dispersal but in the past couple of years, a son bred by her owner Sawary Farm, has returned to Europe. Al Khatab Al Thani (by Al Batran), on lease to Tom Oben, was Champion at Frankfurt in 2011 and Bronze Champion Stallion at Menton in 2012. Hanan had a full brother, Hajar al Kamar, who took Reserve Best Yearling at Malvern and is now a 100km endurance horse. Another sibling is the elegant mare Hawanem. The last member of the H family bred by my parents was Hawanem’s colt Hidallgo (by Premier) who is a typical ‘Lodge Farm’ horse with the ability to do whatever his new owner might ask.
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Bloodline
Helena
susan George
Sweet Photography
At three years, his new owner was riding him in just a halter and had trained him to lie down on command. Hazika was bred to a wider range of stallions and produced the best foal by straight Spanish Arabian Beauty (Mel Nacar x Ceramica), Hacho, Middle East Junior Champion Colt as
SG Imagine
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a yearling in Jordan, and Haleyla (by Adawy) exported to Norway. At the farm’s dispersal, I kept Hazika, and now in partnership with Brian and Zena Bermingham, she has bred us several fillies including Hebat Allah ZE (by Al Lahab) who became the third member of the family to join the Aja herd of Britain’s premier show breeders, the Hickfords. Brian and Zena still own her British National winning daughter Helena (by Tehama Na Sidaqa). Hazika is coming twenty but like her sire Maleik el Kheil, she shows little intention of ageing and indeed tends to end my photo shoots of her far too swiftly by jumping out of the small paddock back into the main pasture and galloping off snorting with amusement! Hazika is in foal to Malthouse Arabians exquisite Ashhal al Rayyan son, Muhaned al Rayyan (ex Al Wajba al Rayyan). A third Maleik Kheil daughter Hallelujah also produced Halleja (by Kerim Shah), who won her class at the UK International. Hagunia was sold as an older mare to a new breeder in the UK who did not last very long in the business and then arrived aged sixteen to live with Delyth Gamlin in Derbyshire, where she was allowed free run of the yard for her final years. She died at 29 years old from colic after producing two last fillies for Delyth, including the chestnut Halina Shaklana (by Kerrilyn Ibn Amir) who became a foundation mare SG Jeddah for Susan George’s Georgian Arabians. Halina Shaklana produced the stallion Bolearo (by Borneo), winner under saddle at the British Nationals and three good-producing daughters. SG Hessta Shaklan (by Essteem) is the dam of the 2012 British National Champion Stallion SG Imagine (by WH Justice), making two of the last three BNC stallions Hagunia descendants. SG Haiti Shaklana (by MA Alishah) is the dam of British National Champion Novice Ridden Stallion 2011 SG Jeddah (by Jullyus JJ). Susan has also bred a fascinating double descendent of Hagunia, the lovely black yearling filly SG Vienna Image (SG Imagine x SG Haiti Shaklana). It is very hard for an individual mare to produce a dynasty that endures, especially if not from a State Stud, when so many different people make the breeding decisions that decide the next generation, but even as her family disperses around the world it is amazing to see so many Hagunia descendants are winning thirty years after her importation. We learnt many lessons from her family, the three most important being: not to automatically discount the plainer daughter from being an outstanding mare, as in the case of Hashemiya; not to hopelessly spoil your cutest filly foals, in the case of Hanan and Heloisa; and from all of them, that Arabian horses respond best to being asked to do things quietly and respectfully. The Collectors’ Edition 2012 • The Arabian Magazine • 89