Introducing Inara
Sandstorm’s filly has a name.
This is Inara (in-ARRA).
Of Arabic origin, her name translates along the lines of “ray of light” or “heaven sent.”
The “In…”, of course, is in tribute to her sire, Insider.
I couldn’t be happier with this filly.
Welcome, little Inara, to In the Night Farm. You do us proud.
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Insider Edition
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Insider Edition
In the Night Farm has four, new feet this morning. Insider‘s first get arrived in the early hours — a hale and healthy Barb filly out of Sandstorm, the lovely mare in The Barb Wire’s header.
Congratulations to Crystal Gray, who commissioned this breeding and has big plans for this little horse! May your hearts travel many miles together.
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Cute Couple
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Shot in the Dark: Insider
He was more than tremendous strength and speed and beauty of motion.
He set me dreaming.
~ Walt Morey
Cute Couple
Insider is having a good day.
In fact, he’s in for a good few months. He and Sandstorm will be sharing a paddock for the foreseeable future.
For the foreseeable future? Certainly! It may not be the usual practice these days, but I can’t think of a way to keep a stallion happier than to let him have a companion. Some, like Tuetano, get along with certain geldings — in fact, our Tuetano and Crackerjack co-exist quite nicely. Many, including Insider, are quite civil and content in the presence of a bred mare.
Like many breeders, we at In the Night Farm are taking care to avoid a surplus of unwanted foals in these tight economic times. Luckily for Insider, an individual commissioned this breeding, which will lead to our only 2009 foal. We’re expecting a winner!
Break out the Caramel Corn
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The Stars of Our Show: Barb Horses at In the Night Farm
A fellow blogger at Global Horse Culture recently expressed the hope that I would share more about how we chose our Barbs. This, I suspect, is a two part request: First and most important is the question of why we prefer the International Barb Horse Registry (IBHR) horses as preserved by Robert Painter of Quien Sabe Ranch. Second, what drove our selection of the seven individuals that comprise our little breeding program here at In the Night Farm?
Because it is Friday and I remain in a funk about my sprained ankle, I’ll address the simpler question first — why did we choose these particular Barbs?
Selecting horses from the Quien Sabe herd isn’t as easy as looking down a list of available horses, marking the most interesting on the basis of bloodlines or price or what have you, then taking those animals for a test drive. You see, very few horses on the ranch are gentled at all, let alone halter broke or started under saddle. The herd, seperated in various ways by age and/or gender, runs essentially wild on over 400 acres near Midvale, Idaho. Extensive wandering on diverse footing wears their hooves beautifully, strengthens muscle and bone, and sharpens their wits.
Visitors may walk among the horses, but few members of the herd allow themselves to be touched. Those that do — often, the boldest two-year-olds — extend elegent necks to flutter nostrils against outstretched fingertips before retreating, all snort and prance, among their fellows.
Travis and I had the advantage of spending a great deal of time at the ranch, observing the herd that numbered around 200 head, absorbing tales of their ancestors, and watching the young horses mature. When we moved back to the Treasure Valley, we brought with us five Barbs.
-boned, kind-eyed, and possessed of an enviable double mane. Dr. Phillip Sponen- berg, respected livestock genetics expert and author of Equine Color Genetics, met Insider and both his parents in 2006. At that time, he informed me that Insider is most likely a “purple roan,” which is to say, a mahogany bay roan. In winter, Insider’s coat turns a rather muddy shade of violet-brown, but in summer he is all shine and glory, speckled with dark corns (irregular spots that increase in number with age), and glinting with a coppery sheen typically associated with Akhal Tekes’ metallic coats. But it was Insider’s personality that attracted me most of all…perhaps because he and I are so much alike: restless, inquisitive, stubborn, determined, and formidable when crossed. And, we both appreciate a good meal.
Alternating Current, better known as Acey, is a 2003, bay rabicano mare by Marawooti out of Chiripa. I haven’t measured her recently, but I’d venture a guess that as our smallest Barb, she’s topped out at 13 hands. Fine-featured and adorable under a great puff of forelock (see the photo at the bottom of this post), Acey stood out among the other Quien Sabe fillies for her alertness, petite but sturdy and balanced conformation, and an alluring, undefinable charm. Friendly and sensible, she’s a pleasure to train and should be well started under saddle by Fall 2008.
Sandstorm, the lovely grulla featured in our blog header, is a 2003 mare by IBHR foundation stallion Lancelot out of Sands of Time. Very like her sire, Sandstorm is quite cautious, though not exactly “spooky,” and eager to comply once assured that she won’t be harmed. I’m still in the early phases of gentling Sandstorm, but I suspect that once I have her trust, she’ll come along very quickly indeed. I look forward to the day I can sit aboard the sailboat-smooth and lightening-fast extended trot that first attracted my attention at the ranch.
CJ is especially eye-catching, and it may just break my heart to have him gelded this spring. However, I am determined to enjoy our Barbs as well as preserve and promote them, and In the Night Farm is fortunate to have two very nice stallions already. Outstanding in physique and personality, CJ is poised for a career as one of the finest geldings on the endurance trails.
Ripple Effect retains the lovely Marawooti head of her grandsire. Indeed, she looks so much like her dam that I often mistake them for one another when feeding before dawn. Inquisitive, bold as brass, generous, sweet-natured, and honest, Ripple ought to make a high quality riding horse, as well as a source of the Jack Slade line in our herd.
And there you have it, a summary of our precious herd. In a later post, I’ll address the reasons for In the Night Farm’s commitement to promotion and preservation of the IBHR Barbs.
An Inside Job
Start emailing photos to other horse lovers, and you never know what you’re going to get back.
This artistic piece originated as a photo of one of In the Night Farm’s Barb stallions. In the photo, Insider is practicing his Spanish walk at liberty…but he’s covered in mud. This rendering by my longtime friend Crystal Gray, who is in line to purchase our first Insider/Sandstorm foal, improves it dramatically!
What Have We Here? : Introducing the Barb Horse
Any person who has tried to trace the history of a breed, equine or otherwise, knows that much is lost to the mists of time. Even among the relatively small number of Barb devotees in North America today, disagreement abounds about the exact history of the breed. Much of what I have written here is extrapolated from the work of Dr. Deb Bennett, one of the world’s foremost equine experts and a respected researcher and paleontologist. For further detail, see Dr. Bennett’s article on The Origins and Relationships of the Mustang, Barb, and Arabian Horse, available on the Equine Studies Institute website.
More than 3,000 years ago, horses of Afro-Turkic extraction were brought by sailing vessel from the Mediterranean to France and the British aisles. These horses, when bred with the native, draft-type, Iberian horses, produced unusually hardy foals capable of greater endurance than either their sires or their dams.
The resulting Barbary Horses, or Barbs, retained some characteristics of their Iberian influence. However, the infusion of Afro-Turkic bloodlines resulted in a lighter body type. Less refined for beauty than the Arabian, another ancient breed heavily influenced by the Afro-Turkic stock, Barbs were characterized by exceptional endurance and soundness of the legs and hooves. Their profiles were straight or sub-convex, their cannon bones round rather than oblong, their backs short and strong, their croups sloped to low-set tails, ideal for the crouching and spinning maneuvers required by North African warriors.
Here, the history grows murkier. Dr. Bennett’s article continues to explain the influence of the Barb on the Jennet, which experienced renewed draft influence in Spain and came to the New World in Columbus’ time, ultimately resulting in the so-called American “mustang.”
However, Robert Painter of Quien Sabe Ranch notes that his horses are not products of the hodgepodge of draft, thoroughbred, and other miscellaneous bloodlines so common among modern “mustangs,” that is, feral horses of non-specific type. Additionally, he believes his horses represent the original Barb that moved from North Africa to Spain, and from there to the New World with the Conquistadors. While most of the pure Barbs in Africa and Spain have been crossbred into oblivion, Painter has spent more than half a century gathering horses he believes to be of the original type, preserving their purity on his ranch near Midvale, Idaho. It is from this herd that In the Night Farm’s stock comes.
Painter’s understanding of Barb history is briefly presented in the Breed Profile Section of the March 2008 issue of The Northwest Horse Source, together with a photo of In the Night Farm’s 2000 stallion, Insider (Idaho Night Hawk x Chispa, IBHR 191). The same photo accompanies this post.
Tamara Baysinger
