The search for Ay Nayal

I have been looking for a stallion for my small farm in Norway, for about a year. It has been a wonderful experience, with a lot to learn, many people to meet online, and in real life, and a lot of horses to look at.

When I started, I had a desire to get a stallion that would bring something good to the Norwegian arabians. I have been talking to a bunch of people, and many wants to have high sports horses, or extreme show horses. I wanted to do both. I think one of the big advantages of the arabian breed, is the ability to be both a good sport horse, and still be beautiful.

I have been looking at ads all over the world. I saw a very nice boy in South Africa, and a couple of good ones in USA, and even Australia had some.

I looked at many ads and horses in Europe, and I thought the ones that had nice sports body almost always had a flat head an very little arabian type. I also found the beautiful horses to have faults like bad back, unparalleled legs or wrong leg conformation. It made me think about the breeding world. Does people really just want beauty? Or just want sports horses?

I did find a stallion that had both a nice head, and good body. He also had good height. I was really hoping this boy would bedazzle me, but when I saw him, I just didn't`t feel it. He was a fine horse, but if I was going to spend a lot of money on both buying, importing, and training this horse, I had to be in love. Because all the work with a stallion takes a lot, and if you don`t have a crush on the horse, it will be 90% work and 10% fun. I just had to keep looking, even though I felt sorry for leaving him behind.

A couple of horses later I got a message from my Italian friend, Alexandra. She had found 4 grey stallions that fit my criteria, and she sent me some videos. Immediately I picked out one of them. The video was of poor quality, and I got a picture where I almost couldn't`t see him, but there was just something there! He had winter coat, was a bit too skinny, and was not in any show condition, but he had the largest, most beautiful black eyes I have ever seen in a horse!


I started on the top of my check list, and I found out that he checked all, yes ALL of the items that I put on my whish list. He had the most wonderful dished head I had seen. Aj Nayal had exactly the perfect dished head, and looked astonish!

I looked further down to his body, starting with the arch of the neck, and down his shoulder. I find many arabians have to steep shoulder, which influence the angle of humerus and movements of the front legs. His was perfect. He had the strongest, straightest back, with a correct tailset, nice, straight fore legs, and good hock and stifle joint. The hooves were also good with the right angles, and they were all four black. it wasn't any white markings on all of the horse, which isn't the most important thing, but I think it is good for a grey horse to not have any pink on the muzzle, and the feet looks very good in black. (It is different with the chestnuts. They are adorable with wide blaze and high socks). He also had the perfect size. Still a few centimeters to grow. He wouldn`t be small, but he wouldn`t be 16 hands, either. I think many of the largest horses loose a bit of the arabian type, so I was happy to see that he was big, but not too big.
He si also a straight egyptian, which is perfetc. The ones who only breed SE can use him, and the other can use him as a great outrcross. So this boy is for everybody :).

It took some days before I could see more of him. I got some good pictures, and I also found out that he was really calm and had a nice temper. When they fetched a provocation mare, he didn't even blink. - Is this really a stallion? Alexandra asked, and bent down to look at his private parts.

When I saw him flying thorough the air, with his tail straight up so the tail looked like a white flag in the wind behind him, I was sold. This horse was so wonderful. I was in love just by looking at his first, bad picture. With mud all the way up to his stomach. It didn't matter. He was perfect! He had it all!

So, I bought him on valentines day. <3


Alexandra helped me find a nice training center, where he could stay to get in shape, learn to mount the phantom mare for semen collections, and learn the first steps of showing. In Norway there are only one show every year, and this year it is cancelled, so I want him to be further down in Europe to be able to attend a couple of shows before I take him home to Norway. He will be available thorough fresh semen here, and I will breed some of my mares to him as soon as possible. I might even lease another breeding mare. Everything is still so new, so I haven`t planned it all yet. I am still a newbie in the world of breeding, so I have so much to learn!


And when he comes back to Norway he will most certainly be ridden.  Dressage, on hikes, endurance, you name it. He will be a good all rounder.

I would like to thank Alexandra Santorini for helping me buying this boy. She has also taken all the picture in todays blog.  And thanks to Fontanella Magic arabians, for giving me the opportunity to buy this wonderful stallion! I would also thank Mette Normand for helping me look at a million horses,  getting med sources to read, and tips about who to contact. Many other people helped me to find horses for sale, talked to me about breeding, the arabian race, about shows and a lot of other stuff. I really look foreward to attend to Nayals first show, and to become part of a wonderful world of show and breeding horses.