LD Rubic, a ruby in the rough
This is one of my all-time favorite Asil Arabian mares. LD Rubic (Plantagenet x Tarrla) is unique for several reasons:
1) she is a great-grand-daughter of the mare *Nufoud, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare from Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud born in 1925 and imported to the USA in 1931 by Albert W. Harris. You cannot get any closer to the source, and what a source! A Kuhaylah from Ibn Saud! Too bad we don’t know which Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz that is.
2) She is a daughter of the fabulous stallion Plantagenet, an Asil Kuhaylan al-Hayf of the line imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. I am a big fan of the Plantagenet progeny, of which Palisades CF is another representative. Below is a picture of Plantagenet.
3) She doesn’t have any lines to the horses imported to the UK by Lady Anne and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Blunt horses are in the pedigrees of most Arabian horses worldwide. The late Carol Lyons called these horses “Sharp”, by opposition to “Blunt”.
4) Her line was saved from extinction by a person I have enormous respect and admiration for: the late Carol Lyons. Carol had acquired Tarrla (Tarff x Kaluga by Alcazar), Rubic’s dam, in 1979. She was the last Asil mare tracing to Nufoud in the tail female.
The excellent website rare AK strains lists the living descendents of LD Rubic. Whoever owns an Asil offspring of this blessed line is lucky indeed.. May her progeny increase and prosper, as it is a living testimony of the genius and foresight of those who bred and preserved this line of horses for future generations.
[Update July 14th: the photo of Rubic below was taken by Jon Michael of Hidden Hollow Preserve, Kentucky]
Hi Edouard,
I applaud your honoring such mares as LD Rubic and her breeder. These are the kinds of horses that Sharon and I so wanted to encourage others to get involved with. Somewhere I have some footage of Rubic as a young filly either a yearling or two year old I believe. I visited Carol Lyons when she was in Missouri. The late Col. Fippen was with me and he took some video also. On that visit I had the good fortune to, with Carol Lyon’s blessing, to ride her daughter’s beloved Don Camillo (Monsoon x Tara). His dam was a double grandaughter of Antez, and of course Monsoon was always one of my favorites. Don was a very smart horse and very fun to ride. It brings back good memories.
Dear Edouard and Joe:
I have to agree with you both, regarding LD Rubic. I had the good fortune to meet LD Rubic somewhere in the mid-to-late-eighties, when she was with Eileen Sass of Chipmunk Hill Farm, then in Hopewell, NJ.
Eileen at that time, had a daughter from Carol Lyons exquisite mare, Thea Isis. So, when I visited Eileen, all of my attention was spent on LD Abba Isis. She was gorgeous, with lines to some of the Babson horses that I revered.
In the back pasture was LD Rubic. She was like a sentinel, at the fence line, watching this new stranger very intently. It was as if she were at attention and would not relax until she was convinced that I was not a danger to anyone at Chipmunk Hill Farm. I was drawn to her by her coloring, as I am a fan of chestnut-colored horses with flaxen manes and tails. But on closer inspection, I was impressed by her quality, by her very solid structure, by her substance. And yet, getting closer to her, petting her, trying to win her affection, I realized that she was very authentic and very honest to the characteristics that we have all come to recognize as an Arabian Horse. I don’t remember at what point, “lightning struck” and I became immediately aware that I was in the presence of an honest-to-goodness war mare and more than likely, it would be a long time, before I met another horse, as special as LD Rubic. I have never forgotten her AND I have never met another war mare. I have met a lot of special horses, beautiful horses but not an individual who I could trust my life with. I am glad for the experience.
I am so happy to see her honored here. Thank you so much for making my day a little more special.
Ralph
I have never seen her in person, but I am judging from the few photos of her that I have seen.. If any of you have pictures of her to display, then please forward them to me (ealdahdah@hotmail.com).
Hi Edouard,
Jeanne Craver just clued me in to your website and the discussion on LD Rubic. The photo on your site was taken here at Hidden Hollow Preserve just after I retrieved Rubic from Eileen Sass in VA for Nancy Bliss and brought her back to KY.
Nancy had asked me to be on the lookout for a “preservation project” for her so when Eileen announced her desire to let Rubic go on the AKHorsemen List, I advised Nancy that this would be a perfect project, having heard so much about this mare from Carol Lyons and Lesley Detweiler. Nancy agreed and I negotiated with Eileen for her, drove to VA and brought her home to breed to my Combined Source stallion, HHA Manabi before delivering her to Nancy. Rubic was 22 at the time and had not been bred in several years, but her dam Tarla was 25 when Rubic was born and Tarla had a colt after Rubic so we were hopeful.
I will absolute concur with the war mare description of Rubic. We put her in a stall with a Dutch door and brought my “cock of the walk” stallion, Manabi to talk to her. They met nose to nose at the door and performed all the usual posturing, nuzzling, nickering, smelling, etc and then Manabi did what he is NOT supposed to do … he struck the 2″ thick oak door front. Before you could blink your eyes … literally … Rubic spun 180 degrees and planted BOTH hind feet into the oak door inches from Manabi’s nose! Looking calmly over her shoulder at him she nonchalantly said in no uncertain terms, “Behave yourself kiddo, and treat me with respect … or I’ll kick your lights out!” She taught him more respect in that one second than a college education could have taught him! He treated her with utmost respect, they loved each other and together they produced two incredible foals … first a filly, AB Dafiinah … then a colt, AB Razeel. I will send 2 photos of each of them along with 3 more photos of Rubic at age 25 to your email addy.
Both Dafiinah and Razeel are for sale from Nancy Bliss to preservation homes so that others can contribute to expanding this precious and almost extinct line.
LD Rubic is still healthy and happy … and she is still a war mare and the matriarch at Nancy Bliss farm in Lebanon, KY.
Rubic will be 26 years young on Oct 9th. Unfortunately she is no longer cycling or we might have tried for one more!
I LOVE this mare! She is indeed a one of a kind.
Jon Michael
Thanks for your input Jon, and good to see you here. Thanks for the photos too. Do i have your permission to post them (with due credit of course) if anyone is interested?
Edouard,
You certainly have my OK to share pictures of LD Rubic and her offspring. Rubic was my 2nd horse and my first preservation mare. She has been wonderful, teaching manners to newer horses and foals and protecting all in her “family”. I often see the sight Ralph mentioned: Head up, ears forward and like a statue at attention. Always the war mare.
I will look for addtional pictures and forward if they are different from what you received.
All are welcome to come visit her and her offspring at anytime. We live in central KY and love to have visitors.
Thanks for all the kind and true words about one of the most incredable mares I know of.
Nancy
Edouard,
Thank you for the compliment on the Rare Ak Strains site! Anne McGaughey and I worked hard on trying to get as much data as we could together on the more rare strains as possible. We had evisioned it as a “one stop shopping” sort of thing after we both had more questions than answers on some of the strains. We’ve been trying to keep it up to date as possible, and we’re always happy to have anyone in the know point us in the direction of data. 🙂
To have a compliment come from you on the site makes all the nights spent in front of the computer, researching even more worth it. Many thanks!
Hi Edouard,
You can certainly use the photos … I think I shot the ones of Rubic and I think that Diana Johnson shot those of Razeel and Dafiinah and they bare her signature. I see lots of interesting topics on your site and will look forward to spending more time here. Thanks!
Jon
UPDATE: LD Rubic is still alive and well at 31 years old this year … still watching over all the foals at AraBliss Arabians. I love this mare!
Thanks Jon. My note here is in tribute to LD Rubic who when I saw her 3 years ago looked much younger than her years. She is truly a great mare. It is also fitting to pay tribute to her breeder, the late Carol Lyons who had such foresight to preserve this kind of excellent breeding.