Monsoon, that legend
I will never, ever tire of watching that mythical photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion, Monsoon (Tripoli x Ceres). Thank you Anita Westfall, for taking it. My Thalia (Javera Thadrian x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon) is a Monsoon granddaughter.
I had that photo, from an old Craver Farms ad in the Arabian Horse World magazine, framed and hanging on my wall for many years. It eventually faded and crumpled to dust, as paper is wont to do.
My favorite horse photo. Thank you, Edouard, for publishing this gorgeous picture of Monsoon. Artist Jackie Jordan rendered a darker painting of this photo as a gift to me. She worked from a darker exposure of this same photo. It hangs in the StarWest lounge for all to enjoy. And still gets comments from students. Monsoon was always a larger than life horse. It was a privilege to ride him, a gift granted to me by Charles Craver. I did not receive custody until Monsoon was 15. He did not have enough time to train me completely, but he tried. The amazing thing about him was if you asked for more, he pulled more out of somewhere.
Hello- this is off topic of your beautiful pic you shared-but i have a question -you may able to answer. Do you have or heard of any info on NURREDIN GSB being impure or not Asil? i had heard of some genetic problems associated w/ Nura/Mahruss but not Nurredin being impure. This rumor was to have come from Mr Covey-was it taken out of context? I now the pics of some of the dam line mares are not so attractive..well i thought you may have something about this. i would appreciate your thoughts on this.
Wasn’t Nureddin by Rijm and out of Narghileh? Didn’t Wilfrid Blunt breed him at Newbuildings, and wasn’t Mr. Blunt the first person to use Nureddin at stud? What evidence is there that Nureddin’s parentage was other than as registered?
http://daughterofthewind.org/no-more-nureddin-ii-descendants-left/
RJ, there is an update to that blog entry, and it looks like some descendants of his would be Al Khamsa eligible if he was accepted. The line to *Abeyah would be reinstated too.
http://daughterofthewind.org/no-some-otherwise-al-khamsa-eligible-nureddin-ii-progeny/
I agree that Nureddin deserves to be recognized as an equal in lineage to his brother Nasik who is already an Al Khamsa ancestor. But getting back to the topic of this thread, I still have embedded in my mind the magnificent image of watching Alice Martin ride Monsoon. He was so elastic and free moving, a vision in rich chestnut color and full of Arabian nobility. He was one of those special horses who is clearly his own identity and not just like any other. I feel so fortunate to have seen him in the flesh.
Joe, he was indeed his own self. I fell in love with him when he was a lanky three year old, but the great charm was already there. He never lost it, right to the end.
I first saw Monsoon when he was 12, late one August afternoon in 1979, at Craver Farms. There were thunder clouds rolling in, a wind was building, and the sky was getting dark. He was at full attention. He was a magnificent horse.