Ferman Ansel visited the Bedouin tribes in Syria in April and May of 2007, He video taped their customs , celebrations, horses and tribal chiefs.
In November of 2007 the Arabian horse legacy opened a new international store that is continually being stocked with programs.
That store is at www.earabhorse.com
Also an affiliate program is being made available to any Club, organization or individual farm and ranch.
To take advantage of this opportunity scoll down to the bottom of the page in the store and click affiliates to set up your account.
Jay Stream edited memoriam edited.flvi2i bart setting_001.flv
For Immediate Release
Contacts: Arabian Horse Legacy Inc. World Arabian Horse Organization
Ferman Ansel Katrina Murray
Chief Executive Officer Executive Secretary
303-795-3166 44 (0) 1793-766877
E-Mail legacy@earthnet.net E-Mail waho@compuserve.com
WORLD ARABIAN HORSE ORGANIZATION AND ARABIAN HORSE LEGACY AGREE TO CREATE BREED TRUST FUND
April 15, 2005 - The World Arabian Horse Organization (WAHO) and Arabian Horse Legacy Inc. (AHL) today announced an agreement that would create a funding source to be used exclusively for the welfare and benefit of the Arabian horse breed. A percentage of the revenue generated from access to AHL's extensive online library will be donated to The Arabian Horse Legacy Foundation, a recently created 501 (c) 3 non profit corporation. This foundation will make donations to a dedicated trust fund to support the efforts of WAHO.
"The World Arabian Horse Organization is committed to ensuring the continued strength and viability of the Arabian breed worldwide. This agreement will enable us to expand these efforts while we continue to educate, inform and communicate with our members and all people interested in Arabian horses," said David Angold, WAHO Treasurer.
With an estimated 500,000 registered purebred Arabian horses worldwide, preserving the integrity of Arabian bloodlines is of critical concern to owners, breeders and the numerous organizations formed to support and promote Arabian horses.
Today, the Internet provides an efficient and cost-effective way to access information and connect resources across the globe and AHL's website provides extensive historical data, interactive content, photographs, video and interviews
with the most prominent figures impacting the Arabian horse breed.
The views and knowledge of content experts, accessible to any individual anywhere in the world at any time will have a profound and positive impact on the breed. We will be asking the WAHO Registering Authority Member countries and Individual Associate Members to assist in ensuring the AHL website is the premier resource on the Arabian horse by submitting video, film, photographs and other suitable material.
WAHO is currently working with its Registering Authority Members to create a definitive pedigree database of Arabian horses world-wide which will, in due course, also be available on the internet.
A percentage of the revenue generated from sponsors, corporate partners, advertisers, membership and fees for access to the AHL information will be donated to The Arabian Horse Legacy Foundation, and used for projects and programs beneficial to the Arabian breed.
Special interest sections and non-member fees will be charged for access. Qualifying youth groups, schools, libraries, and current WAHO members will have free access to sponsor supported historical archives.
"This agreement is about perpetuating the Arabian horse for future generations," says Ferman Ansel, chief executive officer and co-owner with wife Christine, of Arabian Horse Legacy, Inc. based in Littleton, Colorado. "It is about educating people wanting to learn and giving owners and breeders anywhere in the world easy access to this extensive database, knowledge will create a competitive advantage leading to more informed decision-making from those that value the Arabian breed."
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About AHL
Arabian Horse Legacy Inc., founded in 1994, is a company providing an extensive online library of research, photographs, video tapes, biographies, history and breaking new stories of the most significant Arabian horses and individuals involved with the Arabian horse breed worldwide. Creation of the Web site content began in 1979 and since then, several thousand Arabian horses have been videotaped and hundreds of people interviewed to form the foundation of this one-of-a-kind collection. AHL has been preparing for this change in format for over two years, and information never before seen by the public will become accessible.
For more information, please visit the Arabian Horse Legacy Web site at www.ahlegacy.com
About WAHO
The World Arabian Horse Organization is responsible for ensuring that international standards acceptable to all its Registering Authority Members are established and maintained in the matters of regulations, methods of registration,
procedures for import and export, and production of stud books. Established in Great Britain in 1970, objectives include to:
. Preserve, improve and maintain the purity of the blood horses of the Arabian
breed and to promote public interest in the science of the breeding of Arabian horses.
. Advance education for the benefit of the public, to promote and facilitate the acquisition and distribution of the knowledge in all countries of the history, care and treatment of horses of the Arabian breed.
From the initial nine member nations, WAHO has now grown to over 60 Registering Authority and applying members, and more than 2,000 Individual Associate Members who share an interest in Arabian horses.
For more information, please visit the World Arabian Horse Organization web site at www.waho.org
2004 has been a busy year with several exciting and significant events. We are in the final testing stage of a new media software program we designed. We took a demo version to the WAHO conference in Warsaw and received outstanding reviews. This proprietary media inventory software enables us to catalogue and describe by scene and time code every horse in our records, person interviewed, still picture, printed article, achievements, records and audio interviews.
We then can query our pedigree data base and include any information relevant to that individual or person.
This software also allows us to view video or picture of any horse, person, or data.
We added a new interactive web interface to the Arabian Horse Legacy website designed for those visitors with high speed internet access.
We added a new section ( In Memoriam) to honor and remember the significant horses and people who are not with us any longer.
In the past few months the Arabian Horse Legacy has added over sixty five hours of knew digital video to its archives. In August 2004 we took our cameras to Poland and interviewed twenty three more significant people attending the WAHO conference. We video taped over two hundred of the Polish State Studs best Arabian horses.
The Parade of Horses by Sire and Dam line was outstanding and a rare chance to see the impact individuals have had on the Arabian Horse breed. The Polish National Championships were of very high quality and the attendance was in the thousands. Our visit to Janow Podlaski, Bialka, and Michalow State studs was a glimpse of the future for the Polish Arabian enthusiasts.
On March 17 -18 2003 Andrew K. Steen made a long awaited trip from Spain to visit and be interviewed for the Arabian Horse Legacy archives. We talked for many hours and working from a five page list of questions I video taped a four hour interview.
Andrew K. Steen's involvement with the Arabian Horse began as a teenager in 1960 and by 1962 he became the youngest rider to successfully finish the Tevis-cup 100 mile endurance ride. In 1965, long before the multitudes began making their pilgrimages to Janow Podlaski, he journeyed alone behind the ' iron curtain' and had the privileged opportunity of seeing and appreciating all of the now legendary stallions and mares then residing at the Polish National Studs.
He was the catalyst behind the famous importation of 28 Spanish Arabians which would impact the breed and be known as the 'de Washoe' line. He has authored and published two books and is working on two more. His translation into English of "In Search Of The Arabian Horse" is a must read for Arabian Horse lovers. His other book "The Man Who Bred Skowronek" is about the great Polish breeders and Arabian Horses of Slawuta, Bialocertkiew, and Antoniny. The research and history makes this book an invaluable resource to the Arabian Horse community worldwide.
Andrews father Charles Steen , discovered the worlds largest Uranium ore deposit in the early 1950,s. Money from this find financed Andrews Arabian Horse interest.
The Arabian Horses in Turkey
A couple of years ago I was approached about
attending the WAHO conference and preparing a short talk on the importance of
historical record keeping. I must say, the mist of Arabian horse history
is gone and a newfound respect for this breed and the people involved has left a
profound impact on me.
The Turkish Jockey Club and the WAHO organizing committee demonstrated
remarkable foresight and planning skills through out the entire two weeks of
activities. After Christine
And I had registered on Saturday morning; Bashak a Turkish TV producer with
the organizing committee informed us that two people had been selected to help
us.
The Turkish Jockey Club offered to provide any thing we would need for
interviewing the people of interest. The Swissotel is a very expensive place, it
overlooks the Bosphorus straits and the room rates run in the hundreds of
dollars per night. We were provided free of charge a conference room for doing
the interviews and we could leave every thing set up. When we needed a camera
for on location shooting we removed one from a tripod and took off.
Katrina Murray, the executive secretary of WAHO appointed her close friend
Natalie to help us, She provided a list of people for us to consider
interviewing, we coordinated that list with ours and narrowed it down to about
one hundred people of interest. After sleeping on that list for a day we
realized it had to be reduced to about fifty and they had to be prioritized in
order of importance and time constraints. Some of the people were legends and I
knew I would never see them again, these people became top priorities and a few
others were not as old but were so interesting I was not going to leave there
with out an interview.
Natalie was amazing, she told me that during the next week she would be
introducing me to some important people and if I was currently engaged in a
conversation with some one she was going to interrupt me and I was to go with
her. Well that sounds simple enough but when she has just introduced you to the
chairman of the board from a breeding farm in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and
you awkwardly close that conversation to be introduced to the Registrar of the
Royal Cavalry, Diwan of Royal Court, Sultanate of Oman, and next to the
President of the Syrian Arab Equestrian Federation, this went on and on for
several days.
Suffice it to say I was introduced to scores of people in a very short period
of time and all were very intelligent and interesting. I gave each one a letter
of introduction describing the Arabian Horse Legacy and its purpose, and why
they had been selected; each envelope contained an appointment card with the
interview room location and an appointment time line that they could fill in and
get back to me that fit their schedule.
Now, Janey Parkinson is going to laugh at me because she already knows what I
was about to discover, my very first interview was with Patricia and Sonja
Lindsay, the next with Iona Bowring, all from the UK. Patricia was to modest to
tell me this but When I interviewed Izabella Pawelec-Zawadzka (Chairman, Polish
Arabian Horse Breeders Society) she told me it was because of Patricia, that the
Polish Arabian market was opened up to the UK and North America.
It took awhile for the British girls to get used to the Ferman Ansel
personality, but when they did the stories they did tell. Iona Bowring, Margaret
Evans, Rosemary Archer, Wendy Carr, Angela Angold, Audrey Paul, Joanne Lowe took
me through the history of the Arabian horse in the UK in a manner only they
could reveal. There are many hours of videotape here that everyone should see.
These people bought, bred and raised many of the horses that are the
foundation stock of North America. Abu Farwa’s Mother, Serafix and Silver
Drifts parents, and on and on they spoke about the horses, and the people.
Naseem, Indian Magic, the silver and Gold lines, stories about Lady Wentworth,
Lady Ann Litton, and the early days of showing and riding in the UK. I almost
forgot about Emma Maxwell and Mark, Emma was the first woman to handle a horse
in the Karjabey and Sutansuyu stud barns. The men were horrified that a woman
was in there stud barn, and never could they have imagined her scrounging around
for a brush to groom horses that were only caught to vaccinate and worm.
She finally made them buy some real horse grooming brushes; the first one she
used was a shoe brush from one of the employee’s rooms. For three weeks they
had Lamb stew with potatoes and carrots, morning noon and night. At noon it was
Potatoes with Lamb, at night it was carrots with potatoes and lamb.
I asked Emma and Mark about the role a Jockey plays in a horse race, the
strategies, the horse mind, the other horses, how does a jockey make a
difference. I asked this same kind of question to several Jockeys and the
responses are quite interesting.
This kind of gets you through the UK, there are so many others like Tamas
Rombauer Stud manager of the Hungarian stud for over ten years, Libya, Syria,
Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Turkey, Venezuela, Uruguay, Morocco, Holland, Egypt, South
Africa, Australia,
I had
three opportunities for observing Purebred Arabian horses in Turkey, the first
at the Veliefendi racetrack in Istanbul, then at the Karacabey stud (pronounced
Karajabey) and finally at the Sultansuyu stud near Malatya. Since I did not know
how to convert US time to the military time and my wife had scampered off on a
shopping trip with Peter Ponds wife I missed the tour bus to the track. I had
finished an interview and had a leisurely lunch in the oasis café, went back to
my room, took a short nap, and since this was a jacket and tie affair, dressed
in a suit with a happy tie, and made my way down to the hotel lobby to find it
deserted.
After
a few uneasy minutes I began to ask questions and discovered that 00:13:30 was
not 3:30 and that the bus left at 1:30, so I arranged for a taxi and made sure
the guy at the hotel communicated to the driver exactly where I wanted to go and
that 13 million Turkish liars was a fair price, and off I went. I arrived as the
second race was finishing and was escorted to the WAHO group, being as casual as
possible I picked up a daily racing guide and discovered that I could not read a
single word.
So I
watched a group of horses being lead by hand in a post parade and thought to
myself the chestnut # 3 looked good, the # 5 caught my eye and then # 8 had to
be considered. I made my way to a betting station and after a few minutes was
able to communicate that I wanted to roll these three horses in a Quinella bet.
No problem only 20 million Turkish liars and I had my tickets and wandered out
to see if my wife had made the bus. Sure enough there she was sipping wine and
chatting with Eileen Verdieck and a group from South Africa. As soon as I
started to mingle in with the crowd it seemed like everyone new I had been
reported missing and began to point me in the direction of my wife, I politely
explained to them that I had taken a private car to the track and that I was ok.
I failed to mention that there are 24,000 of these in Istanbul and they are all
yellow.
The
racetrack experience was very pleasant; it contained a combination dirt and turf
course and a somewhat different format of presenting the horses. I soon learned
that not all of the horses were paraded in the post parade at the same time.
More than once I had placed my bet and came back to see more horses being
paraded by. I video taped a couple of races and could not figure out how so many
WAHO quests seemed to be winning. Then along comes Kina and Natalie to cash a
winning ticket and I asked them how they were picking the horses, simple they
said, we asked the jockey club who we should be betting on. Sometimes it pays to
be at the right place at the right time.
This
perspective will be a very different viewpoint than what you will hear from
everyone else, I know, I asked several key people about their initial
impressions after each stud farm visit. My
observations flow from a historical point of view, 99% of the others are biased
by a market position. They either were international judges, breeders, trainers,
owners or show ring people.
What I
observed at Karajabey were 65 individuals that generally were tall, power full,
strong boned, sound confirmation and stay out of my way attitudes.
Unquestionably Arabian. The stallions were shown first and they were all
champion race horses. The grey stallion Demirkir bred at Sultansuyu traced his
foundation sire (BERK) and dam (NEAME) to Baghad in 1931 and 1933. Akyel a grey,
his sire was imported from Mosul in
1936 and dam from Syria in 1933. The magnificent Chestnut
stallion SULO, whose foundation sire Hilaluzzaman was imported from Mosul in
1936 and his Foundation dam ZEHRA was bought from the URFA area in Turkey in
1926.
There
were a couple of others Hurbatur and Don Juan that traced to this same
foundation lineage. DRUID is a bay stallion whose sire line is Amurath- Sahib
and Genuine Ruler bred by Alan Kirshner or Doborah Mihaloff whose sire line is
Kuhailan – Haifi. These last two horses were crowd pleasers, Genuine Ruler is
by Monarch and out of the mare Cassels Genua.
Then
came the Mares, three in hand, two in hand, some in groups, why I asked? It was
because these mares have not been handled much, it was not safe to separate them
from their pasture buddies but they were the dams of so many champion racehorses
and new stallion prospects that Emma and Mark got them as ready as they could
and literally risked life and limb to parade them before us.
Generally
what I observed here was racehorse bloodstock tracing back to the desert less
than a century ago. Pretty faces do not win races and show ring exhibitions have
no place in this part of the world. I am very grateful to have been fortunate
enough to observe the Arabian horse of the desert in its homeland as close to
what they where and now still are and as they were bred to be.
I do
not have to sell them, buy them, breed them, train them or judge them using
North American standards. They were a breathe of fresh air exhibiting the traits
and characteristics of true desert bred pure blood Arabians, the only thing you
did not see was our definition of a classical Arabian head.
Next
we had the honor and pleasure of being the first group to visit the Sultansuyu
Arabian state stud farm in Eastern Turkey since 1936. The stud farms manager had
been there for 32 years, his father managed before him and his grand father
before that. Now let this sink in, how many stud farms have you visited that
have the same manager family for over 77 years. The state owns the horses, they
are not for sale, they do not care or want to know what a show ring is. They
have 250,000 acres and a job to do, preserve and protect the Arabian horse blood
lines and breed the best race horses they possibly can.
The
Turkish Arabian horse took on a new meaning here for a lot of us, elegant,
moving machines bred for speed and pretty to look at. They turned out a couple
of young stallions on a miniature conditioning track with deep footing, you will
never see a flashier, more elegant specimen of the Arabian horse than what we
observed here.
At the
mare barns Emma and Mark trotted mare after mare through a very large pasture
and the only thing you could hear was the ewe’s and awes of the people
watching.
My
favorite video was captured here, they told me they were going to turn the whole
herd of mares loose and so I positioned myself down a ditch bank and framed the
branches of a tree at the top.
Soon
here came about one hundred fifty mares silhouetted on the skyline as they
jumped irrigation ditches and scrambled their way down into a huge green
pasture, I knew as I was video taping this was special footage, I wished it
could have gone on forever, I am going to use this footage as the opening video
scene to the Arabian horses of Turkey.
Next a
little bit more on the people, I just watched a 30 minute film made in 1978
about the migration to survive and the story of Mary Gargozlou given to me by
her granddaughter Shirin from Iran. A great story, and you might want to buy
this book, The Nomads of Iran, ISBN # 964-416-184-X A picture story of Iran, the horses and nomadic people of
Iran.
Hilda
Benjamin a protégé of Mary’s and Shirin her granddaughter are endurance
riders and one thing they both told me in the interviews was this: It is you and
your horse and 160 kilometers of the desert in front of you, that is what life
if like in Iran, I love it I must say.
Ferman
Ansel
This section has been updated and includes some interesting statistics and observations.
Comments from the Editor and guest opinions
On March 1st, 2001 Khemosabi was put down, He was 33 years old, his achievements and impact on the Arabian Horse world will endure for many decades. They have upgraded the webcast to the newer MPEG 4 format. Go to the following page and then select the link designed for the modem you are using.
Arabian Horse Resources and information for new people is available by clicking on
The Arabian Horse Legacy for the second consecutive year wins the coveted GOLDEN WEB AWARD for 2000/2001.
WHAT DOES IT REALLY MEAN?
The web sites are judged and scored in three primary categories:
Design, Content and Originality .
Each category may receive a score of between 1 to 10 from three volunteer members of the International Association of Webmaster and Designers.
The scores from this voting committee are then added together and averaged for a final score. (30 being a perfect score) winning the award requires a total score of between 24 to 30.
The IAWMD membership includes seasoned professionals in 129 Countries. Only the best sites are voted to receive the Golden Web Award. The criteria for winning remains a challenge to even the best webmaster, artists and designers.
We are honored that the Arabian Horse Legacy site is considered an outstanding website by our professional peers, and one deserving of recognition for incorporating high standards of design, originality and content.
The Arabian Horse Legacy has added equipment to transfer film to video in house.
We can now transfer 16mm, Regular 8mm and Super 8mm to video and digitally preserve them.
We have transferred some very old original film of Arabian horses and ranch's dating back to the early 1920's, We will have seventy other films transferred and voice tracks recorded in the next thirty days. The Arabian Horse Legacy is dedicated and interested in preserving and documenting these old pieces of history.
If you have or know of people that have old historical home movies of Arabian horses, people and events please contact me to see if we can have them protected and preserved.
Ferman Ansel Legacy@earthnet.net Telephone 303-795-3166
