Glorieta Gazaal

Glorieta Gazaal was a beautiful horse, who was uniquely bred, his bloodlines being a little different, as compared to the pedigrees of today’s most popular horses. While Hadban Enzahi in strain, tracing to the root mare Venus in his tail female line, I always believed he looked more like a Saqlawi horse. Glorieta Gazaal died twelve years ago, on New Year’s Day, 2007. Of all the pictures that I have seen of him, the one above, taken by Polly Knoll, has to be my favorite, as it captures the dramatic facial features of this horse, as well as his beautiful, slender and long neck, with a very nice length of poll. He was a charismatic horse and it seemed that his very full, very black, very luminous eye enchanted all who saw him. Thousands of year’s worth of living, in close proximity to humans, is contained in the blackness of his eye. In a day and age when a degree of white has become more acceptable in the eye of an Arabian Horse, it is very nice to be reminded how beautiful a completely black eye is. While Gazaal’s face was not exotic, his dryness is faithful to the desert that fashioned his features, to insure survival in a harsh environment. I like his larger-sized jowls with enough width between them that a man’s fist can fit comfortably up in there. I like nostrils, especially when nostrils are large and elastic, helping the horse to “drink up” large amounts of oxygen, when aerobically stressed to the limit, be it in racing or some other athletic endeavor. His neck is set high; with a nice angle and with the little we can see of his chest, we know it is wide and muscled.

Glorieta Gazaal disappeared for a while and I wondered what had happened to him. I didn’t see him advertised anywhere. As beautiful a horse as he was, soon, we learned that Gazaal had fallen on hard times. I was speaking to a friend once, about the cruelty that Arabian Horses experience a little more frequently than other breeds of horses. It is as if the extreme beauty of this breed brings out the worst behavior in people. I wanted to believe that the sheer beauty and elegance of the Arabian Horse would inspire people to be more like their horses. Egyptian Arabian Horse breeder, Lisa Busch of Utah, kept a close eye on Glorieta Gazaal over the years and when questionable things started happening to him, Lisa, together with Jody Cruz of Rancho Bulakenyo rescued Gazaal from a bad situation. Grossly underweight, he was nourished back to health, through the kindness of Lisa and Jody. They are my personal heroes for what they did for Gazaal, in his time of need. Marty Ryals, shortly thereafter, expressed an interest in the horse and Gazaal soon found himself moving to Louisiana, where Ryalswood Arabians was originally located. Eventually, Gazaal moved to Arizona, under the care of Kimberli Nelson at Zee Ranch, who together with Jon Michael of Hidden Hollow Preserve, helped Marty to further the influence of this glorious horse and make him more easily available to Egyptian Arabian Horse breeders.

Born in 1980, Glorieta Gazaal was a son of Ansata Abu Nazeer, an *Ansata Ibn Halima son out of the imported mare, *Ansata Bint Zaafarana, who, became a show champion mare and dam of champions like US Top Ten stallion, Ansata El Nisr. Her dam, Zaafarana, was a top producer of race horses in Egypt, no surprise, as she was a Balance daughter out of the mare Samira, one of four siblings whom Judi Forbis nicknamed “The Fabulous Four”. A full sister to *Talal, she was a more compact horse, as compared to *Talal, who was a bit stretchier than his sister. I find it interesting that *Ansata Bint Zaafarana produced foals only with *Ansata Ibn Halima, despite being bred to the Saqlawi horse, Ansata Ibn Sudan. Unfortunately, she never conceived to Sudan. I always think, “what if?” over a pure-in-strain Saqlawi horse that would have been born from this cross. However, she “nicked” extremely well with *Ansata Ibn Halima and produced the sons: Ansata Ali Pasha, Ansata El Mamluke, Ansata El Alim, Ansata El Nisr, Ansata Abu Nazeer and the daughters: Ansata Fatima, Ansata Aziza, Ansata Divina and Ansata Zariefa. Ansata Abu Nazeer was purchased by Mike and Kiki Case, for their Glorieta Ranch and became a very good sire, particularly of daughters like Glorieta Zaarina, Glorieta Zaafira, Glorieta Maarqesa, Glorieta Dalima, Glorieta Rabdania and Glorieta Sayonaara. In a May 1982 advertisement in Arabian Horse World, titled Ansata Abu Nazeer: Creating a dynasty of his own! Glorieta made this statement about the horse,

“In 1980 all three of our straight Egyptian foals: Glorieta Gazaal, Glorieta Maarqesa and Glorieta Zaafira, were sired by Ansata Abu Nazeer. The quality was so outstanding and the type so very consistent we were elated. He is proving to be a prepotent producer of the extreme type of Halima and the classic elegance of the Egyptian.”

Glorieta Gazaal was out of the mare, Glorieta Gambolia (pictured to the right), a daughter of Char Echo and Anchor Hill Hamla. What is also interesting is that Gambolia was bred to *Ansata Ibn Halima, the sire of Ansata Abu Nazeer, the year before she produced Gazaal. From this cross, Gambolia produced Glorieta Angelima.

Of the recorded progeny for Glorieta Gazaal, his percentage for siring daughters is approximately 80%. I shuddered when the thought initially entered my head…were we in the midst of a strong broodmare sire and we missed the opportunity to take full advantage of this phenomenon? Could Glorieta Gazaal have been the kind of sire whose influence would be felt primarily through his daughters?