UNCONQUERABLE

"I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." - Invictus, by William Ernest Henley (1849 - 1903)

It was this particular thumbnail that came up in my YouTube subscription feed. The expression and position of the horse's body speaks volumes without saying a word. Invictus has moved left, placing the outside of his body closer to his handler. In a situation where he is bombarded with new sights, scents and sounds, his comfort is with the person on the other end of the lead. It is within these moments, if you are paying attention, that one catches a glimpse of the unique intangible characteristics that define the Arab horse breed. So, I clicked and proceeded to watch Invictus, a 2014 stallion by Cavalli (DA Valentino x Aspyn) and out of Althea (Ajman Moniscione x Naama Della Vigna). 

The YouTube video is from Class 14, 7 - 9 year old stallions at the European Championships in Verona, Italy. A later email blast from Tutto Arabi would confirm that Invictus not only won his class; he was also named the 2021 European Champion Stallion. One can say that Invictus fulfilled the prophecy held within his name!

As I watched the video, I couldn't shake the feeling that Invictus has Egyptian blood coursing through his veins. A quick check of his pedigree confirmed my suspicion. He has almost 30% Egyptian blood. He has multiple crosses to Aswan (Nazeer x Yosreia) and Shaker El Masri (*Morafic x Zebeda) but he also carries lines to Egyptian horses like *Soufian, Dalul, Mohssen, Ruminaja Ali, Salaa El Dine, Mohafez, Halim Raquim, *Ibn Moniet el Nefous,  *Fadl and *Maaroufa, two of the horses that Henry Babson imported from Egypt in 1932. As I dug around looking for the sources of Egyptian blood, I slowly realized that Invictus also carries pockets of Spanish breeding, on both sides of his pedigree. As a matter of fact, his tail female line, through Amiranda (Algebi x Lagunita) runs through to Yeguada Militar breeding, ultimately reaching Farja I, a Hamdanieh Simrieh mare imported from the desert by the Yeguada Militar in 1908. She went on to found an important family in Spanish breeding. Combined with the multiple sources of *Estopa, A Fancy Miracle (the dam of Magnum Psyche) and the stallion AN Malik (Galero x Ispahan), Invictus carries almost 15% Spanish blood. In this day and age, when Spanish blood seems to be scarcely represented, I choose to celebrate every drop. 

I also found it interesting that he is linebred to the stallion, *Padron (Patron x Odessa) through his son, Padron's Psyche (out of Kilika), grandson Magnum Psyche (out of A Fancy Miracle) and daughter, Padron's Ghibli (out of Santana's Dalight). Invictus carries as much influence to *Padron, as he does in Spanish blood. You can see the *Padron influence expressed in his phenotype, although he bears a stronger resemblance to Padrons Psyche than *Padron himself, even down to his red chestnut coat color.

I learned that Luca Oberti, who showed Invictus, is also his breeder and owner and that, explains the connection between horse and man that I noticed throughout the video.  Naturally, a relationship is established with the horse, as a result of consistent training and handling. However, in this case, that relationship already existed between man and horse, as Invictus has known Luca Oberti all his life. One can say that the consistency of training and handling further deepened the relationship that was already in place. In the old days, the show ring included many owners who showed their own horses and very successfully too. I'm thinking of people like Stanley White, Bill Trapp, Paul Polk, Don Forbis and Sheila Varian, to name a few people off the top of my head. Watching Luca Oberti show his beautiful horse, as well as observing the trust and affection that Invictus has for Luca Oberti, remains a wonderful reminder of the way things used to be and how it can be again, if more owners got a little more hands on with their horses.

In the Al Adeed blog, I included a quotation that I read in Rania Elsayed's blog, which I feel is also applicable to Invictus, as it was the beauty that he holds inside which attracted and motivated me to click on his YouTube video:

"The most beautiful of horses which a horseman owns is a horse that embodies excellence in behavior and physical qualities, as our predecessors wrote."

 This quote remains like a compass for me, within a world that sometimes can be overwhelming and a bit confusing, by reminding me what is really important and in this case, it is a preference for those horses who possess the tangible and intangible characteristics unique to the Arabian horse breed. Many  congratulations to Luca Oberti and his team, for presenting such a wonderful horse to the world.

***with many thanks to Arabian Essence, for making these videos available on YouTube. You can't imagine what it does for people like me, in love with the Arabian Horse, as he exists, all over the world.***