Sahara meets with the boys

An expert in the US told us that Sahara might very well be having silent heats, and that it might be wise to let her interact more with stallions.

First up (behind a wall of protection) was Rio, the Snowman's colt. At first, he was a bit overexcited, but then he calmed down and the two of them got down to some serious greeting. This is actually the same colt that Sahara kicked at the race track last year, when the two of them were just two years old. Don't they look sweet together?

Next up on the roll was Gamji, our Nigerian friends' former champion. He's been in Zinder for a while in order to recover from a bad leg injury, but it seems that despite having undergone all sorts of traditional treatments (most of them involving opening up the wound again and drenching it with different potions), the only difference is that he has grown in size. I never would have considered him as a sire in normal case due to his color (which is dominant, and I am in love with brown horses!) but seeing that Aldo, the sire we would have liked to have for Sahara, was no longer in town, both Nettus and I were considering Gamji an option. It wouldn't make a 100% Nigerien Barb horse (Gamji is a Sudanese horse) but the idea of foaling Sahara in the first place would be to get a large offspring, strong enough to carry bigger persons.

With Mr Gamji, it was all pure business, from the moment that he saw her (from afar). It started off well enough, until Gamji roared and tried to jump over the wall in order to get what he wanted. Sahara freaked out - I think he actually managed to scare her - but then she turned around, aim well and gave the wall between them some very good kicks. Oh my, our little girl has some self-confidence, believing she could shrug off one of the most dominant males in the country!

We let it end there for now, and took a very proud Sahara back to the flock, who were having the time of their life running around in JR's garden. It's pretty cool to watch horses in Niger be able to stretch their legs and do whatever they like. There's just so much joy involved.

Will keep you updated on what happens with Sahara. I think we'll go back to the stallions within ten days or so and see if there will be any changes on the level of interaction.

Ishtar