MOMENTS IN TIME

I FIRST MET ANNELIES AND GÜNTHER GAEDE IN 1986. THEY LIVED NOT VERY FAR FROM WHERE I LIVE AND WERE WHAT YOU MIGHT CALL “BACKYARD ARABIAN BREEDERS.” THEIR HORSES, WHOM I KNEW WELL FOR OVER TEN YEARS, WERE NEITHER FAMOUS NOR CHAMPIONS. BUT THEY WERE EVERYTHING AN ARABIAN SHOULD BE.

hree years earlier, the Arabian breeding program of the Duisburg Zoo had been disbanded. In Arabian circles, the Zoo was famous as the home of the Egyptian stallion Kaisoon (Nazeer x Bint Kateefa), and Kaisoon himself, who had been a gift of state, never left it. But all the broodmares and youngsters were sold, and the Gaedes had taken in two of the oldest mares, Polska (Schlem x Goplana) and Dalila