It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of a legendary Arabian stallion, Sensation Al Z.  Two years ago, he developed a scrotal hernia which is a freak occurrence, but caused him to undergo major surgery that lasted several hours and in the end he had to lose about four feet of intestine. 

It was a tough road of recovery after that, but he was a strong, stubborn stallion and with much spoiling and gentle care, he came through it and had a successful breeding season in 2003.  In the past six months, you would have thought he was a five year old - prancing through the barn every morning, making sure everyone knew he was the king of the farm. And, he was.  Our whole routine was centered around him and keeping him content and happy. He had many mares committed to him for 2004 and we were very excited to have another year coming up with him. 

Due to his prior surgery, he developed scar tissue in his intestine that we had no way of knowing was there, nor is there any treatment to prevent that from happening.  At 1:30 am Wednesday morning, we had to make the difficult decision to humanely put him down due to a severe blockage in the intestine because of the scar tissue from the previous surgery. 

Sensation Al Z was bred by Betty Zekan, of Zekan Arabians.  He was standing at Lasma as a two-year old, next to his father, when he was chosen by Holly Ridge Farm to be their herd sire.  He won over 9 halter championships, including Champion Stallion at the Buckeye, Region 13 and Scottsdale, before he began his remarkable career in Western Pleasure. 

Shown by Bob Hart, Jr., he made Arabian history by being the first Arabian to EVER win the triple crown in Western Pleasure - Scottsdale, Canadian Nationals and US Nationals.  That has only been repeated by one other horse, 10 years later.  When he won the National title in Canada, his daughter HR Alexis was crowned Jr. National Western Pleasure Champion.  Never had a stallion and offspring achieved this award at the same time - and it has NEVER happened again. 

Al produced limited foals since Holly Ridge Farm restricted his breeding to their mares only for several years of his breeding career. He has 65 registered foals, not counting those in-utero for 2004. Of those foals, 65% won championships at halter before going on to win Championships in performance. He had 5 National champions in halter and performance, with only those 65 foals born.

His get excelled in halter, western pleasure, showmanship, sport horse, side saddle, reining, trail, hunter, walk-trot and dressage. His beauty, his correctness, his athletic ability and his disposition epitomized the Arabian horse. He reproduced himself in every single foal, so strongly that many times you wondered "what did the mare look like?" A very high percentage of his gets' National and Regional Champion wins were in Amateur and Junior Owner divisions, which makes a statement about the dispositions of his foals as well. 

We were honored to take over Al's management and care for the last six years of his life.  His personality exemplified why so many of us fall in love with the Arabian breed.  He was very sensitive, especially to any type of change, and even somewhat demanding - but we loved him for it.  In the past 6 years, we were only off the farm overnight for perhaps 3-4 times, and he was the main reason.  I was so afraid something would happen to him while we were gone.

Al taught me more about how to read a horse, interpret what they are thinking and then make them content than any horse I've ever worked with.  He was very honest with his emotions and I knew every thought that went through his head. He completely convinced us that he just couldn't be moved to another farm again, and I made a promise to him that he'd never have to leave and at times fought hard to keep him here.

I've never become so attached to a horse as I was to him - only because he did such a good job of convincing me that he had chosen me as his personal favorite.  He even refused to be collected, unless I collected him alone without any assistants. He ate first, he was turned out first, stayed outside as long as he wanted and everyone knew our rule to never park a horse trailer in front of Al's window. After his surgery, we spent many hours hand-walking him so he could graze and even when he didn't need to be hand walked anymore, he had a hard time giving up "our time" every day up. 

Whenever I was in his stall, he would hold me by my sleeve so tight, over and over - just to make sure I knew that I was his person.  Without even being able to see the other stallion's stalls, he knew when I was in working with other stallions and subtlety gave his objections. He knew we needed to care for other stallions, and he enjoyed their company - but he also knew he deserved their respect and he had earned the right to be the Senior stallion. 

The Arabian breed has lost a great breeding stallion and we lost a horse with a huge heart and a great mind with eyes so huge you could see his heart.

Sincerely,

Matt and Theresa Rorabaugh, Twin Creek Farms