It is with great sadness that we recently heard of the passing of a great American Arabian breeder, Mrs. Barbara Vallee. Mrs. Vallee was a great animal lover with a special passion for Arabian horses, and was what we call today a "small breeder". Many years ago, she fell in love with and purchased a young grey colt from the Imperial Egyptian Stud, a colt who would grow up both to become a World Champion Stallion and greatly influence our own breeding program. That horse was, of course, the one and only Imperial Imdal (Ansata Imperial x Dalia ex Morafic), who we leased from Mrs. Valley in 1994. Those were early days for the Arabian horse in Israel, and Imdal left behind in our stud book a legacy of just 57 purebred foals, which include, among many others, our internationally renowned home-bred senior sires Laheeb and Al Maraam and the beloved World Champion Mare Loubna. Although relatively small in number, Imdal's get had an unprecedented impact on the Israeli Arabian horse because he stamped all of his Israeli foals with his quality, type, and excellent conformation to an extraordinary degree. They, in turn, became respected breeding stock which continued to do the same, greatly upgrading and homogenizing the look of Arabian horses in our country over the following decades.
We have no doubt that because of Imdal's three-year stay here, Israel gained recognition as a world-renowned source of typical high-quality Arabian horses. So, it is with gratitude, great fondness, and a heart full of thanks and sadness that we remember and mourn Barbara Vallee, the woman behind the horse, and in many ways the "godmother" of the modern Israeli Arabian.
Photos of Imperial Imdal, by Rick VanLant.
We have no doubt that because of Imdal's three-year stay here, Israel gained recognition as a world-renowned source of typical high-quality Arabian horses. So, it is with gratitude, great fondness, and a heart full of thanks and sadness that we remember and mourn Barbara Vallee, the woman behind the horse, and in many ways the "godmother" of the modern Israeli Arabian.
Photos of Imperial Imdal, by Rick VanLant.
