Dr. W. Georg Olms
Annual Members Meeting 2013
Today we give our thanks to Michael Ponnath and his family. I believe we will not need to search for words of appreciation and praise. You have seen and experienced the impressive stallions and mares and their progeny. We once more offer our congratulations, and we thank our board member Dr. Astrid von Velsen-Zerweck, director of Marbach State Stud, for her knowledgeable commentary, and of course Mr. Ponnath, who has acquainted us with the significant pedigrees. We are particularly happy, dear Ms von Velsen, to have you among us, especially in the succession of former Marbach stud directors Dr. Georg Wenzler, himself a board member in his time, Dr. Wolfgang Cranz and Dr. Helmut Gebhardt; this has become something of a tradition.
A brief survey of the years 2012 and 2013. At the beginning of the Frankfurt Book Fair, October 10, 2012, several board members accepted the invitation to a festive dinner in the honour of the Emir of Sharjah, His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, on the occasion of the presentation of Vol. II of his autobiography, in which he also mentions meeting our former honorary chairman Douglas Marshall, and has words of admiration for the Nazeer-son Morafic. As guests of honour, we were able to greet several Arabian consul generals, the president of the Union of the Scientitic Academies of Germany, Professor Clemens Zintzen (one of our members), the presidents and general secretaries of four different German-Arab societies, and even Peter Scholl-Latour and Martin Walser.
In November, your chairman followed the invitation of one of the sons of Sheikh Zayed. I had asked for an appointment, with the idea of suggesting that he revive the tradition of the Royal Stables.
I hoped to convince him to make a new beginning with asil horses. His reply was this: The asil Egyptians today are bred only for beauty, one cannot ride them, their backs, necks, croups, and legs are not those of horses one can put under saddle.
Now it would have been impolite of me to say, Your Highness, that’s wrong. For one thing, there is the problem that he is not entirely wrong, and I am sure the two lecturers will have something to say on that subject. I tried to solve the problem by saying: But there are exceptions, for example the Old Egyptians, especially the Babson horses, some descending from Turfa. When I had explained to him all the factors that speak for the significance of Bedouin breeding, for the real quality of the Asil Arabian, he relented and asked: What can you do to convince me? I replied: “We will hold our next Asil Cup in 2014, and it would be an honour for us if Your Highness would decide to take over the patronage. This would provide the opportunity to show you that our asil horses are good riding horses.” I was also able to amuse Sheikh Zayed’s son with an anecdote. In slight alteration of a quote from Jünger: “Many catwalk champions are like Californian apples - lovely to look at, but once you bite into them, without any flavor.”
He then spontaneously agreed to the patronage, and just a few days ago I was advised that he is expecting me for another talk. Let us hope that we can win him for our propositions. It is now the duty of all of us to put our horses under saddle, and in any case we should be paying attention to riding qualities in breeding. The genetic qualities are still there; it is up to us to quite literally revive them. It is of course a fact that we are all more of less fascinated by the beauty of our asil horses. The Asil Club will not be able to avoid including the beauty of the Arabian Horse in ranking them; this doesn’t necessarily have to be “Most Classic Head”, but one might consider a separate judging of “Most Classic Type”. The main attention should be on those aspects that have always been the first concern of true horsemen. We should not be ashamed of the beauty of our asil horses, as shown by a quote from the illustrious Plato: „Beauty is not above the other ideas, but is shines through the eyes, the brightest of our senses, brighter than all other archetypes through its materiality.”
To show this in an appropriate way, which means without any silly nonsense, is a high obligation. We have always been opposed against the stupid, embarrassing behavior at Arabian shows, especially against the stretched pose, and we will be even more consequent in the future. It is appropriate that during the past months, one man has raised his voice and asked for a change, or at least for us to start thinking. Mr. Philippe Paraskevas, our Greek Egyptian, will have a few things to say to us in this respect, as will our dear Ms Anita Enander.
On the subject of the Equitana, a summary by Mrs. Danielle Merzbach, who once again looked after our trade stand there:
“From 16 to 24 March, the world’s biggest equestrian trade fair was once more held at Essen, again with an Asil Club trade stand. We were able to recruit a few new members. Unfortunately it was not possible to show any asil horses at the fair. One of the reasons was that breeders were awaiting late foals. It would be great to have a breed display showing our asil horses harmoniously and calmly under saddle, shown in the rings at all three gaits, possibly (but not necessarily) even horses that have been successful in various sports disciplines. After all, such a presentation would also be an advertisement for the participating studs. Visitors who are interested in Arabian horses look for calm and rideable horses, which they would also be willing to buy.”
As already announced, we are preparing the next Asil Arabians Documentation, Asil Arabians, The Noble Arabian Horses, Vol. VII, again in German, English, and Arabic, for publication next year. You will receive your invitations next year. There will be a slimmer edition, without the parallel languages, in Chinese. This has been suggested by our new member, of whom I will say more later. And please remember that the studbook part of our volumes should be studbook-appropriate, i.e. the photos should show the whole horse, standing or in motion; additional head shots are welcome.
Now, to the venue of the next Asil Cup.
After examining several possibilities, we have taken up a suggestion from Mrs. Vollberg and decided on the Fürstlich Castell‘sche Domäne. They are available for an event on the weekend of 29 31 August 2014. The day before yesterday, I had a call from the hereditary count Ferdinand zu Castell-Castell. We have agreed to meet and talk on the premises soon. I believe this will give a us venue that more than comes up to the high expectations of all concerned, including the Sheikh from Abu Dhabi as well as our own high standards for the Asil Cup International. It is up to us to conform to this high standard. I would like to remind you that not only Marbach stud director Dr. Cranz said: „The Asil Cup International is, for me personally, the greatest Arabian show that I know.” And this was not limited to Germany.
Some of you may wait with feverish anticipation for our commentary on the contents of certain internet forums, or even the beginning of a discussion. I have to disappoint you. The board has decided to limit its comments to the statement we have published on the Asil Club website. This statement has been partially revised in some aspects by our member, lawyer Edmund Bayer, and may be found on our website on the subject of forums.
Dear ladies and gentlemen, our Asil Club has been known since 1974 for the friendly and respectful way in which members deal with each other, and we would like to keep it that way. If one of our members has behaved inappropriately in a public forum, we not only sincerely regret this, we will call the person in question to order; but we will not do so in public.
