Two-time U.S. National Top Ten and Scottsdale
Champion International Classic Stallion TF Royal
Shahbaz (Falcon BHF x TH Maya Naufali), bred by
Curt Westley.
and his brother were going to buy it. Curt said, ‘And you
saved one for me?’ I reminded him that he hadn’t wanted
anything to do with it. He replied, ‘Allison, I am your mate
now. And I’m telling you I want one of those shares.’ Of
course it had nothing to do with love for Botswana!”
So Curt bought the share, but didn’t do much with it.
About a year later, Roxann Hart was shipping two Bey Shah
daughters west and they overnighted at Talaria. “They were
typical Bey Shah daughters – big, airs-above-the-ground
mares,” recalls Allison. “Curt had come down to the farm
on Saturday morning. That’s when the shippers opened the
stalls to lead them out, and those girls came out like Bey
Shah daughters – tails over their backs, dancing down the
aisle, snorting. Curt was mesmerized. ‘What is that? Who
are they?’ I explained that they were sired by Bey Shah, a
stallion famous for siring that kind of charisma, and that
these mares were very typical daughters of his. And he said,
‘I want a Bey Shah daughter for my Botswana breeding.’”
Those mares were the catalyst that Curt needed. He
wasted no time finding a Bey Shah daughter to lease,
Rohara Shahblee (x Fire Serenity). Bred to Botswana, she
produced TF Afrikhan Shah, aka “Teddy.” A year later he
bought her, and she produced several other nice horses
for him.
“Curt held firmly to an ideal he had in his head,” says
Allison. “They had to be beautiful, but they had to have
that charisma, that airs-above-the-ground spirit. That thing
that Bey Shah delivered. And Botswana would give him
the refinement, the pretty and the elegance. Curt learned
very quickly that he had to go with daughters of stallions
like Enzo (Padrons Psyche x RD Bey Shahmpane by Bey
Shah) and Falcon BHF (Bey Shah x Bey Serenade SF by
Bey Shah), to get that charisma – in his view an important
element of type.
“Curt was hands-on about horses,” continues Allison.
“He never put his mares to a stallion he hadn’t seen. He
never bought a horse he had not seen. I think the fact that
so many people today rely on the internet to make their
breeding and training decisions is having an adverse effect
on our breed. Curt went out and he met people, and as a
result, he made a lot of friends.
“One year we visited Sheila Varian. That’s where we
fell in love with Sweet Stella V (*Jullyen El Jamaal x Sweet
Siesta V). We stayed an extra day, and we went back to talk
to Sheila about her. Curt never bargained. If you quoted
Curt a price, he paid it. She quoted a price on that filly
which was high, and this was the only time I saw Curt
bargain. He said, ‘Alright Sheila I will pay it, but on one
condition. You’ve got to come to Talaria and do a seminar.’
She said, ‘Ok, I’ll do that, Curt, but I need to have a
business class ticket since my legs are so long.’”
At shows, Curt enjoyed “judging” from the stands. As
Allison says, “I think he became so well liked because he had
no jealousy. If his horses didn’t do well he would just shrug
it off, chalking it up to different taste, or the other horse was
better that day. He was true. He was real. He wasn’t in it
for vanity. Of course, he liked to win, but it wasn’t a vanity
show for him. It didn’t have to do with people coming up
to him and saying, ‘Oh I love your horses.’ He didn’t care
about that. He cared about the process. He was that secure
in his skin, and fair.”
Of the 51 purebred Arabians that Curt bred, either
solely or in partnerships, he was most proud of the stallion
TF Royal Shahbaz (Falcon BHF x TH Maya Naufali), a
two-time U.S. National Top Ten and Scottsdale Champion
International Classic Stallion. “Shahbaz and Curt were so
much alike in personality,” notes Allison. “Curt understood
him, and he made sure that Shahbaz had the kind of care he
needed and the kind of trainer who didn’t dampen his spirit.
“His greatest fear was that a horse he bred would end
up in a bad situation. It was very hard for Curt to sell his
horses. No horse left the property unless Curt had heard
from the person’s farrier, seen a recommendation from the
AHW > 37 < 0 8.19
sharon
(sharon)
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