Obituary Druimghigha Oberlix (Aboud x Omeya) AHSB v17

We bought Omeya, Oberlix’s mother, at the AHS auCtions in 1978. She was a skitty, terrified, slim, typey 3 year old Crabbet Arab who had been kept alone in a field since she was around 1 year old. She rushed into the ring and jumped about on her skinny legs with her convex head in the air, and tail straight up. We had seen her outside and decided that she was a filly we wanted to see more of.. but we had already bought the sensible pure bred filly we had been saving up for, for years. But Omeya floated and whirlpooled into our lives, Chris turned to me as she wizzed & cavorted passed in the ring and said ‘I will lend you the money’ so I bought her for £700; we then realized that neither of us had the money! In addition the autioneer said “You’ll never get her in the trailer, that is for sure!...” but we did and she arrived home with her companion Crysthannah Royal (Crystal King x Hannah of Fairfield) , two pure Crabbet fillies of very different types. One gentle, solumn correct in behaviour and conformation, one typey, wild, incorrect in both behaviour and conformation and not in the least solumn!

The following morning I went to feed her, we had left them in the stable overnight to accustom them to their new surroundings. Omeya , terrified, turned and kicked me, my reaction was fury and rapidly I hit her back … she looked askance at me, turned around and we made ourselves lifelong friends. For the rest of her 26 years of life she trusted humans and would do anything they asked, often an enormous responsibility! So quick are decisions made and mental habits formed!

Omeya grew up and learnt to balance on her scrawny legs a little better, she did endurance, arab flat racing, a little cross country and jumping, she worked in the garden pulling ploughs, sleighs, light vehicles, harrows, logs or anything else we cared to ask her and she did it all in a head collar with no bit. She took part in many endurance rides and races winning some , 7th in the 160km summer solstice one year, 3rd and another time 4th in the marathon. We were asked by Mrs Lancaster who was at the time the owner of Aboud in Soctland if we would like to send a mare to a free covering to one of her stallions, so we visited and chose Aboud who at that time must have been around 2 or 3, before he had become a champion in hand, and the following spring we sent Omeya to him.

In the spring of 1989 she gave birth to Oberlix, at our new ecological farm and research centre in Devon Omeya gave birth to a dashing colt with the correct conformation of his father, the glorious movement of his mother, and his own rippling burnt chestnut coat and strong personality At the time we were just beginning a what has turned into a 20 year research programme on improving large mammal handling and teaching, and young Oberlix was a pilot subject for our research based on in the department of psychology at the university of Exeter. His participation allowed us to design the methods for years of study in how to measure and improve the handling and teaching of equines, ( and other species including elephants, bovids, camelids and canines). We used methods that had been shown to be very successful with preverbal children. This involved, in particular, talking simply to the subjects, to encourage them to begin to listen and understand language.
In 1993 his daughter Druimghigha Shemal was born, the 6th generation of our breeding of part bred arabs, (she won the marathon in 2000, and 2x won Man versus Horse race, and several 50mile race rides). Oberlix continued to learn to understand human language all his life and traveled around UK and Europe giving displays and demonstrations at such venues as the Cadre Noire, ( the elite French riding school at Saumur) , and many other influential places. He was tested to understand 250 words and not only commands. The result of his and his daughters comprehension of language has been written up in scientific papers, and invited talks given at international scientific meetings. One of the most interesting new things found was that all our subjects quickly learnt to imitate the teacher to do simple actions. This is particularly interesting since to do this, they have to have some idea of self, something that previously has been considered unique to large apes and sea mammals.

There were many more discovers concerning horses minds that Oberlix contributed to (see pictures and examples in Horse Watch, what is it to be equine? J.A.Allen 2005), but above all, he became a quite delightful companion, and one of my very best lifelong friends. I could take anywhere and do almost anything with him and when it came to competition he would generally win, or come very near it! He worked our garden for us so we did not have to dig or weed, he harrowed the fields, he pulled a light vehicle when we wanted him to, he taught beginners to ride, he rose from Novice to Inetermediare dressage level ( one before grand prix) in one summer (obtaining more than 50% before progressing to the next level, and doing them all au de combat).

In the same summer he was in international endurance competitions, coming 6th in the Summer solstice, 100m race, one year 2nd to his daughter in the man versus horse and the marathon, the next year 3rd, and so on. We took him to the Arab Premium Performance Tests and he became a Premium stallion, performing by far the best in the free jumping, and showed of his language comprehension to the conformation judges.. but I stupidly hired a professional to jump him. She destroyed his confidence at the second jump, by hitting him ( I had told her not to!), something that had never happened when jumping before. As a result, he got around, but not with the top marks!

He was perhaps the nicest horse to ride under any conditions, happy to go along with what was required, fast or slow, with mares in season or out, with his own mares or others, with other stallions or alone, quiet confident, glorious paces and arab through and through. He taught me more than anyone else I think about life and how to live it. He was an ikon of our stud, and through his offspring, the Druimghigha Stud lives on, and we keep learning more.

He is more than missed, but lives on in our memories of glorious times together.

The Druimghigha Stud newsletter

The spring was a good one for the horses as we had more rain than usual and the grass grew reasonably well… for here. As a result we have made about half the hay that we need for the winter off the farm and surrounds, and even made some silage to help Oryx who suffers from a cough with dry feed.

Marie Dussaux, who has a house in the village, contacted us about having Fanny a Barb x Arab mare that she had bred and handled when young, but had been untouched until now, 7 years. She wants to sell her, but needed her to be educated to be ridden before she was likely to find a buyer. We took her on and she is now a quiet, very pleasant ride although she needs more work before she would suit a complete novice. I thoroughly recommend her to anyone who will continue her education and wants a pleasant companion, friend and to do randonnes. She is not expensive and could well breed a very nice foal, particularly with one of our stallions.

We started endurance training in May with Shindi and Lilka, two mares, and had various teething problems with soft soles and sore feet, but these have now been put to right and the pair of them are seriously fit, coming first and second in the 60 k Alp d’Huez ride in the alps, up and down over 2,000m with recovery rates in the low 40’s, and Shimoni (who is for sale) also taking part with Jake who is now running his horse ethology and safari business (see Horseridingfrance.com, shortly to be translated into French).

We have done a couple of other rides of 40k at 15k/hr and been placed with all horses in the first 3 so far this year, the last one was a ride across Ardeche which was delightful ending up at a Western Riding festival!

The high light this year so far with the horses has been a 5 day ride around the Vercors we took Shindi and Oberlix and then replaced Oberlix after 2 big days of over 40 k climbing and dropping over 2,500m/day, by Lilka for the last 2 days. We camped and ecologized as we went. The country was quite spectacular in fact quite scary mountaineering sometimes but the horses were like mountain goats and never worried, unlike the humans who often had to shut their eyes! We found some lovely spots for lunches of tomatoes cheeses and fresh bagettes, and a final night in a welcoming hostel with a great dinner, bed, breakfast and hay and as much food as one liked for the horses… we were all very well pleased and hope to make it an annual trip if we can persuade others to come along with us, perhaps some who have been to our workshops?

We have had various people wanting to come on workshops of various kinds, including working horses on the land, young horses, and those running horse therapy centres, and have mainly been writing up research articles which are now available on the internet site (eco-etho-recherche.com).

Another development has been the purchase of a piece of land in South Devon UK, where the grass grows. It is mainly for Oberlix to have a belly full every year, but we are developing it as a small ecological farm, Pip my son is already starting a market garden and wood workshop, and we will be available from time to time to run workshops in the UK from there.

Horses for sale now are :

* Druimghigha Shimoni (picture) 5 yr old gelding, faultless and a delight. (Druimghigha Shemal x Druimghigha Oryx)

* Drumgigha Lantana (Lilka x Oberlix) pure arab, 15hh.(150cm) Mare, 3 years. Ride & drive, a real goer. (picture)








* Druimghigha Lan Yu (Lilka x Oberlix) pure bred arab, 15.1 ( 152cm) mare, 2 years. Being backed.

* Lilka (Lillifee x Eldon) pure bred arab, 15hh 9 150cm) mare (11 yrs), competing in endurance this year, marathon & working at medium dressage, beautiful & lovely paces. A real champion.

Luxor (Oberlix x Lilka) won a bronze award in the Exmoor Experience ate the Golden Horseshoe Ride in Exmoor

Druimghigha Luxor is a son of Oberlix and Lilka. He just won a bronze award in the Exmoor Experience ate the Golden Horseshoe Ride in Exmoor. Andrea Champ tells us how joyful she feels about it :

"Luxor and I took part in the Exmoor Experience ate the Golden Horseshoe Ride in Exmoor, and won a bronze award, having missed out on silver as his pulse rate was one digit too high!





In fact this was the 2nd time Luxor had competed in this class,the last time being in 2008 with his previous owners,when he achieved a silver,so he is proving himself to be a very consistent horse! I have had him for just over a year now and he is the best horse I ever had the pleasure to own. Temperamentally,he is second to none,having a very gentle spirit and at times being extremely laid back. He sleeps a great deal and has an impressive snore! He only does as much work as he feels he has to,but when it comes to competition,he lights up and goes for it! He loves his job of endurance and is a great joy to ride. Luxor is brave and will try his hardest to overcome his worries in strange situations,even though he is very much a hot blooded arab at heart. I feel blessed to have such a horse."

Shemal got a new foal !

Le Stud de DRUIMGHIGHA has a new baby :

Shemal got a foal on May 15th,

he's bruin and adventurous,

with 4 white socks like his mother.

Both baby and mother are well.

Shemal is about to foal

Within 2 weeks, the baby should show up

Christmas Newsletter 2009

Here's CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBERS OF THE ASSOCIATION, FRIENDS AND FAMILY. 2009

The year started with Chris breaking his ankle while asking Oryx to lie down, Jake and Marthe leaving him to cope with the farm with the help of the students while they visited Botswana and South Africa to investigate the possibility of interest in an international academy to teach the science of animal handling and teaching. We had written the first draft of a text book to be critically assessed by those handling elephants. While in Maun, Jake took part in a fun ridden cross country event, galloping through the water-lily strewn Okavongo river, and jumping over tables laid for smart safari dinners. He was lent a delightful pony, and won! There was some interest in the academy in Botswana, and we ran a workshop for people with horses which was fun, re-established our previous contacts , gave some riding lessons. Although Botswana is a quite delightful country, and would be very suitable for the academy, strong interest was at that time lacking.

A trip to the Cape in South Africa established closer links with the Knysna Elephant Paark, and there is a very real possibility that we may be able to cooperate with them in it’s establishment, something that is particularly relevant at present in South Africa with much opposition to captive animals on the grounds of causing cruelty. We visited KEP new nature reserve & farm right next to the sea where around 15 problem elephants are presently living.

Chris’s leg was bad all summer, and scuppered any ideas of long distance competitive rides, but he managed to keep driving the tractor until it went into deep decline from July to September when the summer hols were over, and the French mechanics start work again! This meant we lost the autumn cultivations which has in some ways put the farm back a year, but now the tractor is back and working at last.

The spring was slightly late, but the vegetables, (other than potatoes and onions) have done well, with several 100kg of carrots for the winter. ( visions of endless carrot soups and cakes!). A total of 56 varieties of fruit and vegetables have been grown and harvested during the year which can’t be bad, and we have a large range of jams, jellies, chutneys and other preserves for sale and consumption. Many of the fruit trees produced for the first time this year, with particularly delicious apricots, and peche de vigne.

The improved grass and lucerne is gradually coming, we still need to feed the soil more and pick the patches for improvement carefully, but we managed to make about 1/3rd of our needed hay this year. 2010 was planned to be the first year to plant and harvest wheat and oats for human consumption but with sick tractors, we have only managed a small area of naked oats. However we are feeling more confident that we will be able to complete the tenets of ecological agriculture in the next few years by becoming completely self-sustaining in human and animal fodder.

We sold some of the cattle which we considered were not up to standard, and intend in the next while to bring some really good South Devon heifers over and return to a pedigree herd of South Devons. Some of the sheep have gone walk about in the mountains, and again we intend to bring over a Suffolk ram when we have all the paper work and get a few high quality wool and meat sheep.

It was a very pleasant if hot summer, with a stream of wwoofers from all over the world, and 2 horse students, Jorinda from Holland and Delphine from Switzerland. They have recently completed their exams and gone on to other things, having we hope, learnt much from the Druimghigha horses. Jake has been helping on the farm, redoing the rooms, even putting in water borne WC’s, constructing buildings and fences, and had his first spring and autumn of Horse Riding Holidays, and articles in various newspapers. All seem to have been appreciative of the horses, the rides, the lessons, and the cooking of food from the farm, let us hope it now grows, do tell your friends and look at his website Horseridingfrance.com.

Primarily, this has been the year of the puppies. Kaz and Bear had a litter, of which 2 were saved in February and have grown up to be half spaniels, half kelpie/collies/Alsatians. The interesting thing is that they can use both their noses and their sight when working. Kongo is to be given to Sam ( he had a false trip to Calais, and was not allowed across the channel in July, resulting in Marthe traveling to Calais and back with him in one day on the TGV, hopefully he will make it to Suffolk in January). He is to be a retriever, working in wetlands, and woods. Aged 7 months he is very enthusiastic, and has learnt basic retrieving skills. Kananga stays with Jake and is supposed to become a truffle hunting dog, he retrieves some truffle paste at the moment, but there is further to go. They have been a delightful enthusiastic, bright, playful, demanding, lunatic pair as only puppies can be.

On the horse front, no foals this year, but Lantana (2) is now being driven and ridden over short distances, and so far has been a very willing, and easy pupil. Shindy and Lilka did a 20km ride, the only one we managed to fit in, and came first and second, even though Jake and Marthe managed to stop and stuff themselves with ripe peaches in one of the orchards that we passed! Shemal is pregnant to Oryx again, and their son Shimoni (4) has done some fitness training and is ready now to take the world by storm. Shemal and Obi are now doing all the movements of Grand Prix (except 1 x changes which Obi does while throwing his head about, and Shemal has not tried yet), and the indoor manege has proved a great asset with daily teaching right through the winter, although it was good to get out into the bigger outdoor manege in the summer.

So the farm is gradually beginning to achieve what we hoped it would. It is now a registered Organic Holding, and things are indeed growing. Financially, we are just covering running costs (with the help of subsidies), but still have some capital investments to make, particularly another lean to barn for the cattle and sheep, and an observation room for the wildlife on the cliffs, particularly the Chamois.

A very happy Christmas to all our family associates, friends, and well wishers and do come and visit and see for yourselves how things are going.
All at La Combe. 2 and 4 legged.

Welcome to Eco/Etho Research & Education Centre !

Le Centre de Recherche et d'Education Eco-Ethologique (Eco/Etho Research & Education Centre) at La Combe, is an extension of the Eco Farm established in 1996 at Little Ash Eco Farm.

It moved to in December 2003 to set up and run an experimental/demonstration Ecological Farm and Nature Reserve in the mountains of the pre-Alps in the Drôme région. This is the fifth experimental/demonstration ecological farm that the research team have developed.

In 2005, an Association of supporters of the Centre was created. We are now relaunching the Association. If interested please fill in the Membership Leaflet Application Form and return it to us at the Center.