OM EL SHAH ALAM

Sigi and I would like to share the story of a special horse with you. I will go back to the beginning. In March of 2011 the most exquisite colt was born. We felt that this foal was the best colt of the entire foal crop, the kind of horse we wanted to retain for our breeding program. We named him Om El Shah Alam. Shah is by Om El Exquisit and out of the *Al Lahab daughter Om El Shanelle Estopa. Om El Shah Alam is a classic Om El Arab horse that features our foundation mare *Estopa five times in his pedigree. He is dark bay, with a gorgeous face, strong body, well-shaped neck and lots of attitude and motion. He charmed people from the moment he was born with his style and charming personality. Everyone that met Shah seemed to fall in love.

One November morning, Shah, then a weanling, was playing in pasture with a friend. There was no running or fighting, they were just hanging out. A few minutes later we noticed that there was something strange with Shah’s right front leg-he wasn’t baring weight and the angle was unusual. To our horror radiographs soon showed a complex fracture of his pastern. It had shattered into 32 pieces. He was brought to Alamo Pintado Equine Medical Center, one of the best vet hospitals in the world, which is just a few miles away from our farm here in Santa Ynez, California. We decided to undergo the complex surgery that could possibly mend his leg. The surgeon, Dr. Rick used two plates and several screws to repair the shattered leg. The surgery went well and our hopes sored.

A few days before Christmas Dr. Rick called to say that he didn’t have good news. He had just x-rayed Shah’s leg and there was absolutely no bone growth between the pieces that had been mended together. He thought it could be due to an infection. He told us that he wasn’t ready to give up on him completely but that he felt his chances of survival were about 10%. We were devastated. We had invested a lot of emotions in this young colt both before and after his accident. We all decided to not do anything drastic but to wait it out and see what fate had in store for little Om El Shah Alam.

The call that we received one month later from Dr. Rick is one of my favorite phone conversations of all time. He had x-rayed him again that day and there was significant bone growth. Dr. Rick told us that Shah Alam would survive.

Today he is home. It is one of our biggest joys to see him romp around in pasture again. We look forward to watching him grow into a beautiful stallion and we are hopeful that he will make his mark on the breed and achieve great things in his life. He was destined to survive - our little miracle.