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Hi Bev,
I was lucky enough to have owned a horse with the bloody shoulder marking
you mentioned! He was a very special purebred gelding off the Shalimar
Gillette lines of Rooker's stallion out of Michigan. His dam was Idora
and his registered name was Shalid. He was born a steel
grey with black mane and tail, then went lighter grey during the years.
He was about 12 yrs, I think,
when he started to develop roan coloured hairs on his left shoulder one
spring. Throughout the summer, more came in and he had a "palm-sized"
area over his shoulder. We did not know what it was. We took our gelding
to an Arab show that summer and a woman came up to us after the class and
offered to buy the horse for substantial money on the spot. She explained
that she wanted a horse with the bloody shoulder marking. The story
behind the marking is that it is a mark of Allah. The sheik would take
this horse into his tent and keep it for his own as he believed that the
horse had been touched by Allah and was a special gift (our gelding
certainly was!). There was an article in the Western Horseman years ago
(September 1972 that had pictures of a Thoroughbred that developed the
marking. In 1717, there was an Arabian imported to England that became
known as "Lord Oxford's bloody shoulder Arabian", and this horse was bred
into the Thoroughbred line.
The marking is actually an intensification of the dapples on a gray horse,
usually on the shoulder, but can be found on the saddle and girth area.
There is also a picture of one in a book called "The World of Horses" by
Judith Campbell. There was a grey Arab in the Royal Jordanian Stud that
had the bloody shoulder marking back in the late 70's or early 80's that I
heard about as well.
This gelding of ours was special in every way. He was very intelligent,
sweet and
gentle but with a (sometimes exasperating!) sense of humour. Shalid took
me to
the equitation and western pleasure championships, not because of my
riding but because of his lovely way of going. In his later
years after his retirement from the show circuit, he became the "uncle" of
our foals and would protect the babies with a fierceness that seemed so
out of character for his gentle nature. I used to give lessons to a child
with braces on her legs on this gelding and he protected her just like the
babies.
Thank you for reminding me of all the wonderful times we had with this
special "gift of Allah". This brings tears to my eyes just thinking about
this special friend I had. I even pulled out the old photo album that I
had not looked at in years.
Hope all is well,
Gayle Ecker
Equine Research Centre
Guelph, Ontario
Canada
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