A Journey to the East with Dave Liniger and Company
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Summer, 2018
A Journey to the East with Dave Liniger and Company
(as told by Christy Egan)
The owners and family of Dave and Gail Liniger’s Maroon Fire Arabians have been making journeys east to see their horses in Michigan (with Tim and Marty Shea) and in Tennessee (with Joel and Ashton Kiesner) for decades. They normally plan these trips in the summer in order to review the new foal crop and to enjoy and evaluate the progress of the young show horses. The Liniger traveling entourage is generally made up of family and staff, each with their own private perceptions of horses and the trip. This year I was graciously invited and very pleased to go along. It is an important year that could mark a definitive turning point in the Maroon Fire Arabians’ breeding program. The family’s wildly popular, young and exciting National Champion Arabian stallion, Inception, has his first foal crop on the ground. Everyone I talk to wants to know what is happening with these babies. In the Arabian horse industry I was the envy of the neighborhood and wouldn’t have missed being on this trip for the world!
Many of the first Inception offspring were born at Shea Stables in St Clair, Michigan, and that was the first stop. Linigers bred a fair number of mares to Inception in 2017, in hopes of getting an idea of his abilities or at least some of his strong suits as a sire. The first hopefuls are out of some of the finest Arabian English-bred broodmares in North America. There are a lot of hopes and dreams riding on these youngsters. After all, Shea’s is the home of Leading All-Time Arabian Sire, Afire Bey V and his outstanding follow-up stallion, National Champion IXL Noble Express+. There are superb quality horses leaning out of every stall door and paddock on this farm, sired by these stallions and other super producers. Few young Arabian stallions have tougher acts to follow. Here there are so many outstanding young horses everywhere you look that there’s literally no place to hide.
The weather at the farm was cool and windy, a bit overcast and hinting at rain. Not too hot, a true gift in late June in the Midwest. Everyone was waiting for us, of course, well prepared with horses shining and in good order and a handy list of those to be presented. We sat in a long line of chairs on one side of Shea’s arena. Several of us shot photos and videos, a blessing and a curse. A blessing for the information brought home in perpetuity with pictures and a curse for those on-site moments missed while you were hunkered down in search of the light and the shot. Some things were impossible to miss … like the overall upright attitude, quality and extreme consistency of the foals. Two real beauties were the Inception fillies out of Foxy Afire (Afire Bey V x Flame Dancer by Barbary) and Nannette Afire (Afire Bey V x Noble Jenna by IXL Noble Express+). It was Nannette Afire’s first foal but Foxy Afire’s 8th and her second filly. Foxy Afire is already the dam of two National Champions: Noble Fantom and Noble Ffyre.
Immediately noticeable strong suits were the size of Inception’s offspring, they were stretchy, very well balanced, with strong, long legs and good bone. There is also a great deal of beauty, type and Arabian character, sometimes missing in Arabian athletes and high performance horses. Here, there was a true generosity of type. It was delightfully present and, of course, very much noticed and appreciated by everyone. Most all of the horsemen present were cautious with their comments and their judgements. Old hands, they are acutely aware of the changes babies often exhibit between birth and first saddling. Sometimes the beauty appears later, or disappears entirely. Sometimes the homely duckling steps up and becomes an elegant swan. Tim Shea was no exception.
“In general there is a lot of type among them,” Tim noted. “Extreme length of neck and well set necks are the norm. The IXL Noble Express+ cross on the Afire Bey V mares produced a lot of really good horses. Those stallions were obviously great individuals. For these Inception foals it was just like what I saw when the first Afire Bey V foals hit the ground. There was high neck carriage, high motion and a very appealing character about them; having said that, some of the Inception foals are even more extreme. Huckleberry Bey added leg to the *Bask line. The MHR Nobility bloodline horses, including IXL Noble Express+, have the ability to drop their hocks, engage strongly and drive uphill when they trot. Inception has that too, but his motion is looser and more elegant than his sire’s. Another characteristic we feared lost (with the Crabbet bloodline) is found in Inception and his offspring … those great eyes, eye sockets and eye placement.”
Tim was very enthusiastic, as were we all, but he was also conservative… and, like many horsemen, somewhat superstitious and reserved in his praise. There would be time enough to say more when there were Inception youngsters in long lines and under saddle. Trainability, attitude, and desire all play such a major role. It’s a little too soon to tell, but the day will arrive when we’ll know all about him and his offspring as they take on the best show horses and sires the American Arabian horse has to offer.
After a delightful dinner and lots of good horse conversation, we retired. The following day the Liniger entourage, now including Tim and Marty Shea and Shea’s trainer Tyler Wegmeyer, got on the plane and headed to Tennessee. Our next stop was a visit with Inception at Joel and Ashton Kiesner’s Training Stable. Weather there also cooperated famously, and the Kiesner’s decision to move the presentation out onto the grass was nothing short of inspired. The shade trees, the gentle breeze and the beautiful horses all conspired to yield perfection. National Champions like Saxton DGL and Afires Heir showed off their winning ways. Among the most beautiful was Heirs Noble Love, not only giving us a close look at the style and quality that made her a superstar, but showing off her first foal, a 2018 bay filly by Inception. And what a filly! Big, correct, and rife with quality, talent and type, she was quite possibly the best of them all. Heirs Noble Love (Afires Heir x Noble Aphrodite by IXL Noble Express+) was 4-time U.S. National Champion in English Pleasure and driving. Much to the delight of everyone, Inception made an exceptional entrance that afternoon, showing off his smooth talent, effortless elevation and crisp hocks. He then followed up with a personal appearance in hand for photo ops and carrots. The crowd went wild.
That afternoon must have been very gratifying for the Liniger’s, Shea’s and Kiesner’s. On the “picnic table” filled with some of the refreshments was the handsome Afire Bey V Trophy, won annually since 2005 by the U.S. National English Pleasure Champion. It speaks volumes about the Maroon Fire and Shea Stables’ horses that sons, daughters and grandget of Afire Bey V and IXL Noble Express have won this trophy 12 out of the 13 years it’s been offered. In addition, the majority of these horses were ridden by Joel Kiesner. They were proud and pleased, but not one of them was resting on laurels. Indeed, the topic foremost in their minds that afternoon?
Where will we find the stallion we need to cross with the daughters of Inception?
