The Fearless Horses of La Motte Lubin

Story and photos by Betty Finke 

In Germany, they say that if you live the good life, you live “like God in France.” While it’s up for debate if France is actually Heaven, there is a small piece of Paradise just two hours west of Paris. The estate of La Motte Lubin includes a 17th century mansion, a 19th century chapel that once housed the heart of the founder of Montreal, several cottages, acres of dense woodland populated by deer and other wild creatures, two lakes, and vast pastures filled with beautiful horses. Situated in the middle of nowhere, well away from any large towns, the only sounds you hear in the morning and in the evening are the birds in the trees and the frogs in the lakes.

One thing that characterizes the horses of La Motte Lubin is their friendliness and their gentleness. Sharahm (Gharam x Sorella) 2008 stallion. Click to enlarge photos.

For several years now, this enchanted place has been the home of Johanna Ullström and Jeremy Malou and some 100 of the finest Arabian horses you can hope to find. It is not, of course, a simple idyll; it’s a lot of hard work as well. Found after a search lasting five years, La Motte Lubin is still very much a work in progress. Since moving in, Johanna and Jeremy have been busy renovating, building barns, fences, and walls, and planting thousands of trees. Jeremy is busy outside all day long – clearing paths in the woods, setting up another fence, renovating the next cottage. There’s always something to do.

Early morning by the lake.

Love is everywhere at La Motte Lubin.

Johanna takes me on a drive through the woods, and it’s like a jungle safari. More than once, we have to reverse, because there’s no getting past a fallen tree or a ditch that’s just too steep to negotiate. A roebuck suddenly explodes from a thicket next to the car and vanishes again, faster than I can grab my camera. You could get lost in this untamed wilderness. But it is beautiful, too. It is spring, bluebells are everywhere you look. You can saddle a horse and ride through the woods for hours, meeting no one but the occasional deer.

Mares turned out in spacious pastures.  

Spring is not just a time when trees and flowers burst into colorful life. When I arrive, Johanna hasn’t had a proper night’s sleep in some time, because barely a night goes by without a new foal arriving - or two, or even three. Normally, Johanna tells me, they’re spread out a bit more, but for some reason all the mares came in season around the same time last year. Now they’re keeping Johanna, her barn manager Stefanie, and the team of girls busy around the clock. Indeed, one of the mares delivers her baby on the second evening of my visit, and she’s gracious enough to do it before everyone has gone to bed. So it’s off to the barn straight after dinner.

The newborn colt out of JB Precious and by Sharahm.

Some breeders like to leave their mares as much to themselves as possible when they foal, but not here. Johanna is with the mare all the way, pulling out the foal, making sure it can breathe, rubbing it off with a towel, and later assisting it in getting to its feet. The mare, who is used to this, doesn’t mind at all. Like all the resident horses, she has complete trust in humans. So do the foals, since they are accustomed to being handled from the moment of their birth.

Melina El Madan (El Tino x Tamara K) and filly, Agmal Mehabi by Al Wahab AA.

I’ve heard other breeders warn against imprinting foals this way, arguing that they might lose respect for people and turn dangerous. Perhaps this can happen, but it’s not the case here. One thing that characterizes the horses of La Motte Lubin is their friendliness and their gentleness. They are not afraid of people, but they’re not pushy. If you walk into a field, they’ll come up and surround you, but they don’t jostle or shove or nip. They will follow you around like dogs, old mares lie their heads on your shoulder, youngsters want to inspect your camera, but they are all perfectly sweet and polite about it. These are horses that love people, because they are cared for by people who love horses.

Johanna with Treasure Nabila JQ (El Nabila B x Treasure World) at 20 years of age and filly by Al Wahab AA.

Love is everywhere at La Motte Lubin. There’s an ancient cat with a missing half ear that smothers you with affection. Johanna’s three Rhodesian Ridgebacks are not only show winners like the horses, they are just as friendly. Sit down anywhere, and you soon have a head under your arm or on your knee. They creep up on you so silently, you never hear them coming until you notice one of them is very quietly leaning against you. Naki, the oldest of the trio with grey hairs scattered across her face, always comes along to the barn when a mare foals. She adores newborn foals, and as a special treat, she is briefly allowed into the stall to lick the new arrival. And everyone loves Juliette, the huge elderly pig that lives in the Varian Barn.

There’s so much space, you hardly notice that there are well over 100 horses on the farm. Most of them live outside 24/7, others go out during the day. Mares without foals and fillies (as well as the odd gelding) are out in groups numbering from three to 20, plus two groups of colts and geldings aged one to two years. The girls go out and check on the horses twice a day, to make sure they are all well and happy. Once the foals are old enough, they also go live outside with their dams. The younger ones go out in smaller paddocks for several hours a day, two mares to each paddock, until they are old enough to go out permanently.

Safeerah K (Parys K x Savannah K) and filly by Talaal Serondella. 

Not all of the horses are Johanna’s, of course. Most of them are owned by clients who live all around the world – Belgium, Sweden, the UK, the USA, Brazil, South Africa, Qatar, India, Australia. But you get the impression that it’s all one big family, because most of these breeders use the same stallions, and the mares are often leased from one to another.

They are magnificent mares of true, classic Arabian type. 

Many currently fashionable sires are conspicuously absent in pedigrees here, except in a few clients’ horses. Two of the names you see most frequently are Borsalino K and Khidar, which also has something to do with the fact that there are many Brazilian horses at the farm. Borsalino K (Encore Ali x Keepsake V) was bred by Murilo Kammer, a close friend of Johanna’s as was the late Sheila Varian, who bred his dam. The stallion stayed with Johanna for many years until his death and occupies a special place in her heart. Several of his daughters still live at La Motte Lubin, most of them now retired, but very much loved and cherished.

Betty Finke with the Borsalino K daughters, Doralina (x Dora Van Ryad) and Celina K (x HE Talora). Photo by Johanna.

Khidar (Ansata Sinan x Elizja), who was a show champion in the 1990s but never heavily frequented, stood with Johanna in Belgium before she moved to France and he departed for Brazil and, eventually, Saudi Arabia. At La Motte Lubin, you will find two of his finest daughters: Khidara RLC (out of Pretty Princess TGS by Bey Shahmaal TGS) and Sahara Khipsyche (out of Sahara Psyche by Magnum Psyche), both bred in Brazil. They are magnificent mares of true, classic Arabian type; not with extremely dished faces, but beautifully refined and with the biggest eyes you could ever hope to see. Sahara Khipsyche has excelled as a producer. Her daughter Kenya JJ by Shanghai EA (a Khidar grandson) has been sold to Australia, but still lives at the farm. The last three have been superb colts, including the stunning three-year-old Kayani JJ. He is by AJ Nawash (by Shanghai EA), which makes him double Khidar. Despite two grey parents he is a flaxen-maned chestnut, but with all his dam’s classic type and refinement and huge eyes, and the movement, too. He is definitely one to watch!

Kayani JJ (AJ Nawash x Sahara Khipsyche) three-year-old colt.

The fact that Kayani is still entire is a rare badge of honor. Johanna gelds almost all her colts, even those that are good enough to be stallions, and sells them as riding horses. There’s a double purpose behind this strategy. Producing geldings that are capable of beating other people’s stallions for “Best in Show” titles (this does happen) tells you something about the quality a breeder produces. And what can be a better advertisement for the Arabian horse than a successful ridden gelding that is also a supremely typey example of his breed? After all, it was one of those horses that got a young Johanna Ullström interested in Arabians many years ago. “Without that gelding,” she acknowledges, “I would not be where I am today.” It’s only logical to produce horses that can do the same for others. Johanna’s show horses are broken to saddle and often shown in ridden classes, and that goes for broodmares as well as geldings. They have to be not just pretty, but functional as well.

Colts and geldings running free.

He may be old-fashioned, but this is what Arabians are all about.

Johanna never keeps more than four stallions at a time, because it’s the only way they can all lead a happy life and not be cooped up all day. Each one has his own paddock to go out in, where he can see other horses around him. The senior resident stallion at present is 22-year-old TF Afrikhan Shah (Botswana x Bey Shahblee by Bey Shah), affectionately known as “Teddy,” who is mostly retired. RP Burj Al Arab (WH Justice x Pamira Bint Psytadel), owned by Liezl Els of South Africa who keeps all her horses here, is a sweet and vivacious horse who loves showing, so he gets to go out a lot.

RP Burj Al Arab (WH Justice x Pamira Bint Psytadel) 2012 stallion. 

Pride of place, though, must go to Sharahm (Gharam x Sorella). Along with Borsalino K and Khidar, his name most frequently appears in pedigrees. I have admired this horse from the time I first saw him as a four-year-old, when he was named champion at the Frankfurt International B show, and my admiration has only grown through the years as his get began to appear in the showrings, all with the distinct stamp of their sire. There were never many of them, and few that have been shown as youngsters because, as Johanna tells me, they are often slow to mature and go through ugly duckling phases before blossoming into the proverbial swans. The notable exception is his most look-alike daughter Shirin JJ (out of SF Shaklina), who was stunning from the start and won quite a bit as a 2-year-old as well as a mature mare.

 Shirin JJ (Sharahm x SK Shaklina) 2016 mare.

Sharahm himself, now seventeen years old, is a classic, traditional Arabian in every respect, and the perfect outcross to almost everything. His pedigree is free of all fashionable bloodlines. He is a grandson of the U.S.-bred British National Champion Ffatal Attraction, who was by Sanadik El Shaklan out of a mare of old American bloodlines; the remainder of his pedigree is old Polish. His maternal grandsire Wadim, whom he resembles, was a son of the U.S.-bred Naborr son Grandorr. A sweet-natured and kind horse, he can “switch on” at a moment’s notice and display a powerful trot with a hock action of the kind you rarely see these days, when many show horses have high knee action but barely any drive from the hindquarters. He sires well and very consistently with mares of all different kinds of bloodlines, as his many daughters at the farm prove, and his daughters produce well. What more can you ask? He may be old-fashioned, but this is what Arabians are all about.

Psyrella (Sharahm x JB Psynderella) and granddaughter Psienna JJ (HL El Ganador x Pscilla). 

There is usually one outside stallion on lease at the farm, bringing in more fashionable bloodlines, but there is a definite pattern here. Of the two WH Justice sons Johanna has used, Parys K is out of a Borsalino K daughter and Shanghai EA is out of a Khidar daughter, linking them up to her old favorites. Two sons of Shanghai EA have also been used, Shiraz De Lafon out of Diacira De Lafon and, most recently, AJ Nawash out of Inspired Najla, so there are quite a few youngsters, like Kayani JJ, that are double or even triple Khidar.

The filly Shenandoah JJ (Parys K x GT Shahaarah). 

The current stallion on lease is Ariela Arabians’ Al Wahab AA (Laheeb x The Vision HG), a straight Egyptian who is a full brother to World Champion Al Lahab. While he may not be as famous as his brother, he is fully his equal in excellence and has already sired some promising youngsters. He adds another range of bloodlines to the herd at La Motte Lubin, while being a perfect fit for the straight Egyptian mares at the farm.

Al Wahab AA (Laheeb x The Vision HG) 2015 straight Egyptian stallion. 

Breeding Arabians has become a pretty fast-paced affair these days, and it is rare you get to see three or more generations of a mare family at a farm anymore. Many breeders no longer keep their mares until they are old and retired, selling on their foundation mares once they have produced the next generation and while they are still of breeding age. This may be sound policy from a business point of view, but it is far removed from the times when breeding Arabians was not a business, but a passion, and breeders took pride in showing you their old mares.

Agmal Mehabi (Al Wahab AA x Melina El Madan) 2025 filly. 

The old mares are one of the many joys of La Motte Lubin, and you’re unlikely to see this many of them at any other place. It’s a regular retirement home. Some of them have won championships in the past, some have produced champions, some haven’t done much of anything, but they are all treated as the treasures they are. Each and every one of them is in splendid shape, with not a rib to be seen anywhere, and that includes at least one that originally arrived much too thin, her sorry condition dismissed as “she’s just old.” Looking at her now, you wouldn’t believe it’s the same horse. The oldest horse, though, is a 29-year-old gelding, a Warmblood sport horse and former eventer who belonged to the farm’s previous owner. He would have been put down, but Johanna kept him and gave him a new job as babysitter for the young colts and geldings. He’s the only horse on the farm that isn’t a purebred Arabian.

Agmal Pseleema (AJ Mardan x JB Psynderella) 2019 mare. 

Stud management is one part of the story, showing is another. Like others who have been involved since the beginning, Johanna doesn’t care much for the ways showing and judging have developed in recent years. She still shows, but only her own and her regular clients’ horses, and she continues to do it in her own and distinctive way. Among all the tension and pressure going on in today’s rings, watching Johanna show is like a breath of fresh air, because you can see that her horses trust her and are not afraid. Although they don’t represent fashionable bloodlines, they still win titles regularly at international C and B shows.

 Manresa (Werbum x Martynika) nineteen-year-old- mare.

Title shows are another matter these days, but Johanna still takes some horses to the All Nations Cup at Aachen each year. “We also attend to display great horses to other breeders, even when knowing the politics will not be on our side,” she explains. “We also want to show that it can be done differently.” If more people thought (and acted) that way, the shows might indeed be different.

Click to see captions.

On the final morning, just before I leave, we have a last photo session with some of the younger foals. Johanna brings her camera as well, and Stefanie is in charge of getting the foals to run. This isn’t always as easy as it sounds. The last foal is a bay filly by Parys K out of the glorious Sharahm daughter GT Shahaarah out of TF Shahraaz. “I love this filly,” Johanna tells me, and it’s easy to see why. Not only is she exquisite, she is also quite unflappable. Stefanie can brandish her plastic bag all she likes, little Shenandoah resolutely stands her ground, refusing to be chased. Finally we hit upon the solution: Stefanie walks up to her and then runs away from her. The filly promptly follows, trotting after her. Another happy show horse for the future? Only time will tell. But if so, I’m looking forward to it.

Sharlyn JJ (Parys K x Shakara) with the mansion in the background.