Interviewed by Sonja Smaldone A Stable manager oversees the proper care of horses, supervises employees, and maintains buildings and grounds. They may work in many facets of the equine industry. Showing, racing, breeding, and boarding operations generally have a Stable manager to handle the care of the horses and management of employees. For the Dubai issue 2020, I had the honour to interview Mr. Jonas Salzmann from Germany. He was pleased to walk me through the main aspects of his profession as a manager at famous Al Bait Arab state-stud in Kuwait. Hello Mr. Jonas Salzmann. Just to set the scene with our readers, will you please give us some background to you, your family and education? I was born in a small city in the North of Germany into a family of horse enthusiasts. Since my childhood I have always been around horses and spent all my free time taking riding lessons in the local riding school and with the horses of my family. After my graduation, it was clear for me that I want to work with horses and not just to spend time with them as a hobby. When and where did you first meet an Arabian horse? Who was he/she? I have always been around different breeds of horses, from ponies to warmbloods but it was my cousin who introduced me to Arabian horses when she started to purchase some Straight Egyptian Arabian
horses. My very first own Arabian horse was the Straight Egyptian gelding Sashaan (Machmut x Sabrina IV by Madokur I) whom I got as a weanling in 1996 and who still lives with my family in Germany. Tell us about early stages of your career inside of the Arabian horse industry. After I finished with my education, I wanted to learn more about Arabian horses, so I spent some time at Johanna Ullstrom’s Training Center in Belgium to learn more about the training and conditioning of horses. Afterwards, I gained more experience working for some other farms, both in Europe and the Middle East. When and how did you become stable manager at Bait Al Arab? In early 2013, I went to Kuwait for the first time and got in contact with Bait Al Arab – Kuwait State stud. Later that year I was offered a job and happily accepted. Finally, in November 2013 I moved to Kuwait and started working for Bait Al Arab. In the meantime, I also became an ECAHO-National judge and started my judging career. I was very privileged to have judged many shows in various different countries, including several countries in Europe, the Middle East as well as Australia within the past years. What’s Bait Al Arab’s vision and mission in the Arabian horse world industry?
Bait Al Arab is the State Stud of Kuwait and is operating under its General Manager and Assistant Undersecretary of the Amiri Diwan, Sheikha Sarah Fahad Al Sabah. In 2020 Bait Al Arab celebrates its 40th anniversary. Bait Al Arab has its own Straight Egyptian breeding program to preserve and maintain different strains and families and supports private farms by offering selected breeding stallions. We also run an educational program, including various subjects, such as culture and heritage of the Arabian horse, horse management, judging, handling and veterinary medicine through lectures and exhibitions. Bait Al Arab also organizes and supports National and International Arabian horse shows and manages the records of Purebred Arabian horses in Kuwait through its registry office. Which bloodlines are mostly bred at Bait Al Arab? Do they own a special collection of mares and stallions? Bait Al Arab breeds Straight Egyptian Arabian horses with excellent representatives from different strains and families, such as the Dahman Shahwan, Obeyyan, Saqlawieh, Hadban & Koheilan strain. At the moment we have four breeding stallions at stud of which the young home bred Marwan Elkuwait (Ajmal Al Kout x Mesk Elkuwait by Ansata Hejazi) produced some outstanding foals in his first breeding seasons and will sure make a name for himself as a sire of significance in the Straight Egyptian breeding of today.
How has Bait Al Arab breeding program evolved in the past 5 years? Tell us about most important offspring at stud. In the past years, Bait Al Arab has used several high-quality stallions to breed to their mares in order to improve the quality of the breeding stock. Stallions like El Thay Khemal Pasha, Ajmal Al Kout, Ajmal Ashhal and Al Adeed Al Shaqab as well as Bait Al Arabs own stallions Ansata Sheikh Halim, Waseem Elkuwait, Marwan Elkuwait and Ghazal Elkuwait produced some outstanding foals which are kept to continue and to secure the Bait Al Arab breeding program. What are your primary responsibilities and duties as a stable manager in a normal week? The primary responsibilities of a stable manager are to ensure the proper care of the horses, including the feeding, grooming, training. Supervising the grooms, dealing with suppliers of horse food, hay and any needed material and equipment, discussing latest issues or breeding with the veterinarian as well as organizing visits and presentations for our guests. Managing the stables of Bait Al Arab with professional standards is more than simply mucking stalls feeding I suppose... What are your priorities for presenting your stables to clients or outside visitors? Bait Al Arab is hosting many visits and organizes several horse presentations each year. To present the stables in
the best possible way, one must make sure that the facilities, such as stables and paddocks are spotless, the horses in a good condition and well cleaned, groomed and trained. The horses and grooms should trust each other so the presentation of the horses will go in a smooth and quiet manner. Obviously, all the team must work well together to ensure a horse presentation which runs in a great way. How do you orient a new stable employee who does not have advanced horse skills? We don’t see hiring a new stable employee without advanced horse skills as a disadvantage for us. From the very first day, the new stable employee will be introduced to our horses and his new duties and will be guided by one of our senior employees. We are very keen on having our employees handling all horses in a soft and respectful manner. The most important thing is that the new employee learns the “horse language” so he can spot easily when a horse is not feeling well or if something is wrong. What becomes your priority when an important show is approaching? We don’t usually compete with our horses at shows but when we have important horse presentations for guests, the biggest priority, as always is the team spirit. Only with an excellent team, where everyone knows what to do in the right moment, you can achieve great results. Jonas, what would you like to achieve by the end of this year? I hope that we will have another successful year in Bait Al Arab with healthy horses and outstanding new foals. Also, I hope that I will achieve continuing with my judging career this year. How and where do you see yourself in ten years? I hope in ten years from now I will still find myself working with Arabian Horses both as a Stable manager as well as ECAHO judge. Will you please leave a message for the readers of Arabian Horse Magazine? First of all, I would like to thank you for the interview, it has been a pleasure. I hope to see many readers of the Arabian Horse Magazine visiting Kuwait and Bait Al Arab in the future to experience the beauty of the horses, the culture and the great hospitality here. Thank you very much for your precious contribution Mr. Jonas. It means so much to us as well as to the entire readership of Arabian Horse Magazine. May the Arabian horse continue to bring only great things in your life...