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tribune february 24 1988 c3 rare horse breeders stouffville pairs arabian tale by denise mcdonald he came from a family that had little if any interest in horses she had never even seen a kitten born before she met her future hus band but together ross and mary ann macduff have been responsible for establishing one of the most suc cessful polish arabian breeding farms in whitchurchstouff ville as well as ontario according to mr macduff his in itial involvement with the equine breed began at age 14 when he drove heavy draft horses in a lum ber camp after a lapse of about 20 years i acquired my first quarter horse hesaid but after a year and a half i found out the arabian is much prettier and more intelligent i know im going to take a lot of flak from the quarter horse community because of that statement but thats my own personal opinion in october of 1973 mr macduff surprised his wife with the announcement they were off to buy their first arabian an ontario- born sixmonthold purebred filly neden gaiaan although we did acquire a num ber of arabians from ontario the characteristic of the breed was not as wellbred or welldefined as it could have been he said choosing to look elsewhere the macduffs travelled across the un ited states in their search until they found three outstanding foundation broodmares rayona felina and ellona in 1979 ellona was sent- back to the united states to be bred to re nowned champion polish stallion bask the asterisk in his name iden tifies him as an imported horse whose stud fees at that time were in the five figure range we really liked his offspring but at the time it cost so much to ac quire one said mr macduff so we decided to take our own mare down to be bred to him the result was a bay colt male bask sequel the macduffs had been hoping for a filly which would someday become foundation mare of their breeding program after living his initial growing years in leisure sequel made his show ring debut in 1986 shown in halter by mr macduff and in en glish pleasure by wendy graham he captured wins in both divisions and was reserve champion stallion at the tulip festival show in 1986 however his best performances have been at home during those years before he was shown where he was used as a breeding stallion he is the sire of mda kirby awarded many championships in cluding the 1985 eastern canadian arabian breeders reserve cham pion stallion award the mda sig nifies the stable to which the horse belongs macduff arabians at the 1986 canadian arabian breeders show his daughters bask antoinetta bred and owned by george and eleanor leslie of kheg arabians in brooklin and the mac- duffs mda fascination stood first and second respectively in a class of 17 yearling fillies at the age of seven sequel was sold to harry sheftel of silver hill in calgary mr sheftel could do more for him than i could said mr mac duff hes now hired a trainer and will be entering sequel in the all the big shows this year yet their involvement with this prize stallion hasnt ended yet theyve retained breeding pri vileges for the next three years and anxiously await prospective foals in the interim years between se quels birth and sale the macduffs packed up their breeding facilities in englehart near kirkland lake and took up residence on highway 48 stouffville in 1980 the government said if i moved here i could be classified as a busi ness but its since reneged on that promise he said but it is much nicer its an ideal location and a lot closer to the market anywhere on this ridge is horse country i get a lot of traffic in and out of here the look of eagles mentor aa top photo one of ross macduffs three prized stal lions the initials signify the ara bian stable he came from was im ported to ontario early last year and has since sired a number of champion foals including two pure polish get anxiously ex pected this april bottom left bask sequel the son of world champion polish stallion bask and rosss favorite horse was re cently sold to a new owner in cal gary who ross claims could do more for him in the way of train ing before his sale sequel sired many of the macduffs prize- winning stock including one stal lion presently standing at stud mda kirby bottom right men tor aa proudly diplays one of the arabians more noted characteris tics second only to their temper- ments their beautiful dish shaped face top photo by denise mcdonald bottom photos courtesy of ross and mary ann macduff mrs macduff jokingly refers to the following six years as a time they kept their heads down and their butts up we had to renovate the cattle bam from standing stalls to boxes build a new arena and house and put in miles of fencing which i ha vent even finished yet said mr macduff although they own three stallions and 13 mares as well as housing several boarders macduffs spe cialize in selling horses to the ara bian market the objective on our farm is to have horses for sale from 3000 to 20000 everything here is for sale except for me and the cat quipped mrs macduff when people come here we al ways ask them what they want the horse for she added we want to make sure we sell them one that is capable of doing what they want it to our intent is not just to sell a horse but to sell one that is com patible with the owner more importantly she con tinued we like to keep a low profile and make friends when we breed or sell a horse when we were at a show nine years ago a lady came up to me and said i bad bought a horse she used to own it was ellona we still keep in touch with her as well as a lot of people weve done business with over the years when asked what particular qual ities the polish arabian possesses to make it so popular mr macduff said the temperment is number one because of that we get 20 per cent more when theyre sold than a regular arabian their athletic ability is also superior theyre cal led the versatile horse they are also very easy to train to prove his claim he relates a story of one of his horses just the other day a girl got on the back of one of my stallions and rode him around the arena hed never been ridden before and he didnt buck once the poles have definitely been doing their homework over the last 45 years he continued they will not breed a horse that does not ha ve a good temperament its what theyre noted for at present the macduffs are anx iously a waiting the birth of two foals due in april the offspring of their recently imported stallion mentor aa this is our first step into breed ing the pure polish strain the rest are all polishrelated he said were just keeping our fingers crossed on these two to see what they turn out like although seen as superior busi ness people and top breeders in their fields the macduffs are also sympathetic to the less fortunate horse lovers within the community if theres anybody who wants to stay in the field who doesnt have a horse of their own they can come up and work with mine free of charge until that particular horse is sold if they still want to continue ill just put them on another said mr macduff that way they can keep in shape and give my horses some handling as well