April was an exciting month for Kakagi Arabians. We brought home our newest straight Russian *Muscat daughter, DYN Amber Myst (see the New *Muscat Daughter! thread) and welcomed another straight Russian *Nefison son, out of Caramea Stud's *Novator daughter Novaya (see him in the 2007 foals thread).

At this point we feel we have assembled a pretty impressive group of straight Russian mares for *Nefison, now it is time to concentrate on getting some foals on the ground while we can! The clock is ticking both for *Nefison and for some of these high quality older mares.

On a similar note, we were saddened to hear of the passing of the outstanding straight Russian stallion Nareyev. We tried to breed Rossi to Nareyev for a straight Russian foal not long after we purchased her, but were never able to get her (or Tamerlynn) in foal with shipped semen. The loss of Nareyev is another blow to the straight Russian breeding pool, not long after the loss of *Pattrone, *Mag, and the *Muscat son Krakow. We are pleased to already have 3 straight Russian *Nefison sons to choose from as future breeding stallions, but wish there were as many replacements for all of these old Russian boys who have been leaving us.

It really is the end of an era as the large group of Russian horses from the 80's become increasingly unavailable for breeding due to age. Here's hoping that the next generation will be able to fill their shoes!