When Raine Heart foaled on the 29 February, her foal Al Barec Jill officially became South Africa’s first home-bred Pintabian filly. Pintabians, or spotted Arabs, were first imported into South Africa by Farmer’s Weekly correspondent and Stutterheim farmer Greg Miles in 2004.
SA’s first Pintabian, Floral Hearts, was carrying Raine at the time. Miles decided to name the foal Jill, (pictured with her mother and Greg’s wife, Maria) following the birth of Farmer’s Weekly editor Chris Burgess’s son Jack on the same day. Jack was barely five hours old when the Pintabian was born. “Maybe Jack can ride Jill one day,” Burgess remarked. – Greg Miles
