MD Isley | VP of academic affairs, DMACC

Photos by Duane Tinkey
Story by Kate Hayden

Every day, MD Isley walks 46 steps outside the back door of his home. 

It’s a meditation for Isley, as every step brings him closer to the small barn he calls Druid Hill Stables, sheltering six purebred Arabian horses, all females: three adults, two yearlings and one weeks-old filly. Ferever, Isley’s 14-year-old mare, is pregnant, and Mischall, 11 years old, may also be, although Isley wasn’t quite certain at the time of the interview. 

“I’ve always had a place to go to that is special. It is mine, and I can share it, but I don’t have to,” Isley said of his horses. “In a sense, it’s nature’s way of making sure that you’re grounded and stable and have satisfaction.” 

Isley and his husband, Doug, moved to the current acreage three years ago so that Isley could raise horses and still stay close to his job at Des Moines Area Community College, where he is the vice president of academic affairs. The pair rehabbed the small shed into a six-stall barn, which also includes their yearling Gaia Rose, and three horses Isley is in partnership with other Arabian enthusiasts on: yearling Rose of Hariry (known as Liza), mother Lucciana (Lucy) and her filly Emphatika (Teeka). 

Arabians are said to be the oldest breed in the world, and all of the horses in Isley’s care could be traced back to roots in Arabia and Turkey, he said. 

“They’re an incredibly personable, sensitive, human-responsive horse. They love their people almost as much as we love them,” he said. 

By his account, Isley drove his parents crazy reading about horses while growing up in the suburbs of New Orleans. In high school his family moved to western Kentucky and bought an acreage, where Isley bought his first horse. Jenny was not an Arabian, but Isley found an Arabian stallion and bred the pair. He learned quickly about the business of breeding -- the sale of his first purebred filly in the late 1980s helped him pay for graduate school. 

Today, Isley is an accomplished show handler and has competed in both English and Western riding disciplines, but his passion is in breeding and raising horses. 

“Being a steward of this breed, I feel an obligation to protect these creatures and their bloodlines, and make sure they have a place in the future of our society in the world,” he said. “It has truly been about the honor of taking care of them.”