16 November, 2009

KAH POW! KAH BAM! KAH RETTA!

"I was a pretty young girl once
I had dreams
I had high hopes...."-Tracy Chapman, from her song, All That You Have is Your Soul
I "stumbled" upon this beautiful mare, while I was looking for another picture. Who is she? Her name is Kah Retta, she was bred by the Babson Farm and she was foaled in 1981. That's right, 1981. Do you remember where you were in 1981? In 1981, Anwar Sadat was assasinated and Hosni Mubarak became the Egyptian President. Both Pope John Paul II and the American President, Ronald Reagan were shot in assasination attempts. Martial law was declared in Poland by General Wojciech Jaruzelski and the Solidarity Labor Union was outlawed and its leaders, including Lech Walesa were imprisoned. The movie Chariots of Fire won the Academy Award for Best Picture and the song, Bette Davis Eyes won the Grammy Award for Record of the Year. Dallas was the number one TV show and 42nd Street won the Tony Award for the best musical. In 1981, the world was changing and for me, as a college student, the world was a fresh, new place, full of opportunity and big dreams, for all who could seize it or so I believed. It is really hard to believe that 27 years have passed by and that this mare has somehow faded into obscurity. I was so surprised to find her. How did I not know about her? In the later years of the Babson Farm, the blood of *Asadd++ was introduced to the program through a stallion named Sahadi Shikari. I knew this and I always thought this cross was interesting, as there is common ground through Ibn Rabdan. I knew it and I accepted it and yet, I did not move on it. I contacted her owner, Jennifer Graef, in order to learn more about her. Jennifer told me:
"I bought her first in 2003 from a less then desirable situation where she was wasting away in a field with a bunch of young horses and one rotten round bale. She is a beautiful mare. She has such wonderful dark eyes. She really embodies the Arabian breed."
She is gorgeous, with a softness that ignites the desire to wrap my arms around her neck and bury my face in her soft coat, filling up my senses, all the way down to the deep, deep part of my core being; the special place that is reserved for something extraordinary, for great beauty that is not easily comprehended and the resulting joy which fuels my dreams and encourages my spirit, even in the darkest days. As special as Kah Retta is on the outside, her pedigree is unique, a blend of key horses that one does not find too often. I recognize and appreciate the concentrated sources of Kuhaylan Rodan breeding in Kah Retta's pedigree, as her sire, the 1978 stallion, Sahadi Shikari is not only a pure-in-the-strain Kuhaylan Rodan; his dam Kameela, is predominantly Kuhaylah Rodaniyah as 3 of her 4 grandparents are of this strain. WOW! That's amazing. However, the concentration does not stop with the Kuhaylan Rodans, as Haretta's pedigree is influenced by Saklawi and Dahman sources. Sired by Ansata Abbas Pasha who traces to the most beautiful Saklawiyah mare of all time, Moniet El Nefous (see my previous article, ENCHANTMENT), Haretta is out of the mare, Henretta, who was sired by Ibn Fa Serr, who traces to *Bint Serra, who is also a Saklawiyah. These Saklawi sources on the bottom of the pedigree combine nicely with Lubna, a Moniet El Nefous daughter, who is the dam of *Sultann, the sire of *Asadd++, on the top side of the pedigree. The entire pedigree is balanced by the Dahman sources on the bottom, through *Ansata Ibn Halima and through the tail female line of the pedigree, *Bint Bint Sabbah.

I use allbreedpedigree.com a lot. I checked the progeny records for this mare and I see two horses listed. Let's look at the first mare, the 1985 mare, Rou Ketta, who was sired by the all Babson and Ibn Fa Serr son, Serr Rou. This is incredible, while Serr Rou has the tail female to *Maaroufa, this stallion has 3 lines to *Bint Serra!! This mare, Rou Ketta, in turn has produced 2 mares: the 1989 Ruala Sereta by Serhabbas and the 1995 mare, Ruala Aleeta by Ansata Ali Abbas. Both these daughters have common ground, in that their sires are Ansata Abbas Pasha sons. Remember that Kah Retta's dam is an Ansata Abbas Pasha daughter!!! The Saklawi sources are magnified, not only through *Bint Serra but also through Ansata Abbas Pasha. It makes me think about what Judi Forbis once said about the Dahman strain being a blend of Kuhaylan and Saqlawi influences. And here, in this mare, we have concentrations of both strains, anchored by the Dahman tail female line.

The other mare produced by Kah Retta is a Thee Infidel daughter, Khara Infidel, which again, is a unique combination and what I find really exciting about this cross is the intensification of the Ibn Rabdan blood. The cross of Thee Desperado on Bint Magidaa is a pedigree that is rich with Ibn Rabdan blood through horses like Anter, Farasha, Zaghloul, Mahfouza, *Morafic and Ibn Galal I. I don't see that this mare has produced any progeny but allbreedpedigree may not be updated with the most recent information.

Visiting the Craver Farms website, earlier this week , I was reminded by what Charles and Jeanne Craver were able to accomplish for the Davenport breeding group. It is a contemporary example with much relevance for the straight Egyptian breeding group. There is a lesson to be learned here. We need more mares like Kah Retta, with her blend of bloodlines that introduce a bit more variety or diversity into the genetic stream of Egyptian breeding. Over the years, through appreciation and recognizing that the more popular bloodlines offer reliable consistency in producing the type of horses that people desire, we have moved uncomfortably closer to limiting the choices in our gene pool by increasing the supply (or oversupply) of particular bloodlines, while sacrificing the bloodlines of key horses.

It is difficult to describe the powerful feelings that a horse like Kah Retta generates. To trace her silhouette with my finger, the familiarity of gently sloping, smooth, harmonious and generously curved lines, the electricity that collects in the tips of my fingers, matched only by the rapid beating of my heart, as I recognize a horse that is faithfully authentic to her heritage and yet, another reminder of a horse that I knew a long time ago and despite the years that have accumulated between the day I met him and today, I still remember him.


PS Thanks Jennifer

01 November, 2009

Cheval du Coeur

One could say that a horse galloped into Clothilde Nollet's heart at a very young age and never stopped galloping until she reached her soul.
"A true horseman does not look at the horse with her eyes, she looks at the horse with her heart."
Clo's grandmother managed a hotel when Clo was a small child and one of her employees was a Spanish gentleman, who possessed an impeccable attention to detail, a strong sense of style, all with the eye of an artist. Rumor had it that once; he had been a brave and mighty rejoneador, the most famed in all of Spain, riding agile horses in bullrings, inches away from death. Clo was fascinated by the horses in the stories he told, whose unparalleled courage, never wavered in the face of great danger. The old man recognized something familiar in the young girl's eyes; maybe, he saw himself as a child, yearning for the horses which brought him only joy. It was Clo's good fortune to meet this Spanish horseman, for he taught Clo all about extensions, collections and half pass-to-half pass changes of directions. The lessons became a strong foundation, which would ultimately help Clo to recognize the qualities which create loyal and courageous partners, loving and devoted to their riders, willing to try anything asked of them, even to face danger, head on.
In 1995, one of the last Mahrouf daughters was born at the Babson Farm. Mahrouf, a handsome and athletic chestnut stallion, was shown by Carolyn Gardner in 1981, to a Region 11 Park Horse Championship. Mahrouf’s filly was out of the Ibn Fa-Serr daughter, Fay Amy. Henry Babson, long considered a pioneer in the Arabian Horse community, was the first Egyptian Arabian Horse breeder to experiment with breeding a full brother and sister. When he bred the black stallion, Fa-Serr to Fa Deene, the stallion Ibn Fa-Serr was born. This stallion sired 85 sons and daughters, including the dressage champion, Serr Maariner. Fay Amy’s dam was a famous bay mare named Aroufina. In another story, this mare, when bred to the stallion Fa Noufas, produced the mare Noufina who was eventually bred to the Sabeel son, Lancers Sahm, producing PH Safina. Bred to *Orashan, she produced BB Ora Kalilah, who produced the ultimate Arabian Horse, Imperial Baarez. With four crosses to the Saqlawi mare, *Bint Serra, the mare which Henry Babson fell in love with, desired and ultimately required the help of Dr. Branch, to convince Prince Kemal el Dine to sell this mare to him. The little grey filly, influenced with multiple crosses to *Bint Serra, was refined and elegant, with a longer, narrower face that is more often seen in horses of the Saqlawi strain. She was named Bint Fay Amy, in honor of her mother, whose place she would eventually occupy in the Babson Farm herd.

Three years later, in 1998, Clo was able to realize a dream that many horse-crazy young girls like her also dream of, an Arabian gelding of Polish ancestry. Her horse. Her dream. Lived, her way. A horse, which in her mind was more like the horses that the Spanish horseman rode in his country. She wanted to be like him and make his stories, her stories. That is, her own stories to tell one day. It was this horse that created for Clo a curiosity for Arabian Horse history and opened her mind to learn about the Egyptian Arabian Horse.

In the almost 60-year history of the Babson Farm, no one imagined that one day, the doors of this farm would be closed forever. For admirers of this most serene place, this was not the future that one expected, for a farm that had given birth to so many wonderful horses. And that for horses like the beautiful Bint Fay Amy, as well as for a stallion like Mah Deluque, they would travel far away from the lush pastures and the cypress barn, to breeders like Pascal Lavreau and Margaret Albertine, who recognized the quality of these horses, tracing in all of their bloodlines to only the five horses that Henry Babson imported to America, from Egypt, in 1932. Bint Fay Amy would soon find herself on a journey to Belgium, where she would eventually produce a grey daughter by Meranti Fa Asar named Canasta Fay Sara. But for a horse like Bint Fay Amy, something was missing…maybe not something, maybe…it…is…someone.

In England, Clo had an opportunity to visit the Egyptian Arabian horses collected by Mr. Martines. She was impressed, as all the horses were of excellent quality and abundantly blessed with Arabian Horse type. Clo secretly promised herself that if she were able to breed Arabian Horses one day; this would be the type of horse she would want to produce. She met Amélie Blackwell and the two young women, sharing common ground and interests, developed a friendship. The passion of one ignited a fire in the other. Clo learned all about the Babson horse from Amélie and she soon found herself searching for the breeders of these horses, with a hunger for knowledge like she had never known before. Her enthusiasm for the bloodlines was embraced and welcomed by like-minded Babson enthusiasts and breeders. Soon, Clo found herself with many pictures and pedigrees of horses. It would be horses like Ser Mahrouf (Mahrouf x Fay Amy) and BA Serr Isaac (Serpreme x Mah Amy) which would catch her attention.

Clo made two trips to America, in 2006 and then again in the summer of 2009, to meet Babson breeders and to see their horses. At Jody Dvorak's farm, she fell in love with TES Mahala Amira (Mah Hab x Amys Amira), a very refined bay mare who is a maternal grand-daughter of Fay Amy. At Carolyn Jacobson's Beaux Chevaux Farm, she met Mah Barouf, who was also one of the last horses sired by Mahrouf. Slowly, Clo recognized that from all the horses she saw, she preferred the horses who shared common ground through the mare, Fay Amy and the stallion, Mahrouf. The map was drawn and the two individuals moved closer than ever to their final destination: each other.

In 2008, Clo’s friends visited Bint Fay Amy in Belgium and knew from Clo that she was looking for a straight Babson Egyptian mare. The mare was now owned by Pascal's veterinarian, who had managed to breed one foal from the mare but unfortunately, had not been able to produce any more foals from her. Her friends sent the pictures...and then, the horse that lived inside Clo's heart stopped galloping and all was still. The horse that she had known all this time was suddenly in front of her. She had found her. They had finally found each other. Clo found the horse that she was looking for, the horse that she saw in her mind and had felt with her heart. Suddenly, from somewhere far away, the Spanish gentleman smiled broadly. The lessons were now complete. Clo was ready to move on with her story.
Bint Fay Amy has finally arrived home, by way of America and Belgium, to find the girl's heart that she knew all along that she owned but could not find, despite galloping all over the world searching for her. She...Clo...forever…happily ever after. And soon, she will bred to Princeton Maariner, who also came a long way to help spread the influence of one man's dreams, one man’s kind heart and one man’s stories farther in the world than he ever thought possible.
“There should be no mediocrity in love and without love, you cannot create art.”-Nuno Oliveira
Un cheval du coeur...a horse of the heart. I love happy endings.

EnJoy,
Ralph
 All pictures of Bint Fay Amy were taken by Clo Nollet.