27 November, 2011

Oreana CF

"She's..a..Dav..en..port?" I asked incredulously, my mind stuttering on the words, as I realized that I had been completely wrong and she was not the Babson Halima mare that I had believed her to be.

Oreana CF is a Plantagenet daughter out of Oriole, a Sir daughter out of Ceres, who is an Aramis daughter out of Dharebah. Both Plantagenet and Oriole are out of the same mare, Ceres, making them half-siblings. But actually they are more closely related than half-siblings, as Prince Hal (the sire of Akmet Haffez, Plantagenet's sire) and Sir (Oriole's sire) are full brothers, while Portia (the dam of Iras) and Aramis (the sire of Ceres) are full siblings, both by Tripoli and out of Dhalana. The concentration of a very small group of horses in Oreana's pedigree is stupefying and for me, underscores the skill and wisdom of her breeder. Oreana was born in 1984, bred by Charles Craver, who single-handedly rescued  the Davenport horses from extinction. Oreana is not a straight Egyptian horse, she is a Davenport Arabian and by virtue of the second generation Kuhaylan Haifi horses who appear in her pedigree: Dharebah, Dhalana, and El Alamein, she is recognized as Core Haifi.

Oreana is extraordinary, very beautiful, with the classic shorter, wider head, so desired by Arabian horse enthusiasts. Her eyes are so black, large and round, projecting a positive energy of kindness. They are set on the side of the head, with a broad area in between. Her muzzle is dark and fine, with exquisite nostrils, larger-sized but delicately shaped.  Her pigmentation, as a gray colored horse is fantastic. However, it's the prominent bone in her face that really gets to me. Look under her left eye and notice how wide the bone is, how much the bone juts out from her face. Her jowls are large, like dinner plates and you know, from looking at the picture that a man's fist can fit comfortably in the area between the jowl bones. Even though we can't see the rest of her, you just know that she is gracefully substantial, smooth of body, close-coupled, her body comprised of rounded flowing lines. There is luster to her coat that is so striking, it is easy to see. I notice this quality in the Davenports. Their coat has a sheen, a luminescence that other bloodlines just don't have. I have always wondered about this special quality and why only the Davenports and the Bahraini horses consistently share this coat quality.

In the Al Khamsa roster, she is credited with producing only 3 foals. A mare by Javera Thadrian named Arietta CF and two sons: Tesio CF by Atticus and Tribute CF by Telemachus. Both stallions have sired get and Tesio even has grand get credited to him.

While it is important to protect the integrity of the Davenport breeding group, as it is also to preserve any of the many wonderful breeding groups within Al Khamsa, I long for the day when breeders will become more courageous and utilize all of the Asil bloodlines in combination, without the fear of losing an advantage by forgetting all about a straight label, in favor of producing a more well-rounded, diverse and authentic Arabian horse. There is more freedom, when you learn to color outside of the lines.

EnJOY,
Ralph

26 November, 2011

Masada Bellesabah

"She was in my opinion, one of the top horses on the place: a classic flea bitten gray with extraordinary type and presence even in the company of some of the top Egyptian show horses of the day. She made me gasp looking in her eyes!"-Jill Erisman
Masada Bellesabah, was bred by the late Walter Schimanski. She was by Walter's beloved *Fadl son, Lothar, and out of Belle Echo, a double Sirecho grand-daughter. She was also a double Habba (*Fadl x *Bint Bint Sabbah) as Lothar was out of Habba, as was Bel Gordas, the sire of Belle Echo. The "double-shot" of Habba, combined with the tail female line to Fa Saana, results in three lines to *Bint Bint Sabbah, however,  the influence of *Fadl is substantially more than that of *Bint Bint Sabbah, with seven lines, not to mention that there are two lines to *Nasr, which are essentially the same lines as *Fadl, except that the horses which are farther back in *Fadl's pedigree are closer up in *Nasr's pedigree. The impact that horses like *Fadl and *Nasr make on the pedigree, is to help boost the percentages of Egyptian blood and reduce the influence of the Blunt desert blood, which is really small, approximately 2% in Masada Bellesabah.

Her progeny by *Fakher El Din were outstanding.
"He passes on the humor and gaiety, boldness and independence, a deep sense of self, and always the excitement of being. Trust and loyalty are given to a disarming degree. There is a great delight in athleticism and in constantly testing that athleticism with the quick spins and dramatic stops of the ancient Bedouin war-horse. He passes on style, cadence, and balance - combined with physical beauty and one of the loveliest heads in our breed."-Sara Loken
Akira Zarif, her 1982 *Fakher El Din daughter was a snow white beauty, one of the most beautiful mares I have ever met. She was so harmonious, so smooth bodied, possessing an old world type, substantially built, with lots of curves but also, a lot of grace. She looked like she had been sculpted out of alabaster. As dazzling as her sparkling white body was, it was her eyes that cast a spell on me. Yes, I was spell bound. They were liquid pools of melted obsidian,  huge, round, dark and full. Looking into her eyes, stroking her neck, it was difficult to remain composed and not tear up. She was a gentle and quiet beauty, radiating warmth and kindness, gentleness and compassion. Bill & Edna Weeks of Hatchie Hill Farm, produced two full sisters and a brother: Sabbah Din in 1979, Dahmah Din in 1980 and Khalif El Din in 1981. I continue to catch myself while looking at *Fakher El Din's picture, while thinking of mares like Masada Bellesabbah and how well they blended with *Fakher El Din, producing horses who are beautiful and sound in mind, body and spirit. I find myself wishing that there were more of them.

24 November, 2011

Alaa el Din & Plantagenet

 Alaa El Din was a chestnut son of Nazeer, foaled in 1956, out of the Shaloul daughter, Kateefa. General Pettko Von Szandtner, liked the young colt so much, that he selected Alaa El Din, while still a young horse, as a breeding stallion for the EAO. He started his breeding career in 1961. Alaa El Din was also a successful race horse and then, a sire of race winners. Alaa El Din was so successful in passing his athletic ability to his children, that the breeders in Poland expressed a very strong desire in purchasing him, for use in their breeding program.

Yesterday, Daniel Wigger posted a comment concerning the strong resemblance between Alaa El Din, a straight Egyptian Kuhaylan Rodan stallion (pictured above) and Plantagenet, a Davenport Kuhaylan Haifi stallion (pictured below).
"did you notice the strong resemblance between Plantagenet and Alaa El Din, a KAIR?"

They are both elegant horses, refined, not heavy in their appearance. Both horses have great necks, with good length. They share similar body types, more rectangular in their body shape with leaner builds and a longer back, as compared to the rounded, more curvey type with a heavier-muscled phenotype. Both horses are built more like race horses, favoring the type we associate with very refined, more Arabian-looking Thoroughbred horses.  It is interesting to compare and contrast both horses, as I agree with Daniel that these horses are more similar than they are different. I wonder, as both horses are of the Kuhaylan strain, whether there are common ancestors between the Rodans and the Haifis, way, way back under Bedouin ownership. However, Plantagenet is heavily influenced by the Saqlawi mare, *Wadduda, who was also a chestnut. And Kateefa, the dam of Alaa el Din, was a daughter of the Saqlawi Shaloul, one of the horses that Judi Forbis had called "the fabulous four". Shaloul was out of Bint Radia, who traces in tail female to Bint Helwa and ultimately to Ghazieh. I wonder over the impact that *Wadduda had, in determining the look of Plantagenet, as I wonder the impact of Radia, in determining the look of Alaa el Din?

WHAT

do you think?

EnJOY,
Ralph

23 November, 2011

Plantagenet

"I heard footsteps running back across the yard and excited voices coming closer. Two heads appeared at my door. One was that of a young boy who looked at me for a long time, considering me carefullly before his face broke into a beaming smile. 'Mother,' he said deliberately. 'That will be a wonderful and brave horse. Look how he holds his head."-Michael Morpurgo, from his book, War Horse
Plantagenet was a 1976 chestnut stallion, bred by Charles and Jeanne Craver. He was sired by the Prince Hal son, Akmet Haffez and was out of the El Alamein daughter, Iras (out of the Tripoli daughter, Portia). Plantagenet is not a straight Egyptian horse nor does he have any Egyptian lines in his pedigree. He is Asil, Al Khamsa, CMK and is considered a Davenport Arabian horse, because he traces in all the lines of his pedigree to the horses imported and bred by Homer Davenport.  
"All living Davenport horses belong to one of four tail-female lines (Kuhaylan-Haifi, Kuhaylan-Kurush, Hadban, or Schilla)"-Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy
Plantagenet is Kuhaylan Haifi by strain, recognized as "Core Haifi" within the Davenport breeding community, which means that he is a result of second foundation Kuhaylan Haifi horses like Dharebah, Dhalana, Tara, Dharanah, El Alamein, Saranah, Dhanad, and Dharantez, blended with the stallion Tripoli, a Hanad son out of the *Hamrah daughter, Poka. Plantagenet has three lines to Tripoli in his pedigree (through Prince Hal, Aramis & Portia), which further concentrate the influence of the 1899 mares, *Urfah (33 lines), as well as *Wadduda (19 lines).
"Davenport Arabian horses are wonderful horses. They represent a unique snapshot of the genetic material of the Bedouin Arabian horse."- Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy
Plantagenet, well, he was magnificent.

EnJOY,
Ralph

20 November, 2011

Asal Sirabba

"In each family a story is playing itself out, and each family's story embodies its hope and despair."- Auguste Napier
Asal Sirabba, a 1958 grey mare, bred by Mrs. John E. Ott, was sired by Sirecho and was out of the Babson mare, Habba. By virtue of her pedigree, she is representative of the type of horse that defined the breeding program of Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik. No surprise, as both *Nasr, the sire of Sirecho and *Fadl, the sire of Habba, were bred by the Prince, as was  Mabrouk Manial, the sire of Baiyad. When combined with the other horses in the pedigree bred by Abbas Pasha Hilmi II, Ahmed Bey El Sennari, Prince Ahmed Kamel, the percentage of true Egyptian blood reaches almost 98%! Which means that the percentage of Blunt desert breeding was very low in this mare, about 2%. The only Blunt horse appearing in the pedigree is Kazmeen, the sire of Bint Sabah. While this pedigree history helps us to understand the horse we breed today, how do these long ago horses continue to remain significant and desireable, to today's breeder?  While Asal Sirabba was bred to *Ibn Moniet el Nefous, producing the mare AK Nadira in 1976; I believe the answer is found through the family of horses that resulted from breeding Asal Sirabba to *Ansata Ibn Halima, a stallion who also traces to El Dahma, through his tail female line. It would make sense, because of the intense concentration of El Dahma blood, that Asal Sirabba's daughters by *Ansata Ibn Halima: Silima in 1966, Raalima in 1967 and particularly, Siralima in 1971, would be her strongest and most outstanding progeny...to the present day.

Raalima was a prolific mare for Bentwood Farm, producing daughters by the stallions, *Ibn Moniet El Nefous, The Egyptian Prince and Shaikh Al Badi. Among those daughters are AK Shahlima, Bint Raalima,  Ak Tarifa, AK Zayaadah, Thamin Amira, Latifa Raqqasa and Our Kibriya.

Silima, when bred to Hadbah, produced the stallion Anchor Hill Halim, who went to Germany and became a successful sire, having produced daughters like Mona I, Moregha, *HS Mayeda amd *Moshana.
"I remember in the old days the very best horses belonged to people of moderate means. A man who has one foal, especially if it be well-bred, feels that it is a part of himself, and gives it every possible attention."-Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik
My favorite daughter of Asal Sirabba was Siralima, pictured at right. I feel she was the best producing mare of the three daughteres and was owned by Bob Cowling (the same man who owned Fa Halima). Siralima  was bred primarily to *Ibn Moniet El Nefous and produced AK Monalima, AK Jamila, AK Il Malika and AK Latifa, who was sold with her Imperial Al Kamar filly, Imperial Kalatifa  to Ariela Arabians in Israel. AK Latifa would produce four foals for Ariela, who would eventually become Israeli National Champion horses!!! 

Imperial Kalatifa, when bred to Imperial Imdal, produced the multi-champion halter mare, Loubna. This wonderful mare has earned more prizes, in more countries, as proof of her outstanding beauty. She is now owned by Sheikh Ammar Bin Humaid Al Nuaimi of Ajman Stud.
  • World Champion Mare at the Salon du Cheval
  • Dubai Champion Mare
  • All Nations Cup Champion Mare
  • European Champion Mare
  • Middle East Champion Mare
  • Egyptian Event Europe Champion Mare
  • Israeli National Champion Mare and Filly
  • Gold Champion Mare, Abu Dhabi
However, it is AK Latifa's son, Laheeb, also by Imperial Imdal, who has spread the influence of Asal Sirabba  all over the world having stood at stud at Janow Podlaski and Michalow Stud in Poland, at Al Badeia in Egypt; as well as in America, at Ferlita Arabians in California.

It is amazing to consider what this family of horses has accomplished, when one considers all of the progeny who descend from this beautiful grey mare, Asal Sirabba and how they remain as a vital, relevant part of the straight Egyptian breeding community.

EnJOY,
Ralph