DAHMAN

"Looking back, you realize that a very special person passed briefly through your life..."~Robert Brault

"Oh my gosh Gail, what a cute colt and he is so black!" I said in complete surprise, as enchanted, I watched a fancy black colt trot effortlessly around his dam, his tail curled over his back, head held high and his giant nostrils fully dilated. Gail smiled broadly in acknowledgement, an unspoken affirmation of the happiness and pride she felt for her colt. I had never seen a colt quite like this before. Already, at such a young age, the colt showed an amazing amount of refinement. Comparing him against the other newly-born colts on the farm, he made them look coarse. Yes, he was really special and the excitement in Gail's voice, conveyed fully what this colt would mean for Princeton Arabians' future.

Pri Gamil Halim was foaled in 1983, sired by Ansata Halima Son and out of Princeton Gamila, a Faaris daughter and one of Gail's most important broodmares. He had all of the elements in his genetic make-up as the Ansata Nile family, with the added influence of the *Nasr son, Sirecho. When you study the pedigree, you may find it interesting that at the very top, through Sheikh el Arab, the sire of Halima, is  Bint Sabah, a Kazmeen daughter out of Sabah, who is a great grand-daughter of El Dahma, an Ali Pasha Sherif mare from 1880, recognized as the foundress of the Dahman Shahwan strain. At the bottom of the pedigree, via Habba, is the same tail female line.  However, somewhere in the middle of all this good stuff, appears Ansata Damietta, who traces to Bukra,  another Bint Sabah daughter. That's alot of Bint Sabah and combined with  the other lines that lead to El Dahma; Pri Gamil Halim had approximately 32 lines to El Dahma in his pedigree, not to mention, because of the reduced number of Blunt desert horses, a significantly higher percentage of authentic Egyptian breeding, as compared to other Egyptian horses. When I started studying Hallany Mistanny and specifically *Zarife and *Roda, I became aware of more authentic Egyptian horses, particularly those horses which descend from the stud of Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, who are free of the desert horses that Lady Ann Blunt exported from the desert. In Pri Gamil Halim, his Blunt component is 6.2%, while his Egypt 1 percentage is 86%. In a breeding community where it is challenging to find breeding horses bred differently, Pri Gamil Halim offered that opportunity.

Those were magic moments and back then, I don't think I fully understood the significance of those days. I was fascinated by the colt and I looked forward to arriving at Los Alamos a bit earlier than my scheduled lesson, in the hope of playing and developing a friendship with "Halim". He wasn't a big horse but he was balanced, his proportions harmonious and well-suited to his body. Everything looked like it belonged on him, exactly how he was created, exactly how you would imagine a Dahman Shahwan horse to look.  I thought he was perfect. My mind would wander, thinking about all the possibilities and how much better life would be, sharing it with a colt like this.

 "Alec forgot his problems in the beauty of the stallion as he swept along, graceful in his swift stride, his black mane and tail flying." -Walter Farley, from The Black Stallion

Unfortunately for me, my life was about to change significantly, taking me away from the horses that I loved. By then, I had fallen in love, became married and embarked on establishing a career and family. While I still loved horses very much, a dream like horse ownership was just not possible...for a long time. Although I missed much of his transition into maturity, I did get to see Pri Gamil Halim a couple of times, as a performance horse, under saddle, in the open houses at Los Alamos and I have to tell you, I felt a little like a parent, my heart bursting with pride, as I watched "my not so little anymore" black colt perform as part of a Pas De Deux, set to music.

"Oh my gosh, Halim, what an elegant horse you have become!" I silently whispered, in complete surprise.I was so proud of him, as I watched him focused intently on all that his rider asked of him, his long black tail swishing from side-to-side, keeping time with the music. He was so sweet and willing, demonstrating to all watching, the compliant nature of these horses and why this breed, above all others, are particularly well-suited for people who desire more from their horses. And that's why, no matter what may be happening in my life at any given moment, the happiness I experience from just thinking about horses and all that is possible, helps me to make it from one second to the next. THAT, is a real gift.

EnJOY,
Ralph