NO BLUNT BLOOD

Hallany Mistanny, although bred in America by General Dickinson of Travelers Rest, was out of *Zarife and *Roda, who were 100% Egyptian horses, bred by Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik. His pedigree is completely free of the Blunt ancestral elements like Kars, Queen of Sheba, Azrek, Jerboa, Rodania and Dajania.

"Most of the stock that Lady Blunt brought from Arabia were not of the classic type as we know. The Egyptian Arabian horses of Abbas I are to be credited for the beauty that they gave to the Arabian horse that was bred in England by Lady Blunt and lately, by Lady Wentworth." - Dr. Ameen Zaher, from his book Arabian Horse Breeding and the Arabians of America

Despite the volume of material that has been written about the Blunts, their adventures in the Arabian peninsula, the horses purchased and the world famous Crabbet Stud; I don't think it is possible to fully understand the influence of the Blunt-bred Arabian horses, until one tries to find a pedigree that does not carry the blood of these horses. I need to say this to underscore how incredibly unique a horse like Hallany Mistanny is.

 THERE OTHERS LIKE HIM?

I started to think about other horses, who like Hallany Mistanny, are free of the Blunt desert horses. So, I checked the Babson horses and to my surprise, *Bint Bint Sabbah has 9.4% Blunt desert blood, as the stallion Kazmeen is the sire of her dam, Bint Sabah. Another Babson foundation mare, *Bint Serra I has the highest percentage of Blunt desert blood within the Babson group: 25%, as Sotamm is her sire and Jemla, while predominantly an Ali Pasha Sherif mare, has Bint Nura in her pedigree. *Bint Bint Durra, an Ibn Rabdan daughter out of Bint Durra, has 12.5% Blunt, as Saadun was an 'Ubayyan Sharrak stallion bred by Shaykh Mishari Ibn Sa'dun of the Muntafiq and imported in 1911 to Egypt by Lady Anne Blunt. So, only three Babson horses: *FADL, *MAAROUFA and *BINT SAADA are free of all Blunt DESERT ancestral elements...100% Egyptian!!!! While *Fadl and *Maaroufa are generously represented in SE breeding, unfortunately, *Bint Saada is not. Which makes me sad, because time and a few horses have taught me that the presence of *Bint Saada in the pedigree, gives a horse a little extra something, than similarly bred horses without *Bint Saada.

OK, so where to go from here?
Inshass...Not all but some of the Inshass horses,  have no Blunt desert breeding either. The mare pictured to the right, is the beautiful Hafiza, the dam of one of the most beautiful horses ever produced in Egypt, El Araby and a Hamdan daughter out of Mahfouza. She is authentic Egyptian, her ancestors having been bred by Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal, Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, the RAS and Ali Pasha Sherif, as preserved by Lady Anne Blunt. While Hafiza is technically considered 87.5% Egypt I and 12.5% Inshass; if you check her Inshass line which comes through El Mahrousa, the dam of Mahfouza, you will notice that her sire is El Zafir, a horse bred by Prince Kamal el Din and out of a mare named El Shahbaa, an 'Ubayyah Umm Jurays of Muhammad Ibrahim al-Hajj of Cairo, Egypt, purchased in 1931 by King Fuad.

It wasn't so long ago, maybe within the last fifty years, that the possibility of establishing a breeding program (within the straight Egyptian gene pool) founded on horses with no Blunt desert blood was more realistic than it is today. The horses that were needed for this type of initiative are long gone now, like the stallion, *Ibn Hafiza and unfortunately, this horse was not utilized in combination with other horses to preserve his non-Blunt-desert-horse pedigree for future use. Unless of course, you go outside of straight Egyptian breeding (but still within Al Khamsa) and use the Hisani horses, which are a combination of the Egyptian horses like *Fadl and Sirecho, combined with the non-Egyptian desert mares Muhaira and *Turfa. For now, the only option (within straight Egyptian lines) is to use horses whose Blunt percentage is very small, maybe under 10%, in fewer cases, under 5%. Considering the heavy influence of the stallion Nazeer and the fact that it is getting more difficult to find a horse without lines to him, it is a good option to have a source of blood whose ancestral elements are a bit different, for out cross purposes. It is in situations like these, that I think of people like Jane Ott and I start to understand where she was coming from, so long ago. Her message concerning the Blue Star horses was extraordinary and well, I wish that more of us had listened to what she said.

EnJOY,
Ralph

PS-The photo of Hallany Mistanny is from the Billy Sheets collection, via Daughters of the Wind Blog and the photo of Hafiza is a Judi Forbis photo.