*Farazdac

*Farazdac was born in Egypt, in February 1966, bred by the EAO. He is an Alaa el Din son out of Farasha (Sid Abouhom x Yosreia). *Farazdac was exported from Egypt in 1974 by Rick Heber together with Bill & Janet Lowe; the same team of people responsible for the importation of *Tuhotmos. *Farazdac sired a record number of horses, approximately 461 horses from 1974 to 1991. Of this total number, 417 horses were purebreds. It is interesting to note that *Farazdac started to sire Half-Arabians in 1980, with most of these horses born between the years of 1984 and 1987 (1985 and 1986 the banner years for Half-Arabian versions of *Farazdac). However, do you know that less than 25% of the 417 purebred horses were straight Egyptian (approximately 96 horses)? That’s only twice the number of the Half-Arabian horse count! Why was the reaction among SE breeders so poor for *Farazdac? 

*Farazdac was one of the most beautiful stallions to ever come out of Egypt. He was so striking, so different, from the horses of his day and no one captured his beauty like photographer Polly Knoll. Her pictures of *Farazdac to this day, remain some of my most favorite photos. In an interview with Desert Heritage Magazine, Polly Knoll said, “He is another horse that was very ethereal like Morafic. He had that same fine skin and clean sculpted bone structure. He was a bit taller than Morafic, with longer legs. He was an energetic horse but he was very nice in disposition and easy to work with. He was very kind. Also he could really move.” One of the qualities that breeders did not appreciate in *Farazdac was his narrowness or rather, a perceived lack of substance. Although*Farazdac was built like a racehorse, he had a long distance runner's conformation. He was elegant, in the same way that you would find an athlete elegant, especially when moving. There was a cat-like grace in every one of *Farazdac's strides. In silhouette, *Farazdac had a radiator-shaped body, long and lean, the kind of body that may have suggested endurance racing potential. I will never forget what the late Hansi Heck-Melnyk said about the horse, “I wish you had seen *Farazdac as I did in Cairo. He just came back from his ‘winning’ race, absolutely breathtaking gorgeous. Prancing, like if he had just walked around the block. He had a beautiful long and well befitting to his body neck, elegant, and clean. There was also something very regal about him." As beautiful and eye-catching as he was, *Farazdac’s head was longer and more narrow, with average-sized eyes, set higher in the head. In the age of horses like *Ansata Ibn Halima, with his large and lustrous eyes, set lower in the head, *Farazdac was completely opposite and breeders wanted more horses like *Ansata Ibn Halima. In the Hanan book, Dr. Nagel said that Alaa El Din was a good sire of broodmares but not of stallions. He believed that Alaa El Din never produced a son who was an equal or who emerged as an important sire in the EAO breeding program. Most breeders in this time period also felt like Dr. Nagel about the Alaa el Din sons. Even if a stallion were successful in the first generation, most breeders felt that any prepotency would diminish in the second or third generation. *Farazdac sired a wonderful son named Ikhnatoon in 1974, who remains his most influential son, impacting the EAO program significantly, which has in turn, influenced the breeding programs of private breeders in and out of Egypt. Ikhnatoon, in turn sired Adl (out of the Adaweya daughter, Enayah) who also became an important sire for the EAO breeding program. So, in terms of the Egyptian get tracing back to *Farazdac, Dr. Nagel’s statement is not only wrong; it is not fair to *Farazdac or even, Alaa el Din. In America, mention must be made of some of the wonderful daughters he sired, especially with the horses of the Maar-Ree family of horses, who appeared to combine well with *Farazdac (Robert & Jeanne Middleton, of Midcrest Farm, the home of Maar-Ree, also owned *Farazdac later in his life): Fasarra, foaled in 1980 out of the *Tuhotmos daughter, Massara, when bred to El Halimaar, produced the popular stallion, Richter MH. Rancho Bulakenyo also bred Mumtaz Ree, a *Farazdac daughter out of MFA Bint Maarree. Her daughter, Bint El Halimaar MH remains at Rancho Bulakenyo, while Mumtaz Ree returned to the country of her ancestors, to become part of the program at Yasmine & Ali's Shaarawi Arabians in Egypt. Bint Farazdac, when bred to The Egyptian Prince son (out of RDM Maar Halima) produced SH Say Anna. This mare produced two Ansata mares: Ansata Aniq (sired by Ansata Manasseh) and Ansata Anna Maria (sired by Ansata Hejazi). Donna Aldrich owned a pretty *Farazdac daughter, RG Desert Storm (out of the Pritzlaff mare, Desert Song RSI). In closing, I want to believe that even with the few number of SE offspring, *Farazdac remains a vibrant horse in our genepool, because his get and his grand get and his great grand get have been prolific and contrary to the popular belief that Alaa el Din sons were not prepotent. What do you think?

*** You can read a more complete article about *Farazdac, within The Arabian Breeders' Magazine, Volume II, Issue I***