Bukra

One of the most important mares in straight Egyptian breeding possessing the El Dahma tail female line, is Bukra, a mare whom the late General Tibor Pettko Von Szandtner (the stud director of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization's El Zahraa stud farm from 1949 to 1959) described as "a very noble mare." Reading the herd book notes written by him and forever preserved by Judith Forbis within her monumental tome, Authentic Arabian Bloodstock II, you immediately realize that Bukra was a mare who was held in high regard by Von Szandtner. Within The Classic Arabian Horse, published in 1976, Judith Forbis stated that the General considered her “a first class, Saqlawi-type mare”. While the photography from this time period does not fully capture her beauty; she really must have been a breathtakingly beautiful mare in her prime to have been rated first-class by a cavalry officer, who valued utility in horses, above all else.

The pedigree of Bukra is classically beautiful, as the majority of her ancestry reflects the Egyptian breeding programs of Abbas Pasha, the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS), Ali Pasha Sherif, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal and Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik. Her sire, Shahloul (Ibn Rabdan x Bint Radia), despite producing an influential son named El Sareei, was a phenomenal sire of broodmares: Futna (Farida), Kateefa (Bint Rissala), Maisa (Zareefa), Moniet el Nefous (Wanisa) and Om el Saad (Yashmak). All of these mares have exerted a profound influence upon our breed, producing sons and daughters who in turn, continued to significantly impact the breed and remain genetically important and vital, up to the present day.

Bukra's dam, Bint Sabah, was sired by Kazmeen (who brings in the outcross blood of the Blunt desert horses like Queen of Sheba, Dajania and Azrek) and out of Sabah (Mabrouk Manial x Bint Obeya). Bint Sabah was a critical mare in Egyptian Arabian horse breeding; as she produced the mare Layla (by Ibn Rabdan) who went on to produce the stallion, Sid Abouhom by El Deree. She also produced the mare *Bint Bint Sabbah by the RAS stallion Baiyad, who was later purchased and imported by Henry Babson and the stallion, Sheikh el Arab (by Mansour), an extremely important sire for the EAO programme who sired daughters like Halima, Yosreia, Wanisa and Yashmak.

***Don't miss a wonderful article about the Bukra horses within The Arabian Breeders Magazine, Volume II, Issue II is The Dawning of a New Tomorrow: The Bukra Story***