Radia: Her Mother's Daughter

Of the horses produced by *Bint Maisa el Saghira, it was her daughter Radia, a 1970 bay mare bred by Gleannloch Farms, who looked most like her, even down to her self-carriage and brilliant movement.  Like her mother, she was blessed with much elasticity of her hocks, allowing her to reach far underneath her and drive her body powerfully forward. 

I was a child, enamored with these particular horses, who enchanted me as they danced on the pages of Arabian Horse World. I remember reading a word that was used when describing *Bint Maisa el Saghira: "leggy". In everything that I have ever read about her, people remarked on her length of leg. At about the same time,  I also learned "airy" as in, "that horse has alot of air underneath her" and don't forget another word that came also from this time period and which I use alot: "stretchy", meaning the horse is at the other end of "short and chunky". To me, these words are like visual aids, which help to describe the conformation of horses in ways that people could better understand. Not to mention that there is an elegance which is inspired by added length in strategic points of conformation like for example, the poll and as we find in *Bint Maisa, the forearms. 

Radia was one of five horses, resulting from the union of *Morafic with *Bint Maisa el Saghira, which means that she is a full sister to the stallions: Shaikh al Badi and Amaal. Her full sisters are the gray mares, Nafairtiti and Rihahna, who did not look anything like their dam and of course, Radia. What I found interesting about this cross is that  *Morafic and *Bint Maisa el Saghira were siblings, paternally, as both horses were sired by Nazeer. However, the relationship between both horses also extends to their dams, as Maisa was a Shahloul daughter and Mabrouka was a Shahloul granddaughter. How can we introduce more common ground between these 2 horses? The close-up desert breeding that comes through El Deree on the sire side and through Durra, on the dam side. It's a beautiful pedigree that is both provocative, as well as balanced and a breeder's masterpiece.

Gleannloch retained Radia for their breeding program but unfortunately, she died at 12 years old but even so, her progeny bred forward and remain part of the straight Egyptian gene pool today. One of my favorite Egyptian horses is the chestnut *Soufian daughter out of Radia, named Il Maddah. Martha Murdoch had bred the mare to Imperial Imdal, to produce a pretty mare name Katyah in 1993. Katyah was then bred to Ansata Hejazi to produce Bint Katyah, who was bred to Amar Al Rayyan and Laheeb Al Nasser, producing mares for De Shazer Arabians. Judith Forbis of Ansata, for whom, *Bint Maisa el Saghira has always been a favorite, purchased Il Maddah's daughter, Ibriiah, a Ruminaja Ali daughter out Il Maddah. She bred the mare to Ansata Hejazi, which resulted in the mare Ansata Al Halima and then to Ansata Iemhotep, which produced the stallion, Ansata Khanjar. Another branch of the Radia family that I also personally admire is found through Radia's son, Sahhar Ibn Sakr by *Sakr, who sired a daughter named Aleeshah (out of Aleeyah, by Ibn Morafic and out of Il Warda). When Aleeshah was bred to Tammen (Abenhetep x Talgana), she produced the mare Kuhaylah Nitaya, who in turn, when bred to Thee Desperado, foaled a very nice mare named Theee China Doll. Owned by Betty Gail Skinner, Theee China Doll was bred to the El Halimaar-sired sons: Richter MH and Jabbar ElHalimaar, which resulted in the following wonderful mares: Kuhaylah Maar Hala (Richter), Kuhaylah Amira MH (Richter), Jabbar B Doll, Maarbella HS (Jabbar), Annabell Lee HS (Jabbar) and a stallion named, what else, but Off The Richter, which resulted in an unexpected "tremor" of a laugh.