Seef: A Renowned Stallion

Seef was a son of Mashhour (which means in Arabic, "renowned") and a grandson of Shahloul. Seef's dam Elwya, was out of the mare, Zareefa, who also produced the influential stallion, El Sareei (by Shaloul). The mare, Zareefa, traces in her tail female to the Bahraini mare, Bint el Bahreyn. I find it interesting to point out that the Bahraini horses are recognized for their heavier body type or rather, they are known to be horses with much substance. It is this same quality that I saw in *Ibn Safinaz, which made me think of the word "baroque", as it is used to describe horses who are close-coupled, heavily muscled, wide chest, shorter necks that are heavier-crested and yet, these horses harmonious in their more compact and circular build. These are the horses that in Arabian horse terminology, someone might describe them as "masculine", although I want to call them "traditional" or even "authentic" with regard to their Bedouin roots. Seef was not used much at stud, until he was a much older horse, in his mid-teens. Like most of the stallions used at the EAO, he was stationed at one of the agricultural depots, when he was discovered and brought back to El Zahraa, somewhere in the early 70's. Successful as a race horse, Seef became a valuable sire for the EAO, as he was known for siring powerful movement in his progeny. His foals were athletic horses, successful under saddle. The majority of Seef-sired horses were imported by Donald Ford, Martin Loeber, Bill and Janet Lowe (together with Evelyn Burton) and Rick Heber. Among these horses were the stallion, *Ibn Seef and the mares, *Higran, *Yathreb and *Lancers Asmara. Hansi Heck-Melnyk, breeder and owner of the horses carrying the world famous Serenity prefix, was in Egypt in 1972 and personally saw the stallion Seef. In May of 2006, she shared her impression of this horse: "I happen to be at the EAO in 1972 , having horses brought before me to see. Then came this HORSE, a white stallion, prancing on a loose shank next to the handler, in a passage-like and correct balanced way, tail carried high, big eyes wide-opened and ears gently moving. I got goose bumps, which I only get when I see something truly outstanding and Dr Marsafi said, 'Hansi, this is Seef, we just brought him in from the depot, was ridden 50 km through the desert and city to get here. He has an excellent racing career and produced good foals off country mares.' I looked him over and asked Dr Marsafi if I could buy him right there and then. Dr Marsafi declined and then asked me which of the EAO mares would I breed the stallion to. I replied, 'all of them, retain the best and sell the rest.' Seef indeed did not have a Pikehead (Hechtkopf) but a beautiful profile, dry and pikant, neck was set on beautifully, clean legs- after all that work-smooth coupled and in top condition too. Nobody could ever see in him other than a very type desert bred horse."