*Bint Serra I: An Extinction Story

As popular a mare as *Bint Serra I (Sotamm x Serra) was in her day, it is not possible to find a tail female line back to her, within straight Babson Egyptian Arabian horse breeding. That's right, it took us only 70 years to lose this bloodline, in the form that it arrived in 1932. Saqlawiyah by strain, she traces to Ghazieh, a celebrated mare in her time, who was purchased by Abbas Pasha in 1845. And it is through Abbas Pasha, that one of the most interesting facts about *Bint Serra I is found--her pedigree represents almost 60% Abbas Pasha breeding! 

*Bint Serra's sire, Sotamm (Astraled x Selma) was one of the horses exported to Egypt from Crabbet Park. While Mesaoud (the sire of Astraled) and  Sobha (the dam of Selma) were of Abbas Pasha breeding, Sotamm's pedigree also included multiple lines to  Queen of Sheba and to Azrek, two horses that the Blunts had purchased in the desert of non-Abbas Pasha breeding. The effect that these desert horses have in Sotamm's pedigree is to decrease the Abbas Pasha percentage, approximately to 25%. However, *Bint Serra's dam, Serra (Sahab x Jemla), despite being bred by Lady Anne Blunt at Sheykh Obeyd in Egypt (not Crabbet Park in England), was completely, of 100% Abbas Pasha breeding! It is through Serra, that *Bint Serra I gains the most influence from the Abbas Pasha breeding program. 

W.R. Brown had imported horses from the stud of Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik in Egypt, earlier in the same year that Henry Babson, through the mediation of Dr. A.E. Branch, also purchased horses from Prince Mohamed Aly, Prince Kemal El Dine (the Prince's cousin) and the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS). I found it interesting that W.R. Brown's agent, Jack Humphrey, had tried to purchase Serra, whom he considered to be the best horse in the stud of Prince Kemal El Dine and was not available to him, for any price. Not having any success purchasing the mother, Humphrey also tried to purchase the daughter, whom he referred to as "all Arab" but again, he was not able to purchase her either. No surprise over Humphrey's failure to secure either horse, as the most respected Dr. Branch felt that Serra was the best mare he had ever seen and referred to her as "a flawless pearl". It makes the purchase of *Bint Serra I by Henry Babson all the more impressive. 

Unlike the other mares that were part of the Babson importation, *Bint Serra I,  imported with her Rustem-sired colt, *Metsur, was already a mature mare at 9 years old.   For Henry Babson, it was not important to prove the worth of *Bint Serra I under saddle, like he had done with *Bint Bint Sabbah and *Bint Bint Durra but rather, it was more important to retire her to the breeding shed, in the hope that she would produce more foals of the quality Babson had observed in her son *Metsur, who did not survive. However, *Bint Serra I bore the marks of a saddle on her back, which tells us that she enjoyed some kind of racing career, while in Egypt.

The dam of 4 colts and 6 fillies, the continuing influence of *Bint Serra I, in straight Babson lines, would be felt through her 2 sons: the grey Fay-el-Dine and the jet black Fa-Serr and also through her daughter, Fa Deene, who oddly enough, despite producing a daughter, Khedena (by Khebir) would become influential through the get sired by her 2 sons: Hadbah, a chief sire for the Atkinsons of Anchor Hill Ranch and Ibn Fa-Serr. Through these stallions, breeders noticed the quality in the get they sired: that is, an in-born elegance, freedom of the shoulder, prominent withers, fine neck carriage, a tractable disposition and excellent movement with amazing stamina.  When *Bint Serra I was 24 years old, she produced her last filly, a great longevity story yes, but it also underscores the amazing stamina that these horses were blessed with.

In the mid-70's, the tail female line was already in trouble, as there were only 4 straight Babson Egyptian mares of breeding age in America who traced to *Bint Serra I in the tail female line of their pedigrees and only one of them, Fa Dena, was really producing any offspring:

• Fa Dena, produced 3 straight Babson Egyptian daughters who did not breed on

• Missima, who produced her last filly in 1978 by a Babson/New Egyptian cross (AK Waseem Montaal)

• Fa Dena Mia, who died in 1977 without producing a foal

• Allah Atteyah, who was used in primarily a Babson/Sirecho breeding program

Fast-forward to 2002, when the last remaining Bint Serra tail female line mare, AK Bint Serra (Waseem Ibn Bahrou x Fa Dena) died. And with this mare, all hope to revive the tail female line, no matter how slim the chance was to do so, died with her. For whom the bell tolls? Her death marks the point when the tail female line ceased to be extant in the straight Babson Egyptian breeding community.

Ibn Fa-Serr, a senior sire for the Babson Farm, was the product of breeding a *Bint Serra son with a *Bint Serra daughter. That's  50% *Bint Serra I blood! Whether used in combination with another  sire for the Babson Farm, like the *Bint Bint Sabbah son, Fabah (a successful cross for the Babson Farm) or on his own, Ibn Fa-Serr, a 1960 grey stallion, sired 85 foals over his lifetime, 20 of which were straight Babson Egyptian daughters and 22 straight Babson Egyptian sons.  Homer Watson once remarked of Ibn Fa-Serr's impact within the Babson Farm breeding program, "He's been so great on Fabah daughters.” Ibn Fa-Serr was so prolific in the straight Babson community, that Babson breeders singled out horses without his genetic presence, in order to maintain diversity in the SBE gene pool!

There is much to be said about the Bint Serra horses that are out crossed with newer Egyptian bloodlines but unfortunately, this blog post is not the right place to discuss all of them. There are too many. Strangely enough, within the same branch that includes AK Bint Serra, you find mares like the *Ansata Ibn Halima daughters (and full sisters), Bint Fa Dena and Il Bint Khedena, who have preserved this precious bloodline in different bloodline combinations, outside of straight Babson Egyptian breeding. For example, bred back to the Babson stallion, Daaldan (a son of *Bint Bint Durrra), Bint Fa Dena produced the foundation broodmare for Abitibi Farm, Bint Daaldan. How is she represented today? Think of the bay stallion, Etaya Sudan Amir, who has enjoyed an impressive career at stud. Fa Daalim, an important sire in the 1980's for breeders like Walter Schimanski and Marilyn Lang is another noteworthy horse, also born of Bint Fa Dena. AK El Sennari, the son of Bint Fa Dena's full sister, Il Bint Khedena, traveled to Egypt, making his home with Nasr Marei at Albadeia! Mixed with the newer Egyptian blood, this bloodline remains primarily relevant through sons, rather than daughters. 

If there is one lesson to be learned from this story which focuses on the loss of her influence within straight Babson Egyptian breeding, it would be the critical importance to preserve a bloodline, in its original form, before engaging in diluting the bloodline through outcrossing, thus,  insuring the survival of key horses for future use, within our breeding community.