Texas Red: The Story of AK Bint Roufah

AK Bint Roufah (*Ibn Moniet el Nefous x Roufah)

AK Bint Roufah was a 1981 chestnut mare, bred by Bentwood Farm in Waco, Texas. A daughter of *Ibn Moniet el Nefous and out of the straight Babson Egyptian mare, Roufah (Ibn Fa-Serr x Bah Roufa); AK Bint Roufah was one of eighty-nine mares sold through the Sotheby Sale, when the breeding program of Bentwood Farm was dispersed by the First Interstate Bank of Arizona.

I visited Bentwood Farm prior to the Sotheby sale. I would like to say that my trip was focused, that I had a carefully thought out list of horses that I prepared in advance or even, an agenda driven by family groups that would make the trip all the more educational, analyzing the conformational and breed type attributes of each individual and family but that would not be exactly truthful. You see, Bentwood was "my Hollywood" and the horses occupied roles of admiration that "movie stars" enjoy in other people's lives. I couldn't tell you which horse I wanted to see over another, because I wanted to see them all. And Bentwood was a big place, lots of land and lots of horses. Within a few minutes of arriving, I met Ansata Abbas Pasha, as well as the young TheEgyptianPrince son, Prince Fa Moniet and I was overwhelmed, as I began to realize that the horses from the pages of the books and magazines that I had read, were suddenly, standing right in front of me. It was a powerful and deeply moving experience.

As I drove back to the airport and reflected upon the many horses that I had seen,  it would be the Babson/Ibn Moniet el Nefous mares, horses like AK Bint Roufah, who made the biggest impression upon me. I couldn't think of anything else, so smitten was I by these particular horses. Here I am, 30 years later and I am still under the spell of those horses. I can't forget them. So much so, that when I see a picture, it brings me right back to that magical time and place, standing amongst those wonderful mares. To say that it was one of the more memorable experiences of my life would be an understatement. Collectively, as a breeding group unto themselves, these mares possessed strong, balanced bodies, enhanced by gently flowing,  smooth, circular lines (that's the Ibn Rabdan in them but more of that later). The Moniet influence "opened" the horses up, adding a bit of length to the neck, back and legs. While these mares were built wide front-to-back, with beautiful laid-back shoulders, big hips, powerful hind ends, nicely muscled forearms and gaskins, strong toplines; they remained elegant, with just enough "stretch" to keep them from being "chunky". It was a good cross producing mares with longer but clean, dry heads, beautiful eyes, a beautiful working neck with a little more length in the throatlatch and longer forearms.

It's interesting to see a pedigree like AK Bint Roufah's pedigree, as concentrated as it is for only a few key horses. *Ibn Moniet el Nefous is the end result of a grandson (*Morafic) bred to his maternal grand dam (Moniet el Nefous) however, compare/contrast this horse with Ibn Fa-Serr, the sire of Roufah, who is the product of a full-brother-to-full-sister mating. So, on the paternal side of the pedigree, we find that approximately 60%, a little more than half of *Ibn Moniet's influence comes from Moniet el Nefous, while on the maternal side, 40% of Roufah's influence comes from the cross of *Fadl and *Bint Serra I. There's a lot of "magic" at work in this pedigree as you have two intensely-bred Saqlawi stallions driving the genetic influence, each horse on a different side of the pedigree. It's really ingenious, when you stop for a moment to fully consider the significance and the harmony of what "the paper" says, in terms of how two key horses dominate and balance the genetic flow which resulted in a mare like AK Bint Roufah.

Ibn Rabdan (Rabdan el Azrak x Bint Gamila) appears multiple times in the pedigree, as many as eight with an influence factor of approximately 24% (although his sire and dam do appear in the pedigree through other sources, for example, Bint Gamila is the dam of the stallion, Baiyad, the sire of *Bint Bint Sabbah), which helps to explain the flowing, circular lines in the bodies of these mares; however, what I found interesting in this pedigree is the mare, Bint Sabah (Kazmeen x Sabah), whom we find through her son, Sheikh el Arab (the sire of Wanisa, Moniet el Nefous' dam) and through her daughters, Layla (the dam of Sid Abouhom) and *Bint Bint Sabbah (the dam of Fabah).  I can't help but wonder over the opportunities had AK Bint Roufah been bred to one of the Bukra (Shahloul x Bint Sabah) line horses, like the 1980 stallion, Ansata Halim Shah (*Ansata Ibn Halima x Ansata Rosetta).  In Dr. Hans Nagel's noteworthy book, Hanan, he presents many positive attributes for utilizing Bukra's influence, i.e. a fine, not heavy throatlatch, a short, well-muscled hindquarter with an excellent angle of the hocks, a smaller-sized head, powerful movement, good pigmentation (especially in combination with the fleabitten coat colour) and a delightful temperament. I found the following passage from Dr. Nagel relevant, as it underscores my instinct in utilizing the Bukra bloodline, in combination with the bloodline of Moniet el Nefous and building upon the already present sources of Bint Sabah in AK Bint Roufah's genetic fiber,

"Thus the elements of Bukra and Mahrousa have the joint role of dominating over undesired elements and, with the males of the Nazeer line, to form a morphologically correct horse."

In my opinion, the Bukra bloodline can be a balancing element, genetically, to counter the tendency to go "long and hot" in the Moniet horses. That's how I would have bred AK Bint Roufah, had I owned her.

All that aside, AK Bint Roufah was a good broodmare, producing right through to the early 90's. She remains relevant in today's Egyptian breeding population. One of the more exciting (well, for me) crosses was her daughter, the 1988 bay mare, AK Fay Roufah, who was bred back to reinforce her Babson bloodlines, as she was a daughter of the straight Babson Egyptian stallion, Mah Hab (Mahrouf x Bah Habba).  What I found really interesting about the cross with Mah Hab, is the intensification of what was a successful cross within the Babson Farm breeding program, Ibn Fa-Serr with Fabah (one cross with Bah Roufa producing Roufah and one cross with Ser Habba,  producing Bah Habba, the dam of Mah Hab*). Owned by Barefoot Arabians, she was also bred to the *Ansata Ibn Halima son, Halim el Kateef, producing a stallion, BA Karouf and to the Nabiel son, Barefoots Ladid (out of the AK El Zahra Moniet, AH Ladada, which adds more Babson lines) producing several daughters.

*There's actually another cross (although not with Ibn Fa-Serr directly but still a combination of *Bint Serra I with *Bint Bint Sabbah) and that is the Fay-el-Dine daughter, Aaroufa, bred to Fabah, to produce Mahrouf, the sire of Mah Hab.