BEBARS AL FARIDA

Bebars Al Farida, a 2012 gray stallion,  is a son of Imperial Baarez (PVA Karim x BB Ora Kalilah) and out of a Royal Colours daughter named Salma. He was shown last week in Menton's 4-6 year old stallion class and while the stallion classes, in my opinion, lacked the depth seen in the mare classes, especially the senior mares, there were three stallions who caught my attention,  and of the three, Bebars Al Farida was my favorite.

When I saw Imperial Baarez for the first time, I had come up behind him and he was facing away from me. I remember the impression that his hind end made upon me. At the time, the word "baroque" was quickly becoming a buzzword in the dressage community, to describe horses with an "old world" look, horses who like Baarez, were rounder, more compact, more densely muscled and better able to perform the collected movements required in the higher levels of the sport.  After watching Bebars Al Farida compete in Menton, I was reminded of this long ago experience, because he, like his sire is substantial of body with an equally impressive hind end. He is very much his father's son in phenotype, despite the tell tale pink on his muzzle, which sort of gives it all away before you have a chance to notice the similarity in body type. And yet, there was something more, something familiar about this horse, like deja vu.

Salma, his dam, is out of a mare named Fay Zina T, a Salaa el Dine daughter out of Zakeyat, by Gad Allah. If you patiently follow the tail female line from Zakeyat to Zakyia to Ozorees to Ghadeer to Thouraya I, eventually arriving at Rayana; I promise you that things will start "falling" into a very familiar and most interesting place. The mare, Rayana by Ezzat, is one of two daughters produced by Rateeba. The other daughter is Rabiaa, sired by Beshier. And here we are, about to "fall" into a place of common ground between two different horses. You will remember that Rabiaa is the dam of Aminaa, an Albadeia-bred mare who produced *Amalaa, by Mowaffac, a *Ramses Fayek son. This big bodied bay mare with the silver colored hairs in her black tail, was purchased by Imperial Egyptian Stud and is the maternal granddam of Imperial Sanama, the dam of Zenubia Al Nasser, who produced Maisa Al Nasser by Sinan Al Rayyan, the Bronze Senior Champion mare in Menton!

Now, to convince the owners of Maisa Al Nasser to breed her to Bebars Al Farida. What a foal that would be.

MAISA AL NASSER

I really wanted to write something a little different this time, as it is the 250th post. I never really thought that my blog would go as far as it has, thanks to all of you who come here and read the words that I have written each week. I really need you all to know that I work hard to keep the blog relevant, with content that has educational value, while remaining concise and interesting for you.

Like you I'm sure, I received every email update concerning the Menton show. Living in America, the time difference makes it challenging to watch the show live but Arabian Essence TV made it so easy, by posting the videos to You Tube. You can watch the videos any time you want, as many times as you want. Over the last year or so, thanks to a change in my television service provider, I have been able to watch You Tube on a much larger television screen, instead of watching the videos on an itty-bitty, hand-held device. I love it.

Thanks to all the email blasts, I knew that the Ansata Sokar daughter, Nawaal Al Rayyan, the Ekstern daughter, Pepita and the Royal Colours daughter, D Khattafah, a striking liver chestnut, would be competing. Going into the Menton experience, these three mares were my favorites and I was eager to see them again and root for their success. However, I am embarrassed to say that I wasn't familiar with Maisa Al Nasser. She wasn't even on my radar. I don't remember why I clicked on her video. I think it had everything to do with the suffix in her name, "Al Nasser", a breeding program known throughout the world for consistently producing some really wonderful Egyptian horses. So, Arabian Essence does a wonderful thing on their videos, they identify the name of the horse being shown, as well as the sire and dam. I noticed the name of Sinan Al Rayyan, a strong and consistent sire, as well as an Ansata Sinan son, who also traces to Ansata Samantha (through his dam, Al Wajba Al Rayyan). Ansata Samantha was a beautiful chestnut mare, substantial of body, with an ideal topline that was as smooth, as it was strong. Ansata Samantha also possessed a spirit of sweetness which was magnified through her beautiful, large, dark eyes, so reminiscent of *Ansata Bint Bukra.

Maisa Al Nasser's dam, Zenubia Al Nasser, is 100% Imperial Egyptian Stud breeding, sired by the Maar Bilahh son, Imperial Mahzeer and out of the *Ibn Safinaz daughter, Imperial Sanama, whose Saklawi tail female line is interesting.  Imperial Sanama, traces through her dam, Imperial Imalana (Ansata Imperial x Amalaa), to an AlBadeia-bred mare named Aminaa, a daughter of Ibn Maisa (Nazeer x Maisa) and out of  Rabiaa (Beshier x Rateeba). The stallion, Beshier, is sired by the Dahman Shahwan stallion, El Zafir, who also sired a mare named Shams, the daughter of El Zabia, an El Deree-sired daughter out of El Kahila, the mare gifted to King Fouad by King Ibn Sa'ud and the foundress of the Kuhaylan Kurush strain in Egypt! Why is this tail female line interesting? Outcross blood. The maternal side of Maisa Al Nasser's pedigree and specifically, the mare Amalaa (Mowaffac x Aminaa), are bloodlines that are not generously represented in our gene pool, offering a lot of opportunities for today's straight Egyptian breeder, when utilizing their bloodlines in combination with horses whose influence is plentiful.

In the first few seconds of the video, Maisa Al Nasser turns sharply to the right and falls to the ground. And while this post is not so much about the fall; I am not so sure that I would have paid that much attention to her, had she not fallen to the ground. Prior to falling, she was not showing well, as she was a little on edge and her movement was all over the place, short-strided and a bit erratic. Once her handler got her to stand quietly, while he got the sand off of her beautiful body, she became a totally different mare, confident and a little more composed, as compared to when she first entered the ring. While Glenn brushed the sand off of her, we were all able to bask in the glory of her balanced body. She has a fabulous front end, with a deeper heart girth, nice laid back shoulder, her neck, which is more traditional than it is long, is well-set and flowing nicely out of her wither, she is closer coupled with a strong, smooth topline and great tail carriage. She has excellent skin quality, with very dark pigmentation. Her face is short and wide, accentuated by beautiful black eyes. I really like this mare alot and there is a bonus. She is also a proven broodmare, having produced colts by Ansata Nile Echo (Nhaar Al Nasser) and Shagran Al Nasser (Faraq Al Nasser). That's important to me, that a mare competing in the senior mare class is a proven broodmare, as after all, these are breeding classes and while showy, these are mares who will be incorporated into breeding programs and produce foals who will mature into horses of influence for other breeders.

In watching the Menton mare classes and specifically, the 5, 6 and 7 year old mares; I was overwhelmed with the consistency and the quality of the mares being shown. They were all excellent mares, just lovely. I wouldn't have wanted to be a judge because how do you place mares as good as I was seeing? Any of the mares could have emerged a class winner. Eventually, in the championships, Maisa Al Nasser placed third (Bronze), behind the Silver Champion, Baveira HVP (Marwan Al Shaqab x HB Bessolea) and the Gold Champion, Noft Al Nayfat (Ajman Moniscone x Eagleridge Passionata).

So, here we are, at the end of # 250 and I am totally enchanted by this gorgeous mare, Maisa Al Nasser, whom prior to watching the video was unknown to me and yet, because of one crazy moment, when her world turned upside down, she fell right into my consciousness.

Ragia

This is the 1938 RAS-bred mare, Ragia,  the dam of Halima and granddam of *Ansata Ibn Halima, as photographed by Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, during one of his trips to Egypt in the mid-to-late forties. The photo is part of the Comar Arabians collection (Robert Earle Buchanan was Joe Buchanan's father), now held by Dick and Carolyn Hasbrook, of Twinbrook Arabians. This photo and many more (over 100 photos also taken by Mr. Buchanan) are found in the digital photo library, which is part of the new global online museum, Arabian Horse Archives.

Ragia was a daughter of the 1917 stallion, Ibn Rabdan (Rabdan el Azrak x Bint Gamila), the most important stallion in Egypt of his time. Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik admired the prepotency of this horse who passed on his dark chestnut color and longer neck consistently onto the foals he sired. Ibn Rabdan was used in the studs of Prince Kemal al-Dine, Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, the RAS and the Inshass Stud.

Ragia was out of the mare, Farida (Saklawi II x Nadra El Saghira), who was bred by Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik and purchased by the RAS. Farida was the great-granddaughter of the Ali Pasha Sherif mare, El Dahma. Dr. Pesi J. Gazder, a geneticist, author, former President of the Arab Horse Society,  and WAHO founder member, picked El Dahma as the most important Egyptian foundation mare of all time. In addition to Ragia, Farida produced the stallion Balance by Ibn Samhan, Bint Farida by Mansour and Futna by Shahloul.

What I found so interesting about this particular photo, as compared to the other photos that I have seen, is that Ragia was chestnut in body color, like her sire and if you believe in phenotype following color, she, like her sire was also robust, her body mass encased within round, curvey lines. Prior to discovering this photo, the only photos that I had ever seen of Ragia were not what I was expecting from an Ibn Rabdan daughter. The combination of Ibn Rabdan with Farida, two horses whose bodies, in appearance were comprised of circular lines, should have produced similarly, especially when combined together.  So, I appreciate this photo, as here is the voluptuous mare that I had been looking for all these years! In addition, I noticed her strong and smooth top line, a neck that appears better set than in the previous photos, flowing out of a nicer wither, balanced with a strong hind end. She's lovely.

The Ragia daughter, Halima, by Sheikh el Arab, although bay in color and therefore, a little bit different from her dam, is consistent with her dam's overall sense of balance and conformational structure. Through knowing her maternal background, one can better understand her future, for when she was bred to Nazeer, the combination nicked well with the genetic power of Halima's sire, Sheikh el Arab, producing the classic stallion *Ansata Ibn Halima.  Ragia remains a noteworthy and globally relevant mare in straight Egyptian breeding, primarily through *Ansata Ibn Halima but also through her granddaughter, Moheba (Sid Abouhom x Halima), a foundation mare for Marbach State Stud in Germany.

There's a sweet poem, written by Shahwan (the same Shahwan as in Dahman Shawan) included in Judith Forbis' Authentic Arabian Bloodstock, Volume I (the blue book). I can imagine Shahwan whispering these words into Ragia's ear, as he caresses her sleek and silky-soft neck.

I love you, O Dahmah
As if you were part of me
And my family,
And though there may be horses many
You are more to me
Than all the others.

Kuhaylan Kurush

Bashar al Kamar (Imperial al Kamar x Binte Aziza MH), bred and owned by Jody Cruz of Rancho Bulakenyo, he traces in his tail female line to El Kahila

El Kahila was a dark bay mare, given by King Ibn Sa’ud to his friend, King Fouad of Egypt, who had developed an interest in racing Arabian horses. Enamored with the quality of Bedouin-bred horses like El Deree, King Fouad's interest soon crossed over to passion and the King was desirous of creating a purebred breeding program, like many of his relatives enjoyed.  El Kahila was the first mare of record for the King's program, however, when El Kahila was entered into the Inshass Herd book, she was recorded as a Kuhaylah, with no mention of the "Kurush" substrain.

The lack of a substrain name is not unusual for horses of Saudi origin and possibly, was done intentionally, to avoid using references that are so intertwined with Bedouin history. In trying to build and modernize his great Arab nation, King Ibn Sa'ud feared that strong memories in the face of change, might influence the Bedouin to return to a more familiar life in the desert. The Mutayr tribe, as led by Faisal al-Dawish, had rebelled against King Ibn Sa’ud, shortly after the conquest of the Hejaz in 1924. King Ibn Sa’ud defeated the rebels at the battle of Sabilla in the Nejd and eventually, Faisal al-Dawish was captured, imprisoned and later, died. In trying to gain control of the Bedouin, the King had to suppress every means, including the mention of the substrain of horses used in desert warfare against him and all he envisioned.

History tells us that the Kuhaylan Kurush horses were extraordinary horses, self-confident and possessing a fiery inner spirit that one would expect of a warrior’s horse. Breeders of the Kurush horses today will tell you that the horses have not changed. One of my favorite quotes about the strain was made by Philippe Paraskevas in the second volume of his world-famous book, The Egyptian Alternative, “in movement, under the saddle Krushans reveal their inner identity as war horses.”

Bred by the clan of al-Dawish, within the Mutayr Bedouin tribe, who originally, were from the highlands of the northern Hejaz, but by the 20th century, had migrated to Eastern Arabia, near Kuwait; the Kuhaylan Kurush horses were highly prized for their athletic ability, their boldness, fearlessness, heightened sensitivity and perceptive ability.

  

In the book written by George H. Conn titled The Arabian Horse in Fact, Fantasy and Fiction, he states that only through an act of war, a family legacy or as a gift, could an individual obtain a Kuhaylan Kurush horse.  So beloved and admired were these horses that Bedouins even composed poems which celebrated the exclusivity of the Krushan strain. One has to wonder whether a scarcity of these horses intensified the desire to acquire one, human nature being what it is, always desiring what it cannot have.  If that is true, then credit must be given to the Bedouin for exploiting human nature, in order to create a market for their horses. Even Abbas Pasha experienced difficulty in procuring horses of this strain, despite his success in collecting horses of other strains, particularly the Saklawi Jedran horses. Lady Anne Blunt, as quoted in her daughter’s book said, “Yet, the failure of Abbas’ emissary to obtain a Kurushiyah, notwithstanding his readiness to pay almost any price, is still a matter of pride to the members of the Mutayr tribe.” Carl Raswan echoed a similar sentiment in his Raswan Index, Volume I, “Abbas Pasha, that collector of superlatives, is said to have spent a great deal of time and energy trying to acquire a Krusheya with no expense spared – but to no avail.” Eventually, we know, through The Abbas Pasha Manuscript, that Abbas Pasha was able to secure at least two mares of the strain for his celebrated stud farm. Abbas Pasha was not the only well-known and recognized personality who was initially refused a Krushan; Ibn Hadi, the Shaikh of Ajman, Ibn Saadun, the Shaikh of Montefyk, Muhammad Ibn Rashid, the ruler of Hail and even, King Ibn Sa’ud, all found it extremely challenging to acquire a horse of this strain.

In Egypt, El Kahila was bred to El Deree, an impressively built stallion with a strong, compact body and powerful laid-back shoulder, who competed as a race horse in Egypt from 1924 through 1927. Their daughter, El Zabia was 100% desert bred and brings the source of desert breeding much closer, as compared to other families, whose desert blood may be found further back in the pedigree.

El Zafir (Awad x Bint Dalal)

The line continues from El Zabia to her daughter, Shams, who was sired by the Dahman Shahwan stallion, El Zafir (Awad x Bint Dalal) who interestingly, traces in his tail female line to the mare, Bint el Bahreyn, imported to Egypt in 1903 from the stud of Rais Issa Ibn Khalifah as a gift for Khedive Abbas II, thereby adding more desert breeding within the family. And so it is, if not somewhat weird, that the birth of the Kuhaylan Kurush strain in Egypt begins not with El Kahila herself but her daughter, El Zabia, sired by El Deree, as her substrain was recorded in the herd book as Kurush and from this point forward, all the horses descending from this line were catalogued as belonging to the Kuhaylan Kurush strain.

***I don't think I could have written this blog without Edouard Al-Dahdah, through his blog, Daughters of the Wind, so I must credit him for much of what I have written here. He has written many blogs on the strain of Kuhaylan Kurush and I recommend his site, as a source of the most accurate and profound information on the asil horse.  Thank you Edouard. Also to Mr. Joe Ferriss, for all that you have written to keep the name of El Kahila relevant in today's breeding culture and Philippe Paraskevas, whose book, The Egyptian Alternative, Volume II, is a treasure, worth it's weight in gold (and more). And Christine Emmert, who took the photo of Bashar al Kamar. She's a great photographer. And finally, a special note of thanks to Jody Cruz, who singlehandedly has created a breeding group of the Kuhaylan Kurush horses, through the mare BintAzizaPrincess, preserving the legacy of El Kahila within American Straight Egyptian breeding.

The Magic of Thee Desperado

Magic Mon Ami (FS Bengali x Magic Mon Amour)

"Once this horse has taken possession of a person's thinking it seems to be impossible to escape again from the fascination surrounding this horse." - Dr. Hans Joachim Nagel, The Arabian Horse: Nature's Creation and The Art of Breeding

For a long time, I did not know who this particular horse was. I really loved the photo, it quickly became a favorite, however,  little did I realize at the time, the magnitude that a single photo would have in pointing out the continuing influence of just one horse. The photo had caught my attention, when posted to one of the social media sites like Instagram or Facebook. It was one of those rare moments, when a photographer successfully captures what it means to be an Arabian horse with a camera. No breed description can describe the hallmarks of the Arabian head, as well as this photo does. I knew of the photographer, Bukra, but I had misplaced her email address and well, you know, one thing leads to another and pretty soon, it becomes less important to learn the identity of a horse in a photo, as compared to the ever-growing list of things that I need to accomplish. I really couldn't forget the horse, as I had saved his photo to my work computer as "wallpaper" and I saw the photo every day. I like the expression of this horse very much, there's a softness that is inviting and the more I looked at his photo, the more I found to like.  His head is of the shape that I prefer, short and wide, with eyes placed lower in the head, as well as having the larger sized jowls that I also, really like. While not extreme headed, he does have a jibbah, which draws attention to a greater amount of width between his eyes, which as a matter of fact, you also see between his nicely-shaped ears. The shape of his head, together with his expression, conveys that this horse is intelligent, with a pleasing and willing nature! His neck, although shorter, has a very nice shape, well-crested, with a fine mitbah. His dark, pigmented skin is especially fine, accentuating the prominence of bone and veins, which intensifies the dramatic presentation of type, in a purebred Arabian horse. He's beautiful.

So, there I was, months and months and months later, watching an instructional video for improving search results on Google and I remembered this particular photo and decided to test the new techniques I had learned. Maybe I can finally learn the identity of this horse?  On an Arab guy's Twitter page, I found the photo and after translating his post which was written in Arabic language, I learned that this is a 2008 stallion, named Magic Mon Ami, bred by Fontanella Magic Arabians in Italy.

Naturally, with this newfound information, I was interested in learning more about this horse; specifically, my main focus was to look for the presence of Egyptian Arabians  in his pedigree. His sire, FS Bengali (Kubinec x Om el Sanadiva) has lines to Aswan (through Balaton), Shaker el Masri and Hadban Enzahi (both through the German-bred mare, Mohena, from the Om el Arab program). Additionally, there are two lines to older Egyptian blood, through the Babson imported mare, *Maaroufa (through the mare, Sadal Melik). However, all of these Egyptian lines are far back in the pedigree, only as close-up as the sixth generation and I felt that there had to be a prepotent Egyptian horse, closer up, to explain what I was seeing with my eyes.

Magic Mon Amour (Windsprees Mirage x Al Amyra)

Magic Mon Amour is a double granddaughter of Thee Desperado, the sire of Windsprees Mirage (her sire) and of BJ Thee Mustafa (the sire of Al Amrya, her dam). Now, it starts to make sense, as she is so classic in her good looks and even though she is a granddaughter, she reminds me of the Desperado daughters that I have been fortunate to meet. That's how influenced she is by Thee Desperado! In addition to Thee Desperado, Magic Mon Amour has a line to the Pritzlaff-bred stallion, Rasmoniet RSI (*Rashad Ibn Nazeer x *Bint Moniet el Nefous), as well as three additional lines to Aswan, through the Russian horses: Nega, Kilimandscharo and Nevada. She also has lines to *Maaroufa, to create more common ground with FS Bengali. When you add all of these Egyptian horses together, Magic Mon Ami has approximately 20% Egyptian blood, with half of that coming from Thee Desperado.

In studying Magic Mon Amour's pedigree, I just couldn't shake the feeling of déjà vu. The more I studied her pedigree, the more familiar it became. I had not only seen this pedigree before but I had studied it. I thought and thought and thought but for the life of me, I couldn't remember where I had seen the pedigree before. When I was working on the blog for Wolkenzorro+// and studying the pedigree for the Egyptian sources of the black color, it hit me, like a ton of bricks. How could I forget?

Magic Magnifique (True Colours x Magic Mon Amour)

I had been getting marketing-type emails, earlier this year, for a very lovely black stallion, a son of True Colours (Thee Desperado x Daheda), who is owned by Kathleen Ohlsson of Sweden Arabian Stud. Perhaps, you have been receiving the same emails too?  The stallion's name is Magic Magnifique and he is a maternal sibling of Magic Mon Ami, as both horses are out of Magic Mon Amour. They are actually a little more than half brothers, as True Colours has a line to Hadban Enzahi (Nazeer x Kamla) through his dam, Daheda, while FS Bengali has  Hadban Enzahi  through the Om el Arab stallion, Sanadik el Shaklan.  Magic Magnifique is an impressive horse. Not only is it  difficult to find black-colored horses with a high level of refinement and elegance but it is extremely tough to photograph black horses, manipulating the light to convey their abundance of beauty. My compliments to the photographers of Magic Magnifique, for the many wonderful photos taken of this most beautiful horse. I am amazed that the horse in the photo that I like, is a brother to another horse, the subject of an email that I also enjoyed receiving. In my mind, it underscores the consistency of a broodmare like Magic Mon Amour and for the family of horses she is producing, despite the variety of stallions that she has been bred to, beyond True Colours and FS Bengali.

I checked the breeding record of Magic Mon Ami and I found it interesting that he has been bred to daughters of True Colours like Zahira by Musica and Magic Roby. I am not sure if this cross has anything to do with how well his dam crosses with True Colours, as she also produced a younger full brother of Magic Magnifique, Magic Suleiman in 2010.

Windsprees Mirage (Thee Desperado x GL Lady Mirage)

The most interesting aspect of Magic Mon Ami's breeding record is found through another horse, the Italian National Champion Stallion, Windsprees Mirage, his maternal grandsire. Magic Mon Ami has been bred to Windsprees Mirage daughters and granddaughters, further intensifying the bloodline of Thee Desperado in the majority of his get, for example, Magic True Black (Magic Mon Ami x Magic Roby) has four lines, two lines on each side of the pedigree, sire and dam. And perhaps, the greatest lesson, beyond learning the identity of the horse in the photo, is witnessing the prepotence of Thee Desperado at work in these particular horses. Used in combination with a wide variety of bloodlines like Russian, Polish, Spanish, Crabbet, Davenport and multiple sources of American Foundation breeding; his influence is unmistakable, as we see in these beautiful horses, like Magic Mon Ami and Magic Magnifique.

AK Fanniya

AK Fanniya was a 1977 daughter of *Ansata Ibn Halima and out of *Narimaan, a *Morafic daughter out of *Deena, a pretty bay Sameh daughter. There's a Guy Clark song that I like very much that opens with the lyrics, "My favorite picture of you is the one where you're staring straight into the lens." I hear this song playing in my head, when I look at this photo of AK Fanniya, which is my favorite of this charming, elegant and wonderfully pigmented mare.

What's interesting about this particular mare are the two tail female lines, which trace back to Farida. *Ansata Ibn Halima traces through the Ibn Rabdan daughter, Ragia; while *Narimaan traces through the Shahloul daughter, Futna. Her flea-bitten coat coloring is a little more profuse than her sire, which would fool someone into thinking that she  favors *Ansata Ibn Halima in phenotype. However, in my opinion, I think she is more profoundly influenced by *Morafic, as her head is a little longer, a bit more narrow, with a higher eye placement than we observe in *Ansata Ibn Halima. It is my personal feeling (even though modern mtDNA science does not support Bedouin strain theory, as taught to us by Raswan) that combining two Saqlawi stallions on the maternal side of the pedigree,  have more to do with the appearance of attributes that we have learned to associate with the Saqlawi strain.

I also found the use of Nazeer interesting, as it is a more intense version of Brackett's formula, "let the sire of the sire, be the grandsire of the dam." In AK Fanniya, we find a Nazeer son, bred to a double Nazeer granddaughter, which also concentrates the use of Mansour, Nazeer's sire; as he is also the sire of Sheikh el Arab.

Ibn Rabdan and his son, Shahloul also appear multiple times in the pedigree, although I found it interesting that this father/son combination is better represented in *Narimaan's side of the pedigree, than in *Ansata Ibn Halima.

How is she represented today? AK Fanniya was bred by Bentwood Farm, who also, are the breeders of the few foals she produced in America, before she was sold overseas. Bred to a variety of Moniet el Nefous stallions, she produced two sons and three daughters, of which, only the daughters have produced progeny, the most successful being her 1983 daughter, AK Shahniya, by AK Shah Moniet, who in turn, produced a  daughter named Shameerah, by MFA Mareekh Amir. This particular mare is a producer of "kings", having produced two sons who are furthering the bloodline of AK Fanniya into the present day and beyond: Farres by Anaza El Farid and Shahim Al Nakeeb by NK Hafid Jamil. AK Fanniya's daughter, AK Athena, by Sar Ibn Moniet, has produced daughters by The Elixir (Hi-Fashion Mreekh x Jaliya), MC Alexsis and MC Elextris, both of whom have been especially prolific, producing horses who have done well at the Egyptian Event, the premier show for Egyptian Arabian horses in America.

Wolkenzorro+//

Wolkenzorro (Wolkenzauber x Midnight Lace)

Wolkenzorro+//  is a 2004 Half-Arabian horse, sired by Wolkenzauber, who is recognized as an American Warmblood, his pedigree combines Hanoverian breeding with Thoroughbred, Quarter Horse and Paint horse bloodlines. Wolkenzorro+//  is  really striking, he's not only a tall horse, measuring 16 hands but he is flashy, due to his unique black overo coloring and Arabian horse silhouette.  He calls attention to himself wherever he goes.

Midnight Lace (Al Baraki x Mariisiy Lailah)

In The Horse of the Desert, William Robinson Brown wrote of the influence of Arabian blood when crossbreeding with other breeds. He said, "The longer and more intense the fixation of type, the greater influence it will have in the cross. For this reason, the Arabian type, being the oldest and most fixed, has exercised the greatest influence in all the crosses historically recorded." Wolkenzorro's dam, Midnight Lace, is not only a straight Egyptian Arabian horse but she is very interestingly bred, a daughter of Al Baraki (Thee Desperado x Alijamila) and out of Mariisiy Lailah (Coaltown x Bint Bint Omayma). The Minstril (Ruminaja Ali x Bahila) is the sire of Thee Desperado and Bint Bint Omayma, as well as the full brother of Coaltown (Ruminaja Ali x Bahila). Of the 50% of Arabian blood that makes a horse "Half Arabian", approximately 31.25% of the Arabian horse blood is represented by Ruminaja Ali, Bahila and their sons, The Minstril and Coaltown.  A very small percentage, approximately 18.75% comes from Egyptian Arabian horses other than Ruminaja Ali and Bahila! Think of it this way, in the generation of the great grandparents, only three of the eight horses are different: AK Amiri Asmarr, Ansata Justina and Bint Omayma!

Coaltown, the sire of Mariisiy Lailah

While Wolkenzorro's sire is a flashy black  overo stallion too, his paternal grandsire, Winnetou, was purchased in Germany by Marion O'Connor, who said of him, "a fabulous black colt with lots of chrome, movement like a butterfly and the presence of a prince."

The Arabian side of the pedigree also exerts an influence on Wolkenzorro's rich, deep black color, as Midnight Lace and her sire and dam are black, as was Alijamila, Coaltown, Bahila and Gharib. Approximately 80% of Midnight Lace's pedigree is dominated by black colored horses!

Wolkenzorro+// (Wolkenzauber x Midnight Lace

Wolkenzorro+// has been trained under saddle in the discipline of dressage, with much success. That's how I learned about him. I was watching videos on Dressage Today Online, when I stumbled upon footage of Wolkenzorro+// participating in a Conrad Schumacher clinic. Despite his eye catching color which immediately grabs your attention, he possesses an overabundance of Arabian breed type, with rounded lines, close coupling, strong and smooth topline, gracefully arched neck, an expressive, short, wide head and a high carried tail. It's obvious that he has Arabian blood but his body, as a result of his work, accentuates the pleasing circular lines of the Arabian breed. In My Horses, My Teachers,  Alois Podhajsky writes about the effect that consistency in training has upon the body of the horse, "Correct work had made him more beautiful, his muscles had developed, and he moved cheerfully and powerfully in balance and harmony." It is not difficult to understand that Wolkenzorro+// has prospered under Mimi Stanley's guidance and experience, attracting many people who like me, appreciate his beauty and athletic ability. In 2012, this most handsome horse was named a National Champion Half Arabian Sport Horse Stallion. With Mimi Stanley as his partner, Wolkenzorro+// has been also a serious competitor under saddle, earning a National Championship in Third Level (2016) and Second level (2015), in addition to also earning a National Reserve Championship and several Top Tens in first through third levels. Incidentally, if you are wondering what the symbols "+//" after his name mean, Wolkenzorro+// was awarded a Legion of Excellence, having earned 240 points through regional and national wins in performance and in hand classes.

Zunny Delight (Wolkenzorro x PWA Mee Mee)

Wolkenzorro+// was bred by Marion and Patrick O'Connor of Cocolalla Creek Sport Horses and is owned by Sally Henry, Gladstone, North Dakota.  Wolkenzorro+// is triple registered as a Half Arabian, an American Warmblood and a Pinto stallion. He is a proven sire, with equally beautiful get, like the bay overo mare presented above, Zunny Delight, who is out of a purebred mare, PWA Mee Mee (Bachelor Bey x Magic Dancer), a double *Bask great granddaughter. Mimi Stanley continues to campaign Wolkenzorro+// in dressage, currently competing in FEI level tests and the horse continues to stand at public stud, for all those people who have always dreamed of "painting" a masterpiece of their very own.

AK Dantilla

AK Dantilla

Mrs. George Fox, an avid Arabian horse breeder, having bred approximately 160 horses through the mid-seventies, had purchased Fa Dena, a Fa-Serr daughter out of Khedena (a Fa Deene daughter) from the Babson Farm. Although Mrs. Fox had also purchased the straight Babson Egyptian stallion Daaldan, she chose to breed Fa Dena to *Ansata Ibn Halima, producing Il Bint Khedena in 1968. Bred to *Ibn Moniet el Nefous, she produced  AK Dantilla in 1977, a full sister to the stallions: AK Rasul, AK Kaandil and AK El Sennari*. Through Il Bint Khedena, AK Dantilla and her brothers  trace in their tail female line to the 1932 Babson Egyptian import, *Bint Serra I, a Saqlawi strain mare bred by Prince Kemal el Dine. However, in keeping with historical breed tradition, based upon Carl Raswan's Bedouin strain theory, *Ibn Moniet el Nefous is also Saqlawi in strain, because he traces through Moniet el Nefous to Roga al Beida through his tail female line, making AK Dantilla and her brothers pure-in-the-strain Saqlawi (both tail female lines, the sire and dam, need to be Saqlawi to claim pure-in-strain status).

It's also interesting to study the breeding patterns of AK Dantilla, as she was bred (primarily) to a variety of Moniet el Nefous line bred stallions, most notably, Moniet el Sharaf (*Ibn Moniet el Nefous x Bint Bint Moniet), producing daughters by him, the first in 1984, a pretty grey mare named Fa Sharaf and the following year, 1985, a bay mare named Serra Sharaf.

Fa Sharaf

Of the two mares, Fa Sharaf appears to be the more prolific broodmare, with great grand progeny to her credit (Passionet De Nile-Nakhda Myrrh-Aneesa Bint Myrrh), insuring that this branch would remain relevant and vibrant in our straight Egyptian gene pool. However, one of the more interesting crosses with Fa Sharaf resulted in a chestnut stallion, Fa Daaleem in 1991. The sire of this horse was Fa Daalim, a son of Bint Fa Dena, a full sister to Il Bint Khedena, the dam of AK Dantilla! This cross reinforces *Fadl, Bint Sabah, *Bint Serra I but it also brings in outcross blood through *Bint Bint Durra via the stallion, Daaldan.

AK Dantilla was also bred to a son of the Babson mare, Roufah, by *Ibn Moniet el Nefous, NaIbn Moniet. What I found interesting about this cross is the intensification of *Bint Serra I, on both sides of the pedigree, as this mare has become scarce within pedigrees, especially in tail female lines.

 

I also found two other interesting crosses with Moniet stallions (Moniet el Nefous on the sire side of the pedigree) and Bint el Bahreyn through the tail female line of the dam: AK Shah Moniet (*Ibn Moniet el Nefous x Dahmah Shahwaniah) producing a stallion in 1982, Moniet Halim, who did sire get and Shaikh al Badi (*Morafic x *Bint Maisa el Saghira), producing a daughter, DE Desert Shah. The maternal side of the pedigree offers a bit of outcross blood, more so with Shaikh al Badi, as he does not carry a line to *Ansata Ibn Halima, which AK Dantilla has through her dam, Il Bint Khedena. *Bint Maisa el Saghira's dam, Maisa, was a daughter of Zareefa (Kazmeen x Durra), a mare who brings desert breeding up closer in the pedigree of Egyptian horses and within this pedigree, offers some diversity. And yet, with all that said, I am still left wanting for more, when I reflect upon this beautiful mare, AK Dantilla.

As noted previously, Carl Raswan who championed the concept of strain theory within our breed, felt that breeding a Saqlawi-strain mare to a Kuhaylan-strain stallion would produce a well-balanced horse, strong of body, muscled, with a harmonious frame. In an article written for the magazine, Western Horseman, he said, "Historically famous breeders like Abbas Pasha and Ali Pasha Sharif of Egypt 'threw' a Kuhaylan stallion into their Saqlawi strain every third generation to give more muscle, more width and more strength to their over refined, incest-bred Saqlawi."  Walter Schimanski, a legendary breeder of Dahman strain horses, was also known for using Saqlawi horses to achieve balance but in the opposite direction of Raswan's Kuhaylan cross. I have written of this previously in other blogs. Walter Schimanski played the tendency to go short in one strain, against the tendency to go long in the other and as a result, he consistently bred the most celebrated Dahman horses of our time. In The Horse of the Desert, published in 1929, William Robinson Brown wrote, "Horses carrying Kuhaylan blood to a large degree, being for the most part of the thickset, able cavalry type, with plenty of substance, endurance, and powerful way of going, combined with well balanced conformation, and short, typical head, with width of brow, dish-face, and small nose, would be well mated with the Saqlawi."

Fadl Dan

 Therefore, with as much information that exists for breeders on the subject of the Saqlawi phenotype, I don't understand the choices made to breed deeper within the Moniet el Nefous family, when at the time (and at the same farm), horses like, for example, Fadl Dan (Fabah x Fada), a very Kuhaylan-type horse, may have been a more complementary cross for AK Dantilla.  At the time, Bentwood was heavily promoting Moniet el Sharaf as a breeding stallion, as his dam had sold at auction for a record price. I find myself wondering if the stallion choices made for AK Dantilla had more to do with financial reasons and not so much as to whether the *Ibn Moniet el Nefous sons like Moniet el Sharaf complemented the mare, as compared to other stallions, like the previously mentioned Fadl Dan, who may have fit the mare better. While Fadl Dan shared common ancestral ground with AK Dantilla (*Fadl, *Bint Serra I and *Bint Bint Sabbah), he also introduced outcross blood through *Bint Saada (a mare bred by Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik and also, a bloodline that is scarce, even within the straight Babson breeding group), while balancing the tendency to become long and narrow that already, we can observe happening in AK Dantilla. This is not a criticism of AK Dantilla nor her production record, as she was a beautiful mare, who produced progeny like Fa Sharaf, who founded vibrant and influential programs for other breeders, bringing a modern day relevance to the bloodline. This is only one person's attempt to better understand these horses, realistically, meaning both the positive and negative attributes, in order to utilize the combination of blood existing today and breed forward, in a direction which consistently produces Egyptian Arabian horses who are sound in mind, body and spirit.

*Il Bint Khedena had a full sister, Bint Fa Dena, foaled in 1966, who was also bred to *Ibn Moniet el Nefous, producing the stallions: AK El Hassan and AK Sotamm and a mare, Monadena. These horses are full siblings-in-blood to AK Dantilla and her brothers: AK Rasul, AK Kaandil and AK El Sennari.