The Legacy of Abla

The 1953 grey EAO mare, Abla, was "a very classic, pretty-headed and strong-bodied Nazeer daughter" wrote Judith Forbis. Long before Abla was born, Lady Anne Blunt had written in her journal, "...the Nejd horses have short necks, short bodies, good shoulders and a very good tail carriage." One would think after reading this quotation, that the Lady was writing about Abla, as she is all that she described. Considering all we know about the Nejdi horses, as presented in the historical works published by desert travelers like the Blunts; we can say with confidence that Abla, fits within the descriptions of the Nejdi horse, a horse desired by many and obtained by few. However, with Abla, it is more than just possessing "Nejdi-type", as Abla traces to the celebrated Abbas Pasha mare, El Dahma, the source mare of the Dahman strain. Her great grand dam, Farida  was bred by Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik. With this kind of heritage, Abla was a mare that one expected big things from. She was the living embodiment of many hopes and dreams. Through personal experience, I have noticed that Farida carries forward to the present day in the form of prolific and dependable broodmares who possess the conformation that makes them easier to settle, foal out and become good mothers who nurture their babies well. Abla was also kind, with an amazing amount of warmth, radiating from her beautiful black eyes. This sweet expression, conveyed that Abla was as beautiful on the inside, as she was on the outside and she remains one of my favorite Egyptian mares of all time. I hope through this blog, she will become one of your favorites too.

Abla's pedigree is very interesting, for a couple reasons, the first being that she is double Mansour-bred (Gamil Manial x Nafaa el Saghira), as her sire, Nazeer, is a Mansour son, while her maternal grand dam, Bint Farida, is a Mansour daughter. The percentage of Mansour influence is a major genetic component in Abla's pedigree at approximately 37.5%! I suspect this is the reason for Abla's strong and compact body, given that Mansour was Kuhaylan Mimreh by strain and in phenotype, was true to his strain, presenting a masculine, powerful and correct appearance.

Abla was not only strong in body, she was also beautiful, as was her dam, Helwa. In Authentic Arabian Bloodstock Volume II, we learn that General Pettko Von Szandtner wrote of Helwa, "very noble head with beautiful expressive eyes." Helwa was sired by an RAS stallion named Hamran II, a son of a Crabbet-bred stallion, Hamran, exported to Egypt in 1920. And that's the second reason as to what is really interesting about Abla's pedigree! In 1910, Bint el Bahreyn, a bright bay Bahraini-bred mare, foaled a filly, whom Lady Anne Blunt named Dalal Al Hamra. Lady Anne Blunt was delighted with this filly and wrote in her journal that she had "a beautiful, gazelle-like head." Dalal Al Hamra was bred to a desert-bred Abeyyan stallion named Saadoun, whom Lady Anne Blunt had purchased from Shaikh Mishari Ibn Sa'dun of the Muntafiq in 1911. From the union of Saadoun with Dalal Al Hamra, was born Durra, the dam of Hamran. Durra is the granddam of *Bint Bint Durra (1932 Babson import) and the dam of Zareefa, an extremely important mare in Egyptian breeding (think of horses like the breeding stallion El Sareei and mares like *Cleopatraa, *Soheir II, *Ansata Bint Elwya and *Bint Maisa el Saghira). One of the things that I enjoy most about the study of pedigrees is the discovery of similar bloodlines, expressed through alternative sources. Just think of the opportunities that this presents to a breeder.

So, what about Nazeer? How did he influence Abla? One of the more interesting observations came by way of Judith Forbis' Authentic Arabian Bloodstock, Volume II and specifically, the notes written within the herd books kept by General Von Szandtner and others at the EAO. So, my eyes went directly to the notes written by Dr. Ameen Zaher, which said, "Szandtner wanted to work on correcting legs and searched for a stallion from which he could acquire the heritage of good legs. When stallions came back from the depots, Szandtner went to Bahteem and Szandtner picked Nazeer." We know that Abla, owing to a higher percentage of Mansour blood, was a much stronger mare than her mother. Not only did she have a stronger body, but thanks to the influence of Nazeer, she was more correct in her conformation, with legs that were functional and sound, allowing her to move with powerful ground-covering gaits. 

In his wonderful book, The Egyptian Alternative, Volume II, Philippe Paraskevas says, "...it makes every sense to outcross Dahman Faridas with Anter for his non-Dalal Saklawi tail female blood, and to reintroduce the best of the Ibn Rabdan male line."

Anter, bred by the Inshass Stud, was sired by Hamdan, an Ibn Rabdan son and a maternal grandson of Radia. His dam Obeya, by Mekdam, was a maternal great-great-granddaughter of Radia, who contributes approximately 16% of her genetic influence to Anter. In his latest book, The Arabian Horse – Nature’s Creation and the Art of Breeding, Dr. Hans Nagel says of nickability, "This occurs when a certain sire and a certain mare always produce perfectly nice foals. This is called “good nickability." Over time, we have learned that Anter and Abla, nicked well together but one must look under the surface of the two horses to discover why. Each horse is individually impacted by the genetic influence of a distant ancestor, brought forward through time, by the practice of line breeding. Abla carries a high percentage of Mansour blood, while Anter carries a larger percentage of Radia, which really makes me wonder that maybe, the so called "nick" of Anter and Abla had more to do with the genetic impact of combining higher percentages of Mansour and Radia together.

Abla produced 11 foals in her breeding career, before her death at the age of 20 in 1973. The majority of those foals were sired by Anter:
(1960) *Nagat: imported by Jay Stream in 1965
(1962) *Rashika: imported by Don Ford in 1973
(1963) *Eman: imported by Douglas Marshall in 1966
(1965) *Somaia: imported by Douglas Marshall in 1966
(1969) Looza: retained by the EAO
(1970) Adaweya: retained by the EAO
(1971) *Ein: imported by Rick Heber in 1972
The late Dr. Ibrahim Zaghloul, a former director of the EAO, said about the Abla influence, "from Abla, her daughters inherited that classic elegance and exquisite type associated with the Egyptian Arabian, as well as a deep shoulder and high set neck." 

Abla (Nazeer x Helwa)

If you search the archives (located within the sidebar, on the right hand side of the blog landing page), you will find many blogs that I have written of Adaweya (and her progeny), a mare whose impact upon the EAO breeding program has been profound, as well as the progeny of a few other Abla daughters exported to America like *Nagat (Al Nahr Serroya) or even, the *Tuhotmos son,  El Mon Moniet (his dam, Amira Moniet was a daughter of *Ein). In trying to keep these blogs interesting, readable and concise, it would be formidable to list the many horses who descend from Abla (not to mention that it would be very dry and boring for you to read a list of horse names). Abla established a distinct branch of horses, within the greater family of Farida. With that said, I wanted to highlight the progeny of a few Abla daughters, for whom I have not yet written a blog. For example, mention must be made of the Abla daughter, *Somaia, who was bred to *Morafic several times, resulting in the mares: Il Mara (when bred to *Ansata Ibn Halima, produced Song of Halima, an important broodmare for Nayla Hayek) and Bint Somaia. When Bint Somaia was bred to the *Morafic son, Shah Nishan, a trio of beloved broodmares emerged for Dorian Farm: Dorian Star of Egypt, Dorian Sheherazade and Dorian Shahramana. The Abla daughter Looza was bred to the EAO stallion Karoon, which resulted in *Lamees, who was imported by the Lowes. This Abla granddaughter was bred to *Farazdac, producing the lovely mare, Bint Farazdac, who in turn was bred to the stallion, MFA Saygah (TheEgyptianPrince x RDM Maar Halima), producing the full sisters, SH Alleya in 1986 and SH Anna in 1988, both of whom were purchased by Ansata and incorporated within the breeding program, producing foals sired by Ansata Hejazi, Ansata Manasseh and Arabest Kalid. Gleannloch also bred the Abla daughter *Eman, to *Morafic, producing the stallion, Al Nishan, who eventually, was also purchased by the Weil's of Dorian Farm. The list of horses that descend from Abla and her daughters grows longer with each foaling season, insuring that Abla's legacy remains remarkably vibrant and relevant, within our gene pool. She was, without a doubt, one of the greatest mares bred in Egypt.