09 October, 2020

Al Ayal Moniscione

I was watching the videos posted by Arabian Essence this weekend of the 2019 Italian Nationals and the Milan International B Show. My favorite horse of the entire show is number 100, the 2012 stallion, Al Ayal Moniscione (Al Ayal AA x Ariel Moniscione), bred by Buzzi Giancarlo of Azienda Agricola il Moniscione.

A son of the straight Egyptian stallion, Al Ayal AA (Al Ayad x The Vision HG); he has additional Egyptian lines (El Hilal, Shaker el Masri, Mohssen, Dalul & Aswan) through his dam, Ariel Moniscione (WH Justice x Anthea Moniscione), making him 60% Egyptian in blood. A Saqlawi strain stallion, his tail female line goes back to the Ali Pasha Sherif-bred mare, Helwa (Shueyman x Horra). As a matter of fact, his dam, Ariel Moniscione is a pure-in-the-strain Saqlawiyah, as her sire, WH Justice, traces in his tail female line to the Blunt's 1875 mare, Basilisk.

When you study the extended pedigree, a first impression may be that he is line-bred to *Padron but really, he carries, at best, only 10% of *Padron's blood. What I found really interesting  is the Spanish breeding that comes through A Fancy Miracle (the dam of Magnum Psyche, WH Justice's sire) and El Sher-mann (the sire of Vona Sher-Renea, the dam of WH Justice). *Estopa was a double Gandhy granddaughter, as her sire, Tabal, and dam, Uyaima, were both out of Gandhy daughters. A Fancy Miracle brings in more Gandhy blood, as well as Congo and Barquillo. El Sher-mann's dam, Gazira, brings in more Spanish blood, through the 1932 mare, Barakat (Fondak x Meca), bred by the Marquis de Domecq and purchased by James Draper of America. Over the years, it has become challenging to incorporate Spanish breeding. Through a variety of unfortunate circumstances (none of which has any bearing on the quality of the horse), Spanish Arabian bloodlines are not as plentiful, as compared to other bloodlines. When you find Spanish lines, combined in one horse, as it exists in WH Justice, it's a clever outcross breeding decision (which works so well with the common ground in the Polish and Crabbet blood that you find in Anthea Moniscione's pedigree) and perhaps, another reason for the substance we observe in Al Ayal Moniscione.

What I like most about this horse is his circular and compact body, which if divided into thirds, is of equal proportions. That to me, is the balance I look for in any Arabian horse. He's also NOT narrow; he's got a decent amount of substance on him without sacrificing breed type. In one segment of the video, he turns to the inside just a little bit and I almost fell out of my chair when I caught a view of his well-muscled and broad chest. He's got a nice neck, very traditional in length and well set, with a flowing line from his wither to the poll. His head is everything I look for, with prominence of bone and vein, presenting the ultimate dry, elegant desert horse head and all of this is intensified by his rosewater coat color. No horse is perfect but this particular stallion has come closest to matching the ideal horse image I carry in my head. And it appears that other enthusiasts agree with me, as Al Ayal Moniscione was named the Bronze Champion Senior Stallion at both the 2019 Milan International B Show and the Italian  National Championships. 

***UPDATE:  Originally posted on September 15, 2019****

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