Inspire...Day 5: Simeon Sehavi

Simeon Sehavi is an Asfour daughter, out of Simeon Sheba. Bred by Marion Richmond of Simeon Stud in Australia, she traces to the root mare of the Hadban Enzai strain, Venus, an 1890 mare imported into Egypt for Khedive Abbas II. Do you know that Venus was known by a different name, that of Shekra Zefra? To me, this name makes more sense than Venus, a name that is not Arabic in origin. Do you know that Shekra is another name for the chestnut coat color? Venus, her daughter Hadba and her granddaughter, Bint Hadba el Saghira were all chestnut in body color.

While Simeon Sehavi is Hadbah Enzahiyah by strain, if you study the tail female line of each grandparent, you will find four distinct strains: Dahman (Malik), Abeyyan (Hanan), Saqlawi (Ra'adin Royal Star) and Hadban (Ibn Galal V). What is also interesting is Simeon Sehavi's maternal granddam, Ibn Galal V, a 1973 chestnut mare, bred by Babolna State Stud in Hungary. Despite the fact that Simeon Sehavi is only 25% Hadbah, she bears a strong resemblance to Ibn Galal V, who was 75% Hadbah in strain, as her paternal grandsire (Galal), paternal granddam (Mohga) and maternal granddam (Rida) were all Hadban strain horses. Only her maternal grandsire (Ibn Maisa) was of a different strain. He was Dahman.

It's also interesting to study the history of the strain names and in this case, how the Hadban name came about. Originally, the horses of this strain became known as Hadban because they descended from a mare who had a long, bushy and thick mane, so profuse, that it covered her withers, her shoulders and down to her forearm completely. A substrain of the Kuhaylan strain, the Hadban horses are not extreme in their characteristics and therefore, combine well with horses of other strains, which we see in this beautiful mare's pedigree.