Nour Al Kamar MH

"Inspiration is a spark, from the bonfire of love." - Ruth Mowry

When I start to write these blogs, my mind is busy, full of ideas, thoughts and feelings. I'm overwhelmed by the responsibility of presenting a good story, while honoring the memory of a beloved horse and also, the dreams of the people who stood behind him.  Most  times, I am able to sort through all the clutter, finding just the right words to bring clarity to the unique and interesting story I want to tell.

This was NOT the blog that I planned to write about Nour Al Kamar MH, a full brother to Bashar Al Kamar MH. But something happened when my friend Christine Emmert sent me this touching photo of Nour and his friend, Joaquin, and a different story started to unwind.

Through El Hilal, Imperial Al Kamar (Nour's sire) was a paternal grandson of *Ansata Ibn Halima and through Hossny, the sire of his dam, Imperial Sonbesjul, Imperial Al Kamar was also, a maternal great-grandson of *Ansata Ibn Halima. Nour's dam, Binte Aziza MH, was sired by Richter MH who adds  two more lines to *Ansata Ibn Halima,  through El Halimaar.  Binte Aziza's great grand dam, Aziza Samira, a daughter of Nazim Pasha, is the source of the final *Ansata Ibn Halima  line. That's a total of 5 lines, all in the 4th, 5th and 7th generations. Like Bashar, Nour Al Kamar carries a hefty percentage of *Ansata Ibn Halima's influence.

The Mansour son out of Bint Sabah, Sheikh el Arab

But this is not another blog written to celebrate the impact of *Ansata Ibn Halima (I've written quite a few of those already) and I'm not going to point out that Nour Al Kamar embodies many of the tangible and intangible qualities we observed in *Ansata Ibn Halima; for Nour is a balanced horse, close-coupled, with a strong and smooth top line, a beautifully shaped neck, and that classic, short, wide head with large expressive eyes, set low in the head. And also like *Ansata Ibn Halima, Nour Al Kamar craves human attention and companionship. He is an affectionate horse, even playful, who enjoys a soothing voice and hand. Jody says, "don’t even think about walking by his stall without stopping to say hello, especially with a carrot in your hand.” And like his brother, Bashar Al Kamar, Nour Al Kamar, in one horse, symbolizes the evolution of the ideal Rancho Bulakenyo Arabian horse; all the way from Dr. Felino Cruz's ideal Arabian horse, to the modern day horses that his son, Dr. Joseph Cruz has bred, incorporating new bloodlines into the program like BintAzizaPrincess, the maternal grand dam of Nour Al Kamar.

With all that said,  I think it is significant to point out the influence of Sheikh el Arab, a noted broodmare sire for the RAS, having sired Halima and Yashmak, both of whom appear twice on the Imperial Al Kamar side of the pedigree.

Digging a little deeper,  on the dam side of the pedigree, we find nine additional lines to Sheikh el Arab, from Halima and other sources like the influential mares Wanisa and Yosreia. Sheikh el Arab was a Mansour son out of Bint Sabah and was foaled in 1933; so even though we find thirteen lines to Sheikh el Arab, he is so far back in the pedigree, that the percentage of his influence is low, less than 12%. But genetics works in mysterious ways and I am no geneticist. While a distant ancestor, Sheikh el Arab is still a very real part of Nour's pedigree and thusly, his genetic fiber. No surprise that he would exert something in the way of his influence to Nour Al Kamar MH.

Do you know that when Sheikh el Arab was alive, he sired less than 20 get and of this number, only 5 were male? General Von Szandtner believed him to be so outstanding as a sire, that his daughters were crossed with Nazeer (double Mansour) to form one of the founding breeding principles at the core of the RAS program, producing the best horses of the General's tenure at El Zahraa. In Judith Forbis' Authentic Arabian Bloodstock, Volume 2, she includes Dr. Mohamed El Marsafi's herd book notes as well, which include his appraisal of Sheikh el Arab, whom he believed  was more elegant than Nazeer. Sheikh el Arab possessed a strong and smooth croup, good legs and excellent tail carriage. Although Dr. Marsafi's words were written well over 75 years ago, they remain relevant and one could say they are a fitting description of Nour Al Kamar.

Out of curiosity (and more to prove a point), I fact-checked the resources that are currently available to me. Of  the 25 get sired between 2015 and today, Nour has 14 daughters to his credit, a little more than half of his get are female. I know that it is a little too early in his breeding career to call Nour a broodmare sire but studying his pedigree and reviewing his stats, this thought has already captured my attention...he's on my radar and he should be on yours too. How important is Nour Al Kamar MH to Rancho Bulakenyo? Of the mares that make up the breeding herd at Rancho Bulakenyo, a quarter of the mares carry the blood of BintAzizaPrincess and the ones that don’t, will be bred to one of Binte Aziza’s sons, like Nour.

What can Nour offer straight Egyptian breeders?  Jody says of Nour, "he sires lots of front end, necks, super bodies, tail and trot." And also, like his brother, Nour is of the highly esteemed Kuhaylan Kurush strain, a source of outcross blood in a gene pool that is limited in this way. In tail female line, Nour traces to El Kahila, the Sa'ud mare who brought the strain to Egypt, when gifted to King Fouad for his Inshass Stud. This makes Nour Al Kamar very unique, in the world of straight Egyptian Arabian horse breeding. Even though I understand that individually, genes are expressed uniquely, I still find it very interesting how different, full brothers can be from one another and in the case of Bashar and Nour, it is more than the difference found in their respective coat colors. As breeding stallions, Bashar and Nour also contribute different qualities; however, neither horse is more important than the other, each has a specific role within the breeding program. However,  Nour Al Kamar has stepped into the role that his sire, Imperial Al Kamar, once enjoyed at Rancho Bulakenyo and also, in the void that Kamar left in Jody's heart, when he died. Nour has even moved into Imperial Al Kamar's stall at the farm, a sure sign for all, of the high expectations that Jody has for his beloved stallion, Nour Al Kamar MH.