His Name was *Orashan

Why do some stallions become better sires of daughters than sons? *Orashan was one of these incredibly special stallions.

His most famous daughter, BB Ora Kalilah, produced Imperial Baarez. Another famous *Orashan daughter is Imperial Orianah, who produced Imperial Madori, the sire of the 2019 Bronze World Champion Stallion, Adham Saqr.

Barbara Griffith once said of him, "Perhaps *Orashan's greatest contribution is his ability as one of the great Egyptian Arabian broodmare sires."

*Orashan's dam was the mare Ora (Ibn Shaker I x Omera). This mare, in her tail female line, traces to the Bahraini mare, Bint el Bahreyn, whom we also find in the tail female line of horses like El Sareei and *Bint Maisa el Saghira. Ora, combined with Messaoud intensifies the influence of Zareefa, who appears 5 times in the pedigree of *Orashan: twice through her son, El Sareei, and one time each through her daughters: Maisa, Bint Zareefa and Elwya. The Shaloul son, El Sareei, a crucially important horse for the EAO, sired mares who figured prominently in Egyptian breeding like Bint Nefisa, Malacha, Mohga, Amani, Salomy to name a few. Could Zareefa be the common denominator and thereby the reason why, stallions like El Sareei and *Orashan sired a record number of daughters who matured into broodmares of significance?

The tail female line of *Orashan's sire, Messaoud,  traces to the Halima daughter, Moheba and ultimately, to the Dahmah Shahwaniyah mare, Farida. This is the same tail-female line of the classic stallion, *Ansata Ibn Halima, who sired influential horses of both genders equally. However, *Ansata Ibn Halima daughters were treasured by their owners and many became significant foundation mares for other breeders.

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."

*Orashan was a second generation, pure-in-the-strain Dahman Shahwan horse, as both his sire and dam were pure-in-the-strain Dahman horses, who blended in an almost magical way (nickability, as defined by Dr. Nagel in the above paragraph), to produce a strong, consistent broodmare sire and the most wonderful horse we once knew as, *Orashan.