Zaim

Zaim was an impressive 1971 chestnut stallion, bred by Gleannloch Farms. Like his full brother, Al Fattah, Zaim was sired by *Morafic and out of the Sameh daughter, *Safaa. In addition to Al Fattah and Zaim, *Safaa also produced two other full siblings: the grey mare, Muzahrafa in 1968 and the chestnut stallion Mishmish in 1974, suggesting that there was a genetic "nick" between *Morafic and *Safaa. Breeding these horses together worked and resulted in progeny so excellent, you wished that there were more of them. Her son, Zaim, was so strong-of-body, that at first glance, you might think he is of the Kuhaylan Rodan strain but he is not Kuhaylan, he is Saqlawi, born of a pure-in-the-strain Saqlawi mare.  Zaim's EAO-bred dam, *Safaa, was a Sameh daughter out of the Moniet el Nefous daughter, Lubna and a full sister to *Sultann, the sire of Nagsous. Lubna and Mabrouka (the dam of *Morafic) are full sisters, both mares were sired by Sid Abouhom and out of Moniet el Nefous, who represents 25% of Zaim's pedigree. So, the doubling of Layla (Sid Abouhom's dam) and Shahloul (Moniet el Nefous' sire), both sired by Ibn Rabdan, may be the reason why Zaim's phentotype favors Ibn Rabdan more, than any of the other horses present genetically. In both tail female lines (sire and dam) Zaim traces to the Ali Pasha Sherif mare, Roga el Beda, which may also explain the overall quality and refinement that we observe in Zaim. He is strong of body but he is still an elegant horse, with an abundance of breed type. While *Morafic and Sameh are grey in color; each stallion was bred to a chestnut-colored mare, who both happen to be full sisters.  The influence of Ibn Rabdan comes through primarily, the maternal lines of both the sire and dam (although the stallion Sameh is of the Gamil el Kebir sire line, with Ibn Rabdan as his paternal great grandsire too), which suggests that the maternal lines in this pedigree are the more influential ancestral source in the creation of Zaim. I remembered a passage from Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik's book, Breeding of Pure Bred Arab horses, in which he remarked on the prepotency of Ibn Rabdan. He wrote, "Some stallions always sire foals of their own colour and sex; let us take a dark chestnut like Ibn Rabdan, one of the Royal Agricultural Society's stallions, for an example. He always produces dark chestnuts, no matter what the colour of mares. This will go on until he covers a mare who produces the form and type of her own strain; if she is better bred she will dominate in the formation and colouring of the foal." It is interesting to contemplate the modern day influence of a long-ago chestnut colored horse like Ibn Rabdan. In my mind, he is every bit as relevant today, as he was in his time. How is Zaim represented today in straight Egyptian breeding? Zaim was bred to a Faleh++ sired daughter named Falaha (out of Bint Hanaa) resulting in the 1980 mare, Bint El Ghaba. When bred to the *Jamil son, Ansata Haji Jamil, Bint El Ghaba produced the stallion, Badr Bouznika in 1991 and the mare, Dourrah in 1992.