Nefisaan

Nefisaan (Mohssen x *Bint Nefisaa)

Nefisaan was a 1972 grey stallion, sired by Mohssen, an *Ansata Ibn Halima son out of *Bint Nefisaa, a Nazeer daughter.  His great granddam, Helwa, is a maternal sister of *Ghazalahh, so, in tail female line, he traces through Farida to El Dahma. He is part of the family of horses which include the stallion, El Hilal and the mares: Moynese (his full sister), Nama (*Morafic), Narjisa (*Moftakhar), Nourah and Negmaa (*Ansata Ibn Halima). Genetically, he represents the first generation of the newer EAO horses, imported to America by Gleannloch Farm and Ansata Arabian Stud. In his landmark study of the EAO Arabian horse (and one of my favorite books), The Egyptian Alternative, Volume 2, noted author, Philippe Paraskevas said of Nefisa, the maternal granddam of Nefisaan,

"So Farida was pure in the strain, double Dahman Shahwan, double El Dahma; Nefisa, the exit mare to many modern-day Dahmans was again pure in the strain, double Dahman Shahwan, double El Dahma, double Farida. It is note-worthy that this kind of 'pure-in-the-strain' inbreeding (generally accepted to mean that both sire and dam trace back to the same root mare) occurred, here in Egypt, before Western breeders pioneered the practice of inbreeding the Dahman/Saklawi blend and well before the subsequent worldwide rush to further inbreed together Dalal Saklawis and Farida Dahmans, many times over, continuously, to the present day."

In this day and age, when the science of mtDNA studies does not support the strain designations that are based upon Bedouin breeding practices, it seems silly to discuss whether this horse is Dahman or Hadban, however, I grew up in this community learning strain theory and it is challenging for me, at this point in my life, to disregard it or its importance within our culture. With regard to Nefisaan, it is interesting to study the strain designations within his third generation, that is, the generation of his eight great-grandparents. Nefisaan was equal parts Hadban, as he was Dahman, 37.5% of each. He also was equal parts Kuhaylan and Saqlawi, 12.5% of each. I think it was very clever to breed that level of balance within a pedigree and I believe, Nefisaan's body shows the strength and balance promised within his pedigree.  I also found it interesting that out of all of his ancestors, the stallion Nazeer, a horse born in 1934, represents 50% of his pedigree, a percentage equivalent to the influence a sire has upon his foal, however, Nefisaan was foaled 38 years after Nazeer was born!

Nefisaan in an advertisement that ran in Arabian Horse World magazine

I believe Nefisaan sired somewhere around 60 horses in his lifetime and the majority of these horses were not straight Egyptian but an overwhelming number were female, indicating that Nefisaan may have been yet another stallion who over time, proved to be a stronger sire of broodmares than stallions. How did he escape us without our capturing more of his influence? Unfortunately, here is another of those hard lessons that hindsight tries to teach us! With all that said, I remember his son, Nazkaro, a 1982 grey stallion, bred by George R. Wright, who also owned *Bint Nefisaa, Nefisaan's dam. What I found really interesting in Nazkaro is the relationship between Nefisaan and the 1974 mare, Laila Gina, who was sired by Dakmar, an *Ansata Ibn Halima son and paternal sibling of Mohssen and out of Nama, a maternal sibling of Nefisaan. So, Laila Gina and Nefisaan were very closely related, more so than just saying they were maternal siblings, as *Bint Nefisaa made up almost 40% of Nazkaro's pedigree and *Ansata Ibn Halima represented 25%. Between both horses, they commanded 65% of the pedigree, an extraordinary genetic influence upon Nazkaro! Imagine having such a super-concentrated Dahman influence, brought forward by a minimal number of horses, to breed back into your Dahman-focused breeding program today. One can dream, can't he?