Al Nahr Modonna was a 1969 bay mare, a daughter of *Ibn Moniet el Nefous (*Morafic x Moniet el Nefous) and out of the straight Babson Egyptian mare, Bint Aaroufa (Fa-Serr x Aaroufa). She was bred by Jay Stream, back when his program was focused on producing straight Egyptian Arabian horses. When she was alive, she was considered Kuhaylan Jellabi by strain but over the years, the combination of science, in the form of mtDNA analysis and the availability of newly-published information of a historical nature, for example, Lady Anne Blunt's notes (her Journal and Correspondence was first published by Alexander Heriot in January, 1986), revised our understanding concerning the Babson imported horses like *Fadl and *Maaroufa, who actually, are descendants of the mare Ghazieh and not, Jellabiet Feysul as we once believed.
FROM THIS :
Al Nahr Modonna->Bint Aaroufa->Aaroufa->Maaroufa->Mahroussa->Negma->Bint Yamama->Yemama->El Argaa->Bint Bint Jellabiet Feysul->Bint Jellabiet Feysul->Jellabiet Feysul
TO THIS:
Al Nahr Modonna->Bint Aaroufa->Aaroufa->Maaroufa->Mahroussa->Negma->Bint Yemameh->Yemameh->Ghazieh
Considering that the source mare, Ghazieh was foaled in 1850, why does a change in one horse, who is located so far back in the pedigree, matter so much, you may ask?
In 1998, Michael Bowling published a hugely revolutionary article, What's In a Name? within the October issue of Arabian Visions magazine. I encourage you dear reader to follow the link embedded in the previous sentence and read the 2-part article, if you haven't done so already. It is an understatement, on my part, to say that What's in a Name is a wonderful article, when really, what I want to say is that it should be required reading for any seriously minded student of the Arabian horse breed. One of the more interesting things mentioned in the article was a letter that Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik had written in response to General J.M. Dickinson of Traveler's Rest Stud in Tennessee. You see, the General questioned the Kuhaylan Jellabi strain of the four Egyptian horses that he had recently purchased from W.R. Brown. General Dickinson knew of the stallion, Khafifan (Mabrouk Manial x Negma), now in Poland and a maternal sibling of W.R. Brown's Aziza and Roda, as well as Weil-Marbach's Jasir and the celebrated mare of Egypt, Mahroussa. How could Khafifan be recorded as Saklawi, when his full siblings were recorded as Kuhaylan? The Prince responded to the General by writing that the Kuhaylan Jellabi horses descended from the Saklawi Jedran strain and that the family of these horses had been part of the breeding program of his family for eighty years! Beloved author, breeder and world renowned authority on the Egyptian Arabian horse, Judith Forbis, in Authentic Arabian Bloodstock, Volume I, wrote that despite being of the same strain, there was a difference in type between the grey-coloured horses from Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik's breeding program and the horses owned by the Blunts, like the chestnut mare, Kasida, the granddam of Kazmeen.
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| Raisuli El Pharo (*Ansata Ibn Halima x Al Nahr Modonna) |
A change in the recorded ancestry of the Babson horses, in this case, the root mare and the strain, changes the perception or rather the understanding that we have when studying a pedigree in the present day, because now, when you look at Al Nahr Modonna's pedigree, you will realize that she is not a blend of the Saklawi and Kuhaylan Jellabi strains but rather, she is a pure-in-the-strain Saklawiyah Jedraniyah mare, as the tail female lines for both her sire and dam are of this strain. And it's not just the perception that changes for Modonna but also, for her offpring, like her most beautiful son, Raisuli El Pharo, a 1976 bay stallion, sired by *Ansata Ibn Halima and bred by Donald and Joan Carley.
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| Raisuli El Pharo (*Ansata Ibn Halima x Al Nahr Modonna) physcially embodied the delicate balance between the Saklawi and Dahman strains. |
When Walter Schimanski was alive, many Arabian horse enthusiasts considered him to be a noteworthy breeder of Dahman Shahwan strain horses. His breeding philosophy, carefully crafted after many generations of working within this strain, reflected the wisdom, study and experience that comes from knowing these horses as intimately as Walter knew them. Walter's instincts, as sharply defined as they were through blood, sweat and tears, allowed him, as a breeder, to dwell within that state of fragility, that is, that fine line of balance that narrowly exists between both strains, Dahman and Saklawi.
"Incorporating the Saqlawi type brings length back to neck and leg, which can be lost with intense use of Dahman and Kuhaylan strain types. It also yields finer bone structure and produces flatter and less prominent muscling. Too much Saqlawi can produce a long back and ears. Dahman type brings back an overall balance and harmony, including more dished heads and larger eyes, and shorter backs, but also has the tendency to produce shorter necks and legs, heavier muscling, and more bone."-Walter Schimanski
Raisuli El Pharo, although not bred by Walter, fits within the description of the horse that he described. It was this phenotype that inspired Walter to leverage both strains together, in order to produce horses that physically, were very much like Raisuli El Pharo, the culmination of top-crossing a strong Dahman sire like *Ansata Ibn Halima onto a multi-generational Saklawiyah Jedraniyah mare like Al Nahr Modonna (*Ibn Moniet el Nefous x Bint Aaroufa).
In hindsight, one wonders how we missed all of the signs that today, seem obviously pointed towards a Saklawi line of influence: Khafifan's recorded Saklawi strain in Poland's stud book, General Dickinson's questions of Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, the difference in type between horses of the same strain and the handful of breeders, who concentrated their breeding programs within the Kuhaylan Jellabi strain, producing multi-generational pure-in-the-strain individuals possessing a heightened level of refinement that is characteristic of Saklawi type: increased length in the back, legs, neck and head, instead of the broad-muscled, compact, rounder lines more often seen in Kuhaylan horses. And what became of the strain of Kuhaylan Jellabi horses, once bred and raised by the Blunts of England? Edouard al-Dahdah wrote in a 2008 blog concerning the Kuhaylan Jellabi strain horse,
"the Kuhaylan Jallabi line of Jellabiet Feysul is extinct, as far as Asil horses are concerned. The last Asil horse of this line was the 1911 mare Kerbela (Ibn Yashmak x Kantara), bred at the Crabbet Stud by Lady Anne Blunt. The only place where Asil horses of the Kuhaylan Jallabi strain can be found today is the Kingdom of Bahrain. May they last forever."
***This blog is lovingly dedicated to my friend, Christine Emmert, who owns the exquisite mare, Kirbys Shadow, a Raisuli El Pharo granddaughter and dam of Al Ghazal by The Renagade and Noor Al Sahra by Imperial Al Kamar.***
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