27 December, 2020

One Man's View of Social Distancing


This is one of my favorite photos of the 1952 stallion, Hadban Enzahi, with many thanks to Oliver Wibihal, who for a long time, together with Aleksi Busch, ran a very popular straight Egyptian website. Oliver had written a series of articles profiling the Nazeer sons which were excellent. The article on Hadban Enzahi included the above photo, which quickly became a favorite of mine.

Hadban Enzahi, bred by the EAO and originally named "Kamel", was a Nazeer son out of Kamla (Sheikh el Arab x Samha). In 1956, Hadban Enzahi was purchased by the Marbach State Stud in Germany, where he was given every available opportunity to succeed and in return, Marbach was rewarded with a consistent level of quality, surpassing all of the expectations the stud farm held for this particular stallion.  Think of his sons like Madkour I, Moneef, Malik, Mahomed; while at the same time realizing that he also sired daughters like Maymoonah, Sahmet, Sanacht, Mohena, Noha...so many to name, that you will become overwhelmed quickly by the legacy that this horse has left for us, in both genders, to enjoy. There are very few stallions, who can consistently sire excellent sons, as well as daughters equal to the quality of the sons. Hadban Enzahi was one of those rare horses and it is a humbling exercise for me, to fully consider  the greatness that this particular horse possessed.

Genetically, Hadban Enzahi is an interesting horse to study because of the intensity of the pedigree. Nazeer, a Mansour son out of Bint Samiha, was bred to Kamla, a daughter, who was sired by a paternal sibling (Sheikh el Arab & Nazeer were half brothers). That's right, the pedigree of Hadban Enzahi can be thought of as a very concentrated cross primarily combining the stallion, Mansour, with Bint Samiha, plus small doses of Baiyad (Mabrouk Manial x Bint Gamila) and Bint Sabah (Kazmeen x Sabah).  Mansour exerts 37.5% influence genetically within the pedigree, while Bint Samiha's genetic contribution is equal to that of Mansour, meaning 70% of the pedigree represents only 2 horses! And really, the dominance of these 2 individuals is a little greater than that when you stop to consider that Bint Sabah is a Kazmeen daughter, as is Bint Samiha, which increases the percentage of influence by Kazmeen from the 18.75% we find in Bint Samiha to 25% (when you add Bint Sabah's line to the percentage). So, that means that the sources of "outcross" blood are less, through Sabah, the dam of Bint Sabah and Baiyad, the sire of Samha, the dam of Kamla. Think again. The sire of Sabah is Mabrouk Manial (Saklawi II x Tarfa), who is also the sire of Baiyad! Really and truly, the outcross blood in the pedigree is even smaller: through Bint Obeya (3.125%) and Bint Gamila (6.25%). Just think of it another way, less than 10% of the blood that flowed in the veins of Hadban Enzahi could be considered really different, as compared to the majority of his pedigree! To further underscore the intensity of the pedigree, consider that one of the sources of outcross blood,  Bint Gamila, is herself a product of line breeding as both her paternal and maternal grandsire was the same horse, El Sennari! 

Recently, I stumbled upon the above photo, which I had never seen before. The background appears to be in a similar winter setting, therefore, I believe the photo must be from the same photo session as the opening photo. What struck me about this particular photo, was not only the size and shape of Hadban Enzahi's eye, but how fully black his eye appears, as well as the pigment of the skin surrounding the eye.  It's a humbling experience for me, to consider a different perspective than the one I believed in (for a long time) and maybe even furthered, concerning the source of flaws that one horse like Hadban Enzahi was believed to pass, from one generation to the next. In this case, an issue of pigmentation in the skin of a desert horse celebrated for possessing fine, dark skin and also, the presence of white, maybe even to the degree of a "human" eye in a few horses I have seen, within a breed celebrated for having eyes that are like "windows to the soul". Is it really Hadban Enzahi who is responsible for these flaws or is it the continued misuse of his extraordinary genetic influence, combined with individuals, who genetically, offer no more room or direction to go in, resulting in horses, whose genetic sources are even more concentrated than Hadban Enzahi? Are the resulting tangible/intangible qualities we like/dislike, the evidence that we got too close? In these days that find us social distancing from one another, I can't help thinking just how close, is too close?

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