AK El Hassan

AK El Hassan (*Ibn Moniet el Nefous x Bint Fa Dena)

AK El Hassan, a 1977 bay stallion was out of Bint Fa Dena, a 1966 *Ansata Ibn Halima daughter out of Fa Dena, a straight Babson Egyptian mare who traced to *Bint Serra I in the tail female line of both, her sire and dam (Fa-Serr x Khedena). The matriline of *Bint Serra I, in straight Babson Egyptian form, no longer exists. The only way that a breeder can utilize the matriline, in straight Egyptian form, is through a horse that combines the Bint Serra matriline with newer Egyptian blood, for example, AK El Hassan, one of the horses produced by Jarrell McCracken of Bentwood Farm, who had purchased Bint Fa Dena from Robert Cowling and then, bred her exclusively to his EAO-imported stallion, *Ibn Moniet el Nefous.

In the resources that I have available to me, AK El Hassan, a proven breeding stallion, sired almost 50 get and through the present day, is represented by at least, 425 descendants. Approximately 58% of his get were mares (28) and 42% were stallions (20). What's interesting is that of the 48 get he sired, 19 of the 48 foals (40%) were produced by 7 mares and of these 7 mares, 3 mares share common ground through the Babson elements in their maternal line, the 2 Julyan daughters: Julyanne and Juseneh, plus AK Besatina (*Refky x Masada Saafana). These 3 mares were complementary with the Babson elements present in AK El Hassan's maternal line. Some of my favorite horses at Bentwood Farm were the straight Babson Egyptian mares /*Ibn Moniet el Nefous crosses and using AK El Hassan, in my opinion, was an indirect way of doing just that. However, in crossing AK El Hassan with sources of older Egyptian blood, including the rarer ancestral element of the stallion, Gulastra (Astraled x Gulnare), intensifies the cross of new and old blood. It's not only clever, it's an interesting combination, that is, the widely available Moniet el Nefous blood, uniquely blended with multiple sources of Ghazieh blood that you don't frequently find in the pedigrees of straight Egyptian horses. Think of the outcross possibilities, if breeders were to continue breeding in this way.

*Aminaa, an Albadeia-bred mare, was bred four times to AK El Hassan and her daughter, Halabi (by AK Shah Moniet) was bred to AK El Hassan three times! What is interesting about the mare *Aminaa, is Rabiaa (Beshier x Rateeba), who traces to the mare, Ghazieh, through the tail female line of her dam and sire. Again, these are rarer, alternative sources of this bloodline, that complement the sources present in AK El Hassan's pedigree, while adding the lines of horses who are not as widely represented in the straight Egyptian gene pool.

The Gleannloch-bred mare, Atrab, sired by Bahim Hisan (Ibn Morafic son) and out of Nagiba, was bred to AK El Hassan 3 times, producing 2 daughters: Abydoss and Baraka Atrabi plus a son, Baraka Ibn Hassan. What's particularly interesting in this cross is Nagliah, an *Ibn Hafiza daughter out of *Nabilahh, combined with the stallions Mashhour, Gassir and the Nazeer son, Hassan. It seems that *Morafic is the anchor in the pedigree, on both sides.

The mare, *Lancer's Rabha (Kayed x *Noosa), whose tail female line includes the mare, Om el Saad, was bred once to AK El Hassan, producing the stallion, Ravenwood Hassan in 1988. However, *Lancer's Rabha's daughter, Ravenwood Hamaisa by RG Al Mone (Alcibiades x RG Anemone) was also bred to AK El Hassan, producing the mare, Ravenwood Hope in 1994. What I also found interesting is that Julyanne's daughters by AK El Hassan, whom we discussed previously, were incorporated into the Ravenwood program. CJ Asamah produced the mares Ravenwood Autumn by RG Al Mone and Ravenwood Magick by TSEA Magick, plus the stallion, Ravenwood Desi by Ravenwood Desire (an RG Al Mone son). While CJ Hassana produced the mares: Ravenwood Hassana and Ravenwood Cassara, both by RG Al Mone. Again, while the pedigrees of these mares infuse more Moniet el Nefous blood (the Rafter G/Pritzlaff programs), the combination of old and new Egyptian blood  includes horses that you don't find so frequently, especially blended together, providing more unique opportunities to add the influence of horses that fall outside of the more widely used bloodlines.