Thettwa Ezzain

As it normally happens for me, I found this video of Thettwa Ezzain (NK Qaswarah x Albaheiah Ezzain) yesterday, while looking for photos of another horse. Al Jawhara Stud appears in the background, a noteworthy Kuwaiti breeding farm of Mr. Nasser Zaid Saad Al-Saeed. As I watched the video, my mind went elsewhere, recalling a very special man, the late Mr. Usamah Alkazemi, and the unforgettable horses he bred and raised, at the stud farm he named, Ezzain. 

The Ezzain horses who remain personal favorites shared common ground in Ansata AlMurtajiz, a son of Ansata Hejazi out of Ansata Samsara. In Thettwa's pedigree, Ansata AlMurtajiz is the sire of Nooreddine Ezzain, the sire of Albaheiah, one of the prettiest mares I have ever met. While Thettwa is black as the night, Albaheiah is brilliant white, like new fallen snow, magnified by the sun's rays. She was not a slightly built mare, I think her substance was a quality I appreciated. She was also refined, graceful and elegant. She has very fine, black skin which accentuates every line, every curve in her balanced body. Her muzzle is very much like her paternal grandsire with elastic nostrils that become enormous, while moving. She is smooth and strong over her top line and her tail carriage is extreme, with the tail carried like a flag, away from her body. 

As beautiful as Albaheiah is, one must stop to acknowledge her very interesting pedigree and the close relationship between her sire, Nooreddine Ezzain and her dam, NK Nakeebya, who trace back to the mare Nashua, a Salaa el Dine-sired daughter out of Lotfeia, an important broodmare for Katharinenhof, having also produced the stallion, Nejdy. Nooreddine is out of the Nashua daughter named Nada (by Adnan) and Nakeebya is out of the Nashua daughter named Nabilah (by Nahaman). To further underscore how closely related Nooreddine and Nakeebya are, Nahaman and Adnan, are also Salaa el Dine sons. Nahaman is out of Ameera (Madkour I x Hanan), while Adnan is out of Ghazala (Ghazal x Hanan). Hanan is common ground for both horses. The difference between Nahaman and Adnan comes down to only two horses-Madkour and Ghazal. However, I must point out that Ghazal is the sire of Moheba II, the dam of Madkour I. How small is the genetic difference between these two horses? 

While he himself is grey, as is Thettwa's dam,  NK Qaswarah sires horses of color. He has produced a good number of bright bay horses and like Thettwa, the more elusive black color. Thettwa is one of three black horses I met at Ezzain in 2013, the other two horses are Ekramilbari and Alttafilbari. In everything we know about the Bedouin, we understand that the Bedouins preferred darker colored horses and the black horse was favorite, followed by the dark bay and the dark chestnut. The black horse was so highly regarded, that only the Sheikhs rode the black horses. Hadban in strain, Thettwa is the very best of his dam, enhanced by the unique qualities of his sire and the color of his coat. He is the ultimate in both breed type and conformation, while possessing the most special of all coat colors, a  worthy mount for the most noble of all Sheikhs.