Tammenaa MH

"I am joyful that a gorgeous filly named Tammenaa MH, sired by our dearly beloved and beautiful late stallion, Tammen, is now gracing planet earth!” - Lisa Niemi Swayze to Dr. Jody Cruz

Tammenaa MH, bred by Dr. Joseph Cruz of Rancho Bulakenyo, Los Osos, California,  is a 2021 grey filly, sired by Tammen (Abenhetep x Talgana) and out of Binte Romaana MH, a *Hadban Al Shaqab daughter out of Romaana Maara MH (El Halimaar x Kai-Ann). Tammen, owned by Lisa Niemi Sawyze and her late husband, Patrick, was foaled in 1982 and died in April, 1999. During his lifetime, Tammen was credited with siring 171 foals. Tammenaa will be the first foal sired by Tammen since his last recorded foal was born in 1999. Many years ago, Dr. Cruz had the opportunity to secure frozen semen from Tammen and rather than immediately using it, he held onto the breeding, waiting, as he explained, 

"for the right time and individual - a young mare, proven, with no repro issues, a good mother and strong producer." 

The mare, Binte Romanaa MH, already a strong broodmare in the Rancho Bulakenyo breeding program, produced a spectacular filly in 2017 by Nour Al Kamar MH. This filly convinced Dr. Cruz that Binte Romanaa MH,  was exactly the right mare to breed to Tammen,  a stallion he had long admired, who possessed qualities  that Dr. Cruz wanted in his herd.  

"We hoped to incorporate Tammen's beautiful neck, topline and strong hind end." - Dr. Joseph Cruz

The state of modern equine reproductive science inspires awe, when long time breeders consider the advances we enjoy today, as compared to the services available in the past. Imagine the thrill to have at your disposal, the legacy of a long loved stallion, 20 years after his death! A marvel of modern science, the semen was tested, analyzed,  and once it was determined to be viable; Binte Romanaa was inseminated. An ultrasound was performed at 13 days, which revealed that the mare was indeed, pregnant! A heart beat was detected at 25 days and at 65 days, the  pregnancy was sexed, delivering the wonderful news to Dr. Cruz that Binte Romanaa was carrying a FILLY! What does Dr. Cruz think of his filly? He replied,

 "Absolutely drop-dead gorgeous filly. I didn't want to be too greedy and hope for a grey filly but we got everything we wanted and she is absolutely beautiful."

The pedigree of this filly reads like a "roadmap" of the Rancho Bulakenyo breeding program, in terms of where the program has been and where it is now headed. Tammenaa unites in one pedigree, the blood of several critical Rancho Bulakenyo horses who either directly or through their progeny, impacted the program positively: Maar Hala, *Bint Maisa el Saghira, Bint Romanaa and Aziza Princess. Dr. Cruz added, 

"Historically, we have successfully crossed our mares to outcrossed stallions. The goal is to maintain our phenotype, while adding some of the qualities of the stallion." 

The choice of Tammen reinfuses the blood of the stallion, Abenhetep (*Ibn Hafiza x Omnia), the sire of BintAzizaPrincess, a beloved mare who has had a significant impact upon the Rancho Bulakenyo program, particularly through her daughter, Binte Aziza MH by Richter MH. Dr. Cruz explained, 

I wanted to bring Abenhetep in closer on the sire side, in combination with the Aziza Princess dam line to recreate another BintAzizaPrincess."

There are some interesting points to be made from the study of Tammenaa's tail female line, the first of which is that this filly is Kuhaylah Krush by strain, as she traces to El Kahila, the Saudi mare credited as the source of the strain in straight Egyptian breeding. At the Inshass Stud, El Kahila was bred to El Deree, an impressively built stallion with a strong, compact body and powerful laid-back shoulder, conformational qualities which we also observe in Tammenaa's still developing juvenile body. The mare, El Zabia, resulted from the cross of El Deree and El Kahila and, in turn, El Zabia was bred to El Zafir (Awad x Bint Dalal) a Dahman Shahwan stallion, who interestingly, traces in his tail female line to the mare, Bint el Bahreyn, imported to Egypt in 1903 from the stud of Rais Issa Ibn Khalifah as a gift for Khedive Abbas II, thereby adding more desert breeding. It is through Shams, El Zabia's daughter by El Zafir and through *Bint Maisa el Saghira (Ruminaja Ali in Hadban Al Shaqab and Tammen through Dahma Il Ashekwar) that the pedigree unites multiple sources of Bint el Bahreyn blood, a key element in the infusion of desert breeding in straight Egyptian horses.

Recently, The Pyramid Society shared a presentation that Mr. Joe Ferriss, noted breed historian and widely read author, had made on the surviving tail female lines in straight Egyptian breeding. At the end of the presentation, Joe Ferriss had identified the El Kahila dam line as one of the nine matrilines which are becoming increasingly rare in the already small straight Egyptian gene pool of bloodlines.  One wonders over the future of this filly and her role in not only furthering the legacy of her sire but also,  the promise of her dam line. It is thoughts such as these that fill a man with hope, born out of the awe and wonder that a beautiful filly like Tammenaa MH inspires.

****Photography credit: the photos of Tammenaa MH were taken by Christine Emmert****