02 January, 2022

*Panama of Tersk


I received an email blast recently for the popular stallion, Fa El Rasheem (Fa El Shawan x Virtuosa MLR), bred by Marlene Rieder and now owned by the Dubai Stud. Out of curiosity, I studied the horse's pedigree, searching for Egyptian blood, which he does have, almost 25%, primarily via Shaker El Masri and Ruminaja Ali, however he also carries a fair amount of old Egyptian blood through horses like Hallany Mistanny, *Fadl and *Maaroufa. As I went further back in the generations, I came across a name that I haven't thought of, in a long while: *Panama, a 1964 bay mare, bred by the  Tersk Stud. How I loved this mare! Back in those bygone days, within the pages of Arabian Horse World magazine, her photos made a powerful impression upon me. She was unforgettable. Through *Panama, I learned to appreciate mares who are substantially-conformed, with the proper skeletal and muscular structure to deliver an electrifying brilliance in all their movements. *Panama was purchased, in Holland, by Robert and Donna Stratmore in 1978, who brought her to America and registered her as *Panama of Tersk. Perhaps, that is the name you may know her by? 

*Panama of Tersk was a daughter of the stallion Arax (Amurath Sahib x Angara) and out of the mare, Platina (Priboj x Taktika). In tail female line, she traces to the grey 1879 mare, Sobha (Wazir x Selma), who, although bred by Mahmud Bey-Gezireh of Egypt, descends from Abbas Pasha Stock. The Blunts purchased her in 1891 and brought her to Crabbet for a few years before selling her to Count Stroganov, for use in the Russian Stud at Derkoul. In sire line, *Panama of Tersk traces to the stallion Bairactar, a Bedouin-bred Saqlawi stallion imported to Weil Stud in 1817. Bairactar remains one of the oldest and still active sire lines in the world. Even after 200 years, the reverence that most enthusiasts have for this stallion is profound!

*Panama of Tersk, as stated previously, was a strong-bodied mare, not only through her well-muscled body mass but also in the strength and power of her movement. She was correct, a generously proportioned mare, with a strong and wide back, like a conduit of energy that balanced the tremendous amount of power in her hind end with the freedom, elasticity and fluidity of her front end. Her progeny were successful horses under saddle, no matter the discipline. I always wondered what she may have accomplished in performance, had she been given a similar opportunity but then again, a performance career would have been a sacrifice to her production record, as she produced some very special horses. As a broodmare, she was prolific, with a number of world class daughters to her credit, for example, the Salon daughter, Palitra, who when bred back to her sire, produced the incredible stallion, Ponomarev.

However, for this blog, I wanted to highlight her 1979 daughter, Promises, sired by *Ansata Ibn Halima. Years and years before the beautiful Pilarosa was even a thought in her breeders mind, *Panama of Tersk, encouraged breeders to incorporate Egyptian blood in their programs, in the same way that Tersk included Aswan and Nil in their breeding program. Bred back within Russian bloodlines to the stallion, Patronne (Patron x Nefisa), Promises foaled a daughter in 1986, named Preferred Time. 
Preferred Time (Pattrone x Promises)

What's interesting about the cross with Pattrone is that it introduces another Egyptian line into the pedigree, that of Aswan (Nazeer x Yosreia) and the impact of that bloodline is that Preferred Time carries almost 40% Egyptian blood. Interestingly, she was bred a number of times to the stallion, Furno Khamal (Kapello x Kemla), a German-bred horse who carries 62.5% Egyptian blood, through multiple lines to Aswan, a line to Hadban Enzahi and to the German El Hilal. Preferred Time's daughter by Furno Khamal, Selket Mirror, who incidentally carries a higher percentage of Egyptian blood than her dam does, was bred to the stallion, ZT Shakfantasy, resulting in the important broodmare, Foxbriar Shakita, the dam of Fa El Shawan, who sired Fa El Rasheem. Foxbriar Shakita carries almost 40% Egyptian blood, after adding the influence of Shaker El Masri.

In the sources that I have available to me, I also noticed that Promises (*Ansata Ibn Halima x *Panama of Tersk) also produced a 1984 mare by Salon who was named Promising  and the mare, Ptsarina in 1989 by *Padron.  While the breeding pattern within this family of horses has been to reintroduce Egyptian blood within each successive generation; neither mare was bred back to Egyptian lines, instead, their breeders chose stallions whose pedigrees were concentrated within Russian and Polish lines.  The family remains extant in the present day, as both daughters have produced offspring, insuring that the complete influence of these particular horses stretches farther into the future, to be appreciated and utilized in a variety of ways by tomorrow's breeder.

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