Sweet Eloise

Sweet Eloise (Thee Desperado x Kuhaylah Nitaya) as photographed by Suzanne Sturgill

Julie Koch has a couple of Facebook pages that I am really enjoying and very quickly, have become personal favorites. In Reliving Arabian horse history, she mainly posts black and white photos from the Arabian Horse Yearbooks, circa 1970's. Sometimes, she takes breaks from posting Yearbook photos and posts color photos from her fabulous collection of farm-generated marketing materials, which includes the likes of sale catalogues, stallion brochures and programs, as well as photos taken from advertising placed within our community's largest periodicals, like Arabian Horse World. Today, I came across another group created by Julie: U.S. Arabian Nationals in Louisville 1990 - 2002. As I was scrolling through Julie's personal photos of the 2002 National Show, I came across the photo of Sweet Eloise, a Thee Desperado daughter out of Kuhaylah Nitaya, a Tammen daughter bred by Maggie McNair-Huggins.  

In my life, there have been periods of time, that for one reason or another found me somewhat disconnected from the Arabian horse scene. So, I appreciate Julie Koch and all of her efforts, as her Facebook groups are sources of contemporary historical information which help me to connect the horses that I missed during these years, with the horses I knew well from the past, as well as the horses trending today. It's a gift, as I hope this blog is for you.

The photo of Sweet Eloise on Julie's Facebook page is a conformation shot, as compared to the head study taken by one of the most amazing equine photographers of our generation, Suzanne Sturgill. I have been a fan of Suzanne's work since the days of Everglade Arabians, when I first discovered her photography. I was so happy to find this particular photo of Sweet Eloise, as I focused my eyes on my big 3: broad chest, larger size jowls and large, dark (no white) eyes.

The interesting thing about Sweet Eloise is that while she was not bred by Gleannloch Farms, with the exception of *Bahila, the dam of The Minstril, the majority of her pedigree is populated by Gleannloch horses.

I have written previously about Thee Desperado and direct your attention to the one or two blogs devoted to him. Sweet Eloise's dam, Kuhaylah Nitaya, is a mare I am not so familiar with but her pedigree is so interesting and at first glance, one cannot miss following her tail female line via the Kateefas (*Bint Bint Kateefa->Bint Kateefa->Kateefa) to Rodania, by way of her great-great grandaughter, Bint Rissala, one of 2 Rodania line mares purchased from Crabbet.  The stallions Alaa el Din, *Moftakhar, Kaisoon and Farag are  from this family, as all are maternal siblings to Bint Kateefa. When my friend, Gari Dill-Marlow was alive, she was interested in the dam lines of the United States National Champion horses. She had a hunch that more winning horses shared common ground in their matrilines and she was determined to find out. Tragically, Gari's study was cut short by her illness but her preliminary studies pointed her to two desert-bred mares: Rodania and *Wadduda.  In speaking with Gari, she felt that further study would prove Rodania to be the more influential mare. Personally, I have observed that the grey Rodania horses are less likely to be representative of the matriline,  as compared to the chestnut Rodanias. While Kuhaylah Nitaya is a grey mare; her daughter, Sweet Eloise is chestnut. If you are a believer in phenotype following coat color, it is something to consider.

Another aspect of Kuhaylah Nitaya's pedigree that would point to a more probable source of genetic influence, as per her coat color, is found in the number of times that *Morafic appears in her pedigree: 5 times, with 4 of those crosses occurring in the 5th generation (great-great-grandsire) and once in the 6th generation (great-great-great-grandsire). When combined with Thee Desperado, 3 more lines to *Morafic are added to the pedigree, through Shaikh al Badi, *Khofo and TheEgyptianPrince, helping to keep the percentage of *Morafic's influence around 25%. 

However, what I found even more interesting than the *Morafic  concentration,  is a little pocket of double-Hamdan horses, serving as common ground between Asmarr (*Zaghloul x Nagliah), the granddam of Thee Desperado and Abenhetep (*Ibn Hafiza x *Omnia), the grandsire of Kuhaylah Nitaya. *Zaghloul carries almost 40% of the Hamdan influence, as his dam, Gharbawia is by Hamdan, bred back to his daughter, Ghorra. Nagliah, Asmarr's dam, is sired by *Ibn Hafiza, a son of Hafiza, who just like Gharbawia, is a result of Hamdan bred back to his daughter, Mahfouza. Additionally, *Nabilahh, the dam of Nagliah, is an Anter daughter and adds another  Hamdan line. The sire of Tammen, Abenhetep, is by *Ibn Hafiza and repeats the Hamdan crosses we found in Nagliah, plus Abenhetep adds an additional Hamdan cross through Ameena, his maternal granddam. That's 8 lines to Hamdan, between 2 horses. When you factor the other sources of Hamdan blood found in the rest of the pedigree, through Maysa, Bakria, *Sakr, *Kahramana and Bint Bint Kateefa, as well as the additional line through *Nabilahh that comes by way of Bint Magidaa, Sweet Eloise ends up with 16 lines to Hamdan.  What makes the Hamdan blood even more interesting are Hamdan's full siblings: the stallion, Shahloul and mare, Samira. While all 3 horses were grey in coat color, all 3 horses were sired by Ibn Rabdan, a chestnut. The genetic presence of these 3 siblings, as combined in one pedigree, intensifies the concentration of Ibn Rabdan, which also exists in the pedigree through Layla, Hind, Bint Bint Dalal, Ibn Fayda, Salwa and Badia, to name a few sources of the Ibn Rabdan influence. There are a total of 67 Ibn Rabdan lines in Sweet Eloise's pedigree. To me and my level of understanding, I think that the line breeding of Ibn Rabdan, whether intentional or unintentional, is the greater story to tell about Sweet Eloise, especially when the genetic concentration is expressed through her Ibn Rabdan-like phenotype. 

Ibn Rabdan, painted by Mrs. Colmore, from the book written by Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, Breeding of Pure Bred Arab Horses

While she is a very strong-bodied chestnut and one can say that she is representative of the continuing influence of Rodania; the fact that she is a generously voluptuous mare, her smooth body comprised of gently flowing circular lines conveys the Ibn Rabdan influence, that "world champion type" alive in her. The conformation photo that Julie posted on Facebook reminds me of the Ibn Rabdan painting that appears in Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik's book, The Breeding of Pure Bred Arab Horses. 

Sweet Eloise's classic good looks and charisma won her universal appeal and her show wins were many, including a US National Top Ten Futurity Filly, as well as Junior mare. She was also an Egyptian Event Reserve Supreme Champion Mare and a Region 9 Champion Mare (unanimous). 

A 1998 mare, Sweet Eloise is also a proven broodmare, having produced a daughter by Pimlico RCA, Hadassah HP in 2005. I wish there were only more of her!