A Reflection of Kindness

Halim El Kateef 

Halim El Kateef, foaled in 1982, was a straight Egyptian stallion bred by Paul and Delma Cotney. He was an *Ansata Ibn Halima son, out of Kateefa, a *Morafic daughter bred by Gleannloch, thereby "Kateef", which together with the rest of his name, means "the kind, gentle and friendly one". If you follow the matriline to the 6th generation, you will find the RAS-bred Kateefa, the Shahloul daughter out of the Crabbet-bred Bint Rissala, one of two Rodania line fillies imported by the RAS in 1920. 

There are several ways to understand the pedigree of this particular horse. A high level overview, according to our breed traditions, would be to recognize the top crossing of the Dahman strain onto the Kuhaylan Rodan strain. Halim El Kateef is Kuhaylan Rodan by strain. 

However, looking deeper, you will find 2 lines to Kateefa, both on the maternal side of the pedigree, one line as the dam of Moftakhar and the other line as the dam of Bint Kateefa. I find it interesting, when you compare the influence of Kateefa, as the dam of the Nazeer son, Alaa el Din, against Kateefa, who is also a multiple granddam of Halim El Kateef. She appears further back in Halim's pedigree (5th and 6th generations), therefore her percentage of influence is much lower, as compared to the 50% she exerts as a dam, in Alaa el Din's case. Similar can be said of Nazeer (Mansour x Bint Samiha), as the sire of Alaa el Din, which of course is 50% of the pedigree, however, as a double grandsire (on each side of Halim's pedigree), Nazeer is almost 40% of Halim El Kateef's pedigree. It's also interesting to find Mansour, Nazeer's sire, in a 3rd line, as the sire of Sheikh El Arab, the sire of Halima. Mansour represents almost 25% of Halim el Kateef's genetic makeup, which is equivalent to the percentage of influence in Alaa el Din's pedigree. 

While I find the genetic similarity to Alaa el Din interesting, I must also mention the other concentrated sources in the pedigree, like Shahloul who appears 3 times, twice as the sire of Kateefa and as the sire of Moniet el Nefous. Obeya, the dam of Anter, also appears as the maternal granddam of Fardous, the dam of Enzahi, the sire of Moftakhar. Bint Sabah appears as the dam of Sheikh el Arab on the paternal side, as well as the dam of Layla, on the maternal side, through Mabrouka, the dam of *Morafic. 

Going back to the matriline, the Rodania matriline is one of the most powerfully enduring matrilines in our breed, not just within straight Egyptian breeding but for all of the breed. In this case, the Cotneys cleverly combined Rodania with equally relevant matrilines, like El Dahma and Roga El Beda, plus Venus, resulting in this beautiful black stallion.

Halim El Kateef was a proven breeding stallion, siring beautiful horses in the straight Egyptian community. Al Khamsa recognizes 145 total  descendants through the present day.