ETHEREAL

Seemingly out of nowhere, I found this photo. I was looking for something else and Google offered the Pinterest photo in their list of recommendations. I'm not a fan of Pinterest and the site makes it difficult to look at the photos without creating a profile but my oh my, what a horse! I have been reading the Standard of Excellence, published by The Pyramid Society and this particular horse, embodies much of what I read in the booklet and then, understood, with regard to type, balance, quality and substance. I haven't been able to think of anything else since finding the photo. Why would anyone want to geld a horse like this? I searched everywhere I knew to look, for an Ansata Shah Zaman son, out of Silk N Satin, bred by the late Lee Romney of Somerset Farm.  And you guessed it, I found nothing. How odd, right? A horse who looks like the horse in the photo, even if he were a gelding, would have created enough of a buzz within the community, to generate even a sentence or two about his beauty. I'm not sure that I remember how I got to David Gillett's Diamond Road Arabian Stud website but I'm grateful that I did, and to my surprise (and delight), not only was the above mystery solved, there was a full write-up, including his correct pedigree and best of all, I learned that he was never gelded! Nile, as he was called, lived his life at Clifton Park Stud in Australia, as a stallion, earning a National Grand Champion Stallion title, circa 1980. David owned a gorgeous daughter named Clifton Park Nefisa (out of the Tanya Hawley bred Nazelle), who remains at the very core of David's breeding program. David also owns a granddaughter, Nira (Naavah x Clifton Park Neeka) who also, is an important mare in his program, having founded her own family. David includes many more photos of Nile on his website, where he also says, "Nile was known for producing beautiful progeny of extreme type and beauty, and he crossed well with a variety of different bloodlines to become one of Australia's all time leading sires."

Nile (Mustafa x Nara)

Foaled in October of 1975, Nile was by the German-bred stallion, Mustafa, a Hadban Enzahi son, bred by Marbach Stud. His dam, Nara, also sired by Hadban Enzahi , was bred by Tanya Hawley. It's interesting to find paternal siblings bred together, to further concentrate the bloodline of their sire. Hadban Enzahi, bred by the EAO and originally named "Kamel", was a Nazeer son out of Kamla (Sheikh el Arab x Samha).  In this pedigree, Hadban Enzahi carries the same weight as a sire, 50%. Genetically, Hadban Enzahi is an interesting horse, because at the heart of the pedigree are 2 central horses, Mansour as the sire of Nazeer and Sheikh el Arab plus Bint Samiha, as the dam of Nazeer and Samha.  Each horse carries a weight of 37.5%, which means that more than 70% of the pedigree, reflects just these 2 horses! When you also consider that Kazmeen carries a genetic percentage of 25% via his daughters, Bint Sabah and Bint Samiha, that's almost 100% of the pedigree, represented by just 3 horses: Mansour, Bint Samiha, Kazmeen. The outcross blood in the pedigree is small, through Bint Obeya and Bint Gamila. Less than 10% of the blood that flowed in the veins of Hadban Enzahi could be considered really different from the rest of his pedigree! To further underscore the intensity of the pedigree, consider that one of the sources of outcross blood, Bint Gamila, is herself a product of line breeding as both her paternal and maternal grandsire was the same horse, El Sennari! 

Nara, the dam of Nile is out of the beloved Aswan daughter Naadirah, owned by Tanya Hawley and the subject of a widely popular book. It is extremely interesting to find Aswan, together in the same pedigree with Hadban Enzahi, as genetically, he was very similar to Hadban Enzahi. Yes, both horses were sired by Nazeer (Mansour x Bint Samiha) and yes, both horses were out of Sheikh el Arab (Mansour x Bint Sabah) daughters. However, their dams, Yosreia and Kamla, share more common ground than just their sire. You need to "dig a little deeper" and look to the maternal granddam of each horse, to understand what I mean. Aswan's maternal granddam is the mare Hind (Ibn Rabdan x Bint Rustem); while Samha (Baiyad x Bint Sabah) is the maternal granddam of Hadban Enzahi. These mare's sires, Ibn Rabdan and Baiyad are maternal siblings, sons of the mare Bint Gamila (Ibn Nadra x Gamila), whose paternal and maternal grandsire are one and the same, El Sennari! To further illustrate the relationship between both mares, Ibn Rabdan was sired by Rabdan el Azrak, who in turn, was sired by Dahman el Azrak. Tarfa, the granddam of Baiyad, was a daughter of Dahman el Azrak. Also, it's the same tail female line, the major difference between Aswan and Hadban Enzahi is the position of Bint Hadba el Sagihira in the pedigree (closer up by one generation in Aswan). 

It's not that I am saying that Hadban Enzahi and Aswan are better horses than the other individuals in Nile's pedigree. What I am saying is that the combination of these 2 horses, who are genetically similar, represents 62.5% of the pedigree and that is a sizeable percentage of genetic influence, so it is highly probable that these horses had more of an impact upon Nile, as compared to the other horses in the pedigree but then again, I am not a geneticist and breeders will be quick to remind me that you study as much as you can, you see as many horses as you can in order to make a more informed decision and still, it's a mystery as to how it will all turn out. I am reminded of a book that I read a long, long time ago, The Little Prince, written by Antoine de Saint-Exupery. There is a quotation that is somewhat apropos here, "What makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well." The quote, in its simplicity reminds us to dig deeper in order to find the hidden treasures in challenging situations. Pushing the boundaries of this quote then, does "well" in this case, symbolize the unique, the extraordinary and ethereal qualities we observe in the individual horses like Hadban Enzahi or Aswan and how they may have come together genetically, to push these qualities to an outrageous level as we see in Nile? Or maybe it has nothing to do with the Egyptian horses in the pedigree and all to do with a "wild card", like Marbach's Haladin (Halef x Jadine) or the Tersk-bred mare named Elsissa, who was imported from Saudi Arabia by Prince Eustachy Sanguszko for Gumniska Stud in the late 1800's. This is whom Nile traces back to, in his matriline, via his  maternal great-granddam,  Napraslina (Nomer x Plotka). 

The Pyramid Society, within the Standard of Excellence, defines type as "the ethereal quality of the horse that defines it as an Arabian horse, a horse unique in its physical beauty, balance and symmetry." And quality as, "that ethereal value that can be seen in anything of great worth. In the Arabian horse, quality is manifested in its high degree of type, athletic ability, intelligence and character. The high quality horse reflects exemplary breeding in his ethereal beauty, strength yet refinement, elegant carriage, cleanness of limb, also his fine coat and skin, prominent veining,  desert dryness and his overall balance and harmony." David Gillet also uses the same word, ethereal, to describe Nile, "The ethereal, alabaster white stallion..." What does the word ethereal mean? I've used the word myself but do I really understand what the word may imply? The online dictionaries seem to agree that an ethereal quality is that which is fine or delicate, possessing unusual or extreme refinement and not of the real world. 

In closing, David Gillet also reminds us of how Clifton Park Stud used Nile's ethereal beauty to breed his type forward, through his get. David says, "Nile sired many champion offspring including Australian National Champion mare Clifton Park Nile Queen." That is the real power of the horse we knew as Nile, to inspire and encourage us to dream of all that is possible and beautiful, all for the love of a horse. 

***many thanks to David Gillett not only for your informative website but also, for all that you have accomplished and continue to do for the Arabian horse and of course, I love your Palominos too.***