Babson Plus

I was thinking of something else, when I stumbled upon a 2009 article, Fine Lines, written by Richard Ernsberger Jr. in Virgina Living magazine. The late Honorable Helen Marie Taylor was 86-years old at the time and was in the process of selling the remaining 23 horses at her farm, named Bloomsbury, in Orange County, Virginia.

The late Helen Marie Taylor & HMT Virginius (The Minstril x AK Narimann), photographed by Jeff Greenough

I didn't realize that Helen Marie Taylor was a native of Waco, Texas, even attending Baylor University, and now, I better understand how a member of a distinguished multi-generational Virginia family becomes connected to Bentwood Farm in Waco, Texas.  This is exactly the catalyst role that our horses play, in bringing different types of people together, to form relationships that may not have developed, if the horse was not at the center of it all. When Bentwood Farm dispersed, she purchased about 20 horses, including the 1977 grey mare, Bint Bint Maarena. She would be yet another horse of this combination of new/old blood to live on the eastern seaboard, as the maternal siblings of her granddam, lived in this part of the mid-Atlantic as well, i.e. Alyce Burgess' Akid Arabian Stud and Barbara Griffith's Imperial Egyptian Stud.

Bint Bint Maarena (*Ibn Moniet El Nefous x AK Bint Maarena), photographed by the late Johnny Johnston

Sired by *Ibn Moniet El Nefous and AK Bint Maarena, I remember meeting this mare in person, when I visited Bentwood Farm in the late eighties. I loved her.  About 12-years old at the time, she was one of several mares representing the older straight Babson Egyptian lines crossed with the new straight Egyptian stallion, *Ibn Moniet El Nefous, whom I had traveled to see in person. Her beautiful chestnut dam was a full sister to Serr Maariner (Ibn Fa-Serr x Maarena) and a maternal sibling to the trio of Maarenas, sired by *Ibn Moniet El Nefous: AK El Zahra Moniet, AK El Malouf & AK Monareena. It was those mares, like Bint Bint Maarena, who made me a fan of the *Maaroufa cross with *Ibn Moniet El Nefous; as I was already a fan of the *Bint Bint Sabbah's combined with *Ansata Ibn Halima. I have to say that meeting these mares in person, remains not only a cherished highlight of my life, it was a turning point for me, in my evolution as a student of the breed. In a previous blog about AK Monareena, I shared my interest in breeding AK Monareena to Serr Maariner, to line breed back to Maarena, which unfortunately did not happen for me. When I visited Bentwood, meeting Bint Bint Maarena is where I developed the idea in the first place, to use Serr Maariner in this way, hoping to further intensify the Ibn Fa-Serr/Maarena cross on the maternal side of the pedigree. 

You know what's funny? At the time that most of this story was happening, the strain of the Babson *Maaroufa horses was recognized as Kuhaylan Jellabi. In a program that was as focused upon the Saqlawi strain, as the Bentwood breeding program was; little did anyone realize at the time that the farm was breeding pure-in-the-saqlawi-strain!

Bentwood bred Bint Bint Maarena to Moniet El Sharaf to produce AK Fa Sharafa in 1984 and AK Maarshafa in 1985. She was then bred to Shaikh Al Badi to produce Princess Maarena in 1986, then bred to Alidaar, a Shaikh Al Badi son, producing a colt in 1989 named Ali Jahmal, followed by the very first foal in 1991 to be named with Helen Marie Taylor's initials: HMT Sukari. The other similarly prefixed horses out of Bint Bint Maarena were HMT Ishmadi, a grey colt by AK Ishmael in 1992, HMT Fabadi, a grey colt by The Minstril in 1993 and HMT Renazz, a third grey colt in 1995, this time by Thee Desperado. 

I found it very interesting to learn that the 1985 daughter, AK Maarshafa, was bred by Dr. Hans Nagel to the Salaa El Dine son, Nejdy, to produce a filly named Fatima XVII in 1992, who then, was bred to another Salaa El Dine son, Nahaman, producing a 1996 black filly named Fasinah El Chamsin, who eventually joined Gestüt Rothenberg, owned by Annette Escher and her late husband, Erwin, who was an amazing photographer. The black stallion, GR Faleeh was the resulting foal in 1996, when Fasinah El Chamsin was bred to Madallan-Madheen. When GR Faleeh was bred to his paternal sister, the cross yielded another beautiful black stallion, whom Anette Escher named GR Moneef. Little did I realize that a global future, within a celebrated black straight Egyptian program like the Rothenberg Stud awaited the progeny of Bint Bint Maarena, when I admired that long ago day in a Bentwood pasture. I only wish that I could go back in time, knowing what I know today, all for the love of an Arabian horse.