Moniet on Top, Maaroufa on the Bottom

Sometimes, we meet someone, who will offer their perspective, at a most unexpected time. If we are really listening, great but if your mind is starting to wander, you may miss something that is so deeply insightful,  you will forever regret that you did not pay attention.

Such is a phone call I once had with Dr. Arthur Sutfin, the resident veterinarian at Bentwood Farm. At the time, I was interested in a TheEgyptianPrince daughter, in foal to AK Ishmael. 30 years or so later, I have forgotten the mare's name but I still remember the reverence for TheEgyptianPrince in Dr. Sutfin's voice.  He believed that in the not too distant future, others would come to see TheEgyptianPrince as a phenomenal broodmare sire.  His daughters were already becoming some of the most highly sought after Arabian mares in the marketplace.

TheEgyptianPrince was bred several times to the straight Babson Egyptian mare, Maar-Ree, producing mostly colts: RDM Dhahkhar in 1975, Sarmaan in 1976 and MFA Bahahr in 1980 but in 1977 and 1978, Maar-Ree foaled the only 2 daughters from this cross, MFA Maet in 1978 and the year prior, 1977, MFA Maariia Isis, bred by Robert and Jean Middleton. A stellar broodmare, she produced 9 foals of which, 60% (or 5) were female, 4 of those fillies were named with a Khartahl prefix, the name of the breeding program created by Larry and Rebecca Riley: Maaroufa by Alcibiades in 82, Malika by Alcibiades in 83, Mahrousa by Alcibiades in 84 and Cameo by MFA Mareekh Amir in 87. 

The mare without a Khartahl prefix was Bo-Mars Dashira, bred by B.R. Boshell and foaled in 88 is interesting, as far as the sequence of the last couple of blogs, here, at all for the love of a horse. In the Ansata Sinan blog, I mentioned HF Sinanana, the Ansata Sinan daughter bred by Sue Burnham and the late Joan Skeels of Hope Farm. HF Sinanana, a 2003 grey mare, is out of Bo-Mars Dashira by MFA Mareekh Amir. HF Sinanana is now with Al Rashediah Stud in Bahrain.

MFA Maariia Isis' Khartahl -prefixed sons were: Badir by Ansata El Ghazal in 81 and Maarouf by Alcibiades in 85. Bo-Mars Farouk by *Farazdac in 90 and KF Maar Amir also by *Farazdac in 91. I am compelled to remind you that in her time, MFA Maariia Isis was considered Kuhaylah Jellabiyah by strain. Now, with the advances made in genetic science, plus the additional scholarly research into the notes recorded by Lady Anne Blunt, we know differently and these KJ horses are recognized today as Saqlawi by strain. In MFA Maariia Isis' case she is pure-in-the-strain Saqlawiyah, because both her sire and dam are Saqlawi by strain. As a matter of fact, MFA Maariia Isis reflects multi-generational Saqlawi strain breeding, as both matrilines, sire and dam trace back to horses of the Saqlawi strain: TheEgyptianPrince to the Ali Pasha Sherif mare, Roga El Beda, while Maar-Ree to the Abbas Pasha, Ghazieh.

When I wrote The Blind Spot blog, I included Carl Raswan's appraisal of the chestnut stallion, Ghazal, one of the best descriptions of an Arabian horse that I have ever read. When Larry Riley met Maar-Ree, he described her in colorful language which challenges Raswan's analysis of Ghazal,

"The most notable specific was her excellence of hindquarters (pelvic angle, length of hip, length and levelness of croup). Next, her exceptionally high tail set...She possessed a great heart girth, tremendously powerful shoulders, and pronounced withers, with her neck coming high out of her shoulder. Her neck was clean and well-shaped and extremely fine and delicate at the throatlatch. Her head was perfection, from her sharp, thorn-like ears, pointed as a date flower bud, to her wide-set eyes-black, deeply quiet, and softly expressive, like those of a desert gazelle. A dished profile gave way to a boxy teacup muzzle with high-set, expansive nostrils...She gathered the wind to her in her great flared nostrils and, rising like a leopardess, charged down the fence line in ground-pounding thunder. This bold, cadenced, rhythmic motion of rolling shoulders and driving hocks slowly gave way to a lighter ballet. She was like a deer picking her way through an autumn forest. Teeming with vitality, and feminine in the extreme, she exemplified that which is called beautiful."  - The Ascension of a Queen, published by The Arabian Horse Times, May 1986 and republished in The Babson Influence: A Retrospective

What, you may ask, does a description of Maar-Ree have to do with her daughter, MFA Maariia Isis? 

Everything. 

From what we can see of MFA Maariia Isis in the photo, it's as if Larry, who bred her by the way, is surprisingly describing the daughter as well, not just Maar-Ree,

"...Her head was perfection, from her sharp, thorn-like ears, pointed as a date flower bud, to her wide-set eyes-black, deeply quiet, and softly expressive, like those of a desert gazelle. A dished profile gave way to a boxy teacup muzzle with high-set, expansive nostrils...She gathered the wind to her in her great flared nostrils..."

For me, writing this blog, somewhat feels like my journey to the oasis I knew as Bentwood Farm, all over again. That's a wonderful memory to relive by the way. Thinking about this mare, MFA Maariia Isis, studying her photo, then "seeing" these horses through another person's eyes is like experiencing the wonder, all over again. I promise you Ralph, one day...all for the love of a horse.