When Strength Meets Beauty

The 1962 Abla daughter, *Rashika, sired by Anter, from The Pyramid Society's Reference Handbook, Volume II

The 1953 grey EAO mare, Abla, was "a very classic, pretty-headed and strong-bodied Nazeer daughter," wrote Judith Forbis. Abla was double Mansour (Gamil Manial x Nafaa el Saghira), as her sire, Nazeer, was a Mansour son, while her maternal granddam, Bint Farida, was a Mansour daughter. I suspect this is the reason for Abla's strong and compact body, given that Mansour was a masculine type stallion, both powerful and correct. Abla was also beautiful, as was her dam, Helwa. In Authentic Arabian Bloodstock Volume II, we learn that General Pettko Von Szandtner wrote of Helwa, "very noble head with beautiful expressive eyes." In his wonderful book, The Egyptian Alternative, Volume II, Philippe Paraskevas says, "it makes every sense to outcross Dahman Faridas with Anter for his non-Dalal Saklawi tail female blood, and to reintroduce the best of the Ibn Rabdan male line." Anter, bred by the Inshass Stud, was sired by Hamdan, an Ibn Rabdan son and a maternal grandson of Radia. His dam Obeya, by Mekdam, was a maternal great-great-granddaughter of Radia, who contributes approximately 16% of her genetic influence to Anter. In his latest book, The Arabian Horse – Nature’s Creation and the Art of Breeding, Dr. Hans Nagel says of nickability, "This occurs when a certain sire and a certain mare always produce perfectly nice foals. This is called “good nickability." Over time, we have learned that Anter and Abla, nicked well together but one must look under the surface to learn a not so obvious reason. Abla carries a high percentage of Mansour blood, while Anter carries a larger percentage of Radia, maybe, the so called "nick" of Anter and Abla had more to do with the genetic impact of combining higher percentages of Mansour and Radia together. Abla produced 11 foals in her breeding career, before her death at the age of 20 in 1973. The majority of Abla's foals were sired by Anter, which includes the 1962 grey mare pictured, *Rashika, imported by the late Don Ford in 1972. I don't believe that *Rashika produced any foals in her lifetime, as I found none recorded in the resources available to me.