Tameri Anisah is a 2014 chestnut mare bred by Christine Krumm of Tameri Arabians. She is sired by Farees Halim (Al Adeed Al Shaqab x Monisa Halima) and out of Tameri Abadiyah, whose dam, Amira Shahwaniah, is a full sister to Tameri Nawaal, the dam of the 2019 chestnut stallion, Tameri Nashuan Nawaal. Amun Re, the sire of Tameri Abadiyah is a son of the 1996 mare, Miriyah Alida, an Alidaar daughter out of Monisa Halima, the 1982 *Ansata Ibn Halima daughter [not to be confused with the dam of Farees Halim, who is also named Monisa Halima, a 2001 Al Kidr daughter out of Moufisa Halima (Halim al Kidr x Mofisa)]. With 6 lines to *Ansata Ibn Halima, Tameri Anisah carries almost 20% of his genetic influence, primarily through his son, Ansata Halim Shah.
all for the love of a horse...
01 May, 2024
Tameri Anisah
Tameri Anisah is a 2014 chestnut mare bred by Christine Krumm of Tameri Arabians. She is sired by Farees Halim (Al Adeed Al Shaqab x Monisa Halima) and out of Tameri Abadiyah, whose dam, Amira Shahwaniah, is a full sister to Tameri Nawaal, the dam of the 2019 chestnut stallion, Tameri Nashuan Nawaal. Amun Re, the sire of Tameri Abadiyah is a son of the 1996 mare, Miriyah Alida, an Alidaar daughter out of Monisa Halima, the 1982 *Ansata Ibn Halima daughter [not to be confused with the dam of Farees Halim, who is also named Monisa Halima, a 2001 Al Kidr daughter out of Moufisa Halima (Halim al Kidr x Mofisa)]. With 6 lines to *Ansata Ibn Halima, Tameri Anisah carries almost 20% of his genetic influence, primarily through his son, Ansata Halim Shah.
21 April, 2024
Maymoonah to Messaoud
So, this is how my story begins, not so much a "once upon a time" or even, a "many moons ago" but a simple exchange of messages between 2 friends and a photo of the EAO-bred stallion, Amgad (Shadwan x Insaf), who was owned by Smaroel Arabians in the Netherlands. The conversation eventually steered towards another stallion, the Kaisoon son, Maymoon and then, his dam, Maymoonah, a Hadban Enzahi daughter out of Malikah. Naturally, in discussing Maymoonah, sooner or later, the attention shifted to *Messaoud and photos that Betty Finke had recently posted on her Facebook page. You know, I really loved *Messaoud. Actually, let me take that back. What I meant to say is that I really loved *Orashan and his paternal sibling, *Madheen, who was more of a baby at the time when I first met him and then, witnessed his metamorphis into the extraordinary horse he became. The common denominator between both horses was *Messaoud. So, I loved *Messaoud, because I loved his sons, first. Imagine my surprise, when I learned that Imperial Egyptian Stud had attempted to purchase *Messaoud initially and when they could not buy him, purchased two of his sons instead! I can still close my eyes and see Madheen trying to get my attention, as he danced from side to side of his stall, while I lavished all of the attention *Madheen felt belonged only to him, on his brother, *Orashan. I was enchanted, as they were both friendly, happy horses who clearly enjoyed interacting with people.
Then, life, or rather, the consequences of the decisions I made happened and soon, thoughts of *Madheen, *Orashan and *Messaoud vanished, like the morning fog does, when the sun rises and starts to heat the day.
This morning, I stumbled upon Denise Hearst's Facebook page, only to find photos of her astride Imperial Madori, a *Madheen son and surprise, surprise, a *Messaoud grandson! True to the meaning of *Messaoud's name, I was happy and fortunate to find the photos.
I don't remember how I found the digital copy of the advertisement that Erich Hagenlocher placed in the early 90s, once he had leased *Messaoud from his breeder, Günter W. Seidlitz. I'm thinking the ad was posted by Julie Koch in her awesome Facebook group, Reliving Arabian Horse History. When I saw the ad, it took me back, to a long ago time when I opened my copy of Arabian Horse World, to find the same ad and learn that *Messaoud was in America!
*Messaoud's sire was Madkour, a *Morafic son out of the Shahloul daughter, Maisa. In Madkour, we can observe the power of the successful EAO breeding formula for top-crossing Mansour (*Morafic) onto an Ibn Rabdan son, like Shahloul (Zareefa). Keep in mind that *Morafic was himself, a result of the same formula, that is, Nazeer top-crossed on a Shahloul (Moniet el Nefous) daughter! In fact, one can argue that all of *Messaoud's pedigree represents this formula; as Nazeer's influence figures prominently (3 lines & over 30% genetic influence) but so does Shahloul (4 lines & almost 30% genetic influence).
On the dam side, there is Maymoonah, an elite broodmare bred by the Filsingers, whose progeny included celebrated horses like the previously mentioned Maymoon, by Kaisoon, and Jean Kayser's Masouda, a full sibling to *Messaoud, as she is also by Madkour. Maymoonah was by Hadban Enzahi (Nazeer x Kamla) out of Malikah, the granddaughter of Moheba, herself a daughter of Halima. The matriline traces back to Farida, and from there to El Dahma and thereby, a connection Maymoonah shares with one of the most classic horses of our time, *Ansata Ibn Halima.
Time has a way of altering perspectives or the way in which you remember your past, good and bad. And for me personally, I have difficulty remembering that my eyes are on the front of my head and not on the back! Why did I not breed to a stallion like *Messaoud, when I could have done just that? At the time, I am sure that there were many practical reasons for not doing so but now, who knows? I find myself older and wondering about all of the missed opportunities over my lifetime, like for example, incorporating the blood of this stallion and creating a mini-program focusing on him, combined with other Egyptian ancestral elements. It seems so logical, so obvious of a thing for me to have done but sadly, I didn't and now, my life is like broken glass, scattered over many years. And therein is my challenge, to take these broken glass pieces and fashion them into something more beautiful, more radiant than what the glass was originally part of. Do I still have enough time to do this? That is my hope, all for the love of a happy horse.
07 April, 2024
The Praying Mare
"...always pray and not give up.."-Luke 18:1
GO AWAY! LEAVE ME IN PEACE WOMAN!
PUSH = Pray until something happens.
Sam'i Allahu liman hamidah, Rabbana wa lakal hamd...God hears those who call upon Him; our Lord, praise be to you.-(part of the Islamic daily prayers, which Muslims pray five times per day! Imagine if we praised God like this every day!)
"If in your mind, there is no peaceThe communicator visited my friend's mare but was not able to "talk" to the mare. Which disappointed my friend, who had her heart set on learning what troubled her dear friend.
and you want to put your heart at ease
here's a solution at what you should do
get on your knees and pray until you get through
Pray, Pray until something happens
that's what you got to do."-lyrics by Dottie Peoples
BUT
"Baruch Hashem"-Blessed be the name of the Lord in HebrewSo, the mare wasn't sick and she wasn't depressed. She was busy. She was praying. The Bedouin-bred war mare continues to wage war but on a different battlefield. She is a prayer warrior. She knows God...really well.
The praying mare.
The persistent widow.
IT'S TIME TO START PUSHING.
"We have courage in God's presence, because we are sure that He hears us if we ask Him for anything that is according to His will."-1 John 5:14
06 April, 2024
What is a Hallmark?
"HALLMARK" can mean different things, depending on the use of the word within a sentence. However, the "common ground" between all the definitions is another word: "distinguishing". Used in conjunction with our breed, "HALLMARK" are those distinguishing characteristics that identify a horse as "ARABIAN", as compared to other breeds of horses. What are the hallmarks of the Arabian breed?
Last week or rather, in the last blog I posted concerning the stallion, Nile, I mentioned this book:
This is the Standard of Excellence, published by The Pyramid Society in 2012. If you don't own the book, I encourage you to purchase it. It's excellent. While focused on Egyptian Arabian horses, I feel that much of what is written in this book applies to all Arabian horses, whether straight Egyptian or not.
The Pyramid Society, on page 7, identifies 5 hallmarks of type:
- Head
- Arched neck
- Short back
- Comparatively level croup
- High, natural tail carriage
While Arabian horse type can encompass a wide diversity of body types and breed attributes, including characteristics which are familial; the 5 hallmarks presented above are unique to the Arabian breed as a whole (again, not just Egyptian bred Arabians) and therefore, each hallmark, to some degree, need to be visibly present in an Arabian horse. That's my understanding of the presentation made by The Pyramid Society.
A few days ago, when I came across Judith's photo of the stallion, *Padron (Patron x *Odessa), who was 25% Egyptian and an incredibly photogenic horse; Hansi's words came alive once more but also, in a very dramatic way, the hallmarks of breed type, as presented by The Pyramid Society, could not be made any clearer. One could say that *Padron continues to inspire us and remind us of WHY we love this most beautiful breed of horse so much.
31 March, 2024
ETHEREAL
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!
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).
20 March, 2024
Happy Birthday Windy Bey V
I'm not sure that I remember how I managed to get to the Varian Arabians website or what motivated me to click on their stallion page (I don't own a mare, open for breeding) but I am glad that I did it, because there he was, Windy Bey V, a 1999 son of Desperado V (Huckleberry Bey V x Daraska), out of Willow Bey V (S-Shah Bask x Gypsy Mmusic). Do you realize that a horse born in 1999 means that today, in 2024, the 1999 horse is 25 years old? And check out those dapples! WOWOWOW! Back in the day, I understood dappling to be a sign of good nutrition, including nutraceuticals to supplement the horse's diet like collagen, biotin, vitamin E and Omega-3, the absorption of which is greatly improved through regular worming and teeth care. Not to mention a personal investment of some good old-fashioned, roll-up-your-sleeves, elbow grease via well-managed, consistent, grooming to remove unwanted dirt and loose hair, while stimulating the natural oils present in a horse's body for that deep radiating glow. However, while all of this is true, the predisposition for dappling is passed genetically, no matter how much time you spend currying his coat. However, it's very rare to find dappling, to the extent that we see in Windy Bey V, in senior-aged horses. That's what impresses me, the high level of hands-on husbandry that is obviously practiced by Varian Arabians. In this case, the "fruits" of all their actions speak much louder, than any words that can be used.
A couple other things really stand out, in celebration of this glorious horse. See the man standing on the other side of him? Even with a baseball cap, you can barely see him over the wither. I'm guessing that Windy Bey V is a taller horse, maybe a little over 15 hands, like 15.2 or 15.3? I really like that.
Do you know that his sire line represents 5 generations of Varian breeding:
Bay-Abi->Bay-el-Bey->Huckleberry Bey->Desperado V->Windy Bey V
That's Sheila's vision or rather, her life's work, very much alive and relevant in our Arabian horse community. That's important to say in this day and age, when so many of us miss Sheila. And hopefully, Windy Bey V will sire a colt, worthy of adding yet another link to what is, a long chain of kings. I can't think of a better way to honor her memory. Not to be outdone and equally impressive is the matriline. Windy Bey V, as does his great grandsire, Bay-el-Bey, traces back to the mare Gazella, an 1840 Kuhaylah Ajuz, purchased in Syria by Count Juliusz Dzieduskycki for Jarczowce Stud. Gazella founded one of the most influential families in Polish Arabian horse breeding. What a most wonderful complement to the Varian line of super sires!I'm reminded of a story, one of my favorites, which involves Bogdan Ziertarski and Carl Raswan who traveled extensively in the Middle East. In 1931, both men imported five stallions and four mares. Kuhaylan Haifi, the sire of Ofir, was one of the stallions purchased for Janow Podlaski.
"Finally I hear a neigh, they guide the stallions... they lead the bay Kuhailan Haifi. My legs buckled under me, it is just the horse I am looking for. Not large, dry, on splendid legs without any trace of cow hocks. A long neck, a noble head, although not very small, with distended, thin and moveable nostrils; a splendid high carried tail. I feel, the first time in my life, that during the purchase of a horse I am fainting."-Bogdan Ziertarski, as quoted in Arab breeding in Poland, written by Edward Skorkowski
Happy Birthday Windy Bey V!
17 March, 2024
Storm Clouds on the Horizon
Over the weekend, I discovered a fascinating interview that Gudrun Waiditschka had with Andreas Perner, who is head of the Research Institute for Organic Animal Breeding and Land Use, since 2018. The interview is titled, Are We Still Breeding or Are We Just Multiplying? The article appears within the online version of Arabische Pferde In-the-Focus magazine, published on Valentines Day (02/14/24). It's a deeply provocative article and while I try to stay away from anything which invites criticism of our horses, breed community and current practices (there are other places online where you can engage in these discussions) and yet, I feel compelled to encourage you to read the interview, which identifies problematic issues facing the cattle industry, which run parallel to challenges we face in the equine industry and specifically, with our beloved Arabian horses.