A Black Mare Study

The Vision HG (Thee Desperado x Belle Staar)

Alttafilbari Ezzain (NK Qaswarah x Ajmal Ibtihaj)

It's funny how one photo can inspire a series of disconnected thoughts, which actually, end up working together, pushing your mind into a higher level of understanding and an appreciation for close genetic connections, beyond what may at first appear as only a common coat color, in photographs of similarly-moving horses. The late Vision HG is sired by a Minstril son and out of a Minstril daughter...paternal half-siblings, right? Think again, as they are more closely related than that. Both Thee Desperado and Belle Staar are out of mares that are also paternal half-siblings; each mare sired by The Egyptian Prince (*Morafic x *Bint Mona). Think of these close connections in another manner and that is, in the generation of the great grandparents, the pedigree is made up of eight individuals. In The Vision's pedigree, three of these eight individuals appear twice (Ruminaja Ali, Bahila, TheEgyptianPrince), so in essence, eight individuals become five individuals, with three of the individuals having a higher percentage of influence (25% each) than the other two (12.5% each). The horses in this generation who are different from the others are the mares Asmarr (*Ibn Hafiza x Nagliah) and Hasnaa AlBadeia (Kayed x El Ameera). However, a closer look at these two mares reveal that the outcross blood comes through Asmarr, Kaydahom (Azmi x Om El Saad) and Zaafarana (Balance x Samira). When I saw this photo of The Vision at liberty, a feeling of deja vu swept over me. I had seen this type of horse before...but where? I thought and thought for a long time. The more I thought about it, the more I thought about a paradise I know and call Ezzain, where another black horse lives. Alttafilbari Ezzain (NK Qaswarah x Ajmal Ibtihag) at first glance, may not appear to have any connection with The Vision HG but wait, a second glance at her pedigree will reveal that her granddam Alijamila was a Ruminaja Ali daughter, which makes Alttafilbari a great-granddaughter of Ali, just like The Vision, who is not only a great granddaughter, she is a double great-granddaughter of Ruminaja Ali! However, dig a little deeper and follow the tail female line that runs from Ansata Justina to Ansata Bint Sameh, where you will find the stallion Sameh (El Moez x Sameera), who also appears in The Vision's pedigree, as the sire of *Ibn Hafiza. Sameh was a phenomenal broodmare sire, expressing his influence from the mare side of the pedigree. No surprise to find him here, represented in the strong bodies of two mares who channel their energy through the muscling of their backs and not through their joints, tails held high, nostrils fully dilated...very much a Sameh-line horse for sure! It's that inborn joy and confidence, combined with a look-at-me, I-am-really-pretty attitude that has charmed many breed enthusiasts with what is, a unique expression of that unmistakable Sameh-type. 

TheEgyptianPrince

TheEgyptianPrince, a 1967 stallion, bred by Douglas Marshall of Gleannloch Farm, was a *Morafic son out of *Bint Mona. His pedigree is very interesting to study, as he is one of those rare horses whose genetic influence is concentrated in the blood of only a few individuals. Both his sire and his dam were sired by the great Nazeer, so immediately, you will notice that these 2 horses are paternal siblings. However look closer, as *Morafic and *Bint Mona were more than paternal siblings and this is where it gets so interesting and the connections become even closer. You see, Mabrouka, the dam of *Morafic and Mouna, the dam of *Bint Mona, were full sisters; both mares sired by Sid Abouhom and out of Moniet el Nefous. Therefore, *Morafic and *Bint Mona were actually, full-brother and full-sister in blood! I'll put it another way for you, in the 4th generation of TheEgyptianPrince's pedigree (the great-grandparents generation) the pedigree is made up of only 8 horses, each horse contributing 12.5% of their influence to TheEgyptianPrince. In TheEgyptianPrince's pedigree, these 8 horses are actually, 4 horses who appear twice, in this order, top-to-bottom: Mansour, Bint Samiha, Sid Abouhom and Moniet El Nefous, the genetic influence of each horse doubled to 25%. TheEgyptianPrince has been long-recognized as a consistent broodmare sire. His daughters, for the most part, matured into excellent broodmares, who have taken his influence further into our breeding community. Exploring his genetic makeup, allows us to better understand him and the role he continues to play in modern Egyptian breeding.

Bukra

One of the most important mares in straight Egyptian breeding possessing the El Dahma tail female line, is Bukra, a mare whom the late General Tibor Pettko Von Szandtner (the stud director of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization's El Zahraa stud farm from 1949 to 1959) described as "a very noble mare." Reading the herd book notes written by him and forever preserved by Judith Forbis within her monumental tome, Authentic Arabian Bloodstock II, you immediately realize that Bukra was a mare who was held in high regard by Von Szandtner. Within The Classic Arabian Horse, published in 1976, Judith Forbis stated that the General considered her “a first class, Saqlawi-type mare”. While the photography from this time period does not fully capture her beauty; she really must have been a breathtakingly beautiful mare in her prime to have been rated first-class by a cavalry officer, who valued utility in horses, above all else.

The pedigree of Bukra is classically beautiful, as the majority of her ancestry reflects the Egyptian breeding programs of Abbas Pasha, the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS), Ali Pasha Sherif, Khedive Abbas Hilmi II, Prince Ahmad Pasha Kamal and Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik. Her sire, Shahloul (Ibn Rabdan x Bint Radia), despite producing an influential son named El Sareei, was a phenomenal sire of broodmares: Futna (Farida), Kateefa (Bint Rissala), Maisa (Zareefa), Moniet el Nefous (Wanisa) and Om el Saad (Yashmak). All of these mares have exerted a profound influence upon our breed, producing sons and daughters who in turn, continued to significantly impact the breed and remain genetically important and vital, up to the present day.

Bukra's dam, Bint Sabah, was sired by Kazmeen (who brings in the outcross blood of the Blunt desert horses like Queen of Sheba, Dajania and Azrek) and out of Sabah (Mabrouk Manial x Bint Obeya). Bint Sabah was a critical mare in Egyptian Arabian horse breeding; as she produced the mare Layla (by Ibn Rabdan) who went on to produce the stallion, Sid Abouhom by El Deree. She also produced the mare *Bint Bint Sabbah by the RAS stallion Baiyad, who was later purchased and imported by Henry Babson and the stallion, Sheikh el Arab (by Mansour), an extremely important sire for the EAO programme who sired daughters like Halima, Yosreia, Wanisa and Yashmak.

***Don't miss a wonderful article about the Bukra horses within The Arabian Breeders Magazine, Volume II, Issue II is The Dawning of a New Tomorrow: The Bukra Story***

*Farazdac

*Farazdac was born in Egypt, in February 1966, bred by the EAO. He is an Alaa el Din son out of Farasha (Sid Abouhom x Yosreia). *Farazdac was exported from Egypt in 1974 by Rick Heber together with Bill & Janet Lowe; the same team of people responsible for the importation of *Tuhotmos. *Farazdac sired a record number of horses, approximately 461 horses from 1974 to 1991. Of this total number, 417 horses were purebreds. It is interesting to note that *Farazdac started to sire Half-Arabians in 1980, with most of these horses born between the years of 1984 and 1987 (1985 and 1986 the banner years for Half-Arabian versions of *Farazdac). However, do you know that less than 25% of the 417 purebred horses were straight Egyptian (approximately 96 horses)? That’s only twice the number of the Half-Arabian horse count! Why was the reaction among SE breeders so poor for *Farazdac? 

*Farazdac was one of the most beautiful stallions to ever come out of Egypt. He was so striking, so different, from the horses of his day and no one captured his beauty like photographer Polly Knoll. Her pictures of *Farazdac to this day, remain some of my most favorite photos. In an interview with Desert Heritage Magazine, Polly Knoll said, “He is another horse that was very ethereal like Morafic. He had that same fine skin and clean sculpted bone structure. He was a bit taller than Morafic, with longer legs. He was an energetic horse but he was very nice in disposition and easy to work with. He was very kind. Also he could really move.” One of the qualities that breeders did not appreciate in *Farazdac was his narrowness or rather, a perceived lack of substance. Although*Farazdac was built like a racehorse, he had a long distance runner's conformation. He was elegant, in the same way that you would find an athlete elegant, especially when moving. There was a cat-like grace in every one of *Farazdac's strides. In silhouette, *Farazdac had a radiator-shaped body, long and lean, the kind of body that may have suggested endurance racing potential. I will never forget what the late Hansi Heck-Melnyk said about the horse, “I wish you had seen *Farazdac as I did in Cairo. He just came back from his ‘winning’ race, absolutely breathtaking gorgeous. Prancing, like if he had just walked around the block. He had a beautiful long and well befitting to his body neck, elegant, and clean. There was also something very regal about him." As beautiful and eye-catching as he was, *Farazdac’s head was longer and more narrow, with average-sized eyes, set higher in the head. In the age of horses like *Ansata Ibn Halima, with his large and lustrous eyes, set lower in the head, *Farazdac was completely opposite and breeders wanted more horses like *Ansata Ibn Halima. In the Hanan book, Dr. Nagel said that Alaa El Din was a good sire of broodmares but not of stallions. He believed that Alaa El Din never produced a son who was an equal or who emerged as an important sire in the EAO breeding program. Most breeders in this time period also felt like Dr. Nagel about the Alaa el Din sons. Even if a stallion were successful in the first generation, most breeders felt that any prepotency would diminish in the second or third generation. *Farazdac sired a wonderful son named Ikhnatoon in 1974, who remains his most influential son, impacting the EAO program significantly, which has in turn, influenced the breeding programs of private breeders in and out of Egypt. Ikhnatoon, in turn sired Adl (out of the Adaweya daughter, Enayah) who also became an important sire for the EAO breeding program. So, in terms of the Egyptian get tracing back to *Farazdac, Dr. Nagel’s statement is not only wrong; it is not fair to *Farazdac or even, Alaa el Din. In America, mention must be made of some of the wonderful daughters he sired, especially with the horses of the Maar-Ree family of horses, who appeared to combine well with *Farazdac (Robert & Jeanne Middleton, of Midcrest Farm, the home of Maar-Ree, also owned *Farazdac later in his life): Fasarra, foaled in 1980 out of the *Tuhotmos daughter, Massara, when bred to El Halimaar, produced the popular stallion, Richter MH. Rancho Bulakenyo also bred Mumtaz Ree, a *Farazdac daughter out of MFA Bint Maarree. Her daughter, Bint El Halimaar MH remains at Rancho Bulakenyo, while Mumtaz Ree returned to the country of her ancestors, to become part of the program at Yasmine & Ali's Shaarawi Arabians in Egypt. Bint Farazdac, when bred to The Egyptian Prince son (out of RDM Maar Halima) produced SH Say Anna. This mare produced two Ansata mares: Ansata Aniq (sired by Ansata Manasseh) and Ansata Anna Maria (sired by Ansata Hejazi). Donna Aldrich owned a pretty *Farazdac daughter, RG Desert Storm (out of the Pritzlaff mare, Desert Song RSI). In closing, I want to believe that even with the few number of SE offspring, *Farazdac remains a vibrant horse in our genepool, because his get and his grand get and his great grand get have been prolific and contrary to the popular belief that Alaa el Din sons were not prepotent. What do you think?

*** You can read a more complete article about *Farazdac, within The Arabian Breeders' Magazine, Volume II, Issue I***

Bedouin Beauty: Asalah

"The head is more important in Arab horses than in other breeds....the really perfect head being only seen in the horses of purest blood..." - Lady Wentworth, from her book, The Authentic Arabian Horse

The mare pictured is Maar Mara, a straight Egyptian Arabian, of Babson and Hallany Mistanny ancestry. She was bred by the late Jay Gormley and is currently owned by Marilyn Lang of Fantasia Arabians. She is a beauty.
BUT

This blog is not really about Maar Mara. It's more about a quality that Maar Mara possesses that I wanted to point out. The most excellent blog of Edouard al-Dahdah, Daughters of the Wind, is visited sometimes by a guest blogger, a Bedouin named Pure Man, who once wrote about the prominence of the facial crest bone and the esteem that the Bedouin felt for this breed hallmark. See the white arrows that are pointing to each side of her face?

"Among the Arabians the KUHAYLAN (masculine type) has the shortest and widest (broadest) head with the most details (fine tracery of veins, wrinkles, 'bumps', bulges, 'tear-bones', etc.) 'engraved' upon its intelligent features." - Carl Raswan, from his article, The Head of the Arabian, published by Western Horseman magazine

Those are her facial crest bones or as Raswan explains, "tear-bones." If you can magnify the picture, can you see how prominent this bone is? Can you appreciate the width or the degree of the flare (protrusion) of this bone? The prominence of this bone is unique to Arabian horses. If you were to lay your thumb on this area, as a way to measure the width of this bone, the distance would approximate close to the full width of your thumb. In Bedouin breeding, the prominence of the facial crest bone is an important selection criteria. The Bedouin believed that the prominence of the facial crest bone was a clear indicator of authentic origin and horses with a more prominent bone were the horses selected for breeding, among other cherished characteristics.

EnJoy,

Ralph

Barn Coat

I remember when I purchased this coat. I had gone to the store to buy something else and I walked by the outerwear section and there it was. I must have picked it up a hundred times, only to change my mind each time and place it back on the rack. 

It's not me. 

I'm too short. 

It's too long.  

It's lightweight.
I'll be cold in it but...it had deep pockets.
BIG pockets.
I could fit a lot of cool stuff in there, like a couple wormers plus a few carrots, a hoof pick, curry comb, syringes and a rolled up lead rope. And that was just for starters. Maybe even a rock or two. I love rocks. I pick them up off the ground all the time. It just seemed to me that there was alot of potential in those pockets. So, I bought the coat...yup, for the pockets. I love pockets. 

And wait, 

I have to be honest with you. I also bought the coat because, 

well, 

I thought I looked like the Marlboro man when I tried it on. 

You know, a cowboy. 

I always wanted to be a cowboy. Just like Johnny West. And Thunderbolt. You can't forget Thunderbolt. He was the best part. But this coat needed some serious character before any of that could happen. Over the years, it's gotten a lot of character. With two horses, you can imagine how much character this coat has gotten. My kids are embarrassed to be seen with me in public, if I am wearing this coat. "Please, can you wear something else" or "It's not that cold out, really, you don't need to wear it" or "you really need a new one, you look like a homeless man with that old coat, it's gross" they tell me with painful looks on their faces. It's a sore point in my household. But I love this coat and even if I were to win the big Lotto prize tomorrow, I would still wear it. I'll never get rid of it. This coat smells like my mare, Maarena. I bury my face in the coat and it takes me back to when I was standing right next to her, with my face buried in her silky mane. How I loved those days. Did I really understand how fleeting that time was? I was so happy then.  Every now and then, on the really bad days, I'll hug it and  I can almost feel my arms wrapped around her neck. I didn't want to let go. 

I didn't want to say good bye. 

I wasn't ready.  

Please, stay with me. 

Don't leave me. 

Please. 

So that's why I can't get rid of my coat. It's full of...character. My mare's character. I see her in this coat. That's why I can't wash it either. I see all the smudge marks from when she rubbed her head on my arm, after I wormed her. At the time, I wasn't thrilled with all that white paste that I thought would never come out but it did...sort of. And that time that she choked and all that stuff came out of her nose. That came out too. And when I needed a cloth to wipe her face and I couldn't find one and only a sleeve would do, well, that stuff came out too. It's a really good coat now. It's been repeatedly baptized by stuff, over and over and over. Why, I would say that it fits me perfectly now. Thanks to all that character and...stuff.

Bedouin Beauty: The Soulful Eye of the Arab Horse

"The first thing an Oriental looks at when buying a horse, is the head. They look for a head full of elegance, beauty and expression. They then look at the hindquarters, and if these are satisfactory they turn their attention to the legs. These are the three most important considerations." --- Prince Mohamed Aly Tewfik, from his book, Breeding Purebred Arab Horses

"....large liquid dark eyes of oval shape set deep down towards the middle of the skull." - Carl Raswan

Pictured above is the mare, Al Amal AA, a daughter of Halim Shah I and out of The Vision HG, she was bred by Chen Kedar of Ariela Arabians and owned by Kathrin Hampe Klingebiel of EOS Arabian

"The eyes are set low on the head, usually at the line which separates the upper and middle thirds. They should be large, prominent and almost oval in shape. The size of the white are of the eyeball should not be large in comparison to the black part. Eyes with too much white take much of the beauty of the typical Arabian eye."-- Dr. Ameen Zaher, from his book, Arabian Horse Breeding and the Arabians of America

 Pictured above is the deceased straight Egyptian stallion, Ansata AlMurtajiz, a son of Ansata Hejazi and out of the mare, Ansata Samsara.

"The eye should be extremely large and dark...It should be a large blunted oval, very wide open and put into the head like that of a gazelle, and set so that when the head is in a normal position the lower edge is almost exactly horizontal." -- Lady Wentworth, from her book, The Authentic Arabian Horse.

Pictured above is the mare, Saniyyah RCA, a daughter of Mishaal HP and out of the mare, My Shooting Star.

"The indwelling gentle spirit of Arabian horses finds expression in their intelligent, sympathetic features, the glory of their beautiful countenance and in their soulful eyes." - Carl Raswan

 The late Badrilbdoor Ezzain, a daughter of NK Qaswarah and out of the Ansata AlMurtajiz daughter, Azhaar Ezzain.