OLD VALUES NEW LEVELS:
AND
USING LONG DEAD STALLIONS FOR BREEDING by B etty Fi n ke
There probably isn’t a breeder who has not sometimes wished he could use one of the great sires of the past. What breeder of straight Egyptians wouldn’t jump at the chance of a breeding to, say, *Morafic? Or, even better, Nazeer himself? Who would not stand in line for a breeding to *Bask? What about *Padron, or Bey Shah? But wait – you can do that! Not *Bask or *Morafic, but *Padron and Bey Shah are among the long deceased top sires that are still available by frozen semen. A new Bey Shah filly was foaled just this spring. Such are the wonders of modern science and technology. In actual fact, the Russians got there first. Aswan was very likely the first major sire to have his semen frozen and preserved for many years after his
ASWAN
APOLLON TERSK (Aswan x Pelonia), posing next to the bronze of his long dead sire Aswan.
FINKE PHOTOS
(Nazeer x Yosreia)
death, as well as the case in which the longest time elapsed between the freezing and the actual use of the semen. For 47 years, it was stored at the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Horse Breeding, until the new management at Tersk in 2012 decided to start an experiment and use frozen semen from the top sires of the past. This included not only Aswan, but also his son and successor Mashuk and the full brothers *Muscat and *Moment, whose semen had been frozen prior to their exportation. In the case of Aswan, they were in for an unpleasant surprise. Having been frozen at a fairly early date, long before such things became a matter of routine, the semen was not portioned in straws, but all of it was in one bag. Once unfrozen, it *MUSCAT had to be (Salon x Malpia by Priboj) used all at once. Tersk used it on all mares that BELOSNEJKA happened to TERSK be in season (*Muscat x Borodina), at the time. 2016 Russian But, possibly National Champion due to the Junior Mare. age of the semen, only one of them, Pelopia, conceived. In January 2014,
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Aswan’s last foal was born, a colt named Apollon Tersk. While not stallion material, he still became Tersk’s most widely publicized male horse and has become a fixture at the stud, where visitors regularly ask to see the famous Aswan’s posthumous son. As far as the breeding program was concerned, Tersk fared better with the others. In 2013 and 2014, three foals were born by Mashuk, two by *Moment, and four by *Muscat. The *Muscat daughter Belosnejka Tersk stepped into the limelight in 2016, when she was named Best In Show at the Russian National Show. She has produced three foals to date, all of them colts. What exactly is the appeal of using the great sires of yesterday, rather than their modern and more “fashionable” descendants? Judith Forbis, who is no longer breeding, but whose masterpiece Ansata Halim Shah, dead since 1995, has quietly fathered a handful of foals in recent years, says: “I would not hesitate to breed to a stallion that I felt would provide something specifically needed in my program, or to reinforce certain traits that this stallion was dominant for. It is entirely possible that some breeders have not achieved their desired vision in their breeding program and find that use of a particular deceased sire would give them the qualities they have either lost or never had in the first place. Or to reinforce certain traits that this stallion was known for (hopefully not too far back in the pedigree) by reintroducing him. The results greatly depend on how prepotent a sire he
BEY SHAH
(Bay El Bey x Star Of Ofir)
The filly BELLA SHAHTINA (Bey Shah x Bella Valentina FA by DA Valentino).
*PADRON
(Patron x Odessa)
Colt by *Padron and out of Lady Aria ORA by JJ Senior Magnum.
was (was he inbred, line bred, or outcrossed?) as well as the mare he is to be bred to – is she similar or of a totally different breeding? Then, too, there are always those individuals who breed to be fashionable. Having a new foal by a famous stallion may enhance their own stature as breeders even though it may or may not be a suitable match, e.g., just breeding champions to champions without consideration of the heritable traits.” In this context, it is hardly surprising that most of the deceased stallions still siring foals come from today’s fashionable dynasties of show horses. In fact, some of them founded these dynasties in the first place. They include the above-mentioned Bey Shah and *Padron, as well as Padrons Psyche, Versace, and DA Valentino. All of these, as well as Falcon BHF, have been used in recent years at Midwest. When asked why, David Boggs replies, “To reboot, to restore, and to recreate some of the greatest traits that these genetic giants so powerfully possessed and passed on to their offspring. To continue each of our responsibilities to improve the breed, to not lose the precious bloodlines that brought the level of quality to where it is today.” To the question if the thrill is still there after all these years, he asserts: “The thrill is most definitely still there! Just imagine how it warms my heart to look into the eyes of a newborn son or daughter of my best friend, the Kingmaker, *Padron, or to experience the buzz of the One and Only Bey Shah in his newborn foals of this era. Our joy is boundless.” Looking at the foals, including this year’s lovely Bella Shahtina, it is not hard to see why. But, while
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horses like *Padron, Bey Shah, Versace, and Ansata Halim Shah were game changers in their day, the world (and the industry) has changed and moved on, and their descendants have reached a whole new level. Though it depends on your point of view whether this is for better or worse, these horses are winning championships across the globe. Given this, why would a breeder today use these horses rather than their very popular descendants? “I don’t agree that the world and the industry have changed,” argues David Boggs, “at least not completely. We all still have that love, passion, and drive and the new breeders do as well. As we did then, we continue optimistically; carefully, selectively, and knowledgably using the bloodlines that produce and perpetuate those rare and special qualities and produce today’s champions. Thus, we are doing our part in helping strengthen the breed and the market today. While we certainly have some tremendous young sires available today, in many cases the descendants have lost some of those important, specific, and precious traits we sought in breeding the best Arabian horses for decades. If one was to study the breeding classes in today’s shows, they might notice some traits that we need more of. In some bloodlines, the ear placements have grown wider and wider, correct tail sets and long, straight, correct tail bones are not easy to find. The large, dark, ethereal eyes that made us fall in love with the Arabian are more and more difficult to see, and the sires that reproduce these cornerstone ideals are few and far between. Breeders today want to use these foundation stallions for precisely the reasons I
DA VALENTINO
(Versace x Da Love)
The filly BLACK ROSE (DA Valentino x Glory V by DA Valentino).
KHEMOSABI
(Amerigo* x Jurneeka)
IBN KHEMOSABI (Khemosabi x Kally Thyme SA by Pryme Thyme).
explained above. God has given man ‘another bite of the apple’ through frozen semen and new technology, a chance, an opportunity to relive the experience and realize the excellence in breeding the best Arabian horses.” On the same subject, Judith Forbis explains: “The fact that the descendants of a stallion (and the mares they were bred to) have reached a ‘whole new level’ does not necessarily mean the descendants are better, more beautiful, or more consistent in siring or producing quality. Not all the descendants have reached ‘a new level’ nor are as good (in type) as some of the famous foundation stallions. Or maybe many are as good, but different. I would put Ansata Ibn Halima, Ansata Ibn Sudan and Ansata Halim Shah up against any of their descendants for quality and type. Reintroduction of a stallion may serve to bring back some traits that were lost – depending on where that foundation stallion sits in the pedigree. I have found over time that occasionally one has to take a step backward to move forward.” It goes without saying that, aside from breeding exclusively for the show ring, specialist breeding groups benefit the most from having access to semen from long lost sires. Straight Egyptians are a case in point. Eileen Verdieck, who built a whole new breeding program based on the use of long dead stallions (see sidebar), says: “My motivation for using stallions that have been deceased for several generations had a lot to do with the fact that I have specialized through my career of almost 50 years in the breeding, marketing, and consulting of the straight Egyptian horse, and over the last 30 years SE horses have been purchased in great numbers
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by new breeders throughout the world, especially in the Gulf States and the Middle East, which resulted in making the limited gene pool even more limited than it was before. We have also lost much of certain bloodlines as the horses were spread throughout the world and certain bloodlines were more preferred than others, thus shrinking the choices even more. “I spent many years trying to encourage breeders to keep diversity in their bloodlines, but it was getting harder to encourage or convince them to take a chance on bringing more outcross blood into their straight Egyptian pedigrees to help all SE breeders throughout the world. “Early in my career, when the gene pool was small but more diverse, I knew how difficult it was to produce a straight Egyptian horse that was still beautiful and correct enough to compete successfully against purebred Arabian horses in the show arena. Now, with even fewer breeding options, it has become much more difficult to produce straight Egyptian horses that can cross over. “Luckily, many straight Egyptian breeders in the U.S. froze the semen of some of those early stallions and I was able to convince some of my clients that this could be a way to keep the bloodlines of their favorite horses close up in their pedigrees and bring the good qualities forward to the future with diversity on the female line.” One of the key points within this breeding philosophy is the opportunity to combine the blood of these stallions with dam lines they were not previously bred to. “We’re finding that when we cross these great deceased stallions with mares they might not have had a chance to breed to while they were alive, the majority of the offspring have many, if not all the qualities those stallions were famous for,” Eileen Verdieck explains, but also points out that it is not only a question of locating available horses, but of careful study and planning. “I discovered many times that, even though the pedigree is so important especially within the Egyptian bloodlines, the phenotype or the conformation of the two horses was just as important. I was able to trace back in many of those stallions’ offspring and see what were those stallions’ ‘predominant-dominant’ traits, as I call them. These are traits that the stallions
ANSATA HALIM SHAH
(Ansata Ibn Halima x Ansata Rosetta)
A filly out of Xandria HEC by Ansata Halim Shah.
The filly NARIMAN ALFALA by Ansata Halim Shah and out of Nadia Saqr.
An Ansata Halim Shah colt out of a PVA Kariim daughter.
A colt by Ansata Halim Shah out of Xandria HEC.
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“BACK TO THE FUTURE STRAIGHT EGYPTIAN BREEDING PROGRAM” by Eileen Verdieck
I’m a big believer in having diversity and choices in the straight Egyptian bloodlines as it is such a small closed gene pool and it is getting harder and harder to breed a balanced, typey, well conformed SE horse with so many breeders only breeding “like to like” rather than outcrossing. Over the last 30 years I have found it very difficult for new breeders to believe that to breed a great SE horse one needs to use outcross blood more than ever, but most breeders are not willing to give the outcross blood a chance. After spending my entire adult life devoted to assisting breeders all over the world to breed the best possible SE horse that they could, if there is anything I have learned it is that breeding the straight Egyptian horse is not an endeavor one should undertake if “instant gratification” is one’s goal. It is The 2019 colt the journey that matters in the NAYMAR long run, not the destination. ALFALA (PVA So I came up with the idea of Kariim x Nadia “hind sight breeding” (I call it Saqr). “Back To The Future Breeding”), which is where I have located frozen semen from excellent stallions that have long passed away, such as Ansata Halim Shah, Imperial Madheen, PVA Kariim and Ansata Sinan to name a few, and breed them to mares that were not typically used with those stallions in the past. The idea was to bring forward the blood of those tremendous sires that passed on certain desirable traits and cross them with modern mares, hand picked for their conformation and diverse pedigrees. Mares and pedigrees these stallions never had a chance to breed when they were alive. I started this program with a few of my clients from the Gulf States and the Middle East that believed in the same vision as I do about three years ago. There are now over 30 lovely foals by all four of those stallions. It is early to tell how successful my clients and I will be, but from the ones that are on the ground now, I am sure they will be very important to the future of breeding the SE horse. One of the oldest is Naymar Alfala, a two year old son of PVA Kariim and out of the lovely full sister to Nabeela Sakr, Nadya Sakr. Rakan Altobashi from Saudi Arabia purchased this beautiful mare from the famed breeder Omar Sakr in Egypt and shipped her here to the US to be part of his “Back to the Future” SE Breeding Program.
Naymar Alfala was only in training for less than two months with the talented trainer, Sandro Pinha and was named Reserve Junior Champion SE Colt against horses much older than himself. Naymar and the other resulting foals make me very excited about how much they might be able to contribute to the future of SE breeding. I am so thankful to my wonderful clients (Alfala and Al Rashediah Stud and Pearl Arabians) that have PVA KARIIM trusted me in undertaking (Imperial Imdal x this risky and, needless to BKA Rakiisah) say, expensive program to try and give SE breeders around the world more colors on their breeding palette to paint the masterpieces of their dreams. I was finding that particularly in the straight Egyptian horse, where pedigrees are often considered more important than conformation and quality, it is so important especially for the new breeders that they understand that the SE gene pool is getting dangerously smaller and smaller. Each stallion that has been chosen for use in this program, was a proven sire and in much demand for the different qualities or traits that were unique to himself, and with all horses the good sometimes would come with some bad. So what we tried to do was to bring the blood and the good qualities forward from the past to the future with using hindsight to insure that the resulting offspring still possessed the type that breeders expect from the SE horse, but also with good conformational qualities that have somewhat been lost in the straight Egyptian horse. A well balanced horse with good clean straight legs and a laid back shoulder with a high neck set and throat latch that is fine and well shaped. Also it is important that the offspring have large black open eyes and dark pigment, which is really needed in the modern straight Egyptian horse. I feel blessed and happy for my clients that they have some very unique and promising young horses from this program and I feel confident it will be proven as something that was very important and also possibly game changers in themself.
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were well known for constantly siring in their offspring more IMPERIAL predominantly than other traits. MADHEEN Once I had learned what (Messaoud x Madinah) conformational qualities had been consistently produced in the best offspring of these stallions, I then searched throughout the United States to find the best mares that could possibly retain those desired qualities, but could also improve on the weak areas of the resulting foals. “I was able to find some lovely mares in the U.S. that we used for the program. In addition, I was fortunate that my clients were willing to send some of their best A colt by Imperial Madheen, left, and a filly by Imperial Madheen, right, both out of Xandria HEC, who is out of a full sister to PVA Kariim. mares of many different bloodlines to the United States so we could have a better chance of producing high quality and This is surely true of all breeders who dedicate valuable offspring. their programs to preserving rare and fading “Over the last three years we have produced bloodlines. It should be an incentive to act before it about 30 offspring that are currently in the United is too late. The technology exists, but it is up to the States and are waiting for their owners (who have breeders to make use of it. In an ideal scenario, been delayed due to Covid-19) to see the results frozen semen should be produced from all stallions of their efforts.” whose bloodlines are endangered before the While straight Egyptian breeders can already opportunity is irrevocably gone. This not only applies benefit from such achievements, other to old horses, but also to young ones, because you preservation groups are less fortunate. What never know what might happen. Last year in Britain, about the Crabbet and CMK breeders and others a young 100% Crabbet stallion of superb quality and who, defying the dictates of show ring fashion, irreplaceable bloodlines was lost in a freak accident, strive to keep alive bloodlines that are in danger of having sired just three foals. Ironically, he was becoming lost beneath the dominance of the more owned by a stud farm that markets frozen semen, fashionable bloodlines? Sadly, there is no frozen including the deceased performance sires semen from the likes of Abu Farwa, Azraff, Ferzon, Remington Steele and Russian racing legend Fadjur, or any other of the great American sires of Sambist. But no one expects a four-year-old horse the past. The last great sire of this background was just beginning his career to be suddenly gone. Khemosabi, and there was frozen semen after Like other reproductive technologies, including his death, from which a son was born in 2012. Aptly embryo transfer, AI and frozen semen have become named Ibn Khemosabi, he sadly died while still staples of the modern Arabian industry and are young, and it does not look as if there will be most commonly employed for producing show any others. horses. It seems overdue that those breeders with a “I think that there is frozen Khemosabi semen different, preservationist agenda, take advantage of somewhere,” says Paul Husband, “but the vet in such opportunities. The great sires of the past are Southern California who had almost all of the frozen gone and can’t be brought back. Before the last of Khemo semen failed to back up the power to her their sons and grandsons disappear for good, freezer and when there was a power failure, ALL of measures should be taken to prevent them from it was lost. Fortunately for that vet, I am not litigious. disappearing as well. One day, we may well have But I lament. I wish we had it. I would use it.” need of them.
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