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Egyptian Pedigree Assignment:
Establishing an Egyptian Breeding Program
by Coreada Kelly
November/December 1998 DHR
When I got back into the model horse hobby late last year, I decided that I would pedigree all of my models as straight Egyptians. Egyptian Arabians are those purebreds who trace to horses owned or bred by Abbas Pasha I or Ali Pasha Sherif, the Royal Agricultural Society or Egyptian Agricultural Organization (excluding Registan and Sharkasi), or a private stud program in Egypt (such as the Sheykh Obeyd stud owned by the Blunts). Like many of the people who love Arabians, part of the immortal appeal of the breed is the romance surrounding their ancient and legendary origins. For me, the Egyptian Arabians offer even more of that almost mysterious romance. I have done some studying of Egypt-- in fact, in college I took a course in Egyptian hieroglyphics-so it already was a culture and land that interested me (in no small part, of course, because of the horses!). The mythology of the Nile, the grandeur of the e pyramids, the silent knowingness of the Sphinx-- all of these seemed somehow connected with the lost origins of the Arabian. Then, in an issue of Arabian Horse World, I saw a picture of an Egyptian Arabian farm. The horses wandered green pastures, and in the background, silent sentinel to the horses and the ages, stood the pyramids. I had once written a poem about an Arabian saying she had grown tall and proud in the shadows of the pyramids. I had spoken metaphorically, but here were Arabians doing exactly that! And that was the beginning of my fascination with and admiration of the Egyptian Arabian. Egyptians also tend toward the refinement and body type I prefer. They are, in my opinion, exceptional animals-- Egyptians make up less than 2% of the Arabians registered in the US, yet they hold 30% of the National titles-- so it was a good matchall around!
I also decided to make my models foundation-bred (for those of you unfamiliar with the term, foundation-bred means that at least one of the parents is real). I intended to assign pedigrees to all of my old OF models, then use them to pedigree my future OFs and customs. As it turns out, my efforts to make them all straight Egyptians were both difficult and fun! I enjoyed the research, but it is definitely not for the squeamish! Egyptian-related will be much simpler for those of you who prefer it; but if you want to stick to straight Egyptian, and you have a lot of horses to pedigree, prepare yourself for a lot of hours of research!
I began by dissecting two years' worth of Arabian Horse World magazines. These were not consecutive years; one set was from 1987 and the other covered late 96 to 97. 1 used horses from the 187 magazines to pedigree my older breeding stock, and horses from the 96-97 mags for the younger models. Oftentimes ads would state whether a stallion was straight Egyptian or not; if I wasn't sure, I would hold the horse's picture aside until I found further proof. A tip here: if you want to use a horse but you aren't sure he's straight Egyptian (or any other type!), look for ads featuring his offspring. If the offspring are touted as pure or straight in type, you're all right!
Mares are a special case. "At stud" ads are easy to find, but good (real) breeding mares are notoriously difficult to locate (and find pedigrees for). I found several mares to use from articles, rather than ads (the Egyptian issues of AHW came in really handy here, too!). An article on Imperial and another on Ansata really helped.
In addition to the magazines, I had also contacted the Pyramid Society for information (this had nothing to do with models-- I will hopefully be shopping for a real horse within the next year or so). Part of the packet of information they sent me included a great magazine-format book on Egyptians, which also proved invaluable.
The Intemet was another priceless fount of knowledge. There are a multitude of webpages devoted to Arabians, and quite a few which deal solely with Egyptians. Here I found a wonderful article about establishing an Egyptian breeding program. While much of it obviously doesn't apply to model Arabians, I was surprised at how much of it could be adapted. The article listed eight steps towards establishing your program, which are:
1. Identify your ideal.
2. Feel the passion.
3. Identify the source.
4. Learn about conformation.
5. Choose your "Signature Look."
6. Search for individuals.
7. Create the foundation herd.
8. Breed judiciously and objectively.
Obviously step #8 doesn't apply directly to model horses, though as "breeders" we may take our pedigree assignments very seriously-- carefully blending lines and strains that we think in live horses would produce outstanding individuals-- but the other seven can be applied completely to models.
These are the steps I tried to follow as I pedigreed my models. I identified my ideal-- the Egyptian. More specifically, I'm a headhunter who strongly believes that a pretty head on a lousy body is a waste! An Arab should be a blend of all the things-beauty, type, agility, grace, strength, endurance, soundness-- that makes him the horse he is. Identifying the source led me to the EAO, Ansata, and Imperial, as well as choosing a couple of stallions from Simeon, Kehilan, and a few other places. The main influence on my program was clear to me: Moniet El Nefous, Queen of the EAO. She appears in almost every one of my horses'pedigrees.
The nexct step for me was assignment-- actually picking out which models should be assigned which real parents. I made most of my OFs as old as I could, since I intend to use many of them (especially the mares) for quite some time. Don't be afraid to make your models older! One of my mares, in fact, is pedigreed 1966. My intent is to use the mares as long as I need them to produce new "offspring"-- any OFs I acquire from here on out as well as my own CMs-- and to retire the stallions when I have offspring to carry on their lines (with a particular effort to breed daughters from them). That way I have a nice base of bloodlines to work with, but eventually will have a reasonable number of stallions to choose from in comparison to my number of mares-you just don't need that many stallions when you're not standing to outside models!
One thing in particular that someone pedigreeing their models as Egyptians must be aware of-- most Egyptians are incredibly linebred to Nazeer. I have a couple of horses that have only one or two crosses to him, but when I decide to bring in new blood, it will be non-Nazeer.
After I got the models pedigreed, I filled out pedigree forms for each of them with as much information as I had. I used the magazines and the Internet for this (it's amazing the number of pedigrees you can pull up on the net by searching for Moniet or *Morafic!). I still have some blanks, but I keep an ever-vigilant eye out for pedigrees! (I believe my proudest pedigree assignment "moment" came when I finally finished my two recent customs-- the first horses I've done since I dropped out of the hobby years ago-- and filled out their pedigree forms. They are the first models I've been able to fill out complete forms for I have complete pedigrees on them going back five generations.) I slid these pedigree forms into sheet protectors and put them all in a three-ring binder. Behind each form is a sheet with that horses production information- offspring and color genetics (noting which colors that horse can produce). This way I can see at a glance a mare's open years, and whether that model can produce the color I need.
This all was, as I'm sure it sounds, an awful lot of time and trouble, but filling in those blanks on a pedigree form can be incredibly rewarding! And, until I decide to add new blood, the "hard part" is finished--now I know that every horse I pedigree from my own models will trace to real horses, and be straight Egyptian. Now all I have to do is finish the couple dozen models I have planned!
(If you have any questions about establishing an Egyptian program, I'd be happy to answer any questions I can or point you in the direction of those who can!)