| Impressions and thoughts about Arabian horse breeding in Egypt |
| Text and photos: Urs Aeschbacher, copyright by Nile Arabians |
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Since hundred of years straight Egyptians are fascinating Arabian horse enthusiasts all over the world. For so many horse lovers Egyptian horses are just the embodiment of the classic Arabian horse. |
right: Type, expression and dignity are the characteristics of this straight Egyptian mare of Albadeia Stud in Cairo. |
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Today it is difficult to find any line of Arabian horses, which has not been influenced by Egyptian blood in the near past. Let’s look at Tersk, the National State Stud of Russia with the use of the famous straight Egyptian stallion Aswan (Nazeer x Yosreia) as a chief sire. The many wonderful Aswan daughters made the Russian breed word famous during the seventies. Another example is Germany with the three imported Nazeer sons Hadban Enzahi (Nazeer x Kamla), Ghazal (Nazeer x Bukra) and Kaisoon (Nazeer x Bint Kateefa). These three outstanding sires have influenced the Arabian horse breeding enormously in Germany and Europe during the last 40 years. The Polish National State Studs have strongly used the Egyptian blood too and are still using Egyptian sires on a regular basis. In the pedigrees of many recent National and International show champions from Poland we will find Egyptian blood. Examples are the Aswan son Palas or the straight Egyptian stallion Laheeb. A last example is the Egyptian influence in Spanish breeding through the Morafic son Shaker El Masri which produced on the Spanish mare Estopa a new dimension of Arabian horses called the “Golden Cross”. The famous El Shaklan (Shaker El Masri x Estopa) has outstanding progeny all over the world.
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| Two broodmares at El Zahraa |
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Not to forget El Zahraa itself, the State Stud of Egypt and the numerous smaller and lager private breeders in all parts of the world, which are strongly engaged in straight Egyptian breeding since decades. It is not quite an easy job for them to preserve the straight Egyptian Arabian horse in its quality because of the rather narrow gene pool compared to other lines. |
| But what is the secret of the Egyptian Arabian horse, which causes this deep fascination around the world. In the meantime the straight Egyptian horse became for many Arabian horse lovers the symbol of the classic and authentic Arabian horse. Is it the often-mentioned purity of the Egyptian breed? Is it the relatively direct and close oriental origin of Egyptian horses? Or is it probably the special Arabian charisma and type of these horses? |
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It
is not my intention to initiate herewith a discourse about purity of Egyptian
horses even if there are probably some fanatic breeders or clever marketing
strategists for whom purity is the main argument. “Pure” or “Not Pure”,
this issue is treated by many authors and experts excessively during the last
40 years. Finally it is a question of faith and everybody has its personal
answer. Anyway it is a matter of fact that we will meet sooner or later
“white spots” in each pedigree either of straight Egyptians or other
Arabians. But the good news are, that such “white spots” or questions marks
arisen 150 years ago, are from a scientific and genetical point of view
absolutely irrelevant for today’s Arabian horse breeding.
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