Breeding wishlist this spring

It’s that exciting time of the year when one starts to make plans for breeding the mares, before budget constrains kick in.. and this year there are many more mares at the virtual Aldahdah stud.. So here’s the wish list:

— K. Haifi: Javera Chelsea to Triermain CF, the next best alternative to full brother/sister mating since Javera Thadrian, Triermain’s sire and Chelsea’s brother, died.

— Ma’naqi Sbayli: Dakhala Sahra also to Triermain CF, so as not to add any new bloodlines into this line, and change the existing type (Sahra is by Plantagenet, out of a Sir daughter). Her own son Rahim Regency WAF (by Regency CF) would have been nice, but it looks difficult to pull through, given her age (27). Both matings by embryo transfer.

— K. Haifi: Wisteria CF: many options possible: Porte CF (Portico x Recherche), Aurene CF (a half brother and close relative, by Triermain CF x Aureole CF) within the strain, in addition to her own sire Triermain, like last year, because I was pleased with the outcome; Mi Majest Prince (Fair Sir x Fairy Princess, 50% Tripoli) would also be nice, if he were set to ship from; outside the strain, the list is endless: Monologue CF, Firebolt CF, Clarion CF, etc.

— Saqlawi al-‘Abd: Jadiba: ditto: Porte CF, Aurene CF, Presto CF (Ibn Alamein x Pretty Fancy) or perhaps Monologue CF (Riposte CF x Soliloquy CF). She is currently in foal to Vice Regent CF. Ideally, this mare would go to a Davenport/Blunt stallion but there are none around; the 1971 stallion Ibn Tirf (Sutan x Shillala by Gulson) was the last one, so I am set to recreate that cross, once a staple of American Arabian breeding.

— K. Krush: Bint Al Barra: a Core Haifi, probably Aurene CF, or a Core Kurush stallion, or a mix of both, so as not to add any new lines; she already has Hanad, Poka, Harara, Babe Azab, Letan, Hasiker, and all the other building blocks of modern Davenport pedigrees in the back on her own pedigree.

— K. Krush: Cinnabar Myst: ditto, as she is a full sister of the above. Perhaps these two can be serviced by the same semen shipment.

I have never thought about it in these terms before pulling this list together, and it may seem obvious to some of you, but I am coming to realize how much of my plans to contribute to the revival of old American asil Arabian horse breeding (think Kellogg and Maynesboro) revolve around Davenport Kuhaylan Haifi stallions. They are the least common denominator to all the other existing old American asil bloodlines.

The other, smaller discovery, is my realization — just as I write this — of the relevance of the lines to the Davenport Jilfan Sattam al-Bulad import *El Bulad in old asil pedigrees, outside the “straight Davenports”; he is present in the pedigrees of three of the mares now with me: Jadiba, where he comes in twice through Dahura (*El Bulad x Nanshan), and the two Krush full sisters, where he appears through Fartak (*El Bulad x *Farha). Not sure what I should be doing with this realization. Nothing, perhaps.