Dosage

Today, my Barakah was bred to Monologue CF. I love this young mare of mine, and I am looking forward to the outcome of that cross.

In general, I find that this particular branch of the *Nufoud damline is a diamond in the rough. It has plenty of desert type, but some defects too. Barakah’s dam Belle is the most deserty mare I own, but the girth lacks some depth, the back is a tad long, the forehead a little narrow and the barrel — the rib cage — is not round enough for my taste. But she has plenty of bone, long ears, a proud carriage and the croup and tail set are just the way they should be.

The addition of Wadd — Barakah’s sire — fixed the girth, the longish back and the ribcage, all structural features that I have found hard to fix in one generation, but it messed up the croup. Barakah inherited her sire’s short droopey croup and short-ish hip, although when moving like in the pictures below, this does not show. So I am hoping Monologue will now fix the croup with his long, straight hip like in the photo, without affecting the deeper girth and ribcage. I also hope he will bring the larger eye, the broad foreheard and the extra balance without impacting the old-style, desert type of this line. Then again, I would hate it if all my horses were to converge towards a single “perfect” type and lose the individual features of each line. It’s a subtle dosage, and it may not work from the first try.

Above, Monologue in his youth at Jackson Hensley’s in New Mexico.