My reply to the Top Ten Mare List

Since I do not have a website and I could not find a place in the comment window to post some pictures with my list, I am instead offering it as a blog post. So here goes.

Well Edouard you have done it again! How can I pick just ten? Maybe next week the list will change but instead of going crazy I decided without over-thinking to post my top ten. I could not rank them in any particular order so there is no preferential treatment in my list as each is significant to me for different reasons. One thing that is common to most all of them is that I like very much their genetic influence as I have seen many descendants from all of these, except one whose line is extinct in Al Khamsa.

My top ten mare list with reasons for them:

1. *Ansata Bint Bukra (Nazeer x Bukra), though crippled, she was absolutely magnificent and radiated beauty from within her soul as well as exterior. Once you saw her you never forgot her. She is now hugely influential world-wide.

2. Dharebah (Dhareb x Antarah) – I did not see her but saw many of her produce and grandget, great grandget etc. She is truly a cornerstone of the Davenport program. (Dam of Ceres that Edouard picked, who was another of my favorites.) Dharebah was significant in so many ways in the Davenport program. There is a special “Dharebah” look with those huge black eyes that is so recognizable in so many of her descendants.

3. Faarecho (Sirecho x Faara) – you just had to know this mare in person. She was small, deserty, with paper thin skin. She looked as if she were carved from ivory. She was like a Victor Adam 19th century engraving. She was beautiful and kind, and left an incredible impression on me. Many of her decendants also retained that very fine quality.

4. Anchor Hill Jewel (Joramir x Anchor Hill Serfa [the War Mare]) – the best we ever owned. She was so many things we admire in a classic Asil mare. I could write much more but not enough room.

5. Bint Antan (El Alamein x Antan) – another huge influence in Davenport breeding through both daughters and sons. She was lovely, dry, shapely, with wonderful expressive eyes.

6. *Ghazalahh (Mashhour x Bint Farida) – The Gleannloch import, chosen just for her sheer magnificence alone. Another one that you never forgot when you saw her.

7. *HH Mohamed Alis Hamama (Kawkab x Mahroussa) – I think this was the finest mare of Prince Mohamed Ali’s breeding imported to the US. She was tough call for me, because *Maaroufa was nearly equal in my choice. I saw movie footage of HH Mohamed Alis Hamama and talked with people who remembered her. Sadly she was not replaced within Al Khamsa, a tragedy for such a great mare.

8. Turfara (*Fadl x *Turfa) – I did not see her but most of her produce, and grandget etc. Her influence was exceptional and she has been enormously influential on the Blue Star breeding program as well as on Egyptian-Turfa and combined source breeding in general.

9. *Al Hamdaniah (an Abayyan x a Hamdaniyah of Saud) – another big influence on the Blue Star breeding program plus her influence is so classically desert like with the same kind of clean bone dryness as found in Faarecho. If you saw Bint Sirecho and her daughters you know what mean.

10. Gulnare (*Rodan x *Ghazala 211) – Seemingly one of the best of all of early WR Brown’s breeding. So much quality comes down from this mare. One need only trace the first few generations from her to see how influential she was not only for Al Khamsa but so much of American Arabian breeding in general.

Pictured below are *Ghazalahh (Mashhour x Bint Farida) and

Anchor Hill Jewel (Joramir x Anchor Hill Serfa)