Section on rare asil lines around the world
I thought I’d gather in one place all the relevant information on this blog about those asil lines that just about to vanish. In most cases, the line is down to one single individual horse. You’ll find that information by scrolling all the way down the middle column, in a series of link called “Rare asil lines around the world”. There is also a section on “Recently Lost asil lines”. The *Samirah tail female (Hamdani Simri, from the Saud Royal Stud, Early American Foundation line) is in the first category. If we lose the last two mares, now both in a preservation program with the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse, then that lines will go from the first category (Rare) to the second (Lost). It’s as simple as that.
Edouard,
Have these blood lines been tested for DNA?
If not they should be to find out the possible link to others.
Good question, Jackson. I’ll try to answer for the horses Edouard has listed in his “rare” group.
The *Samirah line is part of the Institute’s mtDNA study. Results are still preliminary and will not be published until Dr. Penedo at UC Davis has an update accepted by a technical journal. I can tell you that preliminary results show the *Samirah line appears to match another well-known desert line rather than being a new, unique source. So it seems we have the mtDNA elsewhere.
I think it is important to note, however, that, even where we a single haplotype found in several foundation lines (such as the type A01 found for Rodania, Roga El Beda, Urfah, Wadduda, Venus, and a couple of other non-AK lines), there are usually no known desert connections among the foundation mares. One possibility is that the rest of the genes from that each mare may have been quite different, as they were bred during the past few hundred years and horses moved among tribes; there are, after all, about 30,000 genes on 64 chromosomes. So even where we might be said to have other sources of the mtDNA, the foundation mares presumably had other genetic contributions that are important.
One thing we seem to be finding is more evidence of what Edouard has said for a long time: the Desert Arabian is one horse, not different from North and South. There are more and more haplotypes represented by both “Egyptian” and other (usually Saudi or Davenport) lines.
The Institute also ran the Baraka line, thanks to a sample provided by an RSA breeder. This is more difficult to confirm, because there is just the one extant line of descent so no way to cross-check.
Selma was run for the original Bowling study and confirmed by the testing done in Poland (they have descendants of that line, too). That remains a unique haplotype (no other matching lines found so far).
*Werdi and Rodania were also done by Bowlings. I think Werdi remains unique, while I’ve mentioned the other lines that match Rodania earlier in this post.
*Aziza and *Roda both trace to Ghazieh (AP), which was tested in the original Bowling study.
Anita
Anita,
Thanks for the reply, informed. Such a group
to listen to and learn. Thanks Edouard!
Perhaps in time with your help Al Khamsa
will become the end of a long dream. A link
for all to hold the East to the West and
a study of just what is, the Bedouins Horse.
Amen.
Is it O.K. if I get into this after the Amen?
May I ask for a summary of all the facts today known regarding DNA tests done on Arabians? It would be very interesting and helpful to all of us.
Thank You very much in advance!
Matthias,
I have compiled what has been published by the Bowlings and from the Polish study. And I have a list of the lines that are part of the Institute study. I will send it to Edouard and he can break it up into manageable bits and post it.
Shall I include the presumed “non-asil” lines also?
Anita
Yes, please do. This is a subject that will get a lot of traction and it will introduce you as a guest blogger on Daughters of the Wind.
Are you concerned about the loss of Hamdani simri from the Asil only or the arabian breed as a whole because I’m pretty certain it still exists.
Oh, just the remaining asil ones to Selma through Safarjal. The non-asil Selma lines are pretty well represened though Silver Fire and others. I don’t care about them.
As far as I can see no one here has mentioned the other rare Al Khamsa Hamdan Simri female line to the mare Tizzy (Tripoli x Arabesque) bred by Charles Craver. This comes from the Blunt bred mare *Simawa (Rustem x Sarama and hence to Selma) that was imported to the U.S. in 1918 by W.R. Brown. I am quite sure there are still some younger Al Khamsa females from this line though very few. They should be considered rare and important to this strain.
They certainly are, but unfortunately they are almost gone, too! They are in better shape than the *Samirah or Safarjal lines, but still very fragile. We’ll cover them in the Preservation series in the Khamsat very soon. *Samirah is being done for the issue in progress, which was delayed while we got the website completed.
I remember Sharon’s flow chart about Al Khamsa: Joe, Get Busy!
Here we are: Get Busy!
Oops! I did not mean to imply Joe, Get Busy! That was a note to self!