Horse Breeding: The Egyptian Arabian Horse

Horse Breeding

The number five is important in the history of the Egyptian Arabian horse. There were five dominant families within the breed, each strain possessing its own characteristics.

AL KHAMSA

About 1635 B.C., Sheik Salaman owned five famous mares that had shown themselves to be fiercely loyal. Legend has it that Al Khamsa, (the five,) were the only mares in Salaman's herd that returned to their master when the battle trumpet blew, although they had not yet slaked their thirst at a desert oasis. From these five mares descended the five types of Arabian horse. They were called Keheilan, Seglawi, Hamdani, Abeyan and Hadban.

THE LEGACY OF THE PASHAS

The Egyptian Arabian made great strides under the patronage of the ruthless founder of modern Egypt, Muhammad Ali Pasha. In addition to being a shrewd politician, he was also a passionate collector of Arabian war horses. After crushing a rebel Saudi tribe in the Nejd desert, he demanded Arabia's most valiant desert horses as a condition of peace. He subsequently built palatial stables for what grew to be a collection of 1100 prized Arabian horses.

Abbas Pasha inherited his grandfather's title, and also his Arabian herd. With a romantic side to his character, Abbas Pasha considered the Arabian horses to be living masterpieces. He sought to emulate the breeding practices of the Bedouins, thereby setting a standard for purity. His emissaries were dispatched to search the desert, whatever hardships and danger they might endure, to procure horses with esteemed pedigrees. A methodical man, he compiled information about his horses' backgrounds into a document known as the Abbas Pasha Manuscripts.

When Abbas Pasha was assassinated in 1854, the herd was auctioned off to buyers from France, Germany, Australia and members of the Egyptian nobility. Ali Pasha Sherif, son of the Governor of Arabia, bought forty horses at auction, and repurchased many that had been sold to others. He established his own herd and by 1873, he had a collection of 400 pure Arabian horses. Most of these were destroyed in the late 1870's by an outbreak of African Horse Sickness. Only the horses he had moved to northern Egypt survived.

OLD EGYPTIANS

In 1889, Ali Pasha Sherif sold Messaoud to Lady Anne Blunt, who exported the horse to England, where he became a legendary sire. When Ali Pasha Sherif died in 1897, Lady Blunt purchased many of the best horses from his herd, dividing them between her Sheykh Obeyd Stud near Cairo, and her Crabbet Park Stud in England. Due to Lady Blunt's success with Messaoud, the reputation of the beautiful Egyptian Arabian horses became legend and attracted buyers from around the world.

Henry Babson first came under the spell of the Arabian horse while working at the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. In 1932, he traveled to Egypt and bought seven horses, realizing the dream of owning the beautiful breed. A "Babson Arabian" is a horse with the bloodlines of those original seven. His horses tend to have dark coloration, and one of his Egyptian Arabians became the genetic source for black Arabian horses. Although Babson died in 1970, the breeding operation he established in Grand Detour, Illinois continued until 1999.

Horses descending from this early era are called "Old Egyptians."

NEW EGYPTIANS

Many of the Ali Pasha Sherif horses were sold to wealthy Egyptian nobility. The Egyptian Government recognized the importance of the herds of Abbas Pasha and Ali Pasha Sherif and in 1908, the Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) was formed to preserve Egyptian's equine treasures. After the overthrow of King Farouk in 1952, the Egyptian Arabian stud farms were confiscated by the RAS, now called the Egyptian Agricultural Organization, or EAO.

The EAO later sold some of the confiscated horses to modern buyers. Those horses and their descendants are sometimes referred to as "New Egyptians."

BLUE LIST, AL KHAMSA and ASIL ARABIANS

From 1952 until the 1970's, Jane Lewellyn Ott compiled "The Blue Arabian Horse Catalog," or "Blue List," a catalog of horses who traced directly, in every line, to the desert, either from Bedouin Tribes or through Abbas Pasha and Lady Blunt, who purchased exclusively from these sources. An organization called Al Khamsa continued Miss Ott's work and created their own list.

The group Sheykh Obeyd was formed in 1980, in honor of Lady Blunt's Egyptian stables. They use the Al Khamsa standard for their own list of Sheykh Obeyd "Old Egyptian" Arabians. Straight Egyptian Arabians are created by crossing strains which have an undisputedly pure desert heritage. Not every horse on Al Khamsa's list is considered to be a Straight Egyptian Arabian.

In Europe, horses whose bloodlines are traced to the desert are known as Asil Arabians. 'Asil' is the Arabic word for 'pure.'

THE CRABBET ARABIANS

Lady Wentworth inherited the Crabbet Arabian Stud, but did not inherit Lady Anne Blunt's devotion to the Bedouin ideal of desert purity. Under Lady Wentworth's management, the complexion of the Crabbet Arabians was completed changed. Even so, Crabbet Arabians carry pedigrees with a high percentage of Straight Egyptian Arabian blood.

THE EGYPTIAN EVENT

Every June, lovers of the Egyptian Arabian horse make a pilgrimage to the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, Kentucky. There the Pyramid Society, which is devoted to the preservation of the purebred Egyptian Arabian horse, conducts the annual Egyptian Event, where breeders of Straight Egyptian Arabians can attend seminars, compete for cash prizes in performance exhibitions, and behold the cream of the crop from the most prestigious breeding farms.

THE EGYPTIAN INFLUENCE

Straight Egyptian Arabians played a starring role in the founding of the Polish, Spanish and Russian Arabian breeding programs. Modern Arabian breeders are rediscovering the value of infusing their bloodlines with Straight Egyptian Arabian blood. Even other breeds are strengthened with the addition of Arabian prepotency. Endurance, refinement, good temper and beauty are the hallmarks of this ancient breed.

In the American show ring, the most successful horses carry Straight Egyptian blood. Although they comprise less than 2% of American-registered Arabians, Straight Egyptian Arabians hold 30% of all National titles.

ENDURANCE OF THE EGYPTIAN ARABIAN HORSE

Purity of breed was an obsession with Bedouin Arabs. The torch of this exquisite equine obsession was passed on to the Pashas, then the Blunts and on to Henry Babson. To dedicated breeders, diluting the purity of the line is as much a sin as it was for the Bedouins. The preservation of these pureblooded equines is the primary goal of today's modern breeders of the Egyptian Arabian horse.