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In
the literature of the Arabian breed the word type has, in my opinion,
caused more confusion than any other word. For the purpose of
this essay we will define "breed type" as those characteristics that
are specific and unique to the Arabian breed. These
characteristics include the head, neck, top line, quality, and way of
going. The head is to be triangular; it is to be wide at the
eyes and refined at the muzzle. A dish below the eyes is
desirous; a Roman nose is most undesirable. The eyes should
be large, soft, and set well apart. The neck should be well
shaped, clean at the throatlatch and very mobile at the pole.
The top line should be quite flat with emphasis on a short strong back
and powerful croup. Quality includes dryness; i.e. the skin
being very tight over the rest of the body and a soft hair
coat. The motion should be elegant, very elastic, and liquid
in its portrayal. |
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There are very practical reasons for
all of the above characteristics. An attractive triangular
head with large eyes that are well set apart indicates intelligence and
a desire to please. Since the neck and head are the horses
balancing mechanism, the neck needs to be clean at the throatlatch and
well hinged at the pole to allow the horse to stay in balance with
ease. A short strong back indicates a clean line for the
energy of impulsion to travel and drive the horse forward.
Length of croup, and the depth of hip and croup, are important for the
horse to perform as an athlete.
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| Dryness
is that quality that expresses hard dry dense bone, hard dry tendons
and ligaments, clean joints and a soft supple skin and hair
coat. These characteristics were what attracted early day
cavalry men to include the Arabian breed in the production of their
horses, for these characteristics were what gave soundness to their
horses in the long marches. In the desert, the horse was bred
to be an athlete and often the horses life depended on this
ability. When all of the characteristics of type are in place
and are in harmony, then liquid fluid motion, the kind that could cover
desert sand all day, is the result. |
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If we are then to apply the above definition of
type to the horses we come in contact with today, we then need to
recognize that the breed is made up worldwide of a number of different
types or flavors of Arabian horses within the "breed type".
This occurred because each tribe from Arabia created a different type,
or flavor to suit their own purposes (much as we create different types
of automobiles). To use terminology that is common in Europe,
these different types are identified by the names: Kuheilan, Seglawi, Managhi, Hadban, and others
that are lesser known. The Arabian breed is a very old breed
and due to the physicality of its origin (i.e. isolation in the desert
over a long time and especially isolation of the individual tribes),
the genetic base of the breed is very concentrated and the various
types are therefore genetically very prepotent. It is
therefore of great importance that the creative breeder recognizes the
various types and their contribution to the whole. It is not
productive for the breeder to judge all horses in the breed against one
type, or model, for in doing so the breeder eliminates much of value
that could contribute to his or her program. |
Negatiw (Naseem x
Taraszcza)
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As
an example, Negatiw
was by the noted Seglawi
sire Naseem,
and out of a Menaghi
mare, yet he contributed greatly as a sire of significance in both
Russia and Poland siring horses of Excellent Seglawi type. Seglawi horses are
of strong oriental type, having triangular heads, large expressive
eyes, well shaped necks, very round body parts, and great
beauty. Common examples of this model are the Raffles and Skowronek bred
horses, the Naseem
bred horses such as Negatiw
and his offspring, and many of the horses originating from the Abbas
Pasha stud.
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The Kuhailan horses
usually have more elongations through the head and are more angular in
structure, often with more emphasis on a strong system of levers.
They are often longer through the croup and hip area with
some slope to the croup. Examples of this flavor are the Kuhailan Haifi
horses such as Bask,
to include many of his offspring, and the Priboj horses such
as Pietuszok.
Horses
of the Hadban
flavor are horses of good size with large muscle mass, substantial
bone, and a good system of levers. Their heads are expressive
but often somewhat large. Examples of this flavor are some of
the Crabbet horses such as Nuredinn
and Berk. |
Pietuszok (Priboj x
Taktika)
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*Berk (Seyal x
Bukra)
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The
Managhi
flavor horse, while not very common in America, are important to the
breed as a whole. These are horses with a very strong system
of levers, great angulation, longish and rather plainish heads, great
stamina, and great speed. Examples of this flavor are some of
the horses of the Latif
sire line including Kann
and Korej.
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Kann (Denoust x Kita)
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| In
North America, the Seglawi
horses became very popular in the 1950s and 1960s and then, as it were,
breeders of this flavor of Arabian horse established the terms of
"breed type" for the entire Arabian horse breed in North America in
reference to their favorite flavor of horse! Indeed, careful study will
indicate that "breed type" at that time emanated from the Polish bred Skowronek, used in
England by Lady Wentworth at Crabbet Park. Later,
in the 1970s, with the importation of the Polish horses, Kuhailan type came
to be recognized, though often judged with reference to Seglawi type rather
than as Kuhailan.
More recently, importations from Russia and France have introduced
horses of the Managhi
flavor which are outstanding athletes, but are again judged with
reference to Seglawi
type. |
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To be sure, then, we have four common and distinct types or
flavors of Arabian horses. Plus we have combinations of the
various types. It is up to the astute breeder, then, to
determine as accurately as possible what types he or she is dealing
with, and what combinations are most successful. As an
example, strongly bred Kuhailan
stallions cross well on Seglawi
mares. Bask,
when bred to many of the beautiful Seglawi
mares of domestic breeding in this country produced many national
champions. Interestingly enough, the opposite rarely holds
true, i.e. breeding strongly concentrated Seglawi stallions to
Kuhailan
Haifi mares of good quality very rarely produces superior
horses. |
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Certainly many of the artisans, i.e. the serious breeders of
the breed, recognized the various types within the breed and utilized
them on occasion. Line breeding Seglawi type in
America was very common in the 50s and 60s and produced many wonderful
horses. An example of these horses were those of Mr. Dan
Gainey, who line bred strongly to a small number of superior Seglawi sires and
thus fixed a specific Seglawi
flavor as his landmark in the breed. It was interesting to
watch him use Bask
(Kuhailan) blood with little apparent success. However, when
he introduced the Seglawi
Kuhailan
blood of Comet
into his program, he and his family produced beautiful national
champion athletes. |
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Now that we have established and defined the various types
within the breed of the Arabian horse, the next task is to delineate
the combinations of the above types that have proven to be successful
in producing excellent horses. One of the most exciting
combinations in the last 50 years was that of the Seglawi stallion Nabor (Negatiw x
Lagodna) on the Seglawi
bred Amurath Sahib
daughters of Poland. |
An example of this cross was the multinational champion
mare, Dornaba.
Mares of this combination were famous all over the world. In
line breeding Kuhailan
type the Poles used the Kuhailan
Adjuz stallion Pietuszok
(Priboj x Taktika) on their beautiful Witraz (Kuhailan
Haifi) daughters and produced not only beautiful national champion
offspring, but also Derby winning race horses.
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The Bairactar
sire line, utilizing the small but exotically pretty bay Seglawi stallion Nabeg (Arax x
Nomenklatura by Naseem), was then used on the Naseem Priboj
mares. The offspring of this combination were often very
pretty and most commonly of Seglawi
type. You will find this line represented through Stop the Show and TR Narvina at
Willomar. |
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One would expect more breeding prepotency from colts by the Seglawi stallion Nabeg out of Seglawi mares such
as Nariadnaia
(Aswan x Nomenklatura by Naseem) and such proved to be the
case. At Tersk they used colts out of the good-sized Priboj Naseem mares to
carry on the Bairactar
sire line. Horses such as Peleng
(Nabeg x Palmira by Salon) and Pesniar
(Nabeg x Pesnia by Aswan) were excellent examples. |
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The Bairactar
sire line was carried on in Poland with the importation of Tallin (Nabeg x
Talantiviaia by Aswan). He was used principally on Seglawi mares with
good success and his grandson Emanor
(by Wojslaw by Tallin) is the 1999 US National Champion
stallion. Emanor
is a horse of superb Seglawi
type. It stands to reason then, that in our Arabian population we have
horses line bred strongly to Kuhailan
type,horses line bred strongly to Seglawi
type, and to a lesser extent, line bred to the other types. |
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There
are also horses of Seglawi
Kuhailan
combination with Seglawi
being the most obvious phenotypically (the visible properties of an
organism that are produced by the interaction of the genotype and the
environment), and those that are Kuhailan
Seglawi
with Kuhailan
being the most prominent phenotypically. It behooves the
breeder, then, to understand what type he or she is dealing with in
relation to the pedigree in choosing viable matings with high chances
of success. |
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At Willomar it has been our desire to produce horses of
superb Arabian type that would be successful in classical athletic
competition. To this end we have line bred Kuhailan
type. We used the linebred Kuhailan type
stallion Pietuszok
(Priboj x Taktika by Taki Pan), the linebred Kuhailan type
stallion Rezus
(Celebes x Rezeda by Czort), the Managhi
type stallion El Kasaka
(Patron x Purga by Kankan), and the Kuhailan
Seglawi
stallion Pyatigorsk
(Pietuszok Dwa x Mystical lady by Tornado). In recent years
we have added the Seglawi
Kuhailan
stallion Alkalia
(Probat x Alka by Celebes) and the Seglawi
stallion Pistaschio
(Salon x Panntera by Kniazj). Our brood mares are
predominately linebred Kuhailan
type. Too, one will find a group of mares in our band
linebred to Arax
(Amurath Sahib x Angara) on the maternal side concentrating Kuhailan Seglawi type from
the great mares of Arax.
Only recently have we introduced Naseem
blood to our program with outstanding success, just as the Russians did
so long ago on their Priboj
mares. |
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Pyatigorsk,
a significant sire of the Kuhailan
Adjuz
sire line of Russia and Poland, has been a principle sire in our
program for many years. He crossed well with Kuhailan mares such
as daughters of Bask,
i.e. Star of Ofir
and mares of the Seglawi
I line including the daughters of Aswan and the
daughters of El Kasaka.
Pyatigorsk
was not particularly successful with the Seglawi mares of the
Raffles
branch of the Ibrahim
sire line nor with mares of old Abbas Pasha breeding. Pyatigorsk was
always very useful on line bred Kuhailan
mares of good quality. |
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In our experience, stallions of the Naseem sire line are
often difficult to train because of a short attention span.
We chose Pistaschio
because he had been a successful race horse setting some track records
and also he was out of the same family of mares that had produced Pietuszok and Topol.
Some of his geldings have become excellent 4-H horses which gives some
indication of the soft quality of their minds. His foals out
of strong minded mares are more difficult to train. He has
produced exceedingly well bred to daughters of Pyatigorsk, an
example being Spirited
Music out of Kalua
by Pyatigorsk,
presently racing in California. |
Kuhailan
type has been instrumental in producing horses of superb type and
superb athletic ability. Kuhailan
Haifi sire line horses are presently numerous in the
Arabian horse population because of the tremendous success of the Bask bred
horses. The addition of Kuhailan
Adjuz blood on these horses has been very successful in
Europe and is worthy of consideration here.
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