His name is Nooreddine

This beautiful stallion is Nooreddine Ezzain. He was bred by Usamah Alkazemi of Ezzain Arabians. With so many beautiful horses calling Ezzain "home", it is difficult to choose one horse as "favorite", when what I really want to say is that all the Ezzain horses are my favorites.  In July of 2006, Nooreddine Ezzain was my favorite Ezzain-bred horse. He still is.

Living so far from Kuwait, I have missed seeing this colt mature and blossom into the most pleasing stallion that he is today. Why should I be so surprised? As a son of Ansata Almurtajiz and NK Nada, beauty is written in his genes. Nooreddine Ezzain is now owned by Alward Arabians. Prior to leaving Ezzain, he sired 6 foals: Mayyas Ezzain out of Dhuha Al Nakeeb (NK Hafid Jamil x Sabha Bint Ibn Halima), Nasseirah Ezzain and Omneyah Ezzain out of Moniet Ezzain (Salaa el Dine x NK Momtaza), Moneerah Ezzain out of Ajmal Ibtihaj (Adnan x Alijamila) and Aaleiah Ezzain and Albaheiah Ezzain out of NK Nakeebya (NK Hafid Jamil x Nabilah), who are pictured, right and left, respectively.

When Usamah shared the pictures of Nooreddine's progeny, I was stunned. The beautiful stallion, my favorite stallion, is an excellent and highly favored sire. His progeny are elegant, refined and consistent in their correctness and classic type. Of the six Nooreddine-sired horses, my personal favorites are the full sisters out of NK Nakeebya, who is a NK Hafid Jamil daughter out of Nabilah (by Nahaman, and out of Nashua).

STOP....NASHUA????

Nooreddine is out of a daughter of Nashua, NK Nada!  NK Nada is sired by Adnan, while Nabilah is a Nahaman daughter.  To further underscore how closely related these mares are, both Nahaman and Adnan are Salaa El Dine sons.

What's the difference?

Nahaman is out of Ameera, a Madkour I daughter out of Hanan, while Adnan is out of Ghazala, a Ghazal daughter out of Hanan. So, the difference in pedigree between NK Nakeebya and NK Nada are two horses: Madkour I and Ghazal.

BUKRA BLOOD ALERT!

While Nooreddine is of the Hadban Enzahi strain, physically, he resembles the type of horse that we have come to associate with the Dahman strain. Why? Well, he is harmonious and a balanced blend of Kuhaylan and Saqlawi type, as you would expect in Dahman type.

(ELEGANCE + SUBSTANCE)x SMOOTHNESS = NOOREDDINE EZZAIN

However, the main reason, I believe, is the continuing influence of just one horse. Nooreddine Ezzain is sired by Ansata Almurtajiz, who traces to Bukra, in both of his tail female lines. In Nooreddine Ezzain's pedigree, there are six lines to Bukra. His daughters, Aaleiah and Albaheiah have thirteen lines to Bukra, as their dam NK Nakeebya brings in seven additional lines. WOW! NK Nakeebya is sired by NK Hafid Jamil, who offers additional lines to Bukra, through Salaa El Dine, Ansata Gloriana and Ghazal.

Almost 70 years from her date of foaling, the influence of the RAS grey mare, Bukra, can still be seen and felt in today's Egyptian Arabian Horses. She remains extremely relevant in our gene pool and one of our most precious and critical foundation horses, as she is a primary source of classic Egyptian Arabian Horse type.

Sunny Weather

In February 2008, I wrote about the son of Ansata AlMurtajiz, Suror Ezzain. Do you remember this beautiful horse? Suror's full sister remains at Ezzain Arabians. Her name is Azhaar Ezzain. Like her brother, Azhaar is uniquely bred,  having only one line to Hanan, through the tail female line of her dam (Hanan is her great-great grandmother). Her dam's ancestors are horses that are rapidly disappearing in today's Egyptian Arabian Horse bloodlines: There is Gharib, there is Tuhotmos, there is Hadban Enzahi, there is Galal and there is Ghazal, as well as the complementary influence that her sire offers through Sameh and all the imported Babson horses (except for Bint Bint Durra).

Bred to NK Qaswarah, this wonderful mare produced one of my favorite fillies at Ezzain, Shamsilshmous Ezzain, the best of all suns. I love the extreme tail carriage on this filly. She has retained all of the wonderful qualities that come from Azhaar's pedigree like her substance, her smoothness, her balance and harmony, and yet, she has been richly influenced by the elegance and refinement that comes from NK Qaswarah. Her neck is a little longer, with a little more length in the mitbah. Her head has a sharply defined, very prominent bone structure, with a larger sized jowl and the quality of her skin is so fine, that her veins look like they are popping out of her face. Her muzzle is fine, not thick and the desert look is accentuated by nostrils which are large and delicate. However, did you see her eyes? They are beautiful and completely black, round in shape and luminous, as if they are deep pools of sparkling obsidian-colored water.

For me, it is personally challenging to identify my favorite Ezzain horse, because of the consistency that this program is producing, over and over and over. However, if I could commit to writing such a list, Shamsilshmous would be at the top, with Hooreyah Ezzain and Dorrah Ezzain closely behind her. These 3 mares would help me to capture that mystical horse, who gallops all day in my mind, looking for a way out into the wide, wide world.

Still dreaming, Still hoping, Still wishing and always living.
Ralph

PS Usamah's son, Jaber, took this fantastic photo. I wanted to make sure to credit him, as he is an excellent photographer.

GLOW

This super-refined bay filly is a full sister to Annesilnefous Ezzain. For me, she is a living standard for what the ultimate in feminine elegance should look like. Her brother is equally refined, with a sculpted look made extreme by the translucence quality of his skin. There is no fat to blurry the definition of his bone structure. We see this quality also in his sister. Like her name, her femininity glows, in the same way that a most precious pearl would glow.  She is sired by NK Qaswarah and is out of NK Momtaza, a tail female line Saqlawiyah Jedraniyah, tracing to Moniet el Nefous. Her name is Dorrah Ezzain. Her face is short and wide, with round, full, lusminous, deep black eyes. The definition in her face, highlights both veins and bones, is dramatic and conveys the translucence of her skin. Once, I tried to define quality and I experienced a difficult time trying to find the correct meaning. I thought of quality, expressed in the quality of the horse's hide, almost as if there wasn't enough skin to cover the entire horse and while stretching it taughtly over the horses body, resulting in a very tight fit, which accentuates every curve, every bump, every line in the horse's body. That's quality and that is what I am thinking, when I see this filly. Her muzzle is fine and tapered. It is not meaty or thick and yet, her nostrils, with a delicate curve are large and add to the powerful impression of classic type overall. Her ears are smaller, and very sharp, the points curving inwards. I love smaller sized ears and they complement an already outstanding filly.

Sometimes the light of heaven appears here on earth, if only for a brief second or two. It can be a manifested as a rainbow, a delicate flower, the melodic song of a bird or even in the ethereal beauty of a horse like Dorrah. I always wonder if this is a blessing sent our way, to remind us that as beautiful as this world may be, there is something more incredible waiting for us, so beautiful that we can't comprehend it. Sometimes, we miss this fleeting glimpse of heavenly beauty but if we work at it, to sharpen our awareness, how encouraging and inspiring will our lives become, when we realize how abundantly blessed we really are?

Keep wishing, keep hoping, keep dreaming, keep living,
Ralph

I must give credit to Jaber Alkazemi, Usamah's son, who took this beautiful picture of Dorrah.

Yaasoob Ezzain

"Then in his beautiful eyes, stood the tears of appealing,
words inarticulate.
If he had learned our men's language, then had he called to me:
if he had known our tongue's secret,
then
had he cried to me."-from The Ode to Antara, www.poemhunter.com, 2004

Yaasoob Ezzain is sired by NK Qaswarah and his dam is NK Nada (Adnan x Nashua), a double Salaa El Dine grandaughter, as both her sire and her dam claim him as their sire. In tail female, NK Nada traces to Kamla, through her daughter by El Sareei, Bint Kamla. This is the same line that has given our community a stallion like Shaarawi (*Morafic x Bint Kamla), the Alaa el Din daughters, Lutfia and Nazeema (who bore the stallion, Ibn Nazeema by Ameer, who in turn, sired one of the most beautiful stallions, the chestnut El Thay Mameluk). The remarkable fact about Nashua, NK Nada's dam, is that she produced daughters, not sons: four mares by Adnan and three mares by another son of Salaa El Dine, Nahaman. NK Nada has three full sisters: NK Nasrin, NK Nadirah and NK Nadeerah.

I was fascinated over the beauty of the mare, NK Nada. I think that Yaasoob favors his mother, as he is very strong in his physical look for NK Nada. I really like this horse.

“Perhaps our eyes need to be washed by our tears once in a while, so that we can see Life with a clearer view again.”-Alex Tan

If NK Nada's name means "the misty water on the flowers", then this special water, suitable for only the most precious flower, flowed from the eyes of angels, who cried when they bore witness to the beauty of NK Nada. She is that beautiful, that extravagant, a delicate and rare flower, feminine and graceful, a celebration of elegance and splendor. And now, my eyes sting and the water flows, as suddenly, NK Nada's flower begins to bloom...

YAASOOB EZZAIN

the son of the delicately beautiful flower of Ezzain and now, the promise of the future for Ezzain, as Usamah continues to breed the celebrated horse of his desert fathers. May God be forever praised for all the wonder and beauty He blesses upon the earth.

Zweena!

“Behind closed eyes, colors fade and blend into beautiful new creations. Fate is left at the shaking hands of our imaginations. How, then, does our heart feel as if racing in the anticipation of a dream?”-Nicholas

Altafilbari Ezzain is sired by NK Qaswarah and out of Ajmal Ibtihaj (Adnan x Alijamila). Her delightful joy is manifested in her action, as if she is shouting at the top of her lungs, "Zweena! Zweena! I'm beautiful!  I'm beautiful!" I look for a poem or even a song, which celebrates the freedom, the exuberance, the joy that Altaafibari has for life but I find none that can express this heavenly feeling, made glorious by a little filly. She was bred by Usamah Alkazemi of Ezzain Arabians in Kuwait and captured on film by Jenni Ogden.

We have talked of Usamah's super stallion, NK Qaswarah. I marveled over his mitbah in Bedouin Beauty. As a son of NK Hafid Jamil, NK Qaswarah is a most elegant horse and certainly, one of the most refined Egyptian Arabian stallions in our community. At a young age, he has already surpassed the quality that horses much older than he have yet to achieve.

When Usamah shared the pictures with me, I was caught off-guard. The beauty of Altafilbari is so unexpected. Usamah is a very excellent breeder and has bred horses that have made me lose my breath in wonder. So why the surprise? Never, have I seen a picture that has made me so intoxicated and light-headed, the beauty of this filly pushing me off the edge of any rational thought. I shared her picture with Shawn Crews of Arabians Ltd., who said,

"There is no question who this baby looks like and it is not just the color. Looks just like Grandma!!!"

WHO IS ALIJAMILA?

The *Jamil daughter, Ansata Justina, when bred to Ruminaja Ali, produced a rare black pearl: Alijamila.

Alijamila was foaled in 1987, bred by Hank and Phyllis Browning and was later sold to Mr. Mohammed Bin Jassim Al Marzouk of the Ajmal Stud in Kuwait. She has produced a number of sons and daughters, i.e. Al Baraki, Thee Atticus, Bint Bint Justina, Bint Alijamila, Ajmal Jumanah, Ajmal Jamila, Shabab Jamal to mention a few of the outstanding progeny she has produced. I envy Mr. Usamah Alkazemi for the great blessing that God has made in his life, with a daughter of Alijamila in his breeding program. In Alijamila's tail female line, she traces through Ansata Bint Sameh to Farida.

FARIDA BLOOD ALERT!

This lovely black filly, with a super-smooth body, a strong connection of hip, croup, loin and hindquarter PLUS the longer, more upright set neck; captures within her physical body many of the qualities that I have learned to appreciate as coming from Farida. When she matures, she will be an outstanding broodmare.

There is a dreamy quality about Alijamila. I will never forget this about her. When she was in America and you looked at her, it was almost like you wanted to focus your vision but somehow, her beauty was so overpowering, so extreme, you just couldn't do it. She overwhelmed all of your senses. She was ultra-feminine, delicate and fine, ethereal, maybe even a character which stepped out of one of the Black Stallion books, a mare worthy of being bred to The Black, because he only bred the best. Now, it appears that her look-alike grand-daughter, Altafilbari Ezzain, will carry the legacy of this beautiful mare, Alijamila, so that another generation will be enchanted by a black pearl. Now I can suddenly focus, now I can dream, now I can only imagine what may happen next.

Keep dreaming, keep hoping, keep wishing, keep living,
Ralph

Hebatilbari Ezzain

I saw this picture of the NK Qaswarah-sired daughter, Hebatilbari Ezzain, out of the Ibn Nedjy daughter, NK Hebbattollah (out of mare NK Hallah, who is by Adnan and out of Asfoura) and I went crazy. I mean really crazy! I couldn't think of anything else for more than a little while. Really! Again, like NK Nadeyrah, I love a mare who can S-T-R-E-T-C-H her neck out...POP...and relax her back, using those back muscles to really utilize her body more efficiently and not killing her joints...ouch! In addition to her strong topline, what I like about Hebatilbari the most is, her overall smoothness and the harmonious balance of her body. She has a very old-world look about her, which makes me think of the court of King Louis XV,  in Versailles and this mare, with a beautiful woman astride, executing the classical movements of a high-school trained horse. It's this baroque quality that I see from time-to-time in these horses that remind me why I love the Egyptian Arabian so much.  A 3-circle horse...I think Raswan came up with this term. It's the fullness of the hindquarter circle, matched by the fullness of the barrel circle, matched by the fullness of chest circle...everything matches...ahhh, harmony, the roundness, the curvey lines, as if someone was suddenly inspired with the concept of a circle and tried to insert as many circles as possible, in this mare's body. No kidding. No surprise to find Ansata Halim Shah, still very relevant, still influential and still at work to create this look in this super nice filly. I love her.

Splendid...Superb...Stunning..Uniquely Suror

No two created beings are exactly alike. And their individuality is no imperfection. On the contrary, the perfection of each created thing is not merely in its conformity to an abstract type but in its own individual identity with itself. - Thomas Merton, from his book: New Seeds of Contemplation

Suror is an extremely beautiful horse, who is also a unique horse in the Ezzain Arabian breeding program, having been sired by Ansata AlMurtajiz and out of the mare, Zahra. The unique aspect to Suror is his genetic difference from the majority of the Ezzain herd: he has only one line to Hanan, through the tail female line of his dam (Hanan is his great-great grandmother). His pedigree is interesting, as his mother's ancestors are horses that are rapidly disappearing in today's Egyptian Arabian Horse bloodlines: There is Gharib, there is Tuhotmos, there is Hadban Enzahi, there is Galal and there is Ghazal, as well as the complementary influence that his sire offers through Sameh and all the imported Babson horses (except for Bint Bint Durra).

His sire is an interesting line-bred Ansata horse, concentrated in the blood of *Ansata Ibn Halima, Bukra, *Morafic and his full sister: *Ansata Bint Mabrouka. The outcross blood is represented by the Babson Horses through Fa Moniet and through Sameh, who is the sire of Ansata's strongest and best producing mare: Ansata Bint Misr. The "anchor" in this pedigree is *Ansata Ibn Halima, as we see in the sire line of Suror and this becomes evident as an additional cross is obtained through Ansata Halim Shah (the sire of Motassem, who in turn sired Zahra's father, KP Nameed). However, it is the diversity of blood in Zahra's pedigree, while at the same time, establishing common ground with Ansata AlMurtajz through *Ansata Ibn Halima, Moniet El Nefous and Bukra, that invites a closer look at this magnificent horse.

Messaouda, the dam of Motassem, was sired by the horse who revolutionized the Marbach breeding program, Gharib. Usamah Alkazemi, the breeder and owner of Suror, sent me a picture of Suror's daughter, Najmah, who is out of NK Yassmin (Adnan x Helala), a mare bred by Dr. Nagel of Katharinenhof in Germany. It is interesting to see the influence of Gharib, 5 generations later, in a young mare who has the freedom of movement in her shoulder, balanced by the drive and power in her hind end.

It is also interesting to see how Zahra's pedigree, continues to complement the influence of Moniet El Nefous in Suror's sire line, as well as the presence of Moniet El Nefous in his dam lines, through *Tuhotmos (the sire of Nana, who produced Nameeza, the dam of KP Nameed), through Shaarawi, the sire of Adeeb and through Ameer, the sire of Ibn Nazeema. It is also through this stallion, Ibn Nazeema, that we have common ground to Alaa El Din in two lines (the sire of Nazeema, the dam of Ibn Nazeema, as well as the sire of Hanan, who produced Ameera).

We mentioned Hadban Enzahi and Ghazal and we find both these horses present in Madkour I with an interesting twist, that further complements Suror's pedigree. I think it is especially poignant, that these two Nazeer sons, of another era, should be present again in a horse that brings so much honor to their memory. Hadban Enzahi sired the stallion Madkour I (the sire of Ameera), while Ghazal sired Madkour's dam, Moheba II, out of Malacha, who traces to the dam of *Ansata Ibn Halima, through the Sid Abouhom daughter, Moheba!!!

"Therefore each particular being, in its individuality, in its
concrete nature and entity, with all its own characteristics and its private qualities and its own inviolable identity, gives glory to God by being precisely what He wants it to be here and now....- Thomas Merton from his book: New Seeds of Contemplation

When Usamah Alkazemi sent me the DVD with footage of all his horses, I must say that I was not very fair to Suror, as I was enamored by his sire, Ansata AlMurtajiz. I don't exactly remember when Usamah emailed me the full body picture of Suror but I do remember my reaction! Suror has a "baroque" look to him, that is an old-world look, a timeless quality that harkens back to an another period of time, when romance was very much alive in our cultures and the flamboyant, ornate style of rounded curves was very prevalent in society. Suror is the kind of horse that celebrates life and the beauty that surrounds us, in any given moment and that is present for us to enjoy, whether we wish to accept the gift or not. Suror is the type of horse that comes very close to embodying in a physical form, the model that I carry in my head of an Arabian Horse. He is a horse that I would like to one day breed and the type of horse that I would want to be remembered for breeding. It will be exciting for me, to watch from the sidelines, in order to witness the significant impact this extraordinary stallion will have on Ezzain Arabians.

Enjoy your horses,

Ralph