Explanation of Al Khamsa and Egyptian Arabian Horses in Susar Farm Pedigrees
Al Khamsa is an organization that has spent thirty years researching Desert Arabian Horses and when it considers a horse "Al Khamsa" that means that every line, and every horse in a pedigree can be traced with no breakage of the line to the Bedouin Desert Tribe of origin. Horses that are not Al Khamsa are not necessarily impure, but due to wars, politics, etc., some information has been lost and their explicit purity cannot be proven. These horses are referred to as General List. They account for about 95% of all Arabians Worldwide.
There are many horses (mainly of Polish and Spanish lines) where it is known that impure blood exists. Proof of this is now available through blood typing, but the Registry has not acted on it due to the tremendous problems it would involve. Recently Al Khamsa horses have been marked by the AHA so that anyone can identify them without doing pedigree research.
Al Khamsa horses are the only horses that can be proven by acceptable documents to be absolutely pure of blood. None of our General List horses possess any of the questionable lineage. Actually our non-Al Khamsa horses are only 2% non-Al Khamsa. The non-Al Khamsa horses at Susar farm are Makabba, Zookie, Shallandarra and Rosie.
Old Egyptian refers to horses whose ancestors were taken (stolen) from the desert tribes by the ruling families of Egypt in the 1700's. The ancient Bedouins valued strength, soundness, courage and temperament in their horses. The horses literally shared the tents with their masters. They were considered more important than people. The rulers of Egypt (AliPasha Sherif, Abbsa Pasha, etc.) took Bedouins, as well as their horses. They bred their horses to the standards of the Bedouins. The horses in modern pedigrees that contain large amounts, or all Old Egyptian blood are the horses of the 1932 Babson import, the Blunt desert imports, and the Brown imports. *Tuhotmos is by chronological definition, New but he is 100% Old, in blood line.
The term Egyptian as defined by the Pyramid Society means that all horses in the pedigree were actually used in the breeding programs of the Kings, Royal families, and later the Royal Agricultural Society and the Egyptian Agricultural Organization. All Al Khamsa horses originated in the same place. The other designations refer only to their travels between here and there!
After the political upheavals in Egypt, the state took over the breeding programs. The criteria of breeding was shifted to racing, and the ancient plans of mating strains were abandoned. The resulting horses are referred to as New Egyptian and they are a mixture of the old blood, plus new desert imports (El Deree). Some Egyptian horses are neither Al Khamsa or Blue! The breeding emphasis of the New Egyptians is racing. Obviously the traits of docility, loyalty, etc. are not gene related to the hot traits needed in a race horse! The New Egyptians are much taller and hotter than the Old Egyptians and are preferred by many Americans who think that size and snort are qualities to be desired. Unfortunately they are sometimes not particularly easy to train.
SHEYKH OBEYED (Tucky, Bucky, Sabbah, Khedena, Sada, Kaz, Nefrett is also an organization like Al Khamsa dedicated to preserving a group of horses. In SOF (Sheykh Obeyd Foundation) horses all ancestors trace only to the original Egyptian horses, as far back as those of King Soloman and the desert imports collected by the Blunts, in the late 1800's. About 1/10th of 1% of the Straight Egyptians are Sheykh Obeyed. All Sheykh Obeyeds are also Old Egyptian.
New Egyptian refers to those horses whose lineage contains a combination of Old Egyptian plus additional desert horses incorporated recently into the Egyptian Agricultural Organization and Inshass programs. It is of interest that El Deree, one of the late desert imports, came from the exact tribe and the exact area as the mare Turfa, but because Turfa was a gift to the King of England, and was later imported by Babson to the U.S.A., she was never bred in Egypt and therefor is not "Egyptian"!
BLUE LIST refers to horses that Lady Ott catalogued meticulously as to absolute purity. In order for her to accept them as Blue they had not only to carry the impeccable paper, they had to meet the standards of the Arabian breed and be phenotypically what their pedigrees said they were genotypically! Many horses that are Al Khamsa, and are not disputed in purity, are not Blue List because Mrs. Ott felt they exhibited traits not typical of their lines. All of our horses are Blue List.
NAZEER was a very good race horse, and he was heavily used at stud by the Egyptian Agricultural Organization after the state took over the stud. In the late 50's, the 60's, and early 70's many horses were imported to the USA from Egypt. The majority of these horses were Nazeer offspring. The importer (Ansata, Glenloch, Prizlaff) spent much money promoting these horses. Many breeders inbred on Nazeer without pause through the fifth generation! Nazeer was a very good race horse and he was very hot thus intensely inbred Nazeer horses are frequently too hot to handle. There is almost no non-Nazeer blood left. What is available comes through either the Babson horses or the Brown imports, *Tuhotmos and Ibn Hafiza. By crossing non-Nazeer horses with the inbred horses of the Nazeer lineage, you tend to get a much calmer, more sensible horse that is generally easier to train and handle, and frequently very talented in such difficult endeavors as dressage, endurance, and jumping.
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