Arabische Pferde IN THE FOCUS 4/2020 (Vol. 24) - public
Zeitschrift für Liebhaber und Züchter Arabischer Pferde
Zeitschrift für Liebhaber und Züchter Arabischer Pferde
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The drive to Dashour alone was worth the<br />
trip! Here we met rural Egypt, which takes<br />
place on a narrow strip to the right<br />
and left of the Nile. Palm groves and small<br />
villages alternate, and the further we go into<br />
the country, the more often we come across<br />
donkey carts instead of cars. With every junction<br />
the road gets narrower until it becomes a<br />
dirt road, wedged between property walls on<br />
one side and the canal on the other - hopefully<br />
no car will come our way!<br />
Analytical Approach to Breeding<br />
We come to a large gate that opens in front of<br />
us and drive to the farm of Hammad Rabeii,<br />
the stud manager of Philippe Paraskevas, our<br />
host. Philippe Paraskevas has been breeding<br />
Arabian horses for over 30 years - and for 5-6<br />
horse generations. But unlike other breeders,<br />
it wasn't just their beauty that captured him,<br />
but their inner qualities, their nature, their<br />
character and their ability to work.<br />
Philippe Paraskevas has a slightly different<br />
and analytical approach to Arabian horse<br />
breeding. And so he studied the sire and<br />
dam lines of the RAS / EAO and Inshass<br />
breeding intensively – i.e. the foundation<br />
horses of the "pure Egyptians" - and<br />
has committed himself to maintaining<br />
these lines in their original appearance.<br />
In addition, he pays attention in<br />
his breeding to characteristics such<br />
as a will to please, character, health<br />
and fertility, but of course also<br />
ride-ability, because the Arab was<br />
a war horse. For Paraskevas, the ride-ability<br />
has the same priority as the other<br />
criteria, and so his horses, and especially<br />
the stallions, are regularly ridden for several<br />
hours in the desert.<br />
Different Selection Criteria<br />
It is interesting for the visitor that although<br />
the horses here all go back to the same foundation<br />
horses of the RAS / EAO / Inshass, as<br />
do the horses of the Egyptian State Stud El<br />
Zahraa or other private Egyptian breeders,<br />
they look somewhat different due to other<br />
selection criteria: They are usually of calibre,<br />
have strong hindquarters and correspondingly<br />
powerful, energetic<br />
movements,<br />
the neck may not always be perfect, but<br />
usually long enough and well arched, and<br />
they often - not always - have a straight profile<br />
with a beautiful, well-placed eye. Where<br />
there is a “dish”, it is more likely to be “accidental”,<br />
but not the product of targeted mating<br />
to achieve it. It is important to Paraskevas<br />
to preserve the individual characteristics<br />
of each of the strains and the associated dam<br />
lines. For example, he describes the Obeyans<br />
as balanced horses with high tail carriage,<br />
with large and expressive eyes, inspired by<br />
the spirit of the desert. The Kuhailan Krushs<br />
are rather reserved, proud and haughty, and<br />
they need time to develop a relationship with<br />
their rider. About the Kuhailan Krush mare<br />
El Kahila, especially when bred to El Deree,<br />
the "desert look" - this particular dryness<br />
of the structures - has been preserved.<br />
The Saklawi Jedranis, whose line goes<br />
through the legendary Moniet el Nefous,<br />
are characterized by balance<br />
and harmony, by elegance and<br />
delicacy, but sometimes they<br />
also have a long back.<br />
For Paraskevas, the Arab<br />
horse must not be pressed<br />
into a “template” - on the<br />
contrary, his motto is “diversity”.<br />
Diversity in shape<br />
(phenotype) and diversity<br />
in blood lines (genotype),<br />
because even<br />
the Arabian horse of the<br />
desert was by no means<br />
uniform! However, this<br />
Zucht<br />
4/<strong>2020</strong> - www.in-the-focus.com<br />
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