Arabische Pferde IN THE FOCUS 4/2020 (Vol. 24) - public

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