Is preservation breeding really worth it? I’m not going to live forever. Shouldn’t I just breed to win in the shows? Or scrap breeding altogether and just buy a horse or two that I can show, enjoy the camaraderie within the community and call it good?
There’s no right or wrong to the various approaches one might take, but for the serious breeder who takes the long term view, preservation breeding can take time. Take a look at the breeding farms of the past. Many did not approach breeding decisions from a perspective of preservation except in a general way since Straight Egyptians still represent less than 5% of the registered Arabian horses in North America (based on current statistics from AHA). Others decided early on which female lines were the most consistent in producing traits they valued and sought to preserve them by a variety of different methods, adding new stallions from time to time which served to maintain a certain level of diversity of bloodlines while still maintaining the female lines that were important to them.
This week we honor the stallion, Fa Daalim, and the woman who owned him for most of his life, Marilyn Lang. He represented an important part of the dream she had of preserving the blood of Bint Serra I. In tail female she descended from the original Saklawi mare, Ghazieh through Bint Helwa and her daughter, Jamila, granddam of the Babson import Bint Serra I. In turn, Bint Serra’s impact is largely felt through her sons, the refined and elegant Fay-El-Dine, and his full brother, Fa-Serr. She only had a single daughter who bred forward in Straight Egyptian lines today, Fa Deene (x Fadl). And Fa Deene only had one Straight Egyptian daughter, the mare Khedena, whose daughter, Fa Dena, was a rare combination of Bint Serra in both her sire’s side as well as the dam side. She was bred to Ansata Ibn Halima and produced the lovely Bint Fa Dena, the dam of Fa Daalim, the subject of this study.
Just a quick side note on his sire, Daaldan. His daughter, Bint Daaldan, and full sister to Fa Daalim, is the tail female ancestress of the wonderful Ibn Safinaz son, Safeen, sire of Shy Gayfeen, EAI Yasafeena, MB Moneena, EAI Etheena, and EAI Silvereen.
In conversation with Marilyn, she reminisced about her vision where Fa Daalim and the Bint Serra blood is concerned, and shared that her 2013 Black stallion, FA Ali Bey, a son of the beautiful Justynn, is a 5th generation descendant of Fa Daalim. That’s 40 years of hope, tears, hard work, resilience and determination. Our hats are off to Marilyn as she continues to move forward with her dedication to her dream. Sometimes things happen along the way, we don’t get a female representative, accidents, early death, health problems, and so forth and we have to take unplanned detours, but still keep going. And that’s the Marilyn Lang of Fantasia Arabians that we all know and love. Best wishes to you always, Marilyn. Thank you for your dedication to the mission of The Pyramid Society Foundation in preserving the Straight Egyptian Arabian for all the world to know and appreciate.
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