Muniqi Hadruj/Haidee dam line

When we originally began this website project, I had thought that the Muniqi strain/tail female Haidee line was in some *VERY* serious trouble overall. After doing the hours of digging on the data source, and tallying up some numbers, I'd come to the conclusion that while this *entire* strain may not be exactly _endangered_ **RIGHT NOW**, it was most certainly NOT out of the woods just yet.

In putting together the info for the table that lists the horses and their descendants it appeared that there were a few mares that bred on within the AK lines. This is the good news. The bad news would be that assuming most of these are alive, they would be in their late teens to their early 20's. There were years where we have had maybe 6 or 7 Muniqi horses born; 1986 and 1989 were "banner" years. And then there were slumps where there might only be 1 born for that year. Then alarming things began showing up. Some mares bred on, but not within AK. And there were many years where there were no horses of these dam lines born at all.

An interesting aside on the Muniqi Hadruj that has turned up during the course of this research that I feel is worth a few comments. It would appear that with the Hadrujiyah mares, there is 1 line that was more prolific than the other 2 of the total of 3 lines tracing back to Drissula that have bred on within AK to the present time.

The mare Roman Jewel has around 77 descendants total that have been born from 1980 up to the present. Of those, 49 are mares that are 25 years old or younger. (I should mention here that Roman Jewel's line has a high occurrence of black horses, which would suggest that this line has been preserved by sheer providence rather than any deliberate effort...)

The mare Julya has 22 descendants total since 1980 to the present, with 18 mares 25 or younger.

The mare Sirrulla has only 16 descendants for the same time period, and only *10* of those are mares 25 or younger.

Now these are only ballpark estimates, since I'm sure not everyone that loses a horse notifies the Registry of that horse's death, so there could quite conceivably be *LESS* than the numbers I have here.

So it would seem that the *most* endangered mare line within the AK Muniqi Hadruj would be those mares that trace back to Drissula through Sirrulla. Drissula alone is the only mare to carry on her dam line within the AK roster. And it is her 3 daughters--Sirrulla, Julya, and Roman Jewel who have brought her through to the present time.

I had thought that maybe the Muniqi Hadruj weren't in as much trouble as we had initially feared, but the situation looks more as if it's the specific dam lines *within* the M. Hadruj that need help; namely the lines that trace back through Julya and Sirrulla.

For those of us that love these lines, and are trying to keep them alive and thriving within AK, the overall numbers aren't very comforting. I was quite shocked to find just how much worse it was when I did the math on the 3 surviving mare lines. While the total numbers aren't that bad, breaking them down showed a different tale.

In looking at the table of offspring 25 and younger, and further breaking this down into the 3 remaining dam lines, Sirrulla's line is in some *very* serious trouble. Out of the **10** mares that are 25 and younger, the _youngest_ of this bunch is already 15 years old. There are years where we have had NO horses of these lines. In the period between 1990, where there was 1 mare born and no stallions, up to 1999 where 1 stallion was born, there were NO Sirrulla dam line horses of either sex born. 9 whole years of nothing. If we aren't careful, this particular line will be gone, and quickly. It is not a very rosy picture in terms of realistically hoping to save this line. Using the definitions we have set out on the "AK strains and Dam lines" page, the final designation for the Muniqi Hadruj would be this (in my opinion...) If we break the dam line down into the 3 mares tracing back to Drissula, namely Sirrulla, Julya and Roman Jewel, we would have to say that with only 10 mares that are 25 years old and younger, the line tracing back through Sirrulla is most definitely to be considered "Endangered."

Julya's lines are "Rare" with only 18 mares, and Roman Jewel's lines also fall into the "Rare" category with 49.

The numbers for the stallions aren't much better. Since there really aren't too many of us that look to breed pure in the strain, the Muniqi Hadruj stallions simply don't generally get the notice they deserve, either.

If we look at the summary table listing the numbers of horses born each year, and do some math, 48 of the mares born are 15 years old and older out of the total of the 84. It's not a very good outlook over all, is it?

And again, I'm sure these are simply ballpark figures. I doubt that every horse that has died or been gelded has had it's record updated within the data base. Not to mention those that have gone to new homes without their papers, which effectively renders them as lost to us. The very real possibility of these numbers being even *lower* than we listed does remain. Which is a depressing thought, indeed.

While I realize that preservation breeding simply isn't every breeder's cup of tea, it would be a shame to see these lines disappear from the AK gene pool simply because nobody was paying attention. I'm very much a child of the 60's, and I can remember some of the protests that were staged for the benefit of endangered species, and the line that comes to mind is "Extinct is forever." As in once it's gone, that's it; say good-bye, caio, au revoir; pick your favorite saying. We simply won't be able to breed these lines back into our programs.

The Bedu were meticulous in their breeding programs. The Muniqiyat were very highly regarded by them for many reasons. It is one of the oldest strains within the Arabian horse breed. Who are we to make the choice to allow them to disappear forever?

When Anne and I got the idea for this website, our dream was to make it a place where people could go to learn not just about the different strains, but hopefully to be able to find the whereabouts of horses of the strains they were interested in. We saw this as a site that could be used to network with other breeders, and hopefully it would enable us to exchange ideas as well as bloodlines. With any luck, what has been written on this site will be enough to at least light a spark of interest in keeping some of the oldest bloodlines and strains alive in AK.

If just one person chooses to become a preservationist breeder after reading this, then we have succeeded.

In looking back over the years, we've seen many trends and fads show up in the Arabian horses. More than one line has been lost due to lack of popularity. At one time, Muniqi horses could be found in the pedigrees of the Straight Egyptians, but not anymore.

Many more have been promoted highly where they shouldn't have, due to conformational or temperamental issues. (Speaking in generalities...)

Is this to be the fate of the Muniqiyat in the United States? To go down in history as a genetic "also ran" because the "popular" bloodlines of the day didn't include them? Or because they were the "wrong" color? It would be a real shame if this is the case.

Hopefully this story will have a happy ending. While I'm not advocating that we should all rush out and accost those folks that we might know who have Muniqi mares, I *AM* suggesting that perhaps some careful forethought should be given to maybe breeding these mares to a suitable stallion to help keep these lines viable within Al Khamsa. By suitable, I don't say the stallion needs to be the same strain, but simply AK at the very least.

Summary of Horses 25yo and younger

	Julya		Sirrulla		Roman Jewel		Total
Year	# Mares	# Stallions	# Mares	# Stallions	# Mares	# Stallions	# Mares	# Stallions
1981	0	0	0	0	1	0	3	1
1982	2	0	1	1	1	1	4	3
1983	1	0	0	0	2	0	3	0
1984	1	0	1	1	2	1	5	1
1985	1	1	2	0	3	1	4	1
1986	0	0	0	0	6	1	6	1
1987	0	0	0	1	0	0	1	0
1988	0	0	2	0	1	1	3	1
1989	1	1	0	1	4	3	5	5
1990	1	0	2	1	4	0	7	1
1991	0	2	0	0	2	0	2	2
1992	1	0	0	0	2	0	3	0
1993	1	1	0	0	2	1	3	2
1994	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	1
1995	1	0	0	0	1	0	2	0
1996	0	0	0	0	2	2	2	2
1997	0	1	0	0	3	1	3	2
1998	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2
1999	1	0	0	1	1	1	2	2
2000	1	0	0	0	3	1	4	1
2001	0	1	0	0	1	3	1	4
2002	1	0	0	0	2	1	3	1
2003	1	0	0	0	3	1	4	1
2004	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
2005	0	1	0	0	2	0	3	1
Total	15	8	8	6	51	22	74	36

The Haidee/Naomi dam line was researched and analyzed by Terri. Please keep in mind that we are all only human and mistakes can be made. If you notice a mistake, please check carefully to confirm that it is a mistake and then report it. If you have questions, comments, suggestions - or find an error - Terri can be reached at: