. The fault is MINE for not explaining clearly enough, NOT yours because you didn't understand.
For those who already understand strain breeding, many of these concepts seem SO simple. But when someone is learning for the first time, it doesn't seem so straightforward. For those of you who already understand some of the basics of strain breeding, skip through the first examples, or visit another page or something, I'm going to start at the beginning. If anyone still has questions after reading this page, feel free to contact me at . The fault is MINE for not explaining clearly enough, NOT yours because you didn't understand.
Probably the first concept to understand is how to read a pedigree and figure out the dam line. So how DO you read a pedigree and know the damline of a pedigree? Let's look at a simple example:
| Mr Brilliant | |
| SuperArab | |
| Madame Elegance |
Can you pick out the sire? The dam? The sire is always 'above' the name of his offspring and the dam is 'below' her offspring. The 'dam line' or 'tail dam line' is the dam line at the 'bottom right' of the pedigree. In this example 'SuperArab' is considered 'the offspring' and this pedigree is for 'SuperArab'.
The dam is Madame Elegance and the sire is Mr Brilliant. The tail dam line is 'Madame Elegance'. A correct way of saying this is that SuperArab is BY Mr Brilliant and OUT OF Madame Elegance. This phrasing is often used incorrectly and causes many who are knowledgeable to grind (at best) their teeth in frustration so please make sure that you use the terms correctly. Or fall back on 'the dam is Madame Elegance and the sire is Mr Brilliant'. Better too conservative than incorrect!
That was easy, wasn't it? So let's look at something just a tad more difficult:
| Sire1 | ||
| Mr Brilliant | ||
| Mare1 | ||
| SuperArab | ||
| Sire2 | ||
| Madame Elegance | ||
| Mare2 | ||
I'm lazy so I didn't give names to all the horses this time. Time for the questions again. Who is the sire of Mr Brilliant? Madame Elegance? Who is the dam of Mr Brilliant? Madame Elegance? And what/who is the tail dam line? Take a moment and answer these questions before reading the next paragraph......
The sire of Mr Brilliant is Sire1 and the sire of Madame Elegance is Sire2. The dam of Mr Brilliant is Mare1 and the dam of Madame Elegance is Mare2. Now for the tail dam line, the dam of SuperArab is Madame Elegance and HER dam is Mare2 so the tail dam is..... Mare2
If you didn't get those answers, go over it again. No one will see you! Take as long as you need and if you just don't 'get it', then send an email and I'll try to rewrite this page so that you DO 'get it'.
Now that you understand a fairly simple 'made up' pedigree, let's look at some real names and another generation. This is one of my horses - Sham - BRW Marid Shamal.
| Fa Daalim | ||||
| Fa Mist Hallim | ||||
| Moss Hill Montana | ||||
| Mist Hallim Amir | ||||
| TheEgyptianPrince | ||||
| AK Tianica | ||||
| SF Rafica | ||||
| BRW Marid Shamal | ||||
| Imperial Imdal | ||||
| Shaikh Al Shamal | ||||
| Ruminaja Afifa | ||||
| Bint Marhaba | ||||
| Ansata Omar Halim | ||||
| AK Marhaba | ||||
| *El Shaymaa | ||||
You've made it this far so don't get intimidated by the addition of real names. Just take your time and think through the answers...... Who is Sham's sire? Who is Sham's dam? If you can answer those questions, you can figure out the sire and dam of every horse on this pedigree! Take a moment to pat yourself on the back and then figure out the sire and dam of every horse on the pedigree.... (you did know that I wasn't going to be nice to you for very long, didn't you?). And who/what is the tail dam line for Sham? And - bonus question - who is the tail dam line for Mist Hallim Amir?
So the answers...... Sham's sire is Mist Hallim Amir and his dam is Bint Marhaba. Mist Hallim Amir's sire is Fa Mist Hallim and his dam is AK Tianica. Fa Mist Hallim's sire is Fa Daalim and his dam is Moss Hill Montana. AK Tianica's sire is TheEgyptianPrince and her dam is SF Rafica. Bint Marhaba's sire is Shaikh Al Shamal and her dam is AK Marhaba. Shaikh Al Shamal's sire is Imperial Imdal and his dam is Ruminaja Afifa. AK Marhaba's sire is Ansaata Omar Halim and her dam is *El Shaymaa. *El Shaymaa is the tail dam line/mare for Sham. SF Rafica is the tail dam line/mare for Mist Hallim Amir. That was a little be tricky, but just consider the portion of pedigree that is specific to Mist Hallim Amir. Amir's dam is AK Tianica and her dam is SF Rafica. EVERY horse on the pedigree has a tail dam line and that tail dam line is determined by tracing to the horse's dam then her dam and then her dam and then.... until there are no more horses on the pedigree.
Did you identify all of those names/horses correctly? If you did, take a moment to pat yourself on the back again. If you didn't, take a break come back to this later - if you try too hard you'll just end up frustrated. If you just can't get it, then send me an email and I'll try an alternative way of explaining it.
So now you can identify all of the mares (dams) and stallions (sires) in a pedigree. It is time to move into the 'real world' and you are reading this because you have some interest in strain breeding. As we all know, *El Shaymaa had parents, there simply wasn't room for them on a 4 generation pedigree. If *El Shaymaa is traced to her dam then to her granddam to the point that the dam's name is listed as 'desert bred', the last name that you will see is El Kahila. El Kahila is considered to be THE tail mare/dam line for Sham because she is the last mare following the dam line whose name is known. The strain (and substrain) of a horse is always the same as that of his/her tail dam line. In this case, El Kahila's strain/substrain was kuhaylan krush therefore BRW Marid Shamal is of the kuhaylan krush strain (and substrain).
Since you've already identified the dam line of each horse in Sham's pedigree, you have also taken the first step in determining the strain of each horse in his pedigree. It is time consuming to figure out the strains, but they always follow the dam line. If you've followed along with these examples, then you can do this, it will just take a little time and practice.
The next example shows Sham's pedigree (5 generations) with each horse's name with a background color identifying his/her strain. Sham has only 4 strains in his pedigree so it is relatively easy to follow.......
Daaldan
Fa Daalim
Bint Fa Dena
Fa Mist Hallim
An Montoro
Moss Hill Montana
Bint Mist Aana
Mist Hallim Amir
*Morafic
Theegyptianprince
*Bint Mona
AK Tianica
Naddouma
SF Rafica
Taverna
BRW Marid Shamal
Ansata Imperial
Imperial Imdal
Dalia
Shaikh Al Shamal
Shaikh Al Badi
Ruminaja Afifa
Negmaa
Bint Marhaba
*Ansata Ibn Halima
Ansata Omar Halim
Ansata Rosetta
AK Marhaba
Seef
*El Shaymaa
Rowaida
Dahmah Shahwan Kuhaylan Ajuz Kuhaylan Krush
Saqlawi Jidran
OK, don't get intimidated by the colors, you CAN read and understand this pedigree. Just take your time. I'll make a few observations about Sham's pedigree. Ruminaja Afifa and Ansata Omar Halim are considered to be pure in strain/substrain (one generation) Dahmah Shahwan. SF Rafica is considered to be pure in strain/substrain (one generation) Kuhaylan Ajuz and TheEgyptianPrince is pure in strain/substrain Saglawi Jidran (one generation). They are considered to be pure in strain/substrain because both of their parents are of the same strain and substrain. Why do I keep mentioning 'one generation'? Because - based only on the portion of the pedigree presented here - there was only 'one generation' of horses of the same strain/substrain being bred together. If there had been 4 grandparents of one horse that were of the same strain/substrain, that horse would have been 2 generations pure in strain/substrain. The topic of 'pure in strain' will be covered in more detail on a later page.
Thank you for you time and effort in reading this entire page. I want to congratulate you on making it all the way through. I hope that you find this page helpful in learning more about breeding Arabian horses!
Return to Rare AK Strain homepage