#paternal great-great granddam of Amba

[horsesarecreatures]

AK Fanniya was a 1977 daughter of *Ansata Ibn Halima and out of *Narimaan, a *Morafic daughter out of *Deena, a pretty bay Sameh daughter. There's a Guy Clark song that I like very much that opens with the lyrics, "My favorite picture of you is the one where you're staring straight into the lens." I hear this song playing in my head, when I look at this photo of AK Fanniya, which is my favorite of this charming, elegant and wonderfully pigmented mare.

What's interesting about this particular mare are the two tail female lines, which trace back to Farida. *Ansata Ibn Halima traces through the Ibn Rabdan daughter, Ragia; while *Narimaan traces through the Shahloul daughter, Futna. Her flea-bitten coat coloring is a little more profuse than her sire, which would fool someone into thinking that she  favors *Ansata Ibn Halima in phenotype. However, in my opinion, I think she is more profoundly influenced by *Morafic, as her head is a little longer, a bit more narrow, with a higher eye placement than we observe in *Ansata Ibn Halima. It is my personal feeling (even though modern mtDNA science does not support Bedouin strain theory, as taught to us by Raswan) that combining two Saqlawi stallions on the maternal side of the pedigree,  have more to do with the appearance of attributes that we have learned to associate with the Saqlawi strain.

I also found the use of Nazeer interesting, as it is a more intense version of Brackett's formula, "let the sire of the sire, be the grandsire of the dam." In AK Fanniya, we find a Nazeer son, bred to a double Nazeer granddaughter, which also concentrates the use of Mansour, Nazeer's sire; as he is also the sire of Sheikh el Arab.

Ibn Rabdan and his son, Shahloul also appear multiple times in the pedigree, although I found it interesting that this father/son combination is better represented in *Narimaan's side of the pedigree, than in *Ansata Ibn Halima.

How is she represented today? AK Fanniya was bred by Bentwood Farm, who also, are the breeders of the few foals she produced in America, before she was sold overseas. Bred to a variety of Moniet el Nefous stallions, she produced two sons and three daughters, of which, only the daughters have produced progeny, the most successful being her 1983 daughter, AK Shahniya, by AK Shah Moniet, who in turn, produced a  daughter named Shameerah, by MFA Mareekh Amir. This particular mare is a producer of "kings", having produced two sons who are furthering the bloodline of AK Fanniya into the present day and beyond: Farres by Anaza El Farid and Shahim Al Nakeeb by NK Hafid Jamil. AK Fanniya's daughter, AK Athena, by Sar Ibn Moniet, has produced daughters by The Elixir (Hi-Fashion Mreekh x Jaliya), MC Alexsis and MC Elextris, both of whom have been especially prolific, producing horses who have done well at the Egyptian Event, the premier show for Egyptian Arabian horses in America.

Posted by Ralph Suarez