Fa Daalim

Fa Daalim was a 1973 black stallion, sired by the straight Babson Egyptian stallion Daaldan (Faddan x Fay Dalla) and out of the *Ansata Ibn Halima daughter, Bint Fa Dena. Fa Daalim was a tail female *Bint Serra I and Saklawi by strain. As the years have gone by, the line of Bint Serra, in tail female, has become less and less, to where we find ourselves today, with no tail female line *Bint Serra in straight Babson Egyptian form (AK Bint Serra, sired by Waseem Ibn Bahrou and out of the mare Fa Dena was the last tail female line Bint Serra mare and unfortunately she left no progeny) and if this news was not distressing enough, *Bint Serra is becoming rarer in the male line too. In addition to his tail female line, Fa Daalim has two additional lines to *Bint Serra I through the stallions Fay-el-Dine and Fa-Serr. In addition to the rare *Bint Serra blood, Fa Daalim carried the blood of two Babson mares which are also exceedingly rare: *Bint Saada and *Bint Bint Durra. With the exception of *Maaroufa, you can find the blood of the other Babson imports in Fa Daalim's pedigree.

I didn't know Fa Daalim personally, so I can't tell you what he was like. However, I did know his daughter, G Mafaada (out of the *Ansata Ibn Halima daughter, Masada Fay Halima, who was exported). She is a beautiful black mare, compact, close-coupled, on the smaller side but elegant, with a nice strong back which was balanced by a nice full hind-quarter. She walked with cat-like grace, without much effort. She was very strong for the look of her sire, Fa Daalim. As a student of the breed, what I find fascinating about Fa Daalim is the similarity in his pedigree with another Babson horse: Fabo. Both horses, in genotype, are more similar to each other, than they are different. Both horses are tail female Bint Serra I, tracing through Khedena to Fa Deene to Bint Serra. While Fa Daalim's dam, Bint Fa Dena is an *Ansata Ibn Halima daughter (traces to Bint Sabah through Halima, which is the same source as the mare *Bint Bint Sabbah), Fabo is a Fabah son (*Fadl x *Bint Bint Sabbah). The difference in the dams of both horses, allows Fabo to bring in the same amount of additional Bint Serra blood, as we find in Fa Daalim: 2 lines through the same horses, Fay-el-Dine and Fa-Serr.

And yet, physically, both horses are different, Fabo having a more pronounced Saqlawi look and Fa Daalim, while a Saklawi horse, to me, he looks Dahman. A more refined Dahman horse, if you will, with perhaps a little more leg, a little more neck, than we are used to seeing in heavily-bred Dahman horses. I wish that he were still alive and I wish that I could breed my mare, Princeton Maarena to him. He has everything I would want to bring into this cross.

"There seems to be a relationship between the depth felt for something and the feeling associated with its absence."-Mike Terry