Wanderin' Star Farm
Chaparral, New Mexico

Heirloom / El Deree

Combining the Oldest Egyptians with a Touch of the New ^tm

Why Preserve This Gene Pool?

Heirloom/El Deree horses trace in all lines to the oldest Egyptian blood identified as Heirloom (Egypt I/Blunt) with the addition of one ancestor from the Inshass Stud in Egypt: The Al Khamsa Foundation horse, El Deree (INS).  Imported to Egypt for King Fouad, El Deree raced from 1924-1927, and stood at Inshass until 1934, when he was presented to the Royal Agricultural Society (R.A.S), Egypt's first official preservation organization dedicated to breeding Desert Arabians.  At Inshass, he sired a daughter out of an Heirloom mare that remains extant in AK lines, Saada (INS) 1931 (x Ghazalah [MNL]).  In 1936 he sired the prolific stallion, Sid Abouhom (RAS) out of the Heirloom mare Layla (RAS).  Since the 1930s, progeny of Saada (INS) and Sid Abouhom (RAS) have been bred together and back to Heirloom stock without further outcrossing.

The Heirloom/El Deree variant has survived over 70 years, and the horses resulting from this minimal outcrossing of Heirloom lines tend to be athletic, personable, and typey, while retaining the genetic potency and consistency associated with generations of line-breeding within the Heirloom group.  Many carry high percentages of Abbas Pasha source blood.  By identifying them as a variant breeding group, we are attempting to complement and expand the preservation of Heirloom bloodlines, often now lost to the Heirloom herd proper, in a closely related breeding group and a variant that has survived the tests of time, numerous breeding programs, and the rigors of performance and halter competition.

-by Debra Schrishuhn