Speaking of his own preservation efforts, Philippe notes that twice in the past he almost lost sire lines after losing head stallions without a sufficient number of colts to replace them. “Having stared into the depths of that dismal abyss twice in my life, I vowed never to expose myself again,” he says. “This is in part why I expanded the number of my broodmares in the last fifteen years and why I hardly ever sell males. “With the benefit of hindsight, I also deeply regret that in the first ten years of my breeding I was under the impression that a ‘dish’ was the prime criterion for selection of our Arabians. This lack of understanding made me pass on several males of unique caliber that I could have acquired at that time.”
Top left and right: “Robaeyat El Khayyam is a special filly to us as she was born the night before we listened to Robaeyat El Khayyam (by Um Kulthoum) in concert. She is a Kohailan Rodan daughter sired by Khafif EAO, the Dahman Shahwan Faragallah son and out of Tabashir EAO. She will turn three next May.” Bottom left: “Khafif El Dhil represents another branch of the Akhtal line in our program. His sire Khafif is a very old EAO stallion, about 25, and is not pictured as we are only featuring our own breeding on these pages. A rare double Dahman Shahwan Bukra colt, he is from the sire line Akhtal through Faragallah, out of a mare we acquired from Shams El Assil, having chosen beforehand the stallion for her.” Facing page: “Kawkab El Shark is a Gabbar daughter and out of Aneeda EAO, double Akhtal, and perhaps our most feminine mare at the present time. We breed her to stallions of the Anter sire line, away from her Moniet tail female line.” 28 ▪ PARASKEVAS ▪ WORLD