They were Sera Dahman Sabbah (1975-91, c, s), Sera Dahman Saana (1976, c, s), Sera Dahmah Saana (1978-97, c, m) and Sera Ibn Khezera (1980-95, c, s). Sera Dahman Sabbah is well represented within Al Khamsa and sired two replacements within Sheykh Obeyd and straight Babson bloodlines, Bedu Sabir and Bedu Sahir. Both were out of John Fippen’s mare Shar Sabbah. Sera Dahmah Saana did finally replace herself within Sheykh Obeyd bloodlines with a filly by Masada El Rabdan born in 1996. Fleet-Foot also sired Sera Khebir (1976, c, s) out of his full sister Aradan.
In 1980 Masada Serrasaada foaled a bay filly, Masada Faadana, by her full brother Ibn Saafaddan. It was a daring and bold move that brought Walter great rewards. Masada Serrasaada was then sold in foal and the following year she produced a chestnut mare, Zahara Sabiya, by Fabo. (Masada Serrasaada sadly died two years later.) In 1981 Masada Saaba also had a gray colt named Saafad by Ibn Saafaddan. (Saafad never replaced himself within Sheykh Obeyd lines but did sire a number of registered foals for his owners who repaid him by inadvertently sending him to the stockyards instead of offering him for sale.)
Daal Aba age 10.
In 1980 Walter took a new direction and stepped out of straight Babson breeding. He bred Daal Aba to a stallion owned by his close personal friends Don and Judy Forbis. That stallion was of course *Ansata Ibn Halima. In 1981, with the birth of the exotic black mare Masada Fay Halima, Walter composed his first Babson/Halima foal. The drop dead gorgeous combination of *Ansata Ibn Halima on Babson mares had already been proven by the Forbis’, and this breeding was no exception. These blood lines nicked beautifully, which is not surprising since *Ansata Ibn Halima’s dam, Halima, was by Sheikh el Arab, a Bint Sabbah son. Halima’s dam, Ragia, was an Ibn Rabdan daughter. Plus, *Ansata Ibn Halima added two lines to the magnificent stallion Mansour, one through Nazeer and the other through Sheikh el Arab, which the Babson imports did not contain. (It should be noted that the 1932 Brown imports also contained Mansour since *Roda was a Mansour daughter. Walter took advantage of this in his Babson/Brown breeding program, started in 1975, with the birth of Masada Saafanna (Saafaddan x Mist Aana). Mist Aana was a daughter of Hallany Mistanny, an exceptional *Zarife x *Roda son.) The Nazeer influence produced exotic heads with deep dishes and golf ball sized eyes.
The following year, 1982, Walter again composed Babson/Halima foals but this time using the Saqlawi-Jidran stallion Fa Daalim, owned by Marilyn Lang. This was clearly an inspired next step. Fa Daalim was a gorgeous black Daaldan son with a commanding presence, Saqlawi type, and gentle temperament. Fa Daalim added both Faddan and Fay-el-Dine blood, again up close through Daaldan. The dam, Bint Fa Dena, was an *Ansata Ibn Halima daughter out of the Babson mare Fa Dena. While Fa Dena added Fa-Serr blood to Walter’s program, she also incorporated her dam Khedena’s blood. (Khedena was also Fabo’s tail-female great grand-dam.) Breeding Daal Aba to Fa Daalim produced a double Daaldan granddaughter, a black filly named Masada Fa Daalima. “She was very promising,” recounts Don Austin. “Very extreme head, nice all over. She appeared to have acquired the best from each parent.” She died later that year, yielding another significant loss. However, there was good news that season. Fa Daalim had been bred to Masada Dahmah who foaled a lovely gray colt named Masada Dahmahson. Walter was so pleased with the results that this breeding was repeated and the following year Fay El Haadi, ‘Deeders’, was born. Fay El Haadi was leased from Jane Beard near the end of his life and brought back to Masada for two breeding seasons, 1996 and 1997, and sired many beautiful foals including ones out of Zahara Sabiya, Masada Adiva, Masada Daalana, Masada Alissa and Masada Bint Fabo.
Fay El Haadi. Photo by Robin Weeks.
Also in 1982, Masada Saaba was sold in foal to Dr. Robert Tonelli, who had a first class Babson stallion. In 1983 Saaba produced a black filly by Fabo named Masada Fa-Saaba. (That was Saaba’s last foal. She died in a freak accident, falling and breaking her neck while playing in the pasture. Fa Saaba lost her first foal and has since been unable to have any foals in spite of heroic efforts by her owners. Yet another reminder of how easy it is too loose bloodlines.)
In 1984, Masada Faadana had a big dark bay foal by Fabo named Masada Samhan. Samhan was leased from Charlie Morgan and brought back to Masada for three breeding seasons thus far, including the year 2000. He has consistently produced athletic foals with an excellent trot for Walter. For tail-female Daal Aba bloodlines, he has sired a filly and colt out of Masada Anisah, affectionately known as ‘Precious’, and we look forward to more foals next year.
In 1985, Masada Dahmah produced a very special bay stallion by *Tuhotmos, Masada El Rabdan. Both *Tuhotmos’ sire and dam were by Shahloul, an Ibn Rabdan son out of the Saqlawiyah mare Bint Radia who traced tail-female through *Ghazala, just as the Babson import *Bint Serra I. *Tuhotmos’ sire, El Sareei, was out of Zareefa. Zareefa’s dam was Durra, the grand-dam of Babson import *Bint Bint Durra, and sired by Kazmeen, the sire of Bint Sabbah – dam of Babson import *Bint Bint Sabbah. (It is also interesting to note that El Sareei was a full brother to Maisa, dam of imports *Bint Maisa El Saghira and *Bint Maisa.) *Tuhotmos was out of the infamous Moniet El Nefous. She traces tail-female to Bint Roga Al Zarka, just as the Babson import mare *Bint Saada. Walter’s good friend Susan Mayo owns and lovingly cares for Masada El Rabdan. When the time is right, he intends to use this exceptional stallion at Masada.
Ibn Saafaddan age 6.
In 1986 Walter tried a new source for Babson/Halima melodies. He bred Masada Dahmah to Ra’adin Inshalla and she had a gray filly named Masada Dalima. The following year, 1987, Masada Faadana had the gray stallion Masada Shaladin, also by Ra’adin Inshalla.
In 1987, Masada Saafa had a bay filly, Masada Bint Saafa, by Fa Daalim. Saafa was sold just before the filly was born but Walter retained Bint Saafa. Unfortunately Bint Saafa coliced and died the following year. Masada Saafa had only one more foal, a colt born in 1988 by DHAR Serr Rouf. It is unknown what became of Saafa. Saafa’s owners also begged Walter for Ibn Saafaddan so he finally relented and sold him with the understanding that Walter wished to bring Ibn Saafaddan back to Masada and use him on his Fabo daughters. This never came to pass, and instead, for some unknown reason, Ibn Saafaddan was gelded and his whereabouts unknown. The loss of Ibn Saafaddan, a non-Fabah/Fa-Serr straight Babson, was devastating and the repercussions are still strongly being felt at Masada today.
Masada Dahmah
1987 also marked the birth of an exceptional chestnut stallion by Fabo out of Masada Dahmah. Walter believed that this colt could turn Babson breeding around and bring back the Fay-El-Dine, Khebir look that had eluded Walter. “Even Judy Forbis thought he was very, very promising,” recalls Walter. What happened next may be the saddest chapter in Masada’s history. “Walter had purchased an expensive ‘new’ grain mix,” remembers Karen Hayes. “The horses thought it was fine, but two of them started acting sick. Dahmah developed signs of anterior enteritis (which causes the upper small intestine to thicken and blocks the stomach’s ability to empty) and severe signs of colic. Decompressing the stomach by passing a stomach tube relieved the pain temporarily, and gallons of bloody fluid would come out. She was sent to a veterinary hospital facility in Sapulpa, OK, and kept there for a couple of weeks so they could decompress her repeatedly throughout the day and keep her on massive amounts of IV fluids. It wasn’t until several days later that the volume of refluxed fluid began to abate. She was a skeleton of her former self but did come home. A day or two later the colic returned and she died. Necropsy revealed that her pancreas, which wraps around the upper intestine, was completely destroyed. Her orphan colt initially did pretty well, but he too sickened and began showing vague signs of enteritis and died.”
Karen Hayes called the sales rep which sold the suspect feed at the first signs of illness – “Three horses suddenly ill after starting a new feed was too suspicious to ignore,” recounts Karen. “The rep admitted right off the bat that that particular batch of feed had mistakenly been mixed without the usual mold inhibitor.” Unfortunately, Karen had gotten this information when the whole debacle was just rearing its head, and Walter, in an emotional act, had thrown out all the remaining feed so there was nothing to test. “There was no way to prove the feed caused it, no way to prove it didn’t,” recalls Karen. “When litigation was threatened, the manufacturer retracted the sale’s rep’s statement about the mold inhibitor.” To this day Walter can barely speak about what happened. Words cannot begin to convey the great sorrow Walter still carries over the loss of his precious Dahmah.
In a gesture of great kindness and compassion, Jay Gormley and Sonny Riser purchased Zahara Sabiya (Fabo x Masada Serrasaada) back from Zahara Arabians and presented her as a gift to help fill the void. By doing this they rescued a truly great mare that would have certainly been lost to Sheykh Obeyd otherwise.
Sabiya is a tall 15 hand deep red chestnut mare with a powerful body. She is the ideal endurance horse in build and temperament, the true Bedouin war mare. However, she has a plainer head and was often overlooked by those who visited Masada. Ironically it is Sabiya’s daughters whom all remember. Following the year of her arrival, Sabiya presented Walter with her first Sheykh Obeyd foal, a filly named El Dahma Halima by Ra’adin Inshalla who is now owned and adored by Anne and Grant Townsend. “I first saw Dahma as a four year old when she returned to Masada as the riding horse for my son Douglas, and as a future broodmare. Dahma is like her mom - a leader, with a tremendous heart and courage, a people lover and with a soft and gentle nature. She is an excellent mom. We initially tried breeding Dahma to Kamal Ibn Fabo, but after several failed tries we gave up. Dahma loves Fa Asar and has bred four outstanding foals by him. She had been his constant companion for many years until this year when she had to be separated from him so she could have a break from breeding for a year or two. She is an excellent riding horse and it is time for her to become active under saddle again,” shares Anne.
Also in 1987, Masada El Fahim was born – a stunning black Babson/Halima colt by Fabo and out of Masada Fay Halima. This breeding was repeated two more times, in 1988 and 1989, and yielded two gorgeous mares, Masada Maarana and Masada Bint Fabo. El Fahim ended up being bottle raised and for some reason never fully got the idea that he was a horse. While he did breed some mares, his owners eventually lost him to the breed at the age of 7.
In 1988 Masada Fay Halima had her second foal by Fabo, this time a chestnut filly named Masada Marana. Marana was sold to the Massey’s and has had four foals by SAR Fadl Halim: two fillies purchased by H.R.H. Lulua Al Sabbah and exported to her stud in England, a colt and a black filly with Marilyn Lang. Marana is now with Marilyn and has produced a colt by Maar Ma Ladd, later gelded, and, most recently, a handsome bay colt by Halim El Mansour. In 1988 Walter bred Masada Faadana to the bay straight Babson stallion DR Fadl mainly because he was a double Ibn Fa-Serr son and his dam, Serr Beth, is one of the most beautiful living Babsons. Serr Beth traced tail-female to another *Fadl x *Bint Bint Sabbah super daughter, Fa-Abba. Serr Rou was a popular stallion at the Babson Farm. His dam, Bahrou, was a Fabah daughter out of the famous Fay-El-Dine daughter Aaroufa. Aaroufa was out of the Babson import *Maaroufa. Thus, this breeding was the first time Walter incorporated *Maaroufa’s blood into a Daal Aba melody. The following year a big bay filly named Masada Faadah was born. In 1992, Faadah was sent in foal to Walter’s long time friend Dr. Farooq Siddiqi. In 1993, a bay filly by Fa Asar, Mazala Bashira, was born. Dr. Siddiqi bred Faadah four more times, twice to Masada El Rabdan and twice to Ahmed Fabah. She gave him a colt and filly replacement from each stallion.
The third foal by Fabo out of Masada Fay Halima was born in 1989, the beautiful black Masada Bint Fabo. “Bint Fabo was always different from the other horses at Masada. As a youngster she did not show affection easily but she certainly won my heart,” recalls Anne Townsend. “As a yearling she had a very serious eye injury and I remember so well how she endured three months of very uncomfortable treatment six times a day and being continually kept in a stall all that time as she could not go out in the sunlight. She should have come through the experience hating people but instead she had a much more loving personality and Walter, who had almost given up on gaining her friendship, was able to bond with her. Bint Fabo is tough and courageous, a wonderful mother of three black fillies, and two outstanding colts. If she had ever been ridden, she would be awesome.” Bint Fabo has had five foals to date, four Babson/Halima and one Babson /Sirecho /Halima. She produced two black fillies by Fa Daalim in 1993 and 1994, Masada Daalana and Masada Alissa. In 1996 she had a black filly, Masada Adriaana, by AK Sirhalima. AK Sirhalima is an *Ansata Ibn Halima son out of the Sirecho daughter Sirhabba. Sirhabba is out of Habba, the dam of Walter’s first stallion love, Lothar. In 1998 Bint Fabo had a gorgeous black colt by Fay El Haadi, Masada Mahmoud. He is now with Vicki Butler. “Mahmoud is tall, stretchy, elegant, and has an incredible trot,” raves Vicki. This year Bint Fabo had her first foal sired by Fa Asar, a big bay colt.
In 1989 Walter returned to Fa Daalim for his 1990 foal crop. Again Fa Daalim proved himself an exceptional sire and in 1990 Masada Adiva was born,
Sabiya the proud dam. Anyone who has ever visited Walter’s farm will remember Adiva, an exquisite high note in the Masada oeuvre. In 1989, Walter also sent Daal Aba to his close friend Vicki Butler to see if she would have any better luck getting Daal Aba in foal.
In 1990 Walter bred Masada Faadana to a different Serr Beth son, Kamal Ibn Fabo by Fabo. Faadana was then sold to Bruce and Diana Johnson. Faadana became sick en route and had to be hospitalized. Her 1991 bay foal, Dahma Saafada, by ‘Ibby’ was born there. Faadana barely survived the trip from Arkansas to Arizona and was never able to get in foal again. Dahma Saafada has had 3 colts to date, all by Ahmed Fabah. In 1990 Walter also sold Masada Fay Halima. In 1992 she had a black filly by Fa Daalim, G Mafaada, who now lives with Caryn Rogosky. (Mafaada has had two Sheykh Obeyd foals for Caryn, a 1996 bay filly by Halim El Mansour and a 1997 black colt by WK Fabos Finale.) Fay Halima was sold again due to the Gucci herd dispersal and exported to Morocco.
1990 marked the arrival of the second stallion love of Walter’s life, Fa Asar. Like Fabo, Fa Asar had been a backyard stallion before his arrival at Masada. Fa Asar’s pedigree followed the Babson farm boilerplate breeding method: Fay-el-Dine daughter bred to Fa-Serr, the resulting daughter bred to Fabah, and the resulting daughter bred to Ibn Fa-Serr. What was attractive about Fa Asar’s pedigree was that first and foremost he was an Ibn Fa-Serr son and possessed many Saqlawi characteristics, in spite of his being Dahman in strain. Ibn Fa Serr, ‘Corky’, was a great white swan and one of the most important sires in the Babson Farm program. Ibn Fa-Serr was the result of breeding full brother to full sister. Truly Saqlawi in type, he represented the influence of his great-grand dam Serra, the beautiful Ali Pasha Sherif mare.
Another appeal was that six of Fa Asar’s eight great-grandparents were original Babson imports. He also traced tail-female to Fay-Sabbah, thereby adding a new source of *Bint Bint Sabbah blood and another line to Fay-El-Dine. The final attraction was that, in spite of the added lines to Fabah and Fa-Serr, the dam line through Serasabba, Serrasab, and Fay Sabbah to *Bint Bint Sabbah was comprised of superb individuals. His dam, Serasabba was a full sister to the great mare Sabrah, dam of 4 national winners including US National Champion mare Fa Halima, and also dam of 2 regional champions. “Fa Asar is an old soul, he is almost human. All I have to do is whisper into his ear when I make a request. You only meet a horse like him once or twice in your life, if you’re lucky. How I love him,” contemplates Walter. Fa Asar is a ¾ brother to multi-national dressage champion Serr Maariner and ¾ brother to Serabaar, sire of 1997 US Top Ten 2 nd and 3rd level dressage winner Ibn Sabbah Bedu.
Fa Asar has sired three magnificent stallions out of Sabiya: Masada El Fasab, a 1991, gray, stallion at Bint Al Bahr Arabians, Masada Sabar, a 1994, black stallion at Ritzy Arabians, and Masada Mamnon, a 1995 bay stallion at Manara Arabains in Holland, in addition to a courageous daughter, Masada Anisah (‘Precious’), a 1992 black mare. Those of you who have visited Masada will have met Precious and of course remember her vividly. While being badly crippled in front, she has never complained and every day shows her strong will to live. You can’t help but be drawn to this brave mare, her deep soulful eyes, gentle and loving nature, and graceful neck and head. It is not hard to imagine what a magnificent riding mare she could have made. Precious was born prematurely around 303 days. “The front pastern was flipping over, loose,” recalls Walter, “so I made a splint lined with lots of padding and secured it to the leg.”
Left, Masada Fay Halima with foal, Masada Bint Fabo