How we read pedigrees

A working note on the sources we trust, the rules we apply, and the limits of what AI should be allowed to claim about a horse.

Living document · revised 06 May 2026
01

First principles

A pedigree is a primary record. Stories about a horse — its temperament, its show wins, its descendants — are secondary. Naasl keeps the two layers visible at all times: pedigree facts on one plane, narrative claims on another, each linked to its own sources.

Where the secondary layer disagrees with the primary, the primary wins. Where two primary sources disagree, we say so plainly and show both.

02

Source hierarchy

We weigh sources in this order:

  • Recognized studbooks (WAHO, Al Khamsa, EAO, ANCCE, etc.).
  • National breed registries with public records.
  • Stud-farm archives we have working agreements with.
  • Peer-reviewed equine genetics literature.
  • Long-form journalism and historical scholarship.
  • Owner-supplied records, marked as such.

Material below the third tier is shown but never used as the sole source for a claim.

03

How Rawee writes

Rawee is given a horse and its verified pedigree. From that it pulls a story: who the foundation sire was, where the strain settled, which descendants matter today.

Every paragraph in a Rawee story is grounded in at least one source from the hierarchy above. The sources are visible in the margin and can be opened side by side. We never let the model invent a stud-farm name, a date, or a person.

When Rawee doesn't know, it says so. We would rather have a short, true story than a long, plausible one.

04

How Hakem advises

Hakem ranks potential matches for a mare on three axes: pedigree (inbreeding coefficient, strain compatibility, line balance), conformation (matched type, complementary weakness, height curve), and outcome history (how similar pairings have performed in the past).

Each ranked stallion comes with a written rationale you can challenge. The score is never the answer; it's a starting point for a conversation between you, your veterinarian, and your records.

Hakem does not estimate genetic disease risk unless DNA test results are on file. We refuse to guess at health from pedigree alone.

05

What we will not do

We will not claim a horse's value, ranking, or competitive future.

We will not write narratives that depict living owners or breeders without their consent.

We will not use AI to fill gaps in a pedigree. A blank ancestor stays blank.

We will not let advertisers, breeders, or sponsors influence how a horse's story is told.

06

Errors and corrections

Every page on Naasl has a "flag this" button. Reports are reviewed by a human within five working days.

Confirmed corrections are applied immediately and noted in the page's revision log, which anyone can read.

If a correction overturns a recommendation Hakem made for you, we re-run the analysis at no charge.