Looks like some of my last posts (here, and here) have really (like, really) angered a particular category of people: cynical French breeders who make big money out of breeding and selling “pseudo-Arabian” racehorses. They are now fully mobilized and want to launch a campaign to defend their horses by the next WAHO conference. Some even stand ready to destroy the reputation of anyone who dares pointing a accusatory finger at their horses. Poor them. They think they are victims of another campaign to kick their horses out of WAHO – now that they have recovered from the Manganate controversy that erupted at the 1974 WAHO conference in Sweden. Don’t worry, cynical French breeders of “pseudo-Arabians”. There is nothing to be scared of. Your livelihood will not be threatened, and your financial interests are safe. WAHO will certainly keep you in its fold. Its circular, hopelessly tautological definition protects your horses: “A pure-bred Arabian horse is one which appears in any pure-bred Arabian Stud Book or Register listed by WAHO as acceptable”. That’s bullet-proof. My two posts – and the others to follow 🙂 – are not an attempt to throw French pseudo-Arabians out of WAHO, this low-ceiling benchmark of purity.…
Pretty mare, eh? Nabilah Fanatasia (Omar El Shaker x Nabilah Bint Saklabilah) is from South Africa’s Nabilah Stud and traces to the Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Nabilah (Enzahi x Zamzam) in tail female, as well as to the Kuhaylat al-Mimrah Barakah in the midde of the pedigree. Both Nabilah and Baraka were imported to South Africa in the 1940s. Photo courtesy of Eugene Geyser of South Africa.