I normally don’t use this blog to relay unsubstantiated rumors, but this one is so funny I could not resist sharing it with you: a well-known horsebreeder from Egypt is claiming that the poorly documented (a euphemism) Egyptian stallion Sharkasi is actually from the ‘Ajman Bedouin tribe of Central Arabia. The ‘Ajman, no less… Of course, this breeder has Sharkasi bloodlines. Now I understand that there is an ongoing push from various parts of the community of Arabian breeders in Egypt to ‘sponsor’ further research on the few Egyptian bloodlines outside of the mainstream Egyptian breeding (e.g., the three Tahawi mares, El Gadaa, Ibn Ghalabawi, Sharkasi, etc), and that is always welcome, but I never thought someone would make so brazen a claim as to link an unknown stallion from Upper Egypt to one of the most respected horse-breeding tribes of Arabia. I mean, even WAHO stopped short of making up such a prestigious ascendency when it accepted Sharkasi. You can read the WAHO report on Sharkasi here; it essentially says that “Sharkasi was bred by a man in Upper Egypt. His sire was one of the Alzabra Stud distributed to villages to cover the mares of farmers. His dam was…