Jamr now a yearling

Jamr (Vice Regent x Jadiba) is growing up nicely, and really looks like his pedigree, a mix of the old Blunt/Doyle look — you can’t beat the classiness of that — and the Davenport/Schilla look. He has his dam’s very deep jaws, and his sire’s pointy ears. His dam’s ears were understated. His eye is bigger than his dam’s, which is the legacy of the extra Davenport blood. The triangular head is the result of a finer muzzle than his dam’s and of the depth of his jaw, like in that Sherifa head study by Lady Anne Blunt. Note also the bone structure at the base of the ear and juncture of the ear and the jaw. No prominent dish, or only a very slight one, just the way I like it and the way I think it should be. Thanks to Monica Respet for this photo.  

Welcome, Belle

I am excited to announce that the Kuhaylat al-Ajuz Jadah BelloftheBall a.ka. “Belle” (Invictus Al Krush x Belladonna CHF by Audobon x LD Rubic by Plantagenet) has joined the Al-Dahdah herd. She is a gift from my friend Jeannie Lieb, who delivered her from Boston to Pennsylvania yesterday! I have been wanting a mare from the line of LD Rubic for 12 years now, ever since a came to the USA, and now I have one, so it’s a dream come true. This morning I found this email in my archives. It is from the late Carol Lyons and is dated Dec. 22, 2001: “{…] You asked about Rubic and Belladona. […] Who would I breed these mares to if I had the opportunity?   I would try to  breed Rubic to Triermain.   There is a story here about why Charles gave this horse the name of  Triermain’.  It comes from a poem which tells the vertues of a man named Triermain and that he is worthy of the daughter of Plantagenet.  Rubic is a Plantagenet daughter so the choice is obvious.  I believe that Charles is a ‘master breeder’ and  Triermain has been used on a number of Plantagenet daughters and granddaughters…

Krush mares

I am offering the two Kuhaylat al-Krush full sisters Bint al-Barra, 22, and Cinnabar Myst, 21, by ASF David out of Mystalla for a good retirement home, or to someone who may wish to continue the preservation work I started with them. I am doing so because I need to make room for new arrivals (details soon), and I already have a replacement filly Mayassah (by Clarion CF). If anyone is interested, drop me a line. Notable features about both mares include: — an extraordinary disposition, both mares are sweet as lambs; they had never been ridden, yet they took on both my kids on their backs. — very old lines up close: Abu Zeyd, 1904 (Mesaoud x Rose Diamond) is 4 generations away; Hanad is 5 generations away; Daaldan is a paternal grandsire. — old endurance lines up close with Albert Harris bred horses 3 generations removed (Komet by Sunshine x Tebuk). — easy keepers  

Bagdad, 1935 stallion in France

Not sure to think of this one: Bagdad, 1935 stallion (Norniz x Bagdalyne by Danbik); he precedes the generalized (and still much uncovered) cross-breeding of Arabians with Anglo-Arabians that plagued France from the 1950s onwards, yet he does not look like your classical Arabian. He does not look like an Anglo-Arabian either; he looks like an Arabian of the racing type. But compare with the picture just below, which is that of an Anglo-Arab with 25% of Arab blood.  

Mahboob Halab, 2007 Shuwayman Sabbah stallion from Syria, in France

He is turning every bit like his dam, a fortress of a mare, which died this summer after inhaling a suspicious chemical gas near Aleppo, but he is more refined than her. I love his high withers. Click on the photo (by Fabienne and Severine Vesco) to enlarge it.    

Desert-bred Foundation Horses in Okba’s pedigree

This post builds on the previous one below, about the Tunisian racing stallion Okba (1983-2006). Here is an initial list (in no order) of the desert-bred foundation horses in his pedigree, which I will keep updating as I move on: 1. Dynamite II, ca. 1920 (Hamdani x Tayyara), to Sidi Thabet 2. Tamerlan, a Dahman, to Sidi Thabet, imp. 1910 3. Goutta, to Tiaret, born 1884, imp 1889 4. Cheboub, a Hadban Enzahi born in 1872, to Tiaret 5. Zerga, to Tiaret, born in 1873 sire “Seglawi Regibi”, dam “Chouémé” (Shuwaymah) 6. Ibech, bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins, to Sidi Thabet, born 1891, i,p. 1896 7. Assacoulai, sire of Ould Assacoulai who was born in 1878 at Sidi Thabet 8. Anazaouia, dam of Ould Assacoulai 9. Harami, to Pompadour, imp. 1872-76 10. Dolma Batche, a Jilfa, to Pompadour “from Constantinople”, born in 1869, imp. 1876, chestnut. 11. Khamil, born 1894 imp. to Tiaret in 1898 (with Aziz and Salamie) 12. Ramses II, “from Syria”, sire “Kehelan El-Boulad”; dam “Hamdanie”, to Pompadour in the 1880s 13. Samaria, a Kuhaylah Ajuz, from Khalid Bey al-Assaad, in Taybeh, Lebanon, bought for 8,000 francs, to Pompadour in 1887 by M. de Gaanay, to Sidi…

Turefi Dahman, 1984 stallion from the UAE

Anyone knows what the origin of this picture on allbreedpedigree.com is? It is supposed to represent the 1984 chestnut UAE stallion Turefi Dahman (Dahman Al Asfar 1975 x Turefiya Safra OA 1974), yet the horse in grey.  The sire on the pedigree is UAE bred from Saudi lines, and the dam (persumably from the strain of Kuhaylan Turayfi) is presented as a desert bred. [Update: Photo by Rick Van Lent, Jr]

Okba, 1983 Tunisian racehorse in the USA

I am even more disconnected from the racing scene in the USA than I thought. I recently found out that the 1983 Tunisian Jilfan Dhawi racehorse Okba (Koufi x Ahram by Esmet Ali) had been imported to the USA where his offspring (out of mares from non-asil race Russian, Polish, US/Kontiki and other racing lines) have been topping the charts of race winners over the past decade. He was first raced in Tunisia (10-9-1), then in Oman (4-1-0) where he was spotted  and imported to the USA by Stephen Hollis. Okba was bred by the Tunisian Government Stud of Sidi Thabet from Algerian and Tunisian bloodlines only (save for two crosses to Ibn Fayda I, a gift from Prince Kemal El Dine Hussein to Tunisia). His pedigree is that of an Asil and is significant in that he does not trace to old (asil) French mainland lines (e.g., Duc) which were common in Tunisia at the time.  He also traces up close to two of the foundation mares (Ambria and Palmyre) of the famed stud of Admiral Cordonnier in Tunisia. I will be proposing him for inclusion in the Al Khamsa Roster next year, after I do my due diligence on his trajectory…