On the Name and Descendents of Davenport’s 1906 Import *Azra

The Al Khamsa website has a very nice and comprehensive feature on the stallion *Azra, a Saqlawi Ubayri imported by Davenport from the desert in 1906, and his remaining descendants. Check it out here. By the way, it was not until a few days ago that I realized that the stallion’s name actually meant “grey”, in reference to his color. Davenport’s Syrian and Lebanese companions would pronounce the Arabic qaf letter (equivalent to k or q) as ‘ (the guttural stop which if preceded by the vowel like A would be virtually silent, hence turning Azraq/Azrak into Azra. The Blunts had the same idea with their own Azrek, except that his Bedouin buyer, Zeyd Saad al-Mutayri would pronounce the name like Bedouins do and the way classical Arabic has it, with a q/k at the end.  

Clarion CF recent shots

Last week Kirby Drennan sent me pictures of her Clarion CF (Regency CF x Chinoiserie by Dharanad) which Anita Westfall had taken some time before. Here is one, which shows the stallion’s large eyes, his protruding facial bones, and his especially deep jaws. These are typical features of a Davenport stallion, and they are particularly prominent in Clarion. These are also the features of a desert bred stallion in its homeland. The second photo shows the distribution of the horse’s musculature.