Here in Saudi Arabia, we have several hundred horses like this mare that were not registered in the WAHO accepted studbook, despite being asil. These horses are currently overlooked.

Notice how the mare runs with her hindquarters wide part. The Arabic term for a mare with hindquarters wide apart is “fajhah“. One can also tell this is a racy mare, because of the way she throws her forelegs forward, and the way she pushes her head and her neck forward too.

This type of song is called “Samiri”. The words are, in transliterated Arabic:

“atliqu al-khayl dama al-khayl mukhtalah,
fikku quyudaha banat al-kuhaylah,
nahmidu allahu ‘alyana ‘ammat akhbaruhu”

which means, roughly translated:

“let the horses run, as long as the horses are ridden,
un-tether the daughters of al-Kuhaylah,
we praise God, may his deeds be spread upon us”

To summarize using politically correct language: the stallion Amer, currently owned by Umm Qarn farms of Qatar, is an extremely controversial horse, owned by extremely powerful people. He has dozens of offspring around the world. Many people have questioned Amer’s purity over the years, more or less openly. Many people have written to WAHO about him (good luck with that…). There is lots of big money involved, and a lot of vested interests at stake.  

Fraud, when it does take place, takes place behind closed doors.  You will not see the real pedigree in any WAHO-approved studbook records, and I don’t imagine anyone putting their lives and jobs on the line to enter a royalty-owned stud (how?), ask for DNA sample from Amer and his likes (how?), receive it, compare it with DNA sample from English Thoroughbreds in Jordan or elsewhere (which ones? how? culprits died long ago), send the whole package to labs for analysis (which labs?) and publis the results somewhere (where?). 

So all that’s left is people word, good faith, reputation, and judgement, like in the old times, when Bedouins swore by Allah that their horses were Asil. There was no DNA analysis back then. Buyers relied on breeders reputation and on their appreciation of the horse’s type. 

I will maintain my comment on the Amer post: “Amer is the biggest scandal in  modern Arabian horse breeding.” I saw two daughters of him in France in 2006 and they looked NOTHING like Arabian horses.

Bottom line: Preservationnist breeders who care about the Asil horse, do not include Amer in your registries and databases of Asil Arabians. Let WAHO keep it in its fold. He is in good company there, with the likes of Skowronek, Rymnik (Poland), Kurdo III (Argentina), Flipper (France), and other “pseudo-Arabians” accepted by WAHO. Do not breed to Amer. His 10,000 BP stud fee is already much of a turn off anyway. 10,000 BP can buy you one, two, maybe even three well authenticated Asil horses. And peace of mind. Peace of mind is priceless.

Arabian horses are a really big deal here. The majority was imported from the West. “Decorative” horses mostly.  Not quite my cup of tea.  Others hail directly from Egypt and Syria. A tiny minority are indigenous Asil Arabians from old Qatari bloodlines. I recall this wonderful picture of a bay Wadhnan stallion in one of the early volumes of the Qatari studbook. If only Qatar had a hundred more like him left. How many are left? Where are they? Who knows their histories? I wish I could sneak out and see some of these gems..