I am in Kuwait now, and have a terrible case of insomnia.

… the 2001 mare HH Sonata Krush (Preseus KF x Sarra Al Krushah by Asar Al Krush)

… and the 2009 daughter HH Serafina Krush, by Quantum LD

as well as the 2009 stallion HH Tantalus Krush (Quantum LD x Kashmir Krush by Sportin Life) 

and finally, the new colt’s sister, the 2010 filly Sabella Al Krush (Pulcher Ibn Reshan x HH Nadira Krush), who is also very promising

Many of Kim’s horses also trace to Jackson Hensley’s old-established Kuhaylan Krush program.. and some of the exchanges between the two programs are pretty recent.

– an article  on Vanishing Lines (*Al Mashoor and Euphrates, represented by the mare Sarita Bint Raj),

– ground-breaking research article by R.J. Cadranell about the Abbas Pasha mare Ghazieh (one of the best articles I have read on Abbas Pasha horses in years, based on original documentation),

– a write up by Jeanne Craver of my presentation at last year’s Al Khamsa Convention in Pennsylvania, on a case study of a modern Syrian line (the Shuwayman Sabbah of the Jarba Shammar) and its link to US imports of the 19th and 20th century.

– a report by Rosemary Doyle on the WAHO Conference in Qatar.

It’s nice to see this small, self-funded publication featuring so many cutting edge topics in one issue. I love the spirit the Khamsat embodies. Homegrown, volonteer based, yet global in it reach and cutting edge in its coverage.

Here a photo of a daughter of his, courtesy of Teymur from Turkey. She is SÜBEYHI.4., Grey 1936, Mare, Strain: MANEKIYE SÜBEYHI. Sire: KURUSH.1921 OA (Baba Kuru?) , Grey. Dam: SÜBEYHI.2.1929, Grey.

From a sheer preservation perspective, this mare is precious is so many ways: first, because of its tail female; second, because of the extraordinarily high amount of Ali Pasha Sherif bloodlines she carries through her great grand dam Sappho (Bleinheim x Selima by Bahram x Siwa II by Rheoboam) pictured below; third, because of the two lines she carries to the asil Courthouse Stud desert bred imports Nimr and Fedaan, who have virtually disappeared from the global asil gene pool (save for another line in South Africa to Nimr but also to the third Courthouse desert bred import Atesh); fourth, because of the last asil line left to the Blunt desert import Meshura; fifth, because this is the only asil Crabbet damline left in Europe…

I am so happy Laszlo was able to acquire this mare, and I wish him all the best in breeding her and reviving that glorious old line.. pictures of Saralee coming soon, says Laszlo.

The same day, Monique from the Netherlands sent me a message asking me to highlight the stallion Maamoon Tarik (Maamoon Ibn Gazala x Hamasa Tulayha by Tufail) who is from the line. He has two lines to the two mars from Schiba that were exported from the USA to Germany, including one in the tail female, but also a line to Faziza (Fa Turf x Azyya by Kenur), who also came from the Krausnicks to Germany, and graces Dr. Klynstra’s book “Nobility of the Desert” with her photo. She was the dama of the typey stallion Tufail, by Kaisoon (below), bred by Dr. Olms.

Most interestingly, the striking Maamoon Tarik (two photos below), whose color is a fiery shade of brown, carries a close line to Gazala, a desert-bred mare with lines to the Shammar of Hail, imported to Germany by a doctor who had worked in Saudi Arabia. I had featured Gazala here a couple years ago, but I had never come across her grandson before. I am not sure if the photo in Allbreedpegidree.com is his (looks like the background of the Egyptian Albadeia Stud), but the photos below are striking enough.

]]> http://daughterofthewind.org/schiba-an-american-asil-line-in-europe/feed/ 3 http://daughterofthewind.org/cinnabar-myst-1992-kuhaylat-krush/ http://daughterofthewind.org/cinnabar-myst-1992-kuhaylat-krush/#comments Thu, 08 Mar 2012 20:38:01 +0000 Edouard Aldahdah http://daughterofthewind.org/?p=6091 My young daughter on Cinnabar Myst (ASF David x Mystalla), a Kuhaylat Krush tracing to *Werdi and many other old lines, two weeks ago.

By order of scarcity — and hence, emergency — these are those that count less than 20 Al Khamsa descendants alive today:

1. *Al Mashoor

1. *Euphrates

1. *Mlolshaan Hajar Solomon

4. *La Tisa, *Mahsuda, and *Mohalhil

5. *Layya

6. The Babolna/Weil horses

7. *Samirah

8. Kesia I, Kesia II and Mameluke

9. *Bedowiya Al Hamdani and Walid El Seglawi

10. *Azra

Jenny Krieg is leading the preservation of the first three (with Cathy Fye on *Mlolshaan) and #5 (also with Michelle Tennyson); The 4 left from #4 are with Candace Callegari; the #6 with Marilyn McHallam in Canada; the #7 between Stephanie Theinert and the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse; the #9 are with Edie Booth; and I am handling #8 and #10, with some of the latter also with Elizabeth Ford Pade, that other quiet hero. Note that one horse can combine several of these extremely rare lines. For instance, the first two are found in a single mare alive today, and all the #7 also have lines to #8 as well (but not visa versa).

The overall situation is still very dire, but better than last year, with several efforts currently underway to get the few remaining descendants of these Foundation Horses bred.

I should have added another Foundation Horse to the list, *Lebnaniah, but the line is probably extinct by now.

I must say that this specific type of Arabian horse strikes a strong cord with me, because it’s reminiscent of the horses of my childhood, the ones I learned to ride on. The horse riding clubs around Beirut were full of former racehorses that hailed from Syria, had moderate or no success on the racetrack — which by then was dominated by the part-bred Arabs from Iraq. so the asils had no chance of winning — and ended their careers as children mounts.

Each club appeared to have its own old grey Arabian horse, a dream-like individual of regal type, worthy of Cindarella’s carriage that was the favorite of all the children. In East Beirut during the civil war (1975-1990), it was Sultan, on whom I learned to ride ( I will try to dig up a photo); in West Beirut after the war (1991-2000) it was Burhan, on whom I had my first jumping competitions; in Aleppo it was Mabruk. They were of perfect temperament and conformation, impossible to fault, and I had always wondered, without ever daring to ask my father, why these superior horses were not breeding stallions everybody rushed to breed from, and what they were doing in these god-forsaken riding clubs. The naive pre-teenager I was assumed that that they somehow deserved to be where they were, because they had defects I couldn’t see, or because their origins were unknown. I tried hard to identify these defects. Sometimes I would ask about their origins and the groom would give me their strains and previous owners. I didn’t know what to make of all this. It was only as I grew up that I realized that some horses are simply unlucky, and that people don’t always choose the best horse, or the purest, or the most authentic to become a stallion. Recently, I had a flashback of these thoughts when I saw the 25 year old stallion Medici (Florentine x HB Wadduda by Mariner) at Shirley Jacobsen’s in West Viriginia. He had spent all his career at the circus without ever having a foal, and I thought he worthy of being a well-used stallion.

The stallion Dakhala Sabiq in these amateur pictures reminds me a lot of these horses of my childhood. It’s that gentle look in the eyes (“come on, let me take you on a ride”), that dark skin around the eyes, that straight yet handsome profile, these long eyelashes and mobile eyes, large sockets, huge cheekbones, silky skin, straight legs, balanced conformation, tail set high in the air even when walking, upright carriage, and overall look of a “big small horse” that never tires, and patiently tolerates all your newbie mistakes.

– K. Haifi: Javera Chelsea to Triermain CF, the next best alternative to full brother/sister mating since Javera Thadrian, Triermain’s sire and Chelsea’s brother, died.

– Ma’naqi Sbayli: Dakhala Sahra also to Triermain CF, so as not to add any new bloodlines into this line, and change the existing type (Sahra is by Plantagenet, out of a Sir daughter). Her own son Rahim Regency WAF (by Regency CF) would have been nice, but it looks difficult to pull through, given her age (27). Both matings by embryo transfer.

– K. Haifi: Wisteria CF: many options possible: Porte CF (Portico x Recherche), Aurene CF (a half brother and close relative, by Triermain CF x Aureole CF) within the strain, in addition to her own sire Triermain, like last year, because I was pleased with the outcome; Mi Majest Prince (Fair Sir x Fairy Princess, 50% Tripoli) would also be nice, if he were set to ship from; outside the strain, the list is endless: Monologue CF, Firebolt CF, Clarion CF, etc.

– Saqlawi al-’Abd: Jadiba: ditto: Porte CF, Aurene CF, Presto CF (Ibn Alamein x Pretty Fancy) or perhaps Monologue CF (Riposte CF x Soliloquy CF). She is currently in foal to Vice Regent CF. Ideally, this mare would go to a Davenport/Blunt stallion but there are none around; the 1971 stallion Ibn Tirf (Sutan x Shillala by Gulson) was the last one, so I am set to recreate that cross, once a staple of American Arabian breeding.

– K. Krush: Bint Al Barra: a Core Haifi, probably Aurene CF, or a Core Kurush stallion, or a mix of both, so as not to add any new lines; she already has Hanad, Poka, Harara, Babe Azab, Letan, Hasiker, and all the other building blocks of modern Davenport pedigrees in the back on her own pedigree.

– K. Krush: Cinnabar Myst: ditto, as she is a full sister of the above. Perhaps these two can be serviced by the same semen shipment.

I have never thought about it in these terms before pulling this list together, and it may seem obvious to some of you, but I am coming to realize how much of my plans to contribute to the revival of old American asil Arabian horse breeding (think Kellogg and Maynesboro) revolve around Davenport Kuhaylan Haifi stallions. They are the least common denominator to all the other existing old American asil bloodlines.

The other, smaller discovery, is my realization — just as I write this — of the relevance of the lines to the Davenport Jilfan Sattam al-Bulad import *El Bulad in old asil pedigrees, outside the “straight Davenports”; he is present in the pedigrees of three of the mares now with me: Jadiba, where he comes in twice through Dahura (*El Bulad x Nanshan), and the two Krush full sisters, where he appears through Fartak (*El Bulad x *Farha). Not sure what I should be doing with this realization. Nothing, perhaps.

Both are strongly built mares of the “Old American” type, with a pedigree straight out of the 1950s that also jumps back to the early 1900s in three or four generations. That’s how I like my pedigrees. Look at this one line of genealogy, for instance: Bint Al-Barra (that’s one of the two mares, photo below, b. 1991), was sired by ASF David (b. 1966); his dam was Dihkenna (b. 1946), whose sire was Gharis (b. 1927), a son of Abu Zeyd (b. 1904). I don’t know how many living Arabian horses trace back to the mythical Abu Zeyd (Mesaoud x Rose Diamond) in just four generations.

The early American sires Mainad (b. 1948, by Hanad x Charmain by Abu-Selim), a great grandsire, and Royal Amber (b. 1938 by Ribal x Babe Azab by Letan), a great-great-grandsire, are not too far away, either. The pedigree is essentially half Babson/Brown and half very early American foundation bloodstock (Davenport, Crabbet, Harris, Borden, Huntington, Hamidie, etc.), with almost every Al Khamsa Ancestral Element represented, including the Borden one, the rarest of all (that’s the line to Kesia, through Gharis and Guemura).

While the pedigree is a cocktail of Ancetral Elements, the mares’ type is, as far as I can tell, dominated by the overwhelming influence of two horses, the Babson stallion Daaldan (a grandsire), and Brown stallion Hallany Mistanny (a double great-great-grandsire). There is some of the Gharis (Abu Zeyd x Guemura) showing in the croups, too.

The two mares will be bred to a Davenport stallion this spring, possibly of the Kuhaylan Hayfi (their sire ASF David’s strain) or the Kuhaylan Krushan strains (their own strain), to try and bring back some of that precious Hanad and Babe Azab blood.