Polynesia LD, a 1993 bay Saqlawiyah Jidraniyah, is one of the glories of the late Carol Lyons’ “Sharp” program (Al Khamsa Arabians with no Blunt ancestry).  As mentioned in the comment thread on his entry, her dam was a granddaughter of Mista-Bin.  The gray with her is the Blue Star yearling filly Awasef, a ‘Ubayyan who is tail female to *Muhaira, previously discussed here.

The mare below, Maur Halawa (Arrogaance x Maur Blue Treasure by Arrogaance), bred by Maureen Matheson, is one of these tail female *Muhaira mares, and is very reminiscent of the good desert-bred broodmares that I recall when growing up in Lebanon and Syria.

The day before, Javera Chelsea (Thane x HB Diandra by Mariner) and Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir) left Craver Farms to go to Tom and Jess Maiyer in Galion, Ohio, for embryo transfer.

What a change in the culture between then and now: now the big names are Versace, Armani, and other haute couture references. It signals a shift in the marketing and perception of the Arabian horse: from an animal connected with its original Arab environment and simple Bedouin culture, to a global luxury consumption good. Yikes.

Rubic left two sons and five daughters: Of the sons, Salil Ibn Iliad has produced a number of asil mares here and there. He is getting old. The other son AB Razeel, is younger but had not had progeny as far as I know. The five daughters of the LD Rubic are MSF Rubie, Bint Rubic CHF, MSF Shamis, AB Dafiinah, and Belladonna CHF. MSF Rubie is a problem breeder, and has not had a foal in a long time; her current owner believes her to be a hermaphrodite (even though she has had one foal in her life). Bint Rubic CHF has registration papers problems, which we trying hard to solve … in addition to locating her. She has had no replacement to date. MSF Shamis, who is dead, had a son, AEP Kamar, now a stallion at Monica Respets’. AB Dafiinah is with Linda Uhrich but has not had a foal yet. Belladonna CHF (Audobon x LD Rubic), now dead, is the main progenitor of this family. She has had three fillies and two colts, for her owner Randall Harris (no relation to Albert Harris above). One filly, Jadah Nufoud, died young. The other two, Jadah Necessity and Jadah BelloftheBall, are still alive, and I will hopefully be able to report on them soon. They, as well as AB Dafiinah, are the only remaining hope for this strain, yet none has produced a filly yet. The two sons of Belladonna, both special, especially the black one, are still with their breeders, Randall and Mary Sue Harris.

Most of the horses mentioned above (except MSF Shamis, and AB Dafiinah and AB Razeel) have the particularity of having no Blunt/Crabbet bloodlines, which makes them an outcross to the vast majority of Arabian horses alive today. Back in 2001, when I was 23 and still a newcomer to the universe of Arabian horse breeding in the USA, I saw Belladonna at Randall’s and I offered him a good price  for her. She was the first mare I wanted to  own in this country. Randall either did not take me seriously or did not want to sell her, and nothing happened. I regret not having insisted more. When you see the photo below (courtesy of Jeanne Craver), you will understand why.

I feel that the Blunts could have made a better use of this Ma’naqi Sbayli line to Ferida while the line was still at Crabbet and before to migrated to the US. If I am not mistaken, the first stallion from this line at Crabbet was Faris (Nureddin II x Fejr).

See how reminiscent that is of his double great grandsire Julep (Gulastra x Aziza).

Sired by Regency CF (Ibn Alamein x Bint Antan by El Alamein) and looking very much like his sire, Rahim is the son (and otherwise the only offspring — so far) of my new acquisition, the 26 year old Ma’naqiyah Sbailiyah Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir). He is some 88% Davenport, with a tail female to Miss Ott’s Sirrula, all the way back to Major Upton’s Naomi.

His owner Joseph Walters, has been breeding him to Polish mares, and was not aware of his Al Khamsa, asil status.

Edouard, take this out if you want — but their owner, Mary Ann Brewer, has decided to stop breeding, and is offering these two Kuhaylat, and Tokens Ceelen (a straight Davenport mare, tail female to Schilla) on a free lease to interested Davenport breeders. Contact her for details — she’s in Texas.

Both photos are from the archives of Billy Sheets, but I have seen them before in a Khamsat magazine issue too.

Asara is one of the Second Foundation Davenport mare, whose is the tail female of a number of favorites featured on this blog, such as the Krush stallions Janub Al Krush, CL Hi-Ned, and Indie Star.

Below are are some of these photos, which you can click on to enlarge. What a mare.

One of these mares is JDA Husaana (Salil Ibn Iliad x Saafadda CHF by Fiddlesticks), photo below, a 1999 chestnut mare who was bred by Pam Baker.

Just like the Davenports or the Doyles, or like my own Jadiba and Sahra, JDA Husaana is Early American Foundation, meaning that she traces 100% to the horses listed in AHR Volume V, registration numbers 1-2924. These are basically the Arabian horses found in the USA by and before 1944.

Lots of very, very old American Arabian horse blood flows in her veins. In addition to her two “Davenport” grandsires, she carries the blood of three stallions bred by Jane Ott and her mother, who launched the first large-scale asil preservation effort in the USA: Joramir (Sirecho x Fad Roufa), Dahrecho (Sirecho x Dahma Al Zarka), and Zarlan (Mistlany x Zarieha), as well as the Ott mare Blue List (Saafaddan x Zarieha by Kahar), who is the tail female.

Note how this mare’s head has all the characteristics of a good Arabian horse head, without the dished profile: small cup-shaped muzzle, deep jowl, huge eye that is placed low, arched throat, and great distance between the throat and the top of the forehead, which accentuates the triangular shape of the head. Many of today’s show horses have a rectangular shaped head instead of the triangular one.

Bedouins believed that a long, think forelock just like Viola’s is a sign of great asalah (authenticity) in Arabians.