By the way, the Royal Stud of the Kingdom of Bahrain still retains a line from the Kuhaylan al-Krush strain, from the same branch as Krush al-Baida, “the White Krush”. Here is an exerpt from the Krush page of the Royal Stud’s website, followed by a picture of a Bahraini representative of this strain: 

“It is said by some that the original Krushieh mare came from the Muteyr tribe – and by others that the original came from the Al Rasheed, Amirs of Hail from 1835-1924. Yet everyone agrees that the strain has been in Bahrain since the 1850’s. This old family of Krush is perpetuated through the tail female line, and is predominantly of bay colour.” 

Note that the Krush al-Baida horses of the marbat of Mayzar al-’Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar tribe in Syria are from the very same fountainhead - that is, the Dawish leading clan of the Mutayr tribe - as the Bahrain Krush horses. They are also overwhelmingly bay in color. Look at this headshot of Bahr al-Hadi, a bay stallion owned by Shaykh Ahmad al-Daham al-Hadi al-Jarba of the Shammar tribe. Shaykh Ahmad received Bahr’s granddam as a gift from his distant cousins, the sons of Mayzar al-Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba. Mayzar  al-Abd al-Muhsin is the owner of the marbat of Krush al-Baida. Among the Shammar of Syria the association off Mayzar al-’Abd al-Muhsin with the strain of Krush al-Baida is such that the strain is currently known as Krush al-Abd al-Muhsin after his name.  

Okay, what was supposed to be a teaser for an entry to come soon has now become an entry of its own. Oh well.. Stay tuned for the Krush al-Baida finale.   

Count  Alexander Dzieduszycki, the president of the Arab Horse Breeding Society of Poland from 1925 to 1945 called such horses “full blooded Arabs”. Now someone try and explain this to a Bedouin!!  

The purpose of the trip of Mikhail el Haddad to then Ottoman Iraq was to access alternative sources of desert blood than the Anazah blooflines that Babolna already had access to. His trip began with the Damascus-Palmyra-Deir-ez-Zor axis, then followed the Euphrates valley to Fallujah  and Bagdad. From there, Haddad went along a large circular route south of Bagdad that included Najaf, Kerbala, the Amarat pastures and then crossed the Euphrates river eastwards until he reached the Tigris river.

From top to bottom, and left to right: Photo 1: In Tell Kalakh, which is 70 km east from the city of Tripoli on the Mediterranean, with Abdallah Agha al-Dandashi from whom the stallion O’Bajan was bought in 1885; photo 2: with Anazah Bedouins, top, and at the Sultan stables at”Al Waziria” near Bagdad, bottom; photo 3: with Shammar Bedouins top, and the mare Ferha, bottom; photo 4: Mikhail’s three uncles; they were Maronite clergymen in Beit Shebab, in the Mountains of Lebanon; both Edouard and I happen to be Maronite christians too.

Soon I will post report on the Iraqi Arabian horses at the Al Nujaifi who own a horse breeding farm located in Mossul. The elder al-Nujaifi sold mares to the Turkish buying mission. The al-Nujaifi are the Sheikh of the Bani Khaled in Iraq.

My first reaction was: “okay, so that’s where all these old photos of Polish Arabians on the Net comefrom..”. My second reaction while browsing through the book was one of astonishement at the enormous amount of information squeezed between the two covers. Then I started reading, and I was quickly turned off after a few pages. I need to vent my frustration on someone, and you, my patient reader, are going to be that someone. 

So, what’s this whole business of linking strains to types based on skull measurements? “The family of Milordka is a Saqlawi judging from the measurement of the skulls”. Really? The last I heard was that Milordka was an indigenous Polish mare. Not a desert-bred mare. Not an Arabian mare. A mare with no origins. A kadeesh, in my language. Appending Arabian strains on indigenous  Polish mares to turn them into Arabians, and using some pseudo-scientific way such cranial measurements to justify this new “metamorphosis”, is a smart trick indeed. Nice try. But it won’t fly. 

Even by the loosest of Bedouin standards, all the offspring of Milordka, Szweykowska, Iliniecka (tail female of Skowronek), Ukrainka, Woloszka, Szamarowka, and the other local Polish mares bred at the Slawuta stud are “hajin”, the product of Asil Arabians mixed with horses of unknown origin. And a hajin is not an Arabian horse. There is no way around that, unless one makes the conscious choice of departing from the Bedouins’ definition of an Arabian horse (i.e., an Asil horse). Or unless someone invents a new definition for an Arabian horse. Let me offer this one: “An Arabian is the offspring of any unknown or mongrel mare bred to desert-bred horses imported from Arabia over many generations.” How about that? That’s exactly what a Polish Arabian horse is today. Stretch this definition a little, and you could even include Percherons as Arabians, on the basis of the amount of Arabian blood flowing in their veins for the past 1200 years. I am only half joking. 

I will let you know my impressions as I read more. And more on kadeesh soon.

This leads me to surmise that there may be Asil horses from Babolna lines left, trough the Babolna mares taken by the Germans during WWII, rescued by the Poles, who returned them in 1951 to Babolna. Maybe Tzviah can help ? 

Bred in the desert procured in Constantinople by a dealer for Count Jozef Potocki at the Antoniny stud .he died in 1917, slaughtered by Bolchevik soldiers. (Polish Stud Book). There is an other version of Ibrahim’s origins.

Carl Raswan quoting  ”Zeitschrift fuer Gestuets-Kunde und Pferdezucht heft 7”:Hannover 1910

“Ibrahim was bought in Odessa in 1907 by a dealer by the name of Hadjzi Ali. The stallion was born on the 5th of Ramadan 1320 about 1900 in Hedjar near Damascus and raised by Sheikh Abdurrahman Abdullah.the father of the satallion is “Hejir” his mother is “Lalite” of the Saglawi race”.

Raswan’s own reseach brings this to light: In the first place “lalite” should be ”Falite”. Secondly:”hejir” is “hajar” or “hejar”,the “great stony waste” south of Damascus where the Bani Sakhr lives. Shaykh Oddurahma-abdulla is Shekh Abdullah Abd er Rahman of the Banu Sakhr. This gives us the following:  ”Ibrahim”was a Seklawi Falliti (Furjah/Rualla) bred by the Banu Sakhr. End of Raswan quoting. 

Ibrahim is famous for being the sire of Skworonek, the most controversial and influential stallion in Arabian horse history. Apart from Skworonek, Ibrahim had a tremendous impact on the Arabian breed in Europe and the US.

Not all the Arabians are Asil, but there are some horses closer to the Asils than others. As an Arab, I don’treject these horses, but respect them as “Sons of our Horses”.

Desert Bred Horses left a beautiful legacy, Asil or not, due to the power of their “Blood” and the skill of the breeders. If you want to know more about the ”Ibrahim” non-Skworonek legacy please let me know . 

When I asked him about the ghazu (tribal raids), Sheikh Hmeidi (Abu Faris) told me the following:

 “The ghazu between large tribes was not quite an act of war but rather a kind of competition the aim of which was to send the message to the raided tribe: “we are stronger than you”. The ghazu between the major tribes followed certain codes and regulations, at last between the Major tribes. Minor tribes and marauders raided to steal. Not major tribes. The raiding tribe had to inform the raided tribe of the haazu, and it didn’t matter if the ghazu took place one year after the information was sent. The ghazu must take place in daylight to avoid colleteral damage like hurting women, children, or elderly people. Any such death led to all-out war, something nobody wanted. The ghazu was done through a combination of camels and horses. 90% of the distance was covered on camelback, and war mares were only used for the last part: the sudden attack and the escape.”

That’s why the war mare of the raided tribes were always saddled and ready to pursue the raiders (Cf. a famous picture by C. Raswan)

 Kuhailan Afas left three Asil sons:

-Bad Afas 1940 x Bad by Diab db

-Drop 1939 x Donia by Koheilan Haifi db

-Don Afas 1940 x Donia  by Koheilan Haifi db

Donia is out of Donka (Schehan Shammar db x Koheilan II), she is from Babolna breeding; this is the same dam line of the Asil mare Amurath Sahib 1932 (25 Amurath Sahib).

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.

My father was breeding Asil Arabians back then and I was familiar with the first generation offspring of desertbred horses, or horses born on the fringes of the desert, but I had never seen the “real thing”. My very first reaction was one of disappointment.  Not only were the three horses - a black Kuhaylat al-’Armush mare, a fleebitten Kuhaylat ibn Mizhir mare, and a chestnut Hamdani Ibn Ghurab stallion - tiny, they were worn out, and extremely thin. They feet were badly damaged, and the hooves were so overgrown that the poor horses could badly walk. Were these the “horses of the desert” (khayl sahraa)? 

My father had given me his Nikon and asked me to take photos of all the horses, while he was checking them out and asking about their origins. I took a rapid photo shot of the Hamdani colt, then two years old, partly for the record, and partly because of his shiny chesnut coat, and a twinkle in the eye. There was something about these wet and shiny eyes that I couldn’t quite get: either the horse was in pain and about to cry (I was only 11, okay?) or it was the expression of a contained determination bordering on anger. I was in awe and kept a respectable distance between the two of us. 

Two years later, I saw the same horse at Basil Jad’aan’s farm outside Damascus. He had bought the horse from this Shammar Bedouin breeder, and had him carried to Damascus in the same truck as the two Ghurayyib mares. The horse was scheduled to stay at the Ghurayyib farm for a few weeks when I first saw him.

Meanwhile two years of good care and attention had elapsed, and the horse was transformed. But he still had that twinkle in the eye, and then 13 year-old me finally got it: the look was the expression of pride. The young colt was now a stallion. I took a photo (below). 

The name of Basil’s chestnut stallion was Mubarak (”the blessed one”). He was his herd sire, and Basil was justifiably proud of him. He was a Hamdani Simri from the marbat of Abd al-’Iyadah al-Dar’aan al-Ghurab (”Ibn Ghurab” for short), the shaykh of the Bhayman section of the Shammar tribe. This strain is perhaps one of the two or three most prestigious strains of the Shammar of Mesopotamia. [I'd put it on par with 'Ubayyan Suhayli and Kuhaylan al-Wati, but that's a question of personal preference].  

The strain was so well known among the Shammar and other Bedouins that it was simply referred to as Hamdani Ibn Ghurab. It will be the subject of a future entry in the “Strain of the Week” series (future entries are piling up in this series, and i am getting concerned). 

Years later, I visited Mubarak’s breeder, Ibn Ghurab, in Upper Mesopotamia, with friends Radwane Shabareq, Kamal Abdul Khaliq, and Hazaim al-Wair. I took this photo of him, one of dozen photos of his horses and family that I will post on this blog in due course. Ibn Ghurab passed away last year, and his eldest son is now in charge of the herd.   

A l’origine, en tant qu’améliorateurs des races locales, essentiellement en vue de fournir des produits pour le service de la guerre. La base de nombreux élevages a été les animaux pris dans les combats contre l’Empire Ottoman. Il en est résulté dans de nombreux pays une jumenterie plus ou moins pure que l’on a tenté de conserver par l’achat d’étalons importés d’Orient. 

La Hongrie avec la race Shagya a été éminemment honnête.

La France, avec deux variétés régionales, le Tarbais et le cheval du Limousin a eu la même démarche. A partir de Napoléon III, le pays a cherché à se constituer une jumenterie pure (Asil) afin de pouvoir disposer de reproducteurs pour améliorer la race Barbe en Afrique du nord et perfectionner l’Anglo-arabe naissant. Les établissements les plus remarquables ont été Tiaret en Algérie, Sidi Thabet en Tunisie et Pompadour en France. C’est à partir de cette époque que l’on s’est rendu compte de la différence de qualité entre les produits de la métropole et ceux des deux autres établissements (dégénérescence rapide sous l’influence des sols et du climat).

Entre les deux guerres et surtout après la seconde guerre mondiale, la sélection des chevaux arabes s’est faite sur le critère de la course plate sur courte distance et sous poids léger.

Evidemment dans ces conditions, l’Arabe se montrait moins rapide que l’Anglais. La tentation de la fraude (saillie de la jument Arabe par un étalon Anglo-arabe, voir Anglais) était alors très grande. On peut affirmer qu’elle fut même institutionnalisée par les Etats. Elle s’est déroulée avec tant d’ampleur et d’une façon si évidente qu’un certain nombre d’éleveurs, dont Robert Mauvy, protestèrent vivement, mais en vain. L’administration des Haras, qui avait la haute main sur le choix des étalons, tenta de les faire taire en leur imposant pour leurs juments des étalons notoirement impurs. Il y eu donc dans les années 1960 et 1970 des pressions très fortes, entre autre sur Robert Mauvy et Jean Deleau, pour leur imposer des étalons de l’Etat, condition sine qua non pour pouvoir ensuite utiliser leur propres étalons (Aguet, Saadi) ou les étalonsde l’élevage Cordonnier (Irmak, Iricho, Inshallah) qui venaient d’arriver. 

Dès 1973 le show fit son apparition de façon prééminente. Les qualités physiques des chevaux devinrent immédiatement secondaires. Pour vendre, il fallait produire « des champions » afin de suivre la mode et mieux encore, de la créer. Tous ceux qui ont des notions de marketing savent ce que cela signifie. Sauf que cela n’a rien à voir avec l’élevage, ni même avec l’équitation.

Le premier cheval de selle du monde était devenu une poupée de chiffon.  Devant ces dérives continuelles, Robert Mauvy avait élaboré une doctrine d’élevage afin de conserver la race dans son intégrité physique et morale, pendant quelques générations, en dehors du berceau de race (cette doctrine sera bientôt publiée par notre association).

 On peur la résumer en trois points :

1)    Monte régulière des juments poulinières et entrainement du poulain dès l’âge de 6 jours derrière sa mère, et jusqu’au sevrage.

2)    Entrainement de jeunes chevaux pour une épreuve de 3000 mètres en terrain libre et sous poids minimum de 75kg

3)    Epreuve de sélection des reproducteurs sur 10000 mètres dans les mêmes conditions.

Avec cette méthode, on peut espérer conserver le cheval Asil pendant environ trois générations. Ensuite l’emploi de reproducteurs en provenance du berceau de race est une nécessité absolue, sous peine de dégénérescence complète.

Je terminerai cette petite introduction rapide par trois citations que Robert Mauvy aimait rappeler :

La première est la lettre de l’Emir Abdel Kader à Napoléon III, accompagnant le cheval Emir, offert comme présent : « Je t’envoie le plus beau, le plus pur, le plus vaillant cheval que j’ai rencontré dans ma vie. Il s’appelle Emir. Si tu veux le garder en bonne santé et surtout si tu l’emploies à perpétuer sa race, fait lui chasser la gazelle deux fois par semaine. »

« Le cheval de Pur sang arabe est fait pour porter lourd, vite et loin …et continuer »

Enfin la dernière citation qu’il tenait lui-même des bédouins Ruwalah: « Le cheval de Pur sang arabe est le cheval de l’homme, le cheval de course est cheval du diable »

Jean-Claude Rajot

Ils sont partis d’ici (Hassakè ou al-Hassakah) avec 100 cavaliers le matin. Ils sont tombés sur le campement Sba’ah distant de 40 miles, à midi. Tous les cavaliers étaient de retour dans l’après-midi.

Question : Vous voulez dire dans la nuit ?
Réponse : Non, non dans l’après-midi.
Je me suis permis d’insister : mais vers les 8 ou 9 heures du soir ?
Réponse empreinte d’un certain agacement : Non dans l’après-midi vers les cinq heures !

Voilà ce qu’aux yeux des Bédouins leurs chevaux pur sang sont à même de faire naturellement. Il est à noter qu’à l’heure actuelle cette moyenne horaire correspond à ce que l’on fait avec les 4×4 en dehors des pistes.