Menjad Maram al-Baida, a young asil stallion in France (part 1)

Recently I became aware of the existence of a young bay stallion of desert-bred stock that was bred in France, where he is now standing at stud. The name of this young stallion is Menjad Maram al-Baida, and his strain is Saqlawi Jadran (photo below, from his owners website).

Menjad was bred by Mrs. Chantal Chekroun, and sired by the black stallion Mokhtar out of the bay mare Hijab. Both Mokhtar and Hijab were owned by Basil Jadaan in Damascus, Syria, then by Mrs. J. Menning to whom Basil gave them, and are now owned by Mrs. Chekroun. Mrs. Chekroun sold Menjad to Sophie and Dominique Balthasar of the Haras de la Lizonne, and still retains a full sister. A sketchy pedigree of Menjad looks like this: 

                                                   Awaad (S. Shaifi x Mumtazah) 

                                        Mokhtar 

                                                    Doumah (K. Krush x Mumtazah)                                

                  Menjad Maram al-Baida 

                                                     Ward El Mayel (Mahrous x Nadrah) 

                                         Hijab

                                                     Nisreen (Mobarak x Marwah) 

Menjad traces in all his lines to horses bred by the Shammar Bedouin tribe in North-Easter Syria, horses that I have met, known and liked over the years. The horses that I have personnally known are underlined. Of these, Mokhtar, Mubarak, Mahrous, Marwah and Nadrah were all desert-bred.  

Menjad’s sire Mokhtar, a Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida was recently the subject of a detailed entry on this blog. So was the Hamdani Simri Mobarak, Basil’s other foundation stallion. Menjad’s maternal grandsire Ward El Mayel, a Kuhaylan al-Ajuz that is pictured here, was bred by Mustapha Jabri in Aleppo, from two desert bred horses Mustapha had acquired in the 1980s. Mahrous, a Ubayyan Sharrak of the marbat of al-Sahlan (or ‘Ubayyan Suhaili), by a Kuhaylan al-Wati of the marbat of Hakim al-Ghishm, was Mustapha’s herdsire. Ward’s dam, Nadrah, was a good-bodied chestnut Kuhaylat al-Ajuz of the prestigious Shammari marbat of Ibn Jlaidan. She traced to the horses of the Ibn Jlaidan clan, which were also featured here and here.  Somehow it seems as if I was paving the way for this entry piece by piece and without even realizing it..

(to be continued tomorrow. time to head back home)