Photo of the day: Nibeh
One more French desert-bred import. This one is Nibeh. All I know about him is that he was bred by the Fad’aan Bedouin tribe and imported to France in 1912, where he stood at the government stud of Tarbes (one of the three main Arabian stallions depots in France, with Pau and Pompadour). If anyone knows anything else about him, please let me know.
I am trying to compile a list as comprehensive as possible of the desert-bred Arabians imported to France that still have descendents alive today (Asil or not). Not sure all would qualify as Asil (the criteria being the existence of good original documentation), but many probably would. Notice the nice, prickled ears this one has.
Nibeh was the sire of Nedjari, exported from France to the Breniow stud in Poland.
He was foaled in 1906 according to DataSource and The Arabian Horse Families of Poland (his son Nedjari was exported to Poland). DataSource references him to French Stud Book v. 17, p. 93. Nibeh has 77 registered foals in DataSource, born from 1914 through 1931.
Nicole de Blomac in “L’Arabe premier cheval de sang” has him as bred by the Meheyd section of the Fad’aan, but I don’t have a strain for him. What is interesting about many of these early French desert bred is that many of them came from the same tribes as the horses imported by H. Davenport (i.e., Sba’ah, Fad’aan and Shammar) and many were bred around the same period (1895 – 1905).
I have always loved this photo, and wished I knew more about him.
I took it from the website sporthorse-data.com
Where did you see it first? a book on Polish Arabians?
I’ve known and liked that picture for years too–would have guessed it’s in Skorkowski’s Arab Breeding in Poland, but I’ve just looked and it isn’t.
Do you know whether he left any Asil lines through Nedjari in Romania or other Eastern European countries?
I first saw it in a very old magazine we have from Poland about equestrian matters. It is a special Arabian issue, and has a feature about Antez being sold to Poland on the back cover. It has articles on a number of the old European studs, an article by Raswan and Zietarski about their importation, and lots of old etchings and photos. I have mined it for years.
Jean-Claude Rajot tells me that Robert Mauvy (who knew Nibeh) had told him that Nibeh’s height was 1.52 m, and that such height was considered extremely unusual for a desert bred.
But Jean-Claude also told that Nibeh was a favorite of Mauvy’s and that he was a main factor behind the advice Mauvy gave Louis Baudouin to breed Hamada (Mauvy’s beloved mare) to Medicq Allah who has a close cross to Nibeh in his pedigree.