Pseudo-Arabians
By Edouard Aldahdah
Posted on November 4th, 2010 in General
From now on, I will use the term “Pseudo-Arabian” to refer to horses that are registered as Arabians in a WAHO-approved studbook, but are in reality part-bred Arabians with varying amounts of non-Arabian blood running in their veins. They are part-breds in disguise.
The Qatari horse Amer (by Wafi x Bushra on paper), the Saudi horse Tiwaiq (by Unknown 1 x Unkown 2 out of Unknown 3, photo below) and a majority of horses of French racing bloodlines such as Djourman (Manguier x Djouranta by Saint Laurent, photo below) fall under this category. They and their offspring are among the most expensive and sought after “Arabian” horses today. Their presence in WAHO-registered studbooks represents a scandal unlike any other in the world of equine breeding, in no small part because they belong to rich and powerful people who can get away with this behavior.
November 4th, 2010 5:19 pm
As the devoted owner (if you can ‘own’ an Arab!) of three beloved ‘pseudo Arabs’ (ie all have lines to Skowronek, though were you, without seeing their pedigrees, to examine them from head to tail, study their mt DNA (tail female lines Bint Helwa and Rodania), or ride them a thousand miles you would never doubt their purity), I can only agree with you Edouard, we cannot undo the liberties of Lady Wentworth for example, without rejecting an enormous wellspring of Arab blood, (I appreciate that you DO reject this blood), but that impure blood has been blatently allowed to pollute Arab blood in the full knowledge of WAHO in modern times is scandalous.
We have had several ‘purebred’ French racing mares in for frozen semen(Dahess, Concorde) over the last few years,good mares, one in particular is a very fine mare indeed and also very likeable as a person. She of course, looks like the Anglo that she is, I said as much to her owner who smiled and said yes Lisa but there’s no way that you can win with a purebred in Arab racing these days (!!!!).
November 4th, 2010 5:39 pm
Lisa, your Skowronek horses do not fit in the pseudo-arabian denomination! The amount of non-Arabian blood in them is negligible, in the 1/100th of a percent.
Pseudo-Arabians have as much as 30% non-Arabian blood in them.. cf. Flipper.
November 5th, 2010 10:01 am
Is this what the Saudi Royal Family is breeding nowadays? Do they intend it as self betraying mockery of the body of the work they accomplished in breeding horses like Edie Booths authentic desert descended stock?
Just judging from phenotype I would think the two pictured partbreds would have a lot less than 70% arab blood. More like a a fourth or so.
What should be done would be to require that any registered breeding animal submit genetic samples which should be examined to find evidence of Thoroughbred, or Warmblood genetic markers. And their subsequent foals should also be required to submit such samples. If outblood is found then the horses should be publicly stricken from the stud books.
We have the means to fix this deception. And if the breed registries concerned won’t fix it they don’t deserve to exist.
Best
Bruce Peek
November 5th, 2010 10:50 am
It is unfortunate that France, etc. did not instead choose to create another Arabian-based breed, like the Russian Tersky or Hungarian Shagya, specifically for racing.
November 5th, 2010 11:13 am
Jenny, Arabian-only races were halted for many years in France after WWII. Arabians were running against Anglo-Arabs in the races, and were losing, obviously. Some Arabian horse breeders turned to breed Anglo-Arabs, many of them continued to breed both, and some of them bred Anglo-Arabs disguised as Arabs. That trend expanded after Arabian-only races were reinstated. It was very easy to cheat, sanctions were not enforced, and there were no incentives to produce Shagya-like horses.
What is disastrous is that these French pseudo-Arabs are now imported en masse to Arab countries like Tunisia, Syria and Iraq, where they are destroying indigenous asil Arabian horse breeding. Tunisian asil breeding is collapsing as a result.
November 5th, 2010 11:14 am
Not all Saudi royals breed or own horses like Tiwaiq fortunately. Only a tiny minority does so. Thank God there are some Saudi Royals who are really attached to the preservation of Saudi asils.
November 5th, 2010 6:11 pm
For years I tried in vain to stop the French stallions invasion of Syria.
I hope that I came this year to a result.
In Syria until today all the WAHO registered Arabians runs in the same race (Sons of Syrian Asil stallions together with sons of imported French stallions) obviously the pure Syrians are no match to the others.
This year I succeed in convincing the very wealthy breeders with a lot of connections, to sponsor pure Syrian races ,the Syrian telecom company offered to sponsor races.
I hope in doing this to contribute in saving the Syrian Asil horse.
I was horrified in knowing that this year(2010) more than 200 Asil mares were covered by doubtful French stallions.
I hope that, in heavily sponsoring pure Syrian races ,the Syrian big companies will incentivate the breeders in covering next year their mares by Syrian stallions instead of French.
One example :Last year (2009) our racing stallion Al Bark covered 35 outside mares ,for free,as we consider a shame to take money to cover a mare.
This year 2010: only 4 outside mares.
The funny side of the story is that it took a Lebanese (your humble servant)to raise the flag to save the Syrian horse …in Syria
November 5th, 2010 8:43 pm
Edouard: Is it possible to find out who the Ruling family members are who are breeding Asils and being true to their heritage. They deserve to be honored in the best sense of the term. Perhaps Pureman could let us know which breeding programs are worthy of trust. To me the pictures of these angloarabs you have posted look like so many anglo arabs- better more tightly coupled bodies than lots of thoroughbreds, but bodies that are way to large for their leg bones. How long would such horses stay sound? Consistently breeding athletic racehorses that have stamina and can,”stay,” and then also run a cross country course, do a dressage test,and jump clear in the stadium has got be among the most difficult things to do.
Best wishes
Bruce Peek
November 5th, 2010 9:55 pm
Just need to step in here quickly and head off the notion of DNA testing for breed purity. We heard a good bit about this 20 years or so ago, but it did not stand up as a model for good reasons.
First, even when there are marker differences between populations, they are differences in relative frequency, not absolutes: even at the species level, there will not be a marker that’s present in all Equus Przewalskii and not present in any Equus caballus. With breeds the situation is even less clear cut, which only makes sense given the way breeds have interacted historically. It’s not possible to tell, just looking at the test results, whether a rare marker came from a distant legitimate common ancestor, or from recent introgression.
More importantly, even if there were such a marker, think about it: it would have only a 50% chance of being transmitted at each generation. Compare it to a coat color gene; the transmission works the same way. Clearly, not all the offspring of any parent come out with its same array of coat color genes, never mind all the grandget and more distant descendants.
November 6th, 2010 9:00 am
This is encouraging news.. you know, so many Syrians like Basil and Saleh Srouji and the Aleppo breeders are committed to the Syrian horses, which they view as part of their national heritage..
November 6th, 2010 9:02 am
I know they wish to remain private..
November 6th, 2010 9:50 am
Great work, Joe A – keep it up!
November 6th, 2010 7:08 pm
Generally there is few breeders who does not to sell in order to survive ,the breeders you mentionned, Edouard, are of them.
the majority of the small breeders need to sell in order to survive,that’s why they are using French stallions :
they can sell the product,while a pure syrian is very difficult to sell ,even for a very low price.
Unfortunately ,The Syrian Arab Association,even under Basil presidency did not realise the danger in opening their races to French/Syrian horses.
This is the result:more than 200 asil mares covered by French stallions
here I wish to use the same French proverb that used to the French breeders association, when I send them an email about the Amer and Tuwaik products winning over the French horses:
“Qui seme le vent recolte la tempete”
or”who plant the wind, harvest the tempest”