More Shams

Shams Al Arab (Cascade DE x SS Lady Guenevere) is built like a tank. Jeanne Craver and I were discussing whether her muscular hindquarter was more like that of a Doyle horse or whether it was more characteristic of the Drissula horses. She think it’s the latter and that her old mare Soiree (Sir x Sirrulya by Julyan) was like that. Julyan certainly produced horses built like that. Photos by DeWayne Brown this time, at the Doyle ranch. Click to enlarge them.

Shams at two months

Shams is Shaman’s maternal sister, out of DeWayne’s mare SS Lady Guenevere and by Cascade DE, a young Doyle stallion born in 2018. She is very strongly put together — look at that rear end! — but her neck could be a tad too short. Then again, her back is very short too, as DeWayne was quick to point out to me. Lyman Doyle, who took the nice pictures a couple days, ago thinks that she will turn a deep liver chestnut like her dam. It’s one of my favorite colors in Arabians. If Shams lives and matures into a broodmare I should like to breed her to a Davenport stallion with a long neck, e.g., Anecdote CF, to try and recreate the pedigree of Jeanne Craver’s mare Soiree, a distant relative from the same line. I may breed her to her brother Shaman as well.

Shaman at three years old

Looking good with a lot of maturing left to do. I am confident however that he will continue to fill up and will live up to his promise. He has substance and style and oozes masculinity. He moves well too. He is more old Blunt than the Crabbets themselves. I want to see him in his prime, at 8-10 years old. I also love his pedigree, not just the Ma’naqi Sbayli tail female, but also all the Greggans, Parnells, Subanis, and Julyans close up. The existence in 2023 of horses like him is such a miracle, in the world of [insert the name of your favorite Italian designer here, reincarnated as a show horse] Photos by Lyman Doyle two days ago.

Shams Al Arab, Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah filly

The little Ma’naqiyah filly seems to be doing well at the Doyle Ranch in Oregon. I named her Shams — the Arabic word for the sun. Because she is a welcome ray of sunshine after a string of colts — three very nice ones but still not helping with keeping this precious strain going. Second because it’s the name of my maternal grandfather’s last wife. Well, her name was Shamsi, a derivative of Shams. According to an Assyrian clay tablet from 715 BC, Shamsi was the name of an ancient queen of “the distant Arabs, dwellers of the desert, who did not know learned men or scribes, who had not brought tribute to any king”. That same table is the first to mention horses as tributes from the Arab Bedouins to the Assyrian king. It’s a very very old name, and a nice name. Hopefully that filly will grow into a nice mare. Photos by DeWayne Brown, the dam’s lucky owner.

Finally a Ma’naqiyah filly

After four years of trying, SS Lady Guenevere (“Guen”) gratified me with a filly yesterday, born at the Doyles’ ranch in Oregon. The filly’s sire is Cascade DE, a young Doyle stallion. I have been leasing Guen and her daughter Pippa by Chatham DE from DeWayne Brown in the hope for a filly. She is the first filly following three colts from both mares: Shaykh Al Arab (Tamaam DE x Pippa), Shaman Al Arab (Tamaam DE x Guen) and Sharif Al Arab (Bashir Al Dirri x Pippa). I hope she goes on to produce many fillies from that precious (to me) Ma’naqi Sbayli strain.

Shaykh Al Arab, Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion, b. 2020

Lyman Doyle also took this impromptu shot of the two year old colt I used to call Shaykh Al Arab, by Tamaam DE out of DaughterofthePharaohs, and which now belongs to his family. I like the old-fashipned Crabbet look on this horse, and I think he is very promising. I am so happy that horses of this kind are still being produced here and there in 2020.

Shaman Al Arab at two years old

Lyman Doyle recently gratified me with several nice pictures of the horses I board at his and his parent’s farm in Oregon. Click on the low res photos to enlarge them. Here’s a couple of Shaman Al Arab, my Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion-to-be, by Tamaam DE out of SS Lady Guenevere. He turned two years old this past August. He is really excellently conformed, and I am finding it hard to fault him — my favorite pastime as some of you may know.    

Introducing Sharif Al Arab, 2022 Ma’naqi Sbaili colt

It’s a colt — the third in a row from that Ma’naqi line. This morning Pippa went into labor and quickly delivered a healthy chestnut colt at Terry and Rosemary Doyle’s in Oregon. He is by Bashir Al-Dirri, Jenny Krieg’s excellent horse (below). His name is Sharif Al Arab. Sharif means “distinguished, eminent, illustrious, noble, highborn, high-bred”, and he is all of that by birth. Other than his tail male to Mesaoud, his Ma’naqi tail female to *Haidee and his high percentage of old Blunt blood, he is the last horse — together with his sire — to carry the bloodlines of early Arabian imports *Euphrates and *Al-Mashoor in Al Khamsa, and one of the last ones to carry lines to desert-breds *Leopard, *Mirage, and *Houran. These are quintessentially American lines of Arabian horses.  

A hujjah from 1722

Below is the text of a hujjah from the early eighteenth century. It was published in Thomas Pennant’s 1776 British Zoology. Note that the English consul was already aware of the fact that proof of ancestry was needed to confirm that a horse was truly an Arab. The horse that is the subject of this hujjah appears to be a Ma’naqi. The footnote to the hujjah also mentions pure in the strain breeding. Taken before ABDORRAMAN, KADI of ACCA. The Occaſion of this present Writing or Inſtrument is that at ACCA in the Houſe of Badi legal establiſh’d Judge, appear’d in Court Thomas Uxgate the Engliſh Conſul and with him Sheikh Morad Ebn al Hajj Abdollah, Sheikh of the County of Safad, and the ſaid Conſul deſir’d from the aforeſaid Sheikh proof of the Race of the Grey Horſe which he bought of him, and He affirm’d to be Manaki Shadûhi*, but he was not satiſfied with this but deſir’d the Teſtimony of the Arabs, who bred the Horſe and knew how he came to Sheikh Morad; whereupon there appear’d certain Arabs of Repute whoſe names are undermention’d, who teſtified and declar’d that the Grey Horſe which the Conſul formerly bought of Sheikh Morad, is Monaki Shadûki of the pure Race of Horſes, purer than Milk†, and that the…

Promising Ma’naqi colt Shaykh Al Arab

DeWayne Brown visited the horses at Terry and Rosemary Doyle’s farm in Alfalfa, OR the other day. He sent me these two pictures of my Ma’naqi Sbayli colt Shaykh Al Arab (Tamaam DE x DaughterofthePharaohs by Chatham DE), who is now 15 months old. He has many barn names: Terry calls him Naj, Rosemary calls him Notch, and DeWayne calls him Eddy. I call him Shaykh. I have seldom seen such strong barrel, deep girth and round rib cage on an Arabian yearling, at least not in the USA. My friend Pienaar Du Plessis from South Africa said the same thing. I feel it’s worth to wait to see him grow. He is the first colt in the second picture, the third is his maternal uncle Shaman, who is a couple months younger. Long live the Ma’naqis.  

Prince Shcherbatov’s desertbred mares

Below are two of the mares that Prince Aleksander Shcherbatov bought on his second expedition to Syria. Djerifa (above), a Sa’dah al-Tuqan mare bought in Deir. From Saadan Togan strain. Red mare, imported, height 2 arshins 2 ¼ inches. The horse was born in 1895 in Mesopotamia, at Bedouin Yedjaefee Ibn-Sakhu ‘s of Agkhedaat tribe. Sire: stallion of Abeyan Sherrak strain from Bedouin tribe Moadja (of Sebaa Anaze). Dam: bought by Ibn-Sakhu from Bedouin from Saekkh tribe (of Shammar) in 1892. “Djerifa” was purchased personally by Prince A.G. Shcherbatov in 1900 in Deira on Euphrates, from Bedouin Yedjaefee Ibn-Sakhu and brought to Russia. Stud Book of Arabian horses with their pedigrees present in Russia According to the 1903 stud book, Djerifa was barren to the cover of both Khamad and El-Kader, in 1901 and 1902 respectively. Shemsa (above), a Ma’naqiyah Hadrajiyah mare. From Manegi Khedrudj strain. Bay mare, imported, height 2 arshins 2 ½ inches. Born in 1894 in Arabia at Bedouin Hussein Effendi, son of Sheikh of Baggara tribe. Sire from Mangegi Ibn-Sbeyel strain. Dam born at Hussein Effendi, sired by stallion from Kekhaylan Nouag strain. Purchased personally by Prince A.G. Scherbatov in Mesopotamia in 1900 from Hussein Effendi…

Al-Musallieh, Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, Syria, 1992

This mare was one of the most sought after in Syria. I took this photo in 1992 at the stud of Hisham Ghorayeb in Damascus. Her dam was a Ma’naqiyah Sbaliyah of the marbat of Turki al-Najriss of the ‘Aqaydat Bedouins, a prestigious strain that goes back to the Rasaalin of Sba’ah. Her sire was the Saqlawi Sh’aifi of Diban al-Ka’r. He traced to the horses of Hajjo Ibn Mahel of the Shammar. I recall that Hazaim Alwair and I spent an entire summer in 2005 making phone calls to multiple Bedouins to verify the authenticity of this horse. I have it all written somewhere.

Introducing Shaman Al Arab, 2020 Ma’naqi Sbayli colt

Lyman Doyle sent these photos of this year’s last arrival, another colt and another Ma’naqi Sbayli: Shaman Al Arab (Tamaam DE x SS Lady Guenevere by SS Dark Prince) was born two days ago. I am leasing his dam from DeWayne Brown. Shaman, pronounced SHAAH-MAAN, means “the one with a distinctive mark”, shamah. His odd blaze is certainly one. He also takes his name from a handsome Shammar desert-bred stallion in Syria, which I have been coveting for a while. He is the maternal uncle of the young Shaykh Al Arab. I will retain one of the two, not sure which one yet.

Welcome back, “Lady”

CSA Baroness Lady “Lady” is coming back, after four years in the caring ownership of Cathy Fenton in Michigan. Thank you Cathy for letting me have her back. She is perhaps the last living Al Khamsa mare from the strain of Ferida, a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah bred in the Arabian desert and imported by Lady Anne Blunt from Egypt to the UK in 1891. Three other mares from Carol Stone’s Ma’naqi preservation breeding program, CSA Amira Kista (Sharif Zaraq x Takelma Rosanna) a 1997 grey mare; CSA Trilours (Mahtar x Takelma Velours), a 1999 grey mare and CSA Zaraqa (CSA Maneghi Amir x Takelma Velours), an unregistered 2000 grey mare, all died within a few years of each other. There are three other mares of breeding age, from another breeding program. The AK Preservation Task Force is trying to establish whether they are still alive, and if so, to locate them. Tall order..

Am’um al-Ufaytan, 1997 Ma’naqi Hadraji stallion

I saw ‘Am’um (Kuhaylan al-Buthah x Raddah) in 2005 and snapped this photo. His sire is a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz from the very old marbat of ‘Abd al-‘Aziz ibn Jlaidan (or Kuhaylan Jlaidani). His dam is Raddah, a 1977 Ma’naqiyah Hadrajiyah of Faddan Ibn ‘Ufaytan. The sire of Raddah is the black Ma’naqi Hadraji of Mudhi al-Sabah al-Shihaan al-‘Ufaytan, Faddan’s cousin. The sire of her dam is the chestnut Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz of Bardan Ibn Jlaidan. The Jlaidan and ‘Ufaytan are all cousins. They only use each other’s stallions, and seldom introduce outside horses to their closed breeding programs. This stallion met an untimely death. In my opinion, he was one of the best desert-bred stallions I had seen among the Shammar and Tai Bedouin tribes. Look at the prickled ears, the broad forehead, the low-set large eyes, the long neck, the long withers, the sloping shoulders, the strong back. And he was starving like most Bedouin horses I saw that year.

Pippa this past summer

This morning, Lyman Doyle sent me several videos of Pippa, which he had taken in the summer of 2018. Pippa (her registered name Daughter of the Pharaohs) is a three year old Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, by Lyman’s stallion Chatham DE out of SS Lady Guenevere, by SS Dark Prince), who belongs to DeWayne Brown. I leased her from DeWayne last year, boarded her at Lyman’s in Alfafla, OR, and attempted several breedings to Lyman’s stallions Kashgar, Tamaam, and Buckner. We will be trying again this year. The lineage traces to the Sba’ah Bedouins of North Arabia, as it should for this precious and highly prized strain.

Saqr al-Musrib, breeder of the Hamidie import *Mannaky

The new Annotated Quest features a re-edition of Charles Craver’s article “Horses of the White City”, the most comprehensive article to date on the history of the Hamidie importation of Arabian horses to the Chicago World Fair of 1893. The history of the Hamidie horses themselves and that of the people around them is still shrouded with mystery. One of those people is J.R. Dolbony, who was associated with the importation in some way or other (he hailed from the Dalbani Shi’a Muslim family of Baalbeck in Lebanon today). I have found his testimonies about the Hamidie horses very intriguing, and I believe they should be taken seriously. In a letter to Homer Davenport from 1909 now at the US National Archives, Dolbony made several claims: 1) that he raised the Hamidie import *Mannaky; 2) that both *Mannaky’s sire and dam were of the Ma’naqi strain (hence his name); 3) that both were owned by “Sage el Misrub”, and 4) that *Mannaky was bred by this same “Sage el Misrub”. I have just identified this “Sage el Misrub”. He was none other than Sagr al-Misrub (that ‘r’ at the end of his first name must have been mistaken for an…

Ma’naqiyah, Bint Mach’al

Another daughter of Mach’al, this time a Ma’naqiyah named Cha’lah, also from an old strain of the Dandashi lords of Tal Kalakh. Sire of dam: al-Jazzar, a Kuhaylan Nawwaq; sire of granddam: Ghazwan, a Kuhaylan al-Kharas; pictured with a foal by a partbred stallion. Photographed by my father somewhere in Western Syria, most likely in Tal Kalakh in the late 1970s, and pedigree in his handwriting on the back of the photo. How much I would give for just one of those mares now. There numbered in the low hundreds at the height of the Lebanese national program, before the civil war of 1975-1990. In 1991, there were only 25 mares left, most born between 1965 and 1975. Today, zero left in asil form.

Other photo of desert bred stallion Bango imported to Algeria

I had never seen this photo of the Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Bango, bred by the Shammar in 1923, and imported to Algeria by the French government in 1928, from an Egyptian racetrack. The photo was taken from an article on the Algeria stud of Tiaret, which appeared in the magazine Le Sport Universel Illustre N1375 of 1929/07/06. Although French studs did not favor grey horses at the time, Bango left behind 142 offspring in both Algeria and Tunisia, including the stallions Sumeyr, Beyrouth, Titan, Caleh, and the mares Tosca, Salome, Palmyre, El Balaska, Gafsa, Themis, Diyyena, and others that stamped Northern African studs with their quality.  

The Ma’naqiyah of Ibn Hidfah of Aal Murrah

I made a small but interesting breakthrough in further understanding old Bahraini pedigrees, and I am excited to share it. It concerns the background of one of the Bahraini foundation mares of the Ma’naqi strain. This is the mare “Managhieh Bin Hiddfa Al-Murra”, the maternal grand dam of the two Royal Stud stallions Managhi Al Kabir, and his brother the superb Managhi Al Saghir (photo below). It just occurred to me, after reading a letter from Jens Sannek to Edie Booth, where the name of the mare was spelled slightly differently as “Ma’anaghieh (Bin Hidfah Almorrah)”, that the part of the name between brackets referred to her breeder and his tribe. Al-Murra/Almorra refers to the South-Eastern Arabian Bedouin tribe of same name; Bin Hidfah/Bin Hiddfa would be the breeder’s clan. I set off looking for a clan by the name of Bin/Ibn Hidfah among the Aal Murra, and I found many mentions of it online. There is a reference to the warrior/poet Dayes Aal Hidfah, where he refers to “al-Mu’niq” in his verses, here. There are also many references to social events involving men from the Aal Hidfah clan on the tribe’s social media outlets, which are also maintained by a…

Introducing Haykal, 2015 Ma’naqi Sbayli colt

It’s time for little Haykal Al Arab, born two months ago — on August 11, 12.30 am — to make his online debut. He was born three weeks early, so I waited till he grew stronger before showing pictures. He is by Monologue CF out of CSA Baroness Lady (Sab El Dine x Takelma Rosanna). He is an example of a rare cross of a Davenport stallion over a mostly Straight Egyptian dam (three crosses to Alaa El Din) with the addition of the code-red, rarest of the rare Ferida tail female of the Ma’naqi Sbayli strain. I like him VERY much, and I now somewhat regret letting go of his sire Monologue CF before seeing what Monologue would produce. I think little Haykal takes a lot after his sire: the strong, long, flat croup, the very broad forehead, the long neck, the huge eyes surrounded with black skin, and above all, the delicately tipped ears. His dam has the black skin and the long croup too. His back looks like it would be shorter than his sire’s, and closer to his dam’s, whose back is so short she almost does not have one. He does credit to both his dam and…

Haykal Al Arab, 2015 Ma’naqi Sbayli colt

The fifth horse I have bred since coming to the USA fifteen years ago was born August 11, a bay Ma’naqi Sbayli by Monologue CF out of CSA Baroness Lady. A Davenport and Egyptian cross with a tail female to Lady Anne Blunt’s Ferida. He was born three weeks early. At first his mother refused to nurse him and he was too weak to stand on his own, but thanks to the heroic efforts of Sue Moss, who held him up and fed him every two hours for thirty six hours, he survived, and has since caught up, and is now doing very well. His name will be Haykal Al Arab. In old Arabic Haykal means strong and tall, and that’s what I want him to become, after being born weak and small. Sixth century AD poet-king (and king of poets) Imru’l Qays composed this famous verse about his stallion: wa-qad aghtadi wa-al-tayru fi wukanatiha bi-munjaridin qayyada al-awabidi haykal-i I set off in the [early] morning, when the birds are [still] in their nests, on a strong and tall short-haired [horse] [whose speed is such that] it makes [fast moving] wild animals [seem] shackled and motionless In Arabic, Haykal also means temple, as in a strong and…

Interested in starting your own preservation program?

If you happen to take good care of your horses, or you if you know that you will take of your first horse, and are interested in starting a new preservation breeding program centered around the esteemed Arabian horse strain of Ma’naqi Sbayli, please contact me: ealdahdah@hotmail.com I have a mare from that strain, 10 months pregnant, and she and/or her foal would be available to the right home to start such a program. Below is a noted in Arabic penned by one of Homer Davenport’s Arab guests during his 1906 trip to North Arabia to buy desert-bred Arabian horses. Part of it — the second paragraph — reads: “There is no better and more authentic strain to be found among the Arabs [Bedouins] than that of the Ma’naqi Sbayli which Mr. Davenport purchased. The Ma’naqi is from the Arab [Bedouins] of Gomussah, from the tribe of the Sba’ah ‘Anazah, and he is from the best strain in their possession; the name of his owner is al-Sbayli.”      

Juans Aana, 1990 Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare, yesterday

This is the latest  mare to join my herd, along with her 15 year-old daughter who is also black (not that it matters). Juans Aana (El Reata Juan x Suuds Juli Aana by PRI Saqlawi Suud) is a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, going back in tail female to Haidee imported by Major Roger Upton from the Gomussah Bedouin tribe of North Arabia in 1874. The mare is 25 years old, so don’t mind the sway back at her venerable age. That’s how the Gulastra sire line horses age, including the great Gulastra himself. A great-great-grand-daughter of Gulastra in the sire line with three additional crosses to him in the pedigree (and also to *Aziza, *Roda, *Zarife, *Fadl, etc). Her eyes are huge, and I love the prominent facial bones, the sloping shoulders, the clear legs and the long neck. I have high hopes to get this mare in foal to one of my stallions before it is too late.

A new Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah filly of old US lines

This filly is the best news of the foaling season in the US so far. A young Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah (yay!), by a Doyle (100% old Blunt) stallion out of a mare with seven crosses to Julep (Gulastra x *Aziza). She is the result of the first cross of a stallion from the Julep-Gulastra-Astraled tail male to Mesaoud to a mare from the Ghadaf-Ribal-Seyal tail male to Mesaoud ever, and the first cross between two different tail males to Mesaoud in at least 90 years. Think of it, the Doyle horses were never bred to the Julep horses. I like this filly, and I like her dam SS Lady Guenevere too, especially that purple chestnut color.   The tail female is from Jane Ott, back to Haidee, imported by Major Roger Upton from Arabia, from the Gmassah Bedouins of Sulayman ibn Mirshid to be precise. That’s the wellspring of Ma’naqi Sbayli. The famous *Haleb was from there, too.

Black Ma’naqi Sbayli mare

I so like this photo of the 1985 black Ma’naqi Sbayli mare Suuds Juli Aana (PRI Saqlawi Suud x Julyana ZHS). The muzzle, the jaws, the look in the eye (reminiscent of a mare from Cal Raswan’s pictures of desert horses, don’t remember which one), and again, that overall air of a wild animal. In the second photo, the same mare looks like a tank. A desert background would be mor fitting for these photos.

My Ma’naqiyah

That’s a recent shot Darlene Summers took of my CSA Baroness Lady (Sab El Dine x Takelma Rosanna by Prince Charmming), a 1999 Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah of overwhelmingly Egyptian lines, with 6 generations of Egyptian sires on top of the old Crabbet female line. She is in foal to Monologue CF, a stallion of Davenport lines, due in August 2015. She is one of six asil younger (17 years old and less) mares of that Ma’naqi Sbaili line in existence in North America. Her sister and a maternal cousin of hers are with Jacquie Glasscoe Choate in Texas, and three other mares, all daughters and grand-daughters of this mare, can be last traced to Janice Park’s South Springs (SS) program, which line-breeds to El Reata Juan (Julyan X Mist Aana by Hallany Mistanny), and produces mostly blacks. She will need to go to a good preservation home, to make space for the new foals coming in the summer. If you know someone who is interested, let me know.  

CSA Baroness Lady to be bred to MSF Hamdani Simri for a 2015 foal

Hopefully, on Sunday the Ma’naqiyah mare I recently acquired, CSA Baroness Lady will be bred to MSF Hamdani Simri (Faydin x IMF Badia Nafila by PRI Gamil Halim) of Lesley Detweiler, a stallion of very similar pedigree. It is a preservation breeding. Both have highly unusual (within Al Khamsa) Blunt/Crabbet tail females, the mare to Ferida (Ma’naqi Sbaili of the Shammar) and the stallion to Sobha (Hamdani Simri of APS). Both are sired by stallions bred at the Babson Farm. Both are heavily top-crossed with  new Egyptian blood (mainly Ansata with lots of Nazeer), and both have tiny amounts of Early American blood (Davenport, Hamidie, Huntington, and Nedjran) at the back of the tail female through Tizzy for the stallion and Milanne for the mare. MSF Hamdani Simri struck me when I saw him at the 2011 AK Convention in PA in 2011. The large truly Arabian eye, the nostrils made of velvet, the long and arched neck, the curved mithbah, the nice shoulder, and the high tail setting impressed me. Back then I thought I wanted to see a stronger, broader croup and hindquarter (Doyle style) and a broader chest, but that’s okay and the mare has plenty of both. Also, what style he had, what…

New Mare

CSA Baroness Lady, a 1999 Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, joined the Al-Dahdah herd yesterday from her breeder Carol Stone.  Oh, how I love this strain, and could write pages and pages of non-stop praise for it. This is the tail female of Milanne, Ferseyn, Farana, Amber Satin, and other American greats, back to *Ferida of Lady Anne Blunt. She will be bred this year to a stallion to be determined.  

Beautiful Ma’naqiyah mares tail female to Ferida

The Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force is just done with the re-homing of two mares from the rare and precious Ma’naqi Sbayli strain tracing to Lady Anne Blunt’s desert bred import Ferida: the 1997 CSA Amira Kista (Sharif Zaraq x Takelma Rosanna by Prince Charmming), and the 2000 CSA Zaraqa (CSA Maneghi Amir x Takelma Velours by Prince Charmming), which is not registered, but a full sister of this horse.  I am happy these mares are getting a second chance at leaving offspring, after the good work Carol Stone has done with this strain over the past twenty five years. Yesterday, Carol shared pictures of their two dams which I post here: Takelma Rosanna is the chestnut, and Takelma Velours is the grey, and their common maternal grandsire, the Egyptian stallion Prince Charmming (Ibn Alaa Eldin x Egyptian Charm by Shamruk), which I found to be impressive.  

Dakhala Bashiq, 1984 asil Ma’naqi Sbaili stallion

Also from Facebook — and I gave up on trying to compete with it here, lol — comes this gorgeous photo which Edna Ehret posted of the asil 1984 Ma’naqi Sbaili stallion Dakhala Bashiq (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), the full brother of my 1985 Dakhala Sahra, both bred by Jeanne Craver. Two failed embryo transfer attempts on Sahra so far, third is the charm, please wish me luck. Mrs. Ehret sold him to a person whose name she does not remember.    

Daughter of Baba Kurush / Krush Halba in Turkey

Kurus, known in Turkey as Baba Kurus and in Lebanon as Krush Halba, was born in the Syrian desert in 1921, first became the foundation stallion of the racing-oriented Lebanese Arabian horse breeding program and was then exported to Turkey where he also founded the Turkish Arabian horse breeding program. Here a photo of a daughter of his, courtesy of Teymur from Turkey. She is SÜBEYHI.4., Grey 1936, Mare, Strain: MANEKIYE SÜBEYHI. Sire: KURUSH.1921 OA (Baba Kuru?) , Grey. Dam: SÜBEYHI.2.1929, Grey.

Farana, 1929 asil Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion in the USA

A handsome horse of old Blunt lines, the 1929 Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Farana (Nasik x Farasin by Rasim) stood at the Kellogg Ranch in California. He was a popular sire, but is barely represented in modern asil breeding today. I know Rebecca Quick has a line to him through the 1944 Kuhaylat Rodan mare Suebe (Feyd by Farana, x Gisela by Akil x Shemseh by Nasik x Rifla by Rasim), who was double Nasik. There is also a line to him through Milanne (Feyd x Kishta by Akil). The line still goes in tail female, through Milanne who also goes back to Ferida, but I feel it’s lost its type as a result of being diluted in an ocean of Egyptian blood. 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).    

Akman, 2003 Ma’naqi stallion from Turkey

Teymur from Germany sent me these photos of the very correct and well balanced stallion Akman, an Arabian horse of Turkish breeding. I know close to nothing about the pedigree, except that that the tail female mare, Matra, a bay 1927 Ma’naqiyah came to Turkey from the Bagdad area in 1931, and was bred by a certain Husayn al-Ali (of which there are a million people with the same name in Iraq). Here is a link to his pedigree. Thanks Teymur.    

Rahim Regency WAF, 1999 asil Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion

Kathy Busch and Crista Couch kindly took a day trip to see the stallion Rahim Regency WAF (Regency CF x Dakhala Sahra) near Kansas City, MO, of which here is a video (click on rahim). 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.

Nimr Again

I am posting a month-old photo of the young desert-bred stallion Nimr Shabareq at four years old so that readers can see how the horse has evolved over time. The second photo was taken when he was three, and the third one, when he was two. Hopefully, him, his owner and I will live a long life so I can keep posting photos of him every year to show you how he matures. Click on each photo to enlarge it.  

Sahra: Welcome!

The 26 year old chestnut Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir)  just joined the group of old broodmares whose lines I am trying to preserve. She was bred by Jeanne Craver in 1985, and then went to Charles’ cousin Crista Couch, and then to Kathryn Busch, who sold her to me. I was about 10 or 12 the first time I came upon a horse of that line. That was before the internet, and before DVDs too. I was going through the Asil Club’s publication Asil Araber II, when, buried in a sea of Egyptian pedigrees, I found the photo of Erika Schiele’s stallion El Beshir (Faaris x Sirrulla by Sirecho), bred by Mrs Ott. The photo was in black and white and it showed a dapple grey horse, and I was  taken by the horse as much as by its unusual strain (recorded as Ma’naqi Hadraji, but it’s actually Sbayli) and pedigree. There was also that famous photo of the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Lysander at Craver Farms, and I wondered about that unusual (ie, non SE) pedigree too.. She is by Plantagenet, and according to Charles, “more like Plantagenet than Plantagenet himself”. Her dam was…

W.R. Hearst import *Lebnaniah added to the Al Khamsa Roster

The Hearst mare *Lebnaniah (Sergent Major x Ma’naqiyah) was the other addition to the Al Khamsa Roster this year. There are two horses, one stallion, and one mare tracing to her who are potentially alive, and we need to find them. Here is the text of my Roster proposal in 2009.    

Nimr Shabareq, 2007 asil Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion in France

French preservation breeder Adrien Deblaise sent me this recent picture of the young Syrian asil stallion Nimr Shabareq (Zaarour Al-Barary x Yamhad by Al-Aawar), a Ma’naqi Sbayli of the marbat of ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, bred by Radwan Shabareq of Aleppo. He is now in France covering mares at Louis Bauduin’s. See how much he’s changed from the last time he was featured here.

Another original document from the Tahawi website

The Tahawi website maintained by Mohammed al-Tahawy is a wonderful resource of original testimonies about the horses that this Bedouin clan bred throughout the XXth century. A few months ago, English translations of some of the hujaj (Arabic certification documents) of some of the foundation horses acquired by the Tahawi were featured on this website, as part of the collective effort of getting the three Tahawi mares of Egypt’s Hamdan stables accepted in the roster of Al Khamsa, Inc, the North American preservation organization. Here is a translation of another one of these original documents; this one is not a hujjah but rather a letter written to a member of the Tahawi tribe: To our beloved brother Faysal Abu Abdallah [al-Tahawi] may God protect him, Greetings and salutations, and longings to see your beautiful face, and after that, I would like to congratulate you on the advent of this holy month [of Ramadan], may God make you witness its advent again in health and well-being. You had asked us about the lineage of the colt, and in accordance to your demand, we are writing to you about the lineage of his dam and her ancestors, and that of his sire and his ancestors. The dam of the horse is al-Dahmah…

Twelve Davenports of Christmas: Abbess

The 1911 Ma’naghiyah mare Abbess has no remaining descent, and her sire *Abbeian‘s sire line in the straight Davenports died out with Ibn Ralf. Her dam, *Farha, has a thin line remaining (both in straight Davenports, and another family in Al Khamsa more generally) through Ralf. I don’t know if Abbess’ age in this picture is known, but she looks young to me, perhaps two or three. Photo courtesy of Jeanne Craver.

Twelve Davenports of Christmas: Sotamm and ADA Recapitulation

It’s Boxing Day, so you get a bonus Davenport. (Actually, I ran across a series of comparisons between historic and modern Davenports that some Davenport people did in email in 2006, and I’ll try to share the ones I can illustrate.) Sotamm, 1919 brown mare (*Hamrah x *Farha) ADA Recapitulation, 2003 chestnut mare (Memoir UF x Capucine), age 2. When I first saw the Sotamm picture, I was initially shocked by the resemblance, then gratified to realize that we really are doing more than just preserving names in pedigrees.

Photos of the Day: Sumeyr, and Tabriz, two asil Tunisian stallions..

There is this photo of the beautiful asil stallion Sumeyr (Bango d.b. x Jamnia by the Algerian asil Oukrif out of Taflia by the Egyptian Ibn Fayda) on allbreedigree here. He was bred at a private stud in Tunisia, then exported to France where he stood at the government stud of Pau, in the South West. His sire Bango was a Ma’naqi Sbaili from the Shammar, was imported to Algeria in the 1920s, and this makes Sumeyr very close to the desert. Photo from the Deblaise collection on their  site Lozanne Publications. Now this one is of the very desert looking Tabriz (Oukrif x Hama by Agege out of Taflia by Ibn Fayda), a close relative of Sumeyr who had all this sallion career in Tunisia. He is also very close to the desert blood, his grandsire being the stallion El Managhi, imported from Hama, Syria, at the same time as Bango.

Nimr Shabareq, asil Ma’naqi Abu Sayfayn stallion from Syria, now in France

Nimr Shabareq (photo below, by Zaarour al-Barary out of Yamhad by al-A’war) is one of the desert bred stallions that were recently imported to France. He is now standing at stud with Louis Bauduin, who took this picture and gave it to Arnault Decroix, who sent it to me (Merci, Arnault). This is not your usual Arabian horse. This is a horse from hell. This is fire made horse. Both Jean-Claude Rajot and Arnault Decroix told me about their first encounter with this horse in 2008, when he was just a weanling at the stud of his breeder Radwan Shabareq: three grooms were needed to handle him as he was being shown to the stunned visitors. This is probably why Radwan called him Nimr — tiger. He hails from one of the most prestigious desert bloodlines: the Ma’naqi Sbayli marbat of Shawwakh al-Bu-Rasan, Shaykh of the Wuldah tribes of the Euphrates valley.  Shawwakh had obtained the line from his neighbor and friend ‘Atiyah Abu Sayfayn, a Fad’aan Bedouin who owns the strain now. ‘Atiyah’s great-grandfather had stolen the original mare from the Sba’ah (click here to read how), the fountain-spring of the Ma’naqi Sbayli strain. The clan of al-Bu-Rasan is…

Ma’naqi Sbayli Preservation

Robin Weeks is spoiling me with photos of horses she owned, which happen to be horses I like a lot, and I am on a roll. Here’s a couple of pictures of the Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Soiree (Sir x Sirrulya by Julyan) in old age. She was bred by Jeanne Craver, and later owned by Robin Weeks. A favorite mare of mine, as you can tell from the several blog entries about this family. By now I think it’s time I shared with you the news that I am working with Kathy Busch of Kansas City, MO, on leasing a 25 year old chestnut daughter of Soiree which she owns. Her name is Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), she was also bred by Jeanne Craver, and she is all I am thinking about these days. She’s been treated at the vet clinic recently for a minor uterus infection, and she’ll be ready to be bred over the next couple weeks via artificial insemination. I am still looking for the right stallion for her, with ‘right’ in this case including ‘ready to collect from and ship’ in addition to the other meaning it has for me. By the way,…

The “Bourbon-Parma”

If you haven’t already done so, check out the overview article by the late Carol Lyons, on “Drissula, One of a Kind”. Born in 1941, Drissula (Sultan x Ydrissa by Antez) is the only asil progenitor for the Ma’naghi Sbayli line of *Haidee, who was bred by the Sba’ah Bedouins and was imported to the UK in 1874. I already mentioned my soft spot for this strain. Some thirty five years ago, when my father asked the late Moussa de Freije, one of the foremost Lebanese authorities on Arabian horses, about why he held a particular M’anaqiyah Sbayliyah mare in such high esteem, the response of the French-educated Mr. de Freije was: “She is a Bourbon-Parma”, in reference to one of Europe’s most noble and blue-blooded dynasties. While all Ma’naqi Sbayli horses eventually go back to one marbat (Bedouin stud), that of Ibn Sbayyil of the ‘Ajlan clan from the Rasalin section of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, who acquired the orginal Ma’naqiyah Hudrujiyah and, in time, gave her his name, not all Ma’naqi Sbaili marabet  which subsequently branched out of his marbat were held in equal esteem. Even within the same tribe, levels of prestige and reputation associated with each marbat varied over time, and the fortunes of each marbat…