Bassma Al Arab, at three months old
By far the nicest surprise of yesterday’s visit to see my horses was little Bassma Al Arab, now three months old. She is Belle’s daughter by Jamr Al Arab. She looks absolutely superb, and I hope she lives long enough to fulfill her promise. She is going to be grey.
I confess having taken that breeding decision on a hunch, and I caught a lot of flak for it: parents’ conformations don’t match each other, pedigrees don’t match, foal will be small, etc. I tried it in part to test whether Jamr was fertile, after a few unsuccessful attempts with older mares.
I also did because I felt the resulting foal could benefit from his broad forehead, his extra-deep jowl, his small muzzle, his very short back (which Belle lacks), his muscular arched neck, and his big “Doyle butt” – essentially a long, hip and a muscular thigh. And Jamr delivered on most of the above, building my confidence in my him as a stallion along the way. He even brought size (!) balance and depth of girth on top of that. Look at the outcome:
The head is the same as the dam’s as you can tell from the picture above. I am almost tempted to retry the cross.
Ahh, the beauty of out crossing! Bassma unfolded and is developing very nicely. What you have is rather essentially, a CMK pedigree within an Asil framework. The CMK Arabians are noted for athletic ability. May she represent accordingly.
Thank you. I don’t think she will qualify as a CMK because she has a non-CMK tail female. But I don’t care so much about labels. I just want good, substantial horses, and she will be one.
To qualify for CMK, the female line needs to have been in the US by 1950. I think she qualifies.
Was the definition revised? She is basically 75% Davenport, 20% Doyle and 5% Saud and minor other stuff.
From CMK Heritage:
A CMK Arabian is defined as one tracing in at least 75% of its pedigree to CMK sources (Blunt, Davenport, Old English, North American desert sources, and a few other compatible elements), with a traditional pre-1960 sire line and a dam line established in North America by 1950, or else a dam line unique to North America.
oh, ok, then all my horses qualify as CMK too.
Doyle butt indeed! Look at his hip angle..
best
Bruce Peek
He’s absolutely GORGEOUS!! We could do with that Doyle butt in Namibia!
Mea culpa!! SHE’S gorgeous! My sincerest apologies to the young lady.
Edouard, would you post side by side pictures of Barakah and Bassma? I ‘d like to see what Belle passed on to each.
Yes, Bassma’s head is Belle’s head. May she grow into the same lovely spirit Belle has and fufill her the promise her 3mo body displays.