I just wanted to quickly add to the wonderful blogs on the Kuhaylan Hayfi strain. I learned much by reading them. I just wanted to add that I found it comforting when I visited Syria in 1996 that the Kuyahlan Hayfi strain that came from there via *Reshan is still very much alive. When we were visiting the newly built Al Basel government stud, they introduced a number of their stallions of various strains. One handsome young bay stallion was of the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion. I got a snap shot of him. It is fairly descriptive and I wanted to share it here. It is not a very sharp image because he was quite far away in a very large paddock and we did not have the opportunity to get in the arena close up. So I set my camera to the max telephoto and offer the image here in web resolution. The sire of this colt was the senior stallion at the time, a handsome grey named Basil. I do not recall getting to see the dam but perhaps someone who sees this blog and is familiar with the breeding at the stud can tell us more about this…
Today I am pleased to introduce my second guest blogger, Joe Ferriss. Joe is known to most breeders and enthusiasts of Asil Arabian horses, East and West; he needs no introduction. Joe’s reputation extends to unlikely places. In the fall of 2006, I was in the desert near the Syrian-Iraqi border with some friends. We were gathered around a camp fire on a late afternoon, sipping coffee and talking horses. Some Bedouins from the neighboring village had joined us, and one of them asked me where I came from. When I mentioned that I had lived in the USA for some time, the Bedouin, who was from the Tai tribe, told me of an American man he had come to meet a few years back: “Ju Faris”. He said of Joe: “Hada Faris”, which roughly translates into: “Now that’s a horseman”. I thought it was funny that Joe’s last name translated in to the Arabic word for “horseman”. Joe and I go back a long time. When we started corresponding in 1994, I was still living in Lebanon, and email had not been invented yet. We did not meet in person until the year 2000, when Joe visited me at the University of Chicago, and I returned the visit to his home in Quincy, Michigan. I am thrilled to resume our correspondence on this blog.