A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
Check out Joe’s latest article in Arabian Essence. I love the comparison of some mares of the Egyptian Om Dalal family with the *Abeyah line, just as much as I love re-re-reading the late Carol Lyons “homogeneous background of Al Khamsa Arabians” article.
So the farrier came at his appointed time. With the farrier came the farrier’s apprentice. With the apprentice came her 2yo daughter, Jesse. Now, Jesse has spent a lot of time around horses, and obviously adores them, but she’s still two and needs to be reminded to approach them from the front, not the back. … Read more
The reference to Alzabra Stud in connection with the Egyptian stallion Sharkasi got me interested in learning more about these small local Egyptian farms which, from time to time, appear in historical documents on Arabian horse breeding in Egypt  as the suppliers of breeding stock to the Royal Agricultural Society’s studfarms and/or Inshass, the private stud of … Read more
Teymur from Germany sent me this photo of Sharkasi with his owner TGB Â Trouncer, before the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt (RAS) acquired him in 1955. I had never seen a picture of Sharkasi before and confess being pleasantly surprised at his good looks. The way his neck is set and his straight shoulder also … Read more
I normally don’t use this blog to relay unsubstantiated rumors, but this one is so funny I could not resist sharing it with you: a well-known horsebreeder from Egypt is claiming that the poorly documented (a euphemism) Egyptian stallion Sharkasi is actually from the ‘Ajman Bedouin tribe of Central Arabia. The ‘Ajman, no less…  Of course, … Read more
Take the time to (re)read this article by RJ Cadranell, one of the best ever written on the sale of Egypt’s Ali Pasha Sharif collection of asil Arabian horses, drawing on two souces: Lady Anne Blunt (her Journals, her Sheykh Obeyd Studbook, and some of her private, unpublished notes) and Carl Raswan (his Index). By … Read more
Does anyone happen to know whether the two lines to El Dahma, through Bint Obeya (e.g., that of Bukra) and Nadra (e.g., that of Halima) share the same mtDNA haplotype?
El Dahma is the foundation mare of the most prized tail female line of Arabian horses worldwide. Yet she remains shrouded in mystery. She was a mare from the Stud of Ali Pasha Sharif of Egypt, born around 1880, no color given, and was known only by her strain name as “The Dahma”. The little we know about this elusive … Read more
The series on Barely Surviving Al Khamsa lines continues (and it’s not likely to stop anytime soon given the number of asil lines in dire straits now in the USA). This eighth entry on Barely Surviving Lines comes after earlier entries on the critically endangered tail female asil lines to Safarjal in Austria (Hamdani Simri, to Selma … Read more
Charles Craver took the first two this afternoon, and Nancy Becker, who owns Wadha’s full brother Tantris CF took the third.
Jeanne Craver just sent these along. They are the first official pictures of my filly, by Javera Thadrian out of Wisteria CF. She will be named Wadhah (pronounce it WAD-ha), in keeping with the “W” tradition, after which her dam, her older full sister Walladah CF, and her grand-dam HB Wadduda were named, and after … Read more
RJ Cadranell and Jeanne Craver are the custodians of the hujaj (original Arabic certification documents) of the horses imported by Homer Davenport from the Arabian desert to the USA in 1906. They kindly gave me the permission to use these hujaj on this blog for educational purposes, and I would like to thank them for … Read more
This mare, Jauhar El-Khala, is arguably one of the pretties asil Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mares of Davenport bloodlines in the USA. Click on this link and then use the arrows to scroll for more pictures. She is very reminiscent of the prettiest Syrian desert-breds. Photos by C. Emmert, I think. Don’t you think she is just … Read more
Yesterday night, my Wisteria CF delivered a tall grey filly by Javera Thadrian at 11.30 pm, at Craver Farms. “Narrow blaze, nothing on her legs. Reddish coat, grey “goggles” around her eyes”, says Jeanne. Both mother and filly are reportedly doing well. I so wish I was there now. Instead, I am in a Washington … Read more
Pictured above is Zarlan the handsome 1964 chestnut Al Khamsa stallion who I saw at age 15 and was noble and full of Arabian character. His pedigree blends 5 different ancestral elements. In person, he was beautiful, agile, noble and the image of many of the traditional turn of the century horses in my old … Read more
In Al Khamsa parlance, a “Combined Source” Al Khamsa Arabian, is one that has more than one Al Khamsa ancestral element in its pedigree. Ancestral elements are the basic building blocks of Al Khamsa. You can learn about them more by clicking here. Take the Early American Foundation Stallion Caravan (Ribal x Fasal) for instance. … Read more
Marge Smith asked this very poignant question in one of the comments to an entry below. If anyone has answers to this specific question, please feel free to share them in the form of comments to this entry. I have my own set of answers, which I will thrown into the mix.
In sharp contrast to the appalling number of non-Straight Egyptian asil foals born in the USA over the last few years, here are the number of registered Straight Egyptian (as defined by the Pyramid Society) foals registered in the years from 2001 to 2008: Two observations: first, the relatively hight number of Straight Egpytian foals … Read more
I was talking to Anita Enander yesterday, and she alerted me to an alarming statistical trend in the numbers of live births of non-Straight Egyptian, Al Khamsa Arabians in the USA, over the past few years. Just glance at the graph below: It plots the number of non-Egyptian, Al Khamsa foals born in each of the … Read more
The other day, I was reflecting back on what is already ten years of interest and involvment in asil breeding in the USA. Ellen May and Jeanne Craver had asked me to provide some answers to questions they had drafted about the experiences and memories of second generation Al Khamsa supporters (i.e., people whose parents … Read more