Arnault Decroix send me this picture of his very promising 2005 stallion Dahess Hassaka (al-Ameer Dahess x Oghareet by Marzouk out of Hanadi by Krush Juhayyim), which was bought from Radwan Shabareq and imported to France in 2009. An asil Kuhaylan al-Nawwaq from the very old marbat of the Naqashbandi sufi mystics of the Middle Euphrates valley, Dahess Hassaka is the paternal grandson of my Dahess and is now being used as a stallion by Arnault. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
Dahess (Awaad x Al-Jazi by the Ubayyan of ‘Atnan al-Shazi) was a 1987 grey stallion. He was bred by sayyid Muhammad al-Shaykh Salim a Tufayhi, a non-Bedouin from a family of religious notables in Upper Mesopotamia, as so was his dam. He was a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak by strain, tracing to the marbat of ‘Awwad ‘Azzam al-Sahlan, or ‘Ubayyan Suhayli. He was sired by the grey Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Awaad, who hails from the famed marbat of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba, and as such he is a half brother to the black stallion Mokhtar now in France. His dam, al-Jazi, was reportedly one of the prettiest mares in Syria, and eventually came to be owned by the late Basil al-Asad, brother to the current president of the Syrian Arab Republic. Dahess was sold as a youngster to the former Qatari consul in Damascus, the late Yusuf al-Rumaihi, who owned a wonderful collection of beautiful and well-authenticated desert-bred mares (more on this later), as well as the two Egyptian stallions Okaz (Wahag x Nazeemah) and al-Qahir (Ikhnatoon x Marium). When Rumaihi passed away, the horses were dispersed and some of them found their way to Qatar, where they were overlooked and eventually given away. Dahess then…
J’aimerais revenir sur le cheval Tunisien nommé Jehol Sahraoui (Ouaffar x Kalthoumia par Sabour), un bai soutenu né chez M Heinz Gerd Bergmann… J’ai eu loisir de monter cet étalon en 1989 lors d’une visite chez les Ghobber, éleveurs semi nomades à l’époque dans la région de Maknassy. Sortie en compagnie du Chef de Tribu Rhida Ghobber, de frères et cousins dont Youssef et Amara Ben Ghabri. Je revois encore le visage de mon ami Jean-Claude chevauchant à mes côtés et photographiant du regard le superbe coursier en pleine action, puis entendre Rhida crier de derrière : « Tu imagines « Luis » comme cela durant trente kilomètres ?… Attention aux trous de renards ». Réponse en cœur : « Où ? trop tard » Nous fondions dans cette immensité sur l’horizon à très grande vitesse. Jehol ne connaissait qu’une allure : le Galop ! En action sur place une fois enfourché, les renes semblaient élastiques, la bouche pourtant pas dure pour autant, ce diable de cheval semblait s’enfoncer dans le sol pour, les doigts légèrement ouverts, partir progressivement en dérapage dans une gerbe de sable. Ici l’expression « à la nage, à la nage » prenait tout son sens. N’étant pourtant à l’époque pas au mieux de ma forme et sous traitement, l’environnement aidant,…