Iricho was born in Tunisia in 1959 at the stud of French Navy Admiral – and otherwise master Arabian horse breeder – Anatole Cordonnier, who sold him to the French government a few years later. Iricho, a Jilfan Dhawi tracing to Wadha, bred by the Fad’aan Bedouins and imported from the Arabian Desert to Algeria in 1875 by the Frnech, subsequently stood at the Haras de Pompadour for most of his breeding career. Although a horse of excellent conformation and irreproachable bloodlines, Iricho was little used by French breeders who preferred taller stallions of racing bloodlines. He did produce three asil Arabian stallions: Zab in 1971 (out of the beautiful Izarra), Jahir in 1975 (out of Ciada), and Nichem (out of Caida). Very little asil blood if anything at all, remains from Iricho today. Photo from the collection of Pierre-Henri Beillard of Le Sureau, France.