A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
“It’s been a long December, and there’s reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last.” — Counting Crows, “A Long December” Saqlawi al-’Abd Tripoli, a cornerstone of the straight Davenports as they exist today (images in the left column), and his Kuhaylan Hayfi grandson Memoir UF, called Rory by those who … Read more
A father-son pairing this time, both Kuhaylan Hayfi. Atticus (Dharanad x Fairy Queen) is 24 in the first image. Attikos (Atticus x Marigold CF) is three (and, I think, in the middle of a trot-canter transition—). See how Attikos is using his LS joint, “sitting down” in the rear to push off? A quick look … Read more
I have drawn a list of 5 asil mares in the USA, which if lost, would represent a huge loss of diversity in the asil Arabian horse in the USA. None have been replaced so far, and four out of five are old mares. Many of them have been mentioned on the website before. In order … Read more
The 1911 Ma’naghiyah mare Abbess has no remaining descent, and her sire *Abbeian‘s sire line in the straight Davenports died out with Ibn Ralf. Her dam, *Farha, has a thin line remaining (both in straight Davenports, and another family in Al Khamsa more generally) through Ralf. I don’t know if Abbess’ age in this picture … Read more
Michael Bowling tells me this historic image, previously published as *Urfah, is now believed to be Freda (the markings don’t match *Urfah’s in any case.) Freda, it is hypothesized, had her identity confused with Saleefy’s when both mares were sold in 1918. Freda descends entirely from the Hamidie Society importation of 1893. The markings of … Read more
For today, the 1904 Saqlawi al ‘Abd stallion *Hamrah, of whom much has been said previously, and his century-later echo, the 2004 Hamdani Simri stallion Eldar HD, bred by Michael Bowling. In 2003, I wrote of the 22 year old Palisades CF, “I want a magic wand so I can have another twenty years with … Read more
It’s Boxing Day, so you get a bonus Davenport. (Actually, I ran across a series of comparisons between historic and modern Davenports that some Davenport people did in email in 2006, and I’ll try to share the ones I can illustrate.) Sotamm, 1919 brown mare (*Hamrah x *Farha) ADA Recapitulation, 2003 chestnut mare (Memoir UF … Read more
For our faithful readers who may be taking a break from unwrapping, photographing, and/or toasting, I’m offering a Davenport photo a day for the next twelve days. Do you know anyone who needs yet another partridge in a pear tree? Thought not. Rababe CF, 1987 Hamdaniyah Simriyah (Lydian x Fiddledeedee). When not caring for small … Read more
The Beirut, Lebanon, race track built in 1910 was a rare piece of Levantine-Florentine architecture that was destroyed in 1982. The Baghdad, Iraq, race track was built in 1920. When the Bagdad racetrack was closed due to political upheavals in Iraq, horse racing in Beirut flourished. Many of the Iraqi racehorse owners began racing their horses in Beirut, … Read more
In the interest of resurrecting, if only for the duration of a minute or two, a now defunct component of the Bedouin heritage on desert-bred Arabian horses, I am starting this new series on extinct or uncommon strains. It will consist of a mention of the strain, and a couple anecdotes about it. The first such strain I will … Read more
The very feminine Chablis CF (Sir Marchen x Sauterne by Tripoli), a Hamdaniyah Simriyah of Davenport bloodlines bred by Craver Farms in 1981. The strain goes back in tail female to the Bani Sakhr Bedouins, through the mare Schilla.
Another  beautiful asil stallion of the same generation as El Iat is Greggan (Ibn Gulida x Gharida by Bidaj), a Saqlawi Jadran who traces entirely (as in 100%) to the Crabbet Stud lines of Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt. The Doyle breeding program, which celebrate its sixty years in 2009, is based on the three … Read more
A good photo of the stallion El Iat (Ibn Fadl x Bint Turfara by Sirecho), a Kuhaylan stallion tracing to the desert-bred mare *Turfa of Ibn Saud, “imported in 1937 to England as a gift to the royal family, imported to Canada c1941, and imported in 1941 to the USA by Henry Babson”. He is … Read more
The 1981 mare Bucolique (photos below) by the Tunisian stallion Besbes (Esmet Ali x Karaouia by Loubieh) out of Berthe (Irmak x Bassala by Masbout d.b.) is one of the last asil representatives of the highly regarded “B” line of the French government stud of Pompadour. The line traces back in tail female to Wadha, a … Read more
Matthias prompted me to tally the asil tail males in the West, following the series of entries on asil tail females. I just did it, and it was even faster than I expected: 1) Zobeyni, Saqlawi Jadran, imported to Egypt around the 1850s and bred by the Fad’aan (‘Anazah). Update 2023: My recent book, “The … Read more
If we add up the numbers of asil tail female in the four previous entries (Egyptian lines, in Europe, in the USA, and in South Africa), and remove the redundancies associated with the Rodania and Ghazieh lines that appear in both Egyptian and non-Egyptian breeding, we end up with 42 asil tail females in the … Read more
Now this is the list of asil tail female Egyptian lines around the world (including Egypt). This list has been compiled many times before, including by J. Forbis in Authentic Arabian Bloodstock and by Colin Pearson in the Arabian Horse Families of Egypt. Kuhaylan 1) Rodania, Kuhaylah Rudaniyah, imported to the UK in 1881, through … Read more
In Keeping with the two previous entries, here are the non-Egyptian asil tail female lines remaining in South Africa today: Kuhaylan 1) Rodania, through Rosina (Saoud x Ruth by Bendigo), Kuhaylah Rudaniyah (branch of K. al-‘Ajuz), imported to the UK in 1881, bred by the Ruwalah (‘Anazah) 2) Freiha al-Hamra, through Barakah, Kuhaylan Mimrihiyah, imported … Read more
This entry expands the list to non-Straight Egyptian asil tail females in the USA to lines surviving in Europe and South Africa. It ties together several other blog entries that preceded it. So in Europe, and also excluding relatively recent Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan, Bahraini, Syrian and Saudi imports to European countries, you have the lines of … Read more
I now realize that I’ve never listed tail female asil Arabian lines in the USA in one place before. I want to make up for this omission. As “Straight Egyptian” horses constitute the overwhelming majority of asil Arabians in this country (more than 95%??), I thought I’d list the Straight Egyptian female lines in a later blog … Read more
Did you read the blog entries on *Turfa and the desert-bred Hamdani stallion Manak on Ralph Suarez’ blog? Also, have you ever thought of comparing Manak, a Hamdani of Ibn Ghiam (which by the way is the same marbat as Mrs. Danah Al-Khalifa’s desert-bred foundation mare Seetah), to *Munifan, the desert-bred Kuhaylan stallion bred by the … Read more
Recently, I was looking at the list of horses with a line or more to the 1911 Crabbet stallion Nureddin II (Rijm x Narguileh), and a quick look at his offspring led me to believe that there were none left who only traced to Al Khamsa-accepted foundation horses plus Nureddin II. In other words, I … Read more
I am pleased to see Thea Isis featured on Edouard’s site and I could not resist offering a few more images of her. The first is of her in a pasture, the second is of Thea Isis in 1983 at Carol Lyon’s farm in the spring with her filly LD Abba Isis sired by the … Read more
Per Jenny Krieg’s suggestion, the Iras full sister Thea Isis, and her daughter, the iconic JAL Athena. Now all we need is a good shot of Portent, HB Octavia’s full brother, and we can complete the set. P.S. I’m sorry about the cropping, but I couldn’t quite get the gallery to do what it said … Read more