A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
Adrien Deblaise, a preservation breeder in western France, sent me these two photos of the splendid and very asil 1975 Jilfan Dhawi stallion Jahir (Iricho x Ciada, who was by Ghalbane x Malika, by Masbout x Themis by Bango x Akaba). Â The pedigree on allbreedpedigree.com is wrong, so I am not linking to it. His … Read more
This photo was also taken in the same place as the one below it, and it shows the same chestnut Hamdaniyat Ibn Ghurab mare as the mare in the center of the photo below, four years later. Jean-Claude Rajot, who I believe took it, and Arnault Decroix, visited the marbat of Ibn Ghurab and several … Read more
Either me or Hazaim al-Wair took this picture of three Hamdani Simri mares at the stud of ‘Abd al-‘Iyadah al-Dar’aan Ibn Ghurab of the Shammar in 2005. There were 15-20 mares all in all. The one in the center was my favorite of the lot, and the one on the right was the sister of … Read more
The handsome 1988 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Dubloon CF (Lysander x Decibel), the last Lysander son alive, is in California with Betty Ball. Carol Mingst photo, 2005.
The mare in this photo was long thought to be *Werdi, the Kuhaylat al-Krush Davenport imported from Syria in 1906, but turned out to be the US-bred  Sheba (Mannaky Jr. x *Pride). A first-class mare, whoever her dam *Pride was: long, long prickled ears, a fine skin, large expressive eyes, long neck, good shoulder. She … Read more
I recently retrieved that photo of the black Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah) which I had taken on my first visit to Basil Jadaan’s in 1989 or 1990. You can easily recognize Basil’s old farm from the red tile rooftops in the back. Mokhtar was then a two or three year old stallion, … Read more
The photo was taken at Hingham Stock Farm, but it’s not *Werdi. Is it *Haffia?
Ameenah was the foundation mare for all the Kuhaylan al-Mimrah horses currently in Syria. They all trace to her in the tail female. She was bred by the Tai Bedouins, from a marbat that had belonged to the Shammar, and which traced all the back to the Muwayni’ clan of the Sba’ah Bedouins, who own … Read more
The Egyptian stallion Fa-Rab (*Fadl x Aana by Fay El Dine), a Dahman bred at the Babson Farm, from Billy Sheet’s photo collection. Not sure who took the photo.
This is another photo from the late Billy Sheet’s collection. It shows the Dahman Shahwan stallion Saafaddan (Faddan x Saaba by Fay El Dine)Â who was bred at the Babson Farm.
I am posting a month-old photo of the young desert-bred stallion Nimr Shabareq at four years old so that readers can see how the horse has evolved over time. The second photo was taken when he was three, and the third one, when he was two. Hopefully, him, his owner and I will live a … Read more
This old photo of the 1937 black Saqlawi Jadran stallion Hallany Mistanny (Zarife x Roda) is from Billy Sheet’s photo archives. I am not sure it’s been published before. Hallany Mistanny sired his first asil foal in his twenties, and along with his Travelers Rest (General Dickinson’s stud) mate Sirecho (Nasr x Exochorda) was a … Read more
When I was a kid, there were not many horse books I could read. I had no access to the hardcovers in my father’s library, like Lady Wentworth’s “Authentic Arabian Horse” or W.R. Brown’s “Horse of the Desert”. I was too afraid to tear a page anyway, and they were not easy to handle. I … Read more
There is a heated discussion going on (in French, though) in another thread about Arabian type(s) in general. A photo of the desert-bred Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Nimr Shabareq (bred in Syria, now in France) started the debate. To grossly summarize, one side thinks the horse is basically off type (in other words, just an ugly looking … Read more
I took this photo but can’t remember who the mare was; perhaps a Kuhaylat al-Wati.
Chris Bauduin on Murad Hadiya (Ourki x Hamada by Irmak), a Shuwaymat Sabbah tracing to the desert-bred mare Cherifa, bred by the Sba’ah and imported to Algeria around 1875. My father took this picture in France in 1994, while Louis Bauduin, his daughter, Jean-Claude Rajot and myself standing in the background. This mare is based … Read more
Wadha (Javera Thadrian x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF) is now 18 months old and is looking more and more like her sire. I am very happy with how she’s turning out. Jeanne Craver told me she is starting to look like Pirouette CF (Javera Thadrian x Piquante by Plantagenet), which in my opinion as … Read more
Shela (El Batal x Siva by Silver Rain) was one of my father’s favorite mares. She was bred by Mr and Mrs. Bancroft in the UK in 1981, exported to Jordan in 1983, where Princess Alia Al-Hussein helped my father acquire her from the stud of Said Khair in 1991, along with another mare, Ziba. … Read more
Ziba (Dancing Magic x Shazla by Shazda out of Darthula out of Saladin II)Â was one of my father’s favorites. A 1980 mare from the ‘marbat’ of Lord and Lady Moyne, and tracing to the desert bred Kuhaylat al-Krush Dafina, a gift from Ibn Saoud to Judith Wentworth, Ziba had no less than ten lines to … Read more
As I am going through the horse photos in my restored hard drive, I thought I’d share with you photos of some of the horses we have owned over time, some asil, others not. As it were, there were 25 years of continuous Aldahdah breeding in Lebanon, but there never was an Aldahdah breeding program. … Read more
The 1990 Hamdani Simri stallion Regatta CF (MV Reflection x Frill by Adrian) is one of my favorite Davenport stallions alive today. Regatta is, together with Marge Smith’s Pal-Ara Sensation (MV Reflection x Nectar CF by Salutation) and Fred Mimmack’s Militaire CF (Salutation x Vivacity by Tripoli) one of the very asil tail male stallions to the … Read more
This old mare was at Mustapha al-Jabri’s farm near Aleppo, Syria in the mid-1990s, when I took this picture, and was brought there to be covered by one of his stallions. She was one of these unregistered tribal horses, and came from the Aqaydat tribe, from the area of al-Mayadin on the Euphrates. Her strain … Read more
An American couple bought the 1993 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Regalia CF (Regency CF x Taradiddle by Ibn Alamein) from Craver Farms some years ago and took him to the south of France, where he is currently. Not sure whether he still there now.
I want to breed horses that have white showing in their eyes, like human eyes. This is how the eyes of the old desert mares of my childhood and teen age looked like, and this is what gives these horses their quasi human souls. I realized this when I zoomed at the photo of Gulida … Read more
Terry Doyle kindly shared with me this unique photo of Dr. Joseph Doyle’s foundation mare and 100% Old Crabbet broodmare Gulida (Gulastra x Valida), along with Richard Pritzlaff’s Rabanna (Rasik x Banna) which was taken by Carl Raswan at their farm in Iowa in the 1950s. Rabanna was there for a breeding to Ghadaf (Ribal … Read more
Last week, some tech wizard was able to salvage all the data from the computer I broke in Yemen in April 2010 and I have now retrieved a lot of the horse photos and documents I thought I had lost. Am very excited at this.
I wanted to post this photo of the Shuwayman Sabbah stallion Hamdan II (Hamdan X Folla by Ibn Barakat) born in 1957, bred at Hamdan stables and imported to Austria by the late Gustl Eutermoser. I took the photo as a schoolboy in Austria back in 1979, when Hamdan II was 22. Mr Eutermoser maintained a stud … Read more
About a year ago, I Â put together an incomplete list of asil Arabian horses that I saw as crucial to maintain as broad as possible a gene pool here in the USA, and hence needed to be preserved urgently. Here a still incomplete but updated list with the status of the horses concerned, in no … Read more
…were just here visiting this morning.. We had a good time talking and looking at photos of their horses, and I saw some wonderful black and white mares of the Doyle foundation mare Gulida (Gulastra x Valida) with Rabanna (Rasik x Banna) when she was at Dr. Doyle’s farm for a breeding to Ghadaf (Ribal … Read more