Someone Marie Arthur posted this picture on Facebook of the Kuhaylah Hayifyah Davenport mare EK Asiirah UF (Portico x Astranah by Astrologer) bred by Joyce Gregorian, and it struck me. I really like this mare. I even like her one obvious defect: a shorter and thicker neck, which is/was the case with many many desert bred Arabians of the past. That long swan-like over-arched neck is a ugly western invention. Rather, notice the black skin around the muzzle and the eyes, and that overall air of shyness, gentleness, and modest femininity, as if the mare was ashamed of being so beautiful.
Much of Arabian horse breeding program in the West follows patterns based on the exclusion or inclusion of specific horses or groups of horses: within the Babson Egyptians, for example you have the non-*Maaroufa, which is a sub-group that excludes lines to this mare. The Babson Egyptians are themselves an artificial sub-group of Egyptians Arabians, tracing in all lines from the horses imported by Henry Babson. Here’s what I mean by artificial: had Mr. Babson imported another mare than *Bint Bint Sabbah, the descendants of this other mare would have been labeled as Babson Egyptians, and the otherwise eligible descendants of *Bint Bint Sabbah would not. Within the Davenports Arabians, you have the non-Fasal, all without lines to this mare, even though the ancestors of Fasal (*Hamrah x Amran by *Deyr *Wadduda), are present in the pedigree of all non-Fasal Davenports. These groups and sub-groups have their own logic, and are usually meant to preserve different phenotypes. The Sharp breeding program is one of those rare artificial Western-created breeding groups that I think are worth breeding in isolation and preserving, when the bigger picture of Arabian horse breeding is taken into consideration. The Sharps are basically Al Khamsa Arabian horses…
This is a bottle in the ocean.. about whether anyone knows anything about a 1999 grey Al Khamsa Arabian mare oddly named Kiefer El Sherif (Hadaya Nile Anwar x Sherlaila by Sheriz) tail female to the W.R. Hearst import *Layya, hence an Obayyan by strain. Jenny Krieg — who owns her sister Maraya and Maraya’s daughter Labwah pictured below — and I were wondering if that was not a stallion mistakenly registered as a mare, because of the name, but then again you never know.
Have those of you who live in the Mid-West and South of the USA vaccinated your horses against the West Nile virus? Soon I will be needing a vaccine for the East Nile virus, which is a good virus to catch 🙂
This is true and an important point Edouard in looking to the future options of diversity. The Egyptian horse has long benefited from the influence of the Astraled sons: Sotamm (Astraled x Selima), Rustem (Astraled x Ridaa), and Gulastra (Astraled x Gulnare) as well as the Berk son Hamran (Berk x Hamasa). All of these stallions are of the Mesaoud sire line. Which sadly is now in jeopardy within straight Egyptian lines. However the concentration of Mesaoud through out the whole part of Egyptian pedigrees is more so especially when one looks at the pedigrees of these stallions above and the Blunt mares Bint Riyala (2x to Mesaoud) and Bint Rissala (Mesaoud granddaughter). The image you post of Sotamm is one of his better ones. He is double Queen of Sheba close up which I think accounts for the black color in some of his descent. Also there is a kind of “Queen of Sheba” look that is coming down strong from him and from Rustem in some of their descent. You can see it in the stallion Gharib where the look and also the brilliant action from Queen of Sheba comes through. As appreciated as the contribution of these…
The Blunt Hamdani Simri stallion Sotamm (Astraled x Selma II) is in every single Egyptian pedigree by now. He is of course the sire of Nazeer‘s maternal grandsire Kazmeen (Sotamm x Kasima). He is also in the n0n-Nazeer’s New Egyptians through El Sareei (Shahloul x Zareefa by Kazmeen), Sid Abouhom (El Deree x Leila out of Bint Sabah by Kazmeen) and Sheikh El Arab (Mansour x Bint Sabah by Kazmeen). He is also in all the Babson Egyptians, either through Bint Serra (Sotamm x Serra), or *Bint Bint Sabbah (Baiyad x Bint Sabah by Kazmeen). This means all Egyptian horses (the Straight Egyptians, but also the horses with Doyle and Rabanna blood, obviously) alive today have a measure of Blunt blood. This makes the few remaining asil Arabian horses without Blunt blood, which the late Carol Lyons identified as a separate group and called the “Sharps” through a clever play on words) all the more worthwhile.
Guillaume Lambert has published excerpts of a precious 1866 letter from Emir Abd al-Qader al-Jazairi to French Army General Eugene Daumas about the asil Arabian Horse and its living conditions of French USCAR website . It is in French but worth translating through Google Translate and reading. Guillaume thinks this letter was probably the last one between the two men, former war enemies in the context of the conquest of Algeria by the French, and as such it was not integrated in their famous joint book “Les Chevaux du Sahara”, also published in 1866. Click here to read the letter in French.
I wrote this entry mostly for myself, for the record: I was finally able to retrace the whereabouts of my mare Jadiba from the time she was born until she ended up in my ownership, thanks to information from Shirin Samiljan, Charlotte Newell, Carrie Slayton, Pam Studebaker and Jill Erisman. — She is registered as having been bred by Wayne and Rosa Cunningham of Colorado, in July 1987; they were the owners of her dam at the time of breeding; — Her breeders must have either leased or somehow given her pregnant dam to Teddy Lancaster of Ohio (who was the owner of her sire Dib at that time), or sold Jadiba to Teddy at birth; she is registered as owned by Teddy Lancaster at the time of her birth on June 28, 1988; — In Nov. 1988, she was sold as a weanling to the late Joyce Gregorian, who was looking for a mate for her stallion Ibn Tirf; they were of similar bloodlines. — Upon the passing away of Joyce in 1991, her estate gave Jadiba and Ibn Tirf to Patty Andrews-Moore of Rhode Island, who never registered her in her ownership; — When she ran into some…
This is one of my all time favorite Arabian horse photos. The stallion featured in it, the 1971 chestnut Saqlawi Jadran Ibn Tirf (Sutan x Shillala by Gulson), is one that I would have liked to breed myself. Ibn Tirf was owned by the late Joyce Gregorian of Upand Farm, who wrote this beautiful article about him. Incidentally, my own Jadiba was originally purchased by Joyce as a yearling for breeding to Ibn Tirf, as per Joyce’s own words in the 1989 article: “While my first loyalty is to my Davenport program, Ibn Tirf has had influence on my buying as well as on my breeding. The Saqlawi al-Abd (*Wadduda) filly, Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta), was bought for his future harem; an Al Khamsa filly combining “Doyle” Egypt/Blunt, Davenport and Hamidie Society bloodlines… In strain and pedigree he is a felicitous example of the complementary blend inherent in “Doyle” Egypt/Blunt and Davenport lines, a combination suggested by Carl Raswan both in The Arab and His Horse, and in The Index.” Ibn Tirf and his two daughters, who left no offspring, were the last representatives of this historically very successful Blunt/Davenport cross. Ibn Tirf was 75% Blunt through the Doyle horses, and 25% Davenport through…
A view of Aleppo taken from it’s citadel by a member of Homer Davenport’s expedition to the Arabian desert in 1906.
I am fascinated with Arabic etymology, and in particular by Arabic words with roots in other languages, as well as by words in other languages with Arabic roots. Here’s a nice blog on the topic. Some entries requires knowledge of the Arabic language but not all.
Someone from the EAO contacted me and asked me (nicely) to remove these two posts. I have a good relation with EAO management that’s based on mutual trust, so I have agreed. We will be taking that discussion off-line and starting a constructive dialogue on the future role the EAO sees for these Bahraini stallions. I will keep readers posted on how this dialogue evolves. Comments will stay because they are the readers’.
This is Bint Delingat (Delingat x Bint Ammoura), one of the non-registered Tahawi mares that are currently being considered for registration by the EAO in a registry separate from the “Straight Egyptians”. She belongs to Yahia Abd al-Sattar al-Tahawi, who otherwise owns and breeds a lot of registered Arabian mares of Tahawi backgrounds, tracing in tail female to the three mares of Hamdan Stables. I took this photo in Geziret Saoud in Egypt last month. Bint Delingat is a Kuhaylah Tamriyah, and the very last of her strain. Oh, what an mazbut and precious strain Kuhaylan Tamri is! I especially like her long ears, and her overall type, which is reminiscent of some horses from Syria.
Someone from the EAO contacted me and asked me (nicely) to remove these two posts. I have a good relation with EAO management that’s based on mutual trust, so I have agreed. We will be taking that discussion off-line and starting a constructive dialogue on the future role the EAO sees for these Bahraini stallions. I will keep readers posted on how this dialogue evolves. Comments will stay because they are the readers’.
In the ancestral homeland of the Tahawi clan, looking at old documents, with Mohammed Saoud al-Tahawi in Arab garment and headgear, Yasser Ghanem Barakat in the striped shirt, and Yahia Abd al-Sattar al-Tahawi on his right.
Also a while ago, Arnaud Decroix from France sent me this photo of the young Shuwayman Fahad, a 2011 Shuwayman Sabbah bred by Jean Claude Rajot by the Syrian desert-bred stallion Mahboob Halab (also a Shuwayman by the way) out of Shueymah Sabbah, herself by the Syrian desert-bred stallion Mokhtar (a Kuhaylan Krush from the Shammar) out of Jean-Claude’s foundation mare Murad Haouda Sahib (Cherif x Hamada by Irmak) who is from Robert Mauvy’s breeding program. 75% desert-bred blood from Syria on this horse. This is a special horse, whose carefully bred bloodlines are a testimony’s to Jean-Claude’s commitment to the preservation of the true Arabian horse.
A while ago, Adrien Deblaise sent me this photo a Jahir daughter, following an online discussion on Jahir himself. Rania El Arba (Jahir x Rial El Arba by Shawani out of Fatija by Fawzan out of M’Rabbia by Saadi out of Hammada) has an interesting pedigree: Hammada was a gift from Admiral Cordonnier’s Tunisian stud of Sidi Bou Hadid to Robert Mauvy in France, but is not from Tunisian lines herself. Rather she traces to the old French line of Merjane, a Mukhalladiyah imported from the Naqab/Negev desert to France in the XIXth century. Saadi was Mauvy’s stallion of Algerian lines, and Shawani is one of his Mauvy-bred sons. Fawzan (Tuhotmos x Fairouz) was bred by Egypt’s EAO and a gift from President Sadat to President Pompidou of France.
I like this 2001 picture of the Davenport stallion Telemachus CF (Odysseus x Recherche by Prince Hal). This is the real thing. Everything else, where you detect an inch of artificial features or characteristics, is fake.
A number of rare mares of old American lines have recently been brought to the attention of the Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force which I part of; the mares’ owners are either looking for people willing to take on preservation projects, or simply asking the task force about the right stallions for their mares; One of these mares is the 1985 “Sharp” (No Blunt blood, almost every single Arabian horse in the world now has Blunt blood) mare Hamida Ivey (Karimkhan x Mistara by Mista-Bin), a Saqlawiyah Jidraniyah with a tail female to H.H. Prince Mohamed Ali’s Hamida (Nasr x Mahroussa), who is the dominant element in her pedigree. She is owned by Chris Mellen in Utah. Another is a 1989 unregistered mare by Kamil Ibn Sahanad out of Sha Ghazya (Fa Charlamar x Ameera Moda by Fa-Turf), an extremely rare tail female Hamdaniyah Simriyah that is tail female to *Samirah, who has not had a foal before. I sure would like to see this old lady registered and back into production. Yet another mare is the 1998 Jadah Kerasun (ASF Raphael x ASF Ubeidiyah by ASF Ezra), another a tail female *Samirah with very old bloodlines. After an attempt…