The interior of this historical landmark of Cairo was burned down by vandals on February 1, 2013. With it will disappear one of Cairo’s most storied and opulent residences, as well as a small part of the story of the Egyptian Arabian horse. See article here.
From the British Journal of the Arab Horse Society, 1935-1938, p. 168, under “Royal Gifts of Arabian Horses”: In December 1937, 4 Arabian horses and 4 camels were unloaded from the liner Mantola at the Royal Albert Docks, London. They were presented by His Majesty King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia to His Majesty the King, as a token of friendship and in appreciation to the hospitality given to his son and heir at the Coronation. The contingent consisted of two stallions and two mares. Brief particulars of these horses are given below: 1. Manak (1928) […] 2. Kasim (1934) […] 3. Tarfa (1935), a grey mare, of great quality and a nice mover. Her sire is an Obeyan Abdul Hamra and her dam is a Kehaileh Ajuz. Tarfa is being specially trained as a hack for Princess Elizabeth, and she is promising to make a very nice ride for the little princess. 4. Faras (1927) […] The “little princess” is Queen Elizabeth II..
Louis is the President of the French Union Pour la Sauvegarde du Cheval Arabe Oriental (USCAR), and guest writer on this blog. Here he conveys in powerful, precise yet evocative language his ideal Arabian horse, in the form of a short prayer. I have asked Louis’s permission to translate it.
French breeder and researcher Philippe Deblaise has a new book coming out: “Tiaret: le Reve Algerien”, which chronicles the story of the prestigious government stud of Tiaret in then French-colonized Algeria. The website of the French Union Pour la Sauvegarde du Cheval Arabe Oriental (USCAR) publishes excerpts of it (here). Here is a wonderful photo album of what Tiaret looked like from the first part of the XXth century until today, including 129 photos of the Tiaret stud. Below are a couple photos. Tiaret
As mentioned in an earlier post last year, a small number of horses still trace to the very old Mukhallad strain including this 2001 chestnut stallion whose extraordinary pedigree is heavily line-bred to asil Algerian,Tunisian and old French lines of the highest caliber. Here is a nice shot of him which I had not seen before. His owner is standing at stud in the south west of France. The photo shows a very correct stallion of good “old” Arab type, reminiscent of several old Algerian stallions from Tiaret (e.g., the photo of Scorpion by Baleck in the small Mauvy book), of some Davenport stallions (e.g., Deluvian CF, Regatta CF) and Syrian desert bred stallions (the sons of Mahrous in particular), with a short back, a high and well defined dry wither, a large eye, deep jaws, short prickled ears, a small level and round croup and a thick tail set high. This is my kind of stallion. Below is a run-down of the male ancestors of Djelid in the maternal line (sire, sire of dam, sire of grand-dam, etc) so you could appreciate where he is coming from. Djelid is a son of the wonderful 1975 asil Jilfan Dhawi stallion Jahir…