Today was an important and solemn day of my two-year stay in Egypt. I found the Cairo cemetery where Lady Anne Blunt is buried and the old lady who guards it led me to her tomb. The “noble lady of the horses” was right there. I had a thought for many of you, and wished you were there with me. Few minutes of silence and then I walked back to the car. I did not take pictures.
By far my favorite stallions at Mrs. Barbary’s Shams El Asil farm are the 2002 bay Hadban stallion Zay El Amar (SEA Halawat Zaman x Meshmesha by Anas x El Anood by Akhtal) and his own sire the 1998 grey SEA Halawat Zaman (SEA Shams El Asil x SEA Set el Hosn by Lokman a.k.a. Ibn Adaweya). Perfect conformation, muscular stallions, with high withers, deep girth, sloped shoulders, good bone, short backs, plus all the rest, the result of 50 years of selection. Mrs. Barbary is a master breeder for sure. Photo below by Ahmed Nashaat.
Pedigree link here. Dam of Sahmet, and granddam of Saher, Safir, and others.
Yet another Hayfiyah, and another Presto CF daughter (it’s never too late) out of Ala Athena Hafiah (Riposte CF x Femina by Ibn Alamein), one of my favorite mares of this strain. She is pretty and looks a lot like her dam.
A newly born Kuhaylah Hayfiyah filly of Davenport bloodlines by Presto CF (Ibn Alamein x Pretty Fancy by Ionian) out of Du Soleil BPA (Triermain CF x Circe by Odysseus) at Claudia and Jim Burris. The dam is a Triermain daughter out of a Triermain sister.
From the collection of his grandson and namesake Ahmed Ibish, Jr, who writes: These are some photos of winning horses of Ahmed Ibish, you can identify them with the previous photos, by horse shapes and numbers. It’s a pity no names preserved. I can only recollect my father describing how some of his father’s horses “took the Primo.” As to the racing track I can not be sure, is it that of Beirut or Alexandria? No clue. Mostly Beirut, simply because it could not be practical for him to transport his stallions all the way to Alexandria for the sheer purpose of racing. He used to go there for rather selling some of them, and given his old age in the photos I do not think he would have taken the burden. I only can remember how my father spoke of the exquisite method of training and weight loss (Tadhmeer) Ibish used to apply on his horses. He also said that he was a stern man who would not utter a single word about these secret methods. But in general he was close to the Bedouin tribes of the Syrian desert, hence he learned most of his techniques.
Jeannie Lieb’s war mar Fin deSiecle CF (Jamboree CF x Bonne Fortune). I saw Jamboree at Craver Farms last month, and what a regret he is not as fertile as she should be. What a good sire, judging from his only offspring.
News this morning that Saudi Arabian airstrikes have leveled the 1,100 year Imam Hadi mosque in Sa’dah, in the far north of Yemen. Sa’dah is one of the last well-preserved medieval cities in the Middle East.
This Kuhaylat al-Krush filly of Davenport lines is the second ray of the hope this strain, also born this month at Kim Davis’. She is by HH Tantalus Krush out of HH Nadira Krush.
This wonderful, very promising black Kuhaylat al-Krush filly was born this month at Kim Davis’ in Illinois, out of HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush LD by Sportin Life). After the devastating tragedy that befell the group of Krush mares in Texas, she is one of two rays of hope for the next generation of this precious (and ever) strain.
This Arab (ie, Bedouin, not Egyptian peasant) village was right next to Lady Anne’s Sheykh Obeyd property. The photo was taken in 1911. Today it is a sprawling informal, poverty-stricken suburb of Cairo, home to around a million people.
This rare shot is from the Facebook page “Ahl Misr Zaman” which I thoroughly recommend you to follow. It’s a great window to Egypt’s past. King Fuad of Egypt and the Sudan heads the procession (in black, towards the right). The page notes that Prince Kemal El Dine was offered the Egyptian throne upon the death of his father Sultan Hussein (who ruled 1914-1917) but he turned it down, so his paternal uncle King Fouad ascended the throne.
The other day I was on the 16th floor of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance (the one where they have this impressive portrait gallery of all former ministers of finance), and I saw a painting of Muhammad Sherif Pasha (with a tenure date around 1840, don’t remember exactly), with the mention “father of Ali Sherif Pasha”). I was reminded of this upon reading the December 8th, 1910 entry of Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals, where she mentions that “on the conquest of Syria the plan was — Mohd. Ali’s plan — to have Egypt for himself and his heirs, Syria for M. Sherif (his Minister and Govr. of Syria) and Yemen for Kurshid.“
From Carrie Slayton, a fellow Arabian horse preservationist (thank God for these angels): “Polynesia LD foaled a lovely bay Sharp filly April 23rd,sire is the Davenport stallion Fire Dragon LF. She will be named DI (Desert Ice) Pele, for the Hawaiian volcano goddess”. That’s the same pedigree as this horse, three generations of Davenports on top, and a particularly close tail female line to Manial’s Mahroussa. Photos below from Carrie.