A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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. Â
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more
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 … Read more