Month: May 2017

In another bout of bad luck, Zahra (RL Zahra Assahra, by Portent x Antezzah by Grand Pass) turned out not to be in foal to Latitude HD (Atticus x Lycia CF by Lydian), to which she had been bred to last October. That cross if successful was going to be the 2017 vintage of the Al-Dahdah program. Carrie … Read more

So I went to see the horses today, all were beautiful especially Haykal and Barakah. I was riding Wadha, and had just started galloping, but the saddle strap was loose so the saddle slid to the side and I fell on my back, while my foot remained stuck in one of the stirrups. The whole … Read more

This story starts in Syria in the 1820’s. In those years, many European nations maintained trade and diplomatic representatives, or “consuls” in the Orient, especially in Aleppo, a cosmopolitan city, hosting European, Turkish, Greek, Jewish, Armenian traders. Aleppo was also one of the best places to start looking for the noble Kuhaylat horses bred by the Bedouin tribes of Northern Arabia. Many of … Read more

How I miss those days. 2005. North Eastern Syria, not far from the border with Iraq. From right to left: Ibn Ghurab’s son, yours truly, Ibn Ghurab, our driver. Ibn Ghurab had the best collection of desert bred Hamdani Simri mares I had ever seen. His family has owned them for some 250 years. From his … Read more

My friend Lyman Doyle is showing this “new” photo of Dib (top) on his Facebook page. Dib was the sire of Huntington Doyle, the stallion who revived Doyle breeding, and of my beloved Jadiba (bottom), now in a retirement home. Compare the likeness between sire and daughter, especially in the hindquarter.    

Many mysteries surround Marengo the mythical white stallion of Napoleon Bonaparte. Did he really exist or was he just a mirage created by the Emperor’s predilection for the “oriental” horse? Did the British really capture the old stud after the defeat at Waterloo? And why is he not recorded in the French studbooks listings of Napoléon’s horses? Napoleon’s legend tells us that his favorite … Read more

From Rehan Ud Din’s wonderful page on Facebook comes this photo of King Abdallah I of Jordan, petting his prized stallion, c. 1948. Photo by John Phillips — the LIFE Picture Collection. I wonder who the horse is. The halter is the way Bedouin halters should be.  

This mare is 25, but she is very precious, so I am not giving up.

This is work in progress. In face of fading memories and changing narratives, and documented truths that don’t seem to matter anymore, and in keeping with my obsession to safeguard all I can from a previous Middle Eastern order, I have taken it upon me to list and document the part-bred Arabian horses that came … Read more

I now have a reliable account of the story of warriors eating horses in Iraq and Syria. When I first heard the story, it was about American soldiers buying and eating Arabian horses, but it did not make much sense, given food habits in this country and restrictions imposed on US soldiers. Lately, someone told … Read more

So a Syrian man, Amir Mardini, plagiarized the reference book of renowned Arabian horse authority ‘Ali al-Barazi — now out of print — and put the entire content of the book online, under his name, here: www.kutub.info_18708. He removed the name of Barazi and put his name instead on the entire book. Oh, and he added … Read more

Towards the end of 1831, the French National Stud’s Journal dedicated a series of articles to the Prussian studs. French imports of horses for cavalry remount from their eastern neighbors, including the Prussians, had been massive for several decades. This matter was indeed of utmost importance to the French and this report provides interesting details on several … Read more

This one is for my daughter: Today I explained to her to that her mare “Belle” was the daughter of Invictus son of Sportin Life son of Brimstone son of Dharantez son of Dhareb son of Letan son of *Muson.