I was patiently waiting for a larger digital copy of this photo, which has just been sent to me by Heritage Auctions to be shared. The photo is of [Left] Buffolo Bill Cody aboard *Muson with [Right] Said Abdallah aboard *Wadduda. It very clearly evokes the grainy image from the Annotated Quest that I have always seen labeled something along the lines of “Wild East meets the Wild West.”
The facebook page for “Dartmoor Pony Chronicles” has this ‘new’ photo of the desert-import Dwarka. I have never seen ears so short on a Arabian horse (they’re too short), and placed so far back (that’s good), but I am also pleasantly surprised at how fine the muzzle and the nostrils are, how deep the jowls are, and how soulful the eyes are. I confess I was always a little biased against this horse, even questioning his authenticity credentials, and this photo makes me better disposed towards him. In the other photo the length of his ears is more normal, so I wonder what happened there.
I will keep emphasizing the contribution of the Dandashi clan of Tall-Kalakh, Syria to high quality Arabian horse breeding in the Middle East and beyond, all the way to Europe and the US. Babolna’s Obajan, the sire of Ameen Rihani’s *Muha, the sire of W.R. Hearst’s *Bint Rajwa all came from their stables, as did several of the foundation stallions of Lebanese breeding. Below, young Dandashi horsemen on their horses in 1890, from the FB page “Syria Photographic Museum”. Note the quality of the horses.