This is yet another photo from the same collection at the Arabian Horse Archives, showing the mares of King A. A. Aal-Saud at his stud of al-Kharj. Notice the pretty head of the bay mare on the left, and the plain head of the chestnut one near, and the convex profile of the bay one in the center. Clearly, all desert mares, all royal mares, and all different. There was not one single type.
From the website of the Arabian Horse Archives comes this photos of a handsome desert bred stallion at the stud of King Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Saud of Saudi Arabian, in 1946 or 1949. Notice the very dark skin around the eye and the muzzle, a distinctive trait of authenticity (asalah). This photo is “part of a series of 120 primarily glass slides taken by Joe Buchanan’s father, Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, on trips to the Middle East in 1946 and 1949. In the Comar Arabians collection of Garth and Joe Buchanan. Now held by Carolyn and Dick Hasbrook, Twinbrook Arabians, Ames, Iowa.”
This precious image of a Bedouin in Saudi Arabia, recently uploaded on the website of the Arabian Horse Archives is “part of a series of 120 primarily glass slides taken by Joe Buchanan’s father, Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, on trips to the Middle East in 1946 and 1949. In the Comar Arabians collection of Garth and Joe Buchanan. Now held by Carolyn and Dick Hasbrook, Twinbrook Arabians, Ames, Iowa.”