Kees Mol offered me this photo of the mare Faras (‘mare’ in Arabic), and in turn I donated it to the Arabian Horse Archives, on the website of which a copy can now be found. Faras was a 1927 desert bred Kuhaylat al-Krush, gifted by Crown Prince Saud ibn Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud, son of the King of Saudi Arabia to King George VI in 1937. Faras was from the most precious and sougth after strain of Central Arabia. Peter Upton’s book “the Arab Horse” has a copy of her hujjah, written in Ibn Saud’s hand. She also appears to have been a producer of horses famed for their speed and endurance. Despite all these credentials, I am not sure she would be accepted in a halter show for Arabians today (or even thirty years ago). Most people familiar with Arabian horses in the West, and increasingly, in the East too, would not believe her to be an Arabian: where is the dish, the two-level profile? Where is the bird-like eye, popping out of its socket? the croup flatter than a counter top? the swan-like arched neck? the meaty face? the inflated nostrils even at rest, as if the horse…
I just fell upon the photo of this superb younger mare of the Jilfan Dhawi strain from the breeding of Fabienne Vesco. Fedaia Beni Sakr is a blend of mostly Egyptian, Tunisian and Algerian bloodlines, with a hint of old French blood. Such a deep girth and nice hindquarter on this mare, on top of pointy ears and the black skin around the eyes.