Back in the 1990s, when Hansi Heck-Melnyk and I were trying to account for all Tunisian horses in Tunisia and Europe, there seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of these beautiful, dry Arabians with lines that traced exclusively to horses imported from the desert of North Arabia. Tunisia was indeed had the one of the largest pools of such Arabians, after Egypt but before Syria (pre-civil war) and Bahrain. The Tunisian state stud of Sidi-Thabet which I visited in 2004 (or was it 2005?), was filled with good broodmares. Today, almost thirty years later, one is hard-pressed to find a horse with a 100% Tunisian pedigree. Most everything at the state stud of Sidi Thabet seems to have been top crossed with doubtful French blood. There may be a few left at Gisela Bergmann’s near Jendouba, and a couple others in private hands, but that’s about it in Tunisia. Maybe a few more in Germany (thanks to the Bergmann’s influence), and one or two old mares in France, but there hasn’t been any Tunisian stallions there in a while, the last one being Jassem (Koraich x Nefissa by Madani). How can that be? Can someone undertake a survey of what…
Such reads the caption on the photo below, shared by Rehan Ud Din Baber on his wonderful Facebook page. Rehan tells us the photo is from the G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, which I will certainly look up. Also sharing Severine Vesco’s beautiful comment on that photo, in French: C’est en regardant ces photos là qu’on comprend vite ce qu’est l’arabe… un cheval de guerre dans un des milieux les plus difficiles au monde, et dans une culture tribaleEt vu que le sport c’est quand même plus facile que la razzia ou la guerre, il devrait y exceller. Le cheval arabe est bien plus qu’un chanfrein concave ou une queue en panache. C’est un compagnon d’arme, garant et dernier rempart de son cavalier, un roc chargé de le protéger, de l’emmener en sécurité aussi bien qu’au combat, d’aller vite mais aussi loin, d’affronter tous les obstacles, avec Noblesse… Endurance, vitesse, polyvalence, volonté, proximité à l’homme, solidité, puissance, sécheresse des tissus, charisme, noblesse, Sang Voilà toutes les cases que doit cocher un cheval arabe pour survivre à ce mode de vie, et c’est tout ça qui l’a rendu si …. Parfait
Zalfa had to be put down yesterday, at the veterinary hospital. In many ways, she was just too good to be true. I just hate breeding when this happens. I just hate it. You buy a rare old mare in her twenties sight unseen from far, far away, you do export papers, you ask friends for help with shippers and vet papers, you have her hauled thousands of miles, you ask other friends to let you use their stallion a first time, she does not take the first year, you have her hauled to another friend, bred again, you give her to that friend, she offers you a future filly back, you wait, you hope, you wait again, eleven months, she is confirmed in foal, you’re elated when she delivers that big beautiful filly, you pick a name, you make plans to visit, then in a matter of seconds it all collapses, the dam, half blind, steps on the filly, displaces a hock, the filly can no longer stand, can’t nurse, your friend rushes to the vet hospital with her friend, you wait, you hope, then you get the bad news, you’re left with no other option, and you have…
It’s easy to get lost following any 200 year history and the Skowronek saga is no different. The storyline breaks into two periods of time: the history before his 1921 registration in Weatherby’s GSB and then the commentary post 1921. Each part will be examined sequentially. Each post will include links to English translations of the relevant documents along with links to the original sources in Russian, Polish, German and French. Each translation includes editor’s notes, footnotes clearly explaining any controversial translations and cross references to other documents. Articles will be available later this summer on www.skowronek.io, the FaceBook page Skowronek – A Partbred Arabian Horse, and this blog. List of Articles Cast of characters prior to 1921 Early primary sources (1799-1876)This includes a fully translated Slawuta Stud report from 1799, along with historical commentary on the Sanguszko family’s breeding operation from two brothers, Wladyslaw Sanguszko (1839 and 1850) and Roman Sanguszko Sr. (1876). These sources are often referenced by later authors. The Blunts, the Potockis and the Sanguszkos (1882-1895)The Blunt’s relationship with the Potockis began in 1882 with a meeting in Egypt. The story follows this relationship through Lady Anne’s journals and Wilfred’s letters from 1882 to 1895, including…
1908. A barber setting up shop by the train station of El Marg, North of Cairo. This is the closest train station to Lady Anne Blunt’s stud of Sheykh Obeyd. Her journals indicate she regularly used this station to go to Cairo and back to her stud, about the time that picture was taken. I wonder if she ever saw that barber.. (Photo from the magnificent Facebook Page: Ahl Masr Zaman.
[My dashboard tells me this is blog post number 2000 on Daughters of the Wind, after more than eleven years of blogging] Marta Ulan has a page on Facebook where she shares photos of foundation horses. Not sure what the source is for this nice photo of the foundation stallion Kuhailan Zaid, the desert-bred import to Babolna. He was purchased by Carl Raswan and Bogdan Zientarski in 1931 from the Wuld Ali Bedouins. Kate McLachlan pointed me to this photo.
This morning Carrie Slayton announced to me the birth of a filly out of her grand old broodmare RL Zahra Assahra (Portent x Antezzah by Grand Pass). She is to be named Zalfa, with the suffix Al Arab. Zalfa means “the one who draws near” in Arabic. That’s because she came from so far away, and just about everything about her was far fetched. I am so excited about her. Notice the low set eye, the deep girth, the far-extending withers, the short back and the croup typical of this dam line. I obtained her elderly dam from the late Marilyn McHallam, at her farm dispersal, and had her brought from Canada to California. First to Northern California, where she was bred to Michael Bowling’s Latitude but did not take. Then to Carrie Slayton’s in Southern California, who first boarded her for me, then asked me if she could have her, and if I would take a filly from her. Carrie bred her to Porte CF (Portico x Recherche), for three close crosses to the grand Portia, and other crosses further back. A colt would have remained Carrie’s, and Carrie will get, if she wants, the first filly from this filly.…
Severine Vesco and Amelie Blackwell, wearing their treasure hunter hats, found this gem of a mare somewhere in rural Southern France. Lannilis, the mare, is a 20 year old Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, of Tunisian, Algerian, and old, pure French bloodlines. She had a career as a trail riding horse, and is now being used to produce endurance Arabians and Araloosas. This mare traces to one of the lesser known Algerian (Tiaret) tail females, that of the mare Mzeirib, a 1891 desert-bred Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah from the Shammar. The French imported Mzeirib to Algeria in 1898. The line went to the state stud of Tunisia at some point in the 1920s, then to private hands in France in the 1970s. In France it bred on with crosses to pure Arabian stallions of old Tunisian lines, including some of Robert Mauvy’s breeding. It is the same female line as that of the Tunisian stallion Omran that went to that zoo in Germany. The short back, the deep girth, the high withers, the long hip on this mare are somehow reminiscent of early Crabbet Blunt horses.
There are many ways to judge a horse. Some of the more common considerations include conformation, size, temperament, athletic ability and genetic “potency.” These are normal criteria for evaluating all breeds of horses. However, within the Arabian breed, another criterion takes precedence over all others: pure blood. A pure or asil Arabian horse is defined by its exclusive origin among the Bedouin tribes of Desert Arabia, the creators of the Arabian breed. Bedouins accepted a horse as pure if they had reliable information on its strain, sub-strain and Bedouin breeder. Conversely, Bedouins removed horses from the breed for two distinct reasons: mixed blood and unknown origin. Mixed blood. Bedouins used the term hajin to generally describe any horse that contained non-Arabian blood mixed with Arabian blood. Horses of mixed blood are by definition not pure. Any descendant of a mixed blood horse is also of mixed blood so the status of hajin is not reversible. A hajin horse does not have a strain connecting it to the community of Arabian horses. How do we know a horse has mixed blood? The most obvious way, but not the only way, is that the owner of a horse identifies non-Arabian blood…
The 1952 daughter of Amurath Sahib and 221-Kuhaylan Zaid (tail female to 60-Adjuze), 25-Amurath Sahib was a pretty grey mare (you can see a photo of her here), who produced a number of asil foals for Bábolna, including their chief sire Farag II, by Farag (Morafic x Bint Kateefa), the stallion Ghalion 6, by Ghalion (Morafic x Lubna), and the mare 3-Siglavy Bagdady VI, by Siglavy Bagdady VI (Siglavy Bagdady VI x 250-Kuhailan Haifi I). Some of the descendants of these horses can be found at Farag Arabians, Germany. Stephanie Weirich has very kindly consented to share photos of her 25-Amurath Sahib horses. The 1999 stallion Sheik Tahawi (Unkas x Tahia) has been brought in for the daughters of Farag II-3. The mare Shuweyma Sabbah (Moftha x Moona) is being bred this year to Sahil Ibn Farag II-3. Both Shuweyma Sabbah and Sheik Tahawi trace back to the mare Folla. It is good to see these unique bloodlines breeding on, as they preserve some of the old European lines, as well as Kuhailan Zaid and Kuhailan Haifi, in asil form.
I am happy to report that Monologue CF (Riposte CF x Soliloquy CF by Regency CF), now 18 years old, has been busy pasture breeding two precious mares at Laura Fitz’s, her HH Karisma Krush and her Mi Blue Angel. Monologue has been doing so much better since going to Michigan with Laura on lease from Darlene Summers and I. As a youngster he was just gorgeous, below at Jackson Hensley’s in New Mexico.
Does it still exist in asil tail female? or did Sadana and her daughter Souha die without asil female progeny?
Below is a photo of Amurath Sahib as a four-year-old, in racing condition. The picture comes from Jezdziec i Hodowca, Vol. 15 (36), 1936. In addition to being a racehorse himself, Amurath Sahib sired the Polish Derby winner Equifor, and the Polish Oaks winners Estokada and Adis Abeba. He was also fortunate enough to escape the Dresden firebombing that decimated the stallions of Janów Podlaski, as he was the mount of Dr Andrzej Krzysztalowicz, who had stayed behind to watch over the mares while the stallions were sent on ahead. None of his sons used for breeding – Arax, Equifor, and Gwarny – were asil, and only two of his daughters were, 25 Amurath Sahib, bred by Bábolna, and Arwila. While Amurath Sahib is still represented in pedigrees today, there is no asil descent left from him. [Edit: As R. J. Cadranell points out in the comments below, 25 Amurath Sahib still has asil descendants. Mea culpa.] His dam, Sahiba, was herself a good racehorse, with victory in the Sanguszko Prize (over 2,400m) as a three-year-old. She also won both the Polish Oaks and the Polish Derby. Her sire, Nana Sahib, was a grandson of Amurath 1881 Weil, so that…