I am happy to see a second photo of this horse. It appeared in a July 1968 article on the horses of Lebanon in the French magazines “Plaisirs Equestres”, which Christele Seranne shared on Facebook. The horse is Hicham, a racehorse born in Iraq, who raced in Lebanon in the ownership of Henri Pharaon. He was a part-bred Arabian, with anywhere from 12.5% to 25% English Thoroughbred blood on the sire side. His dam was said to be a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah. He won many, many races, before the Lebanese government chose him to become a breeding stallion. Many breeders sent their asil mares to him, which contributed to the ruin of the Lebanese asil arabian horse breeding program. His get raced well too, and several of them became stud horses too. Some of his get were exported to the USA, where they were registered in the AHA (and hence by WAHO).
I was talking to Lee Oellerich earlier today. It had been a while since we last spoke, more than two years. I always learn new things from him. He told me that he acquired Sawannah then thought to be 22 from Mrs. Kelly and her daughter *Hadriya then 16 (for free) [see amendment in the comments below] from Mrs. Ott in 1970. Both mares were then at the Searle’s ranch in Arizona and running with Ibn Fadl. Sawannah never took but *Hadriya did and foaled a filly (Al Hadiyya) at Lee’s in Canada in 1971. Sawannah died before Lee could come down from Canada to Arizona to pick her up. Both mares were turned down by an AHA inspector because they were “too small”, so had to be registered in IAHRONA. Canada accepted their papers from IAHRONA and registered them. Lee has pictures of both of them unseen before. Lee also told me that Sawannah was given by a member of the Bahraini Aal Khalifah Royal family to a Saudi prince who in turn gave her to the Kellys. He also told me that Danah Al Khalifah had told him that she had shown the well known photo of Sawannah…
Last week I received an unexpected call from a Syrian gentleman living in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. His name is Muhammad al-‘Aqub. His family belongs to the Bedouin tribe of Harb, a tribe long affiliated with the Tai tribe. He wanted to tell me about their horses and their origins. We spoke for about an hour, but I was driving for most of the time and I did not take any notes. He told me that his family, the ‘Aqub, had owned the strain of Rabdan for more than 200 years without interruption, since around 1810 or 1815. Here is my recollection of what he told me about how they got the strain: There was a battle between Ibn Haddal, the leader of the ‘Amarat ‘Anazah Bedouins, and a Kurdish tribe around 1810 or 1815. It took place north of the town of Ras al-‘Ayn which is in the extreme tip of North Eastern Syria today. The Kurds held their own, taking several mares and even one prisoner from the ‘Anazah. The Kurds did not care to know the strains and origins of the horses they took, just in their being war mounts. At the time, his seventh paternal ancestor (I…
He is one of Jenny Lees Bahraini stallions in Herefordshire in the UK. Photo from her facebook feed. Pedigree here.
I want to follow up on the previous blog entry about the 2010 magazine article about the horses of the USA expat families working for the oil company Aramco and living in the Abqaiq gated community, in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. I am specifically interested in this reference from the article: “More horses arrived when Ibrahim Abu Boutain, the agriculture minister, presented Abqaiq with seven of his fine Arabians. [Four of the seven] were sired by the famous Balalil, a foundation stallion for the Tunisian National Stud.” I am not aware of a “famous Balalil, a foundation stallion for the Tunisian National Stud“, which would be Sidi Thabet. If this piece of information turned out to be correct, it could either mean the Saudis gave the Tunisians this stallion, or less likely at that time, that the Tunisians gave the Saudis one of their stallions. This is a matter for further investigation. However, there was an Arabian stallion by the name of Balabil (with a “b” not an “l”) racing in Beirut in the late 1940s or early 1950s in the ownership of Prince Badr Aal Saud, a son of King Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud. This Balabil is…
Some two years ago, Jenny Krieg located this interesting article in a magazine for Aramco US expatriates to Saudi Arabia. It has a lot of photos which the Arabian horse community had not seen before. Among these is the cover photo (below) of the magazine featuring the famous mare Sindidah, ridden by a young “Aramcon” near the Abqaiq gated community in 1958. The article chronicles the memories and adventures of Aramco horse-riding families tfrom the late 1940s through the 1960s. These families were typically interested in riding and enjoying the horses with their children, and caress less about the origins and provenance of their horses, other than these “having a royal connection” or coming “from the Bedouin”. A few horses are named for their strains: Kuhaylan, Hamdani, Obayya. The second part of the article is here. It features a photo of Jalam (mispelled Jamal) Al Ubayyan never seen before.
The other day I was writing about looking for an outstanding stallion for my herd of mares. The next day Lee Oellirich sent this photo of his young Hamdani stallion Bahir (Haziz x Bahiyeh). He is the full brother of this mare. I like the heads with the protruding bones, the nostrils and the ears and the eyes, and I like the high withers.
The pedigree pages at skowronek.io pertaining to Skowronek’s non Arabian ancestors are updated and a new article discussing the local mares at the heart of his pedigree was published yesterday. Some of the horses referenced we have discussed previously on this site, so I will list them here for those that are interested: The local mares including Szweykowska and Polka. Stallions including Szumka I, Szumka II, Zboj, Gniady, and the sires of Sawicka Anusia, Sawicka Duza and Matka.