Looking back at more than thirty years around Arabian horses, I still remember the grand old Hamdani Simri stallion al-Aawar as one of two or three desert-bred horses I have admired the most in my life. He had this way of looking at you with a hint of disdain, as if he was the king and you were his subject. When he was led out of his stall, the third from the top at Radwan’s, he would walk slowly to the middle of the arena, then he would pause and gaze at the horizon, his head high. Every movement, every twist of his head was so dignified and majestic that you felt you were in the company of an important representative of his ‘people’. He demanded respect, and obtained it. The photo below, from 1995, captures some of that aura. I don’t think I published it before.