On July 27 — my birthday — Wadha foaled a chestnut filly, sired through artificial insemination by the Bahraini stallion of Jenny Lees, Shuwaiman Al Rais (photo below). Further news about this loooong-awaited filly will be shared once she is out of the woods (i.e., the U Penn vet hospital in New Bolton, PA), so no photos just yet. In keeping with the W line back to her granddam Wisteria CF and her great-granddam HB Wadduda, I named her Wujra — which in Arabic means “the one fed or medicated by mouth”. She will pull through.
The little Ma’naqiyah filly seems to be doing well at the Doyle Ranch in Oregon. I named her Shams — the Arabic word for the sun. Because she is a welcome ray of sunshine after a string of colts — three very nice ones but still not helping with keeping this precious strain going. Second because it’s the name of my maternal grandfather’s last wife. Well, her name was Shamsi, a derivative of Shams. According to an Assyrian clay tablet from 715 BC, Shamsi was the name of an ancient queen of “the distant Arabs, dwellers of the desert, who did not know learned men or scribes, who had not brought tribute to any king”. That same table is the first to mention horses as tributes from the Arab Bedouins to the Assyrian king. It’s a very very old name, and a nice name. Hopefully that filly will grow into a nice mare. Photos by DeWayne Brown, the dam’s lucky owner.
After four years of trying, SS Lady Guenevere (“Guen”) gratified me with a filly yesterday, born at the Doyles’ ranch in Oregon. The filly’s sire is Cascade DE, a young Doyle stallion. I have been leasing Guen and her daughter Pippa by Chatham DE from DeWayne Brown in the hope for a filly. She is the first filly following three colts from both mares: Shaykh Al Arab (Tamaam DE x Pippa), Shaman Al Arab (Tamaam DE x Guen) and Sharif Al Arab (Bashir Al Dirri x Pippa). I hope she goes on to produce many fillies from that precious (to me) Ma’naqi Sbayli strain.