Month: June 2024

This morning Lyman Doyle broke the good news that Kinza Al Arab had foaled a filly by Bashir Al Dirri at the Doyle farm in Oregon. She will obviously be chestnut like both parents. She is Saqlawi Ibn Dirri to Basilisk on both sides of the pedigree, to Bushra (Azrek x Bozra) on the sire … Read more

From Lady Anne Blunt’s “A Pilgrimage to Najd” (1881): “To the present day in the North, the Anazeh distinguish the descendants of the mares brought with them from Nejd as “Nejdi” while they call the descendants of the mares captured from the tribes of the North, “Shimali” or Northerners.” and: “The Anazeh have disappeared from … Read more

Lady Anne made the following remarks in a letter to Spencer Borden dated January 26th, 1910: At last I can send my Crabbet Stud List for 1910. You will see that I have altered the order of it, which was a good deal of trouble. I have put Kehilans first because in fact every strain … Read more

عبيات العفاري رسن من الخيل العربية الأصيلة تختص به سوريا من جميع البلدان العربية ولقبت عبية العفاري بسوريا بطراحة الظبي وذلك كناية عن سرعتها بأنها تسبق الظباء وسميت عبية العفاري نسبةً الى العفاري الشمري الذي هاجر من نجد إلى الجزيرة السورية والعفاري من النمصان من الزميل من سنجاره من شمر ونخوته راعي العليا وزايد العفاري … Read more

As I have written before — sixteen years ago already — no Arabian horse strain is intrinsically above or better than the other. Lady Anne Blunt had it right when she wrote that her stud manager, Mutlaq al-Battal, a Mutayr Bedouin, never ceased to remind her that all were Kuhaylan, and all were asil. Any … Read more

Maria Wallis’ beautiful Operetta HBF (Student Prince x Idyl CF by Atticus), a Kuhaylah of Davenport bloodlines also foaled a filly by Pulcher Ibn Reshan at Debbie Mackie’s in Illinois. He’s had three nice foals this year so far, two fillies and Mayassa’s colt.

A preservation program that I watch closely is that of Carrie Slayton’s. Carrie has several nice Kuhaylan Haifi Davenports mares and a few non-Blunt horses, from a group that the late Carol Lyons identified, preserved a dubbed Sharps. Carrie had a handsome chestnut colt from breeding the bay Mohican CF (owned by Ambar Diaz) to … Read more

Last week also saw the birth of the first foal of my Mayassa Al Arab: a colt by Pulcher Ibn Reshan (ex Anecdote CF). Mayassa is on a breeding lease to Deb Mackie, and the colt hers. He is Kuhaylan Krush by strain.

It’s foaling and breeding season and a new crop of foals in on the ground. Belle, who went to Moira Walker in October 2022, had a lovely filly this year by Anecdote CF (aka Pulcher Ibn Reshan). Moira named her Landrace Bellara, in keeping with the B names for this family. The filly, who will … Read more

The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) mentions many war episodes (manakh) between the Bedouin tribes, of which that of Al-Rudaymah (incorrectly spelled Al Radeemah in the Sherif-Forbis translation) was perhaps the most important. This was no regular ghazu, but more a set of pitched battles, during which many horses died or changed hands over three months. … Read more

Bunyan Fahd al-Dawsari, whose Facebook page I follow with great interest, posted these beautiful, smiling, sunny photos of desert life among the Dawasir Bedouins in 1969. The photos were probably taken by members of the archaeological mission excavating the major pre-Islamic site of Qaryat al-Faw, capital of the Central Arabian kingdom of Kinda, in the … Read more

Jeanne Craver shared a photo of the Davenport stallion *Muson which I had not seen before. I recall reading somewhere — forgetting the source now — that the breed in its original form displayed more distance between the back legs than between the front legs.

The strain of Kuhaylan Tamiri was one of the first strains the Sba’ah Bedouins chose to breed from. From Prince Mohammed Ali’s lists, based on notes taken by the agents of Abbas Pasha: “Says Murshid al-Nawwaq [of the Sba’ah]: The horses which were in our possession in Najd sometime ago have no parallel anywhere. When … Read more

The twin strains of Kuhaylan ‘Abhul and Kuhaylan Mu’abhil belong the Ruwalah and are named after men from this tribe. These strains are themselves branches of the better known Kuhaylan Tamiri. On the first, page 595: Orar al Honaydi al Sha’lani of the Ruwalah, upon being asked about the sire of a certain mare: “O … Read more

Arnault Decroix posted this photo of the Syrian stallion Nimr Shabareq on his Facebook page. He is standing him at stud in Normandy this yesr. I believe this stallion to be, despite some defects, the embodiment of the old desert type. I love his balance, and how the parts all fit together.

The digital copy of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM) has allowed me to follow the tracks of particular horses as they changed hands from one Bedouin tribe to another. One of these horses is Saqlawi Al Araj (“the lame”), apparently a famous horse in the mid 1800s. A search of Al Araj in the APM … Read more

Arnault Decroix published this photo of the 1967 Arabian stallion Salam (Agres x Tosca by Fellous) on his social media accounts. Salam, who I saw during the 1994 WAHO conference in Rabat at the age of 27, was the head stallion for the Moroccan government. He struck me then as a very correct stallion with … Read more