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 ranking of strains is inherently subjective, and a matter of personal preference. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript’s foreword (J. Forbis and G. Sherif), usually attributed to his agent Ali al-Darwish but which could well have reflected the personal preferences of Abbas Pasha himself, starts with a short paragraph “On the Classification of Horses“: I say about classifying the lineage of Arabian horses, the first to take precedence is Duhayman Shahwan of the Kunayhir strain and Duhaym al Najib. Second is Kuhaylan Mimreh. After that Saqlawi Jedrani, which is divided into three sections: the dearest and most precious is the family of Al Samniyat, then the family of Al Sudaniyat, and third is the family of Al ‘Abd. After that is Saqlawi al Obeyri and Marighi, both from the same family. After that Hadban al Nazhi, which includes six families […]. After these Kuhaylan al Tamiri, then…
Debbie Mackie’s beautiful Operetta HBF (Student Prince x Idyl CF by Atticus), a Kuhaylah of Davenport bloodlines also foaled a filly by Pulcher Ibn Reshan. He’s had three nice foals this year so far, two fillies and Mayassa’s colt.