Beautiful Dhahabiah (Rabdaan Muttaawi x Deede by Ibn Sitah) died a sudden death a few days ago. Diarrhea in the morning, then again in the afternoon, spasms and then gone. All in twelve hours. She had been with me 20 days only.
A rare photo bringing together the King of Saudi Arabia, Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud and the ruler of Bahrain, Sh. Salman bin Hamad Aal Khalifa, around 1950. You wonder if Arabian horses were ever discussed at encounters like these.
Jens Sannek shared this photo of Sitah D1 which Erika Schiele had given him in 1976. The photo was taken earlier. Note the huge eye, and the body and overall quality reminiscent of another desert mare, *Turfa.
Jens Sannek shared this wonderful historical video, taken by Anton Tucek, of the Bahraini stallion Burkaan D3. Laszlo Kiraly had already shared it with me years ago, and I may have uploaded it here. Jens added: I know that Burkaan is registered bay in the Amiri Stud Book Vol. 1 Nr. D3. The Studbook was in my home bevor I know Anton Tucek. In Vienna I visited Anton and he said this grey stallion shown in the video is Burkaan. I said that connot be: in the Stud Book he is bay. I asked him if it is sure that Burkaan is grey. He said that Shaikha Danah Al Khalifa told him during his visit in Danahs Stud that it was a mistake during the registration process. The colour of Burkaan is grey and her stallion Dhiab D4 is bay. I discused this several times with Anton and asked him: “Is this story realy true or are you joking?” He aswered: “The grey Stallion on the video is Burkaan.” That is what I heared. So, in Volume 1 of the Bahrain studbook that Wilton published here and below, the photos of Burkan and Dhiab are inverted. Dhiab is the bay and Burkaan is…
It is with our deepest sadness that we inform you of the death of our beloved the founder of Bahrain Kennel club Mrs. Dana Sehested Preetzman on the 5th of July 2021. Mrs. Dana Sehested is the widow of the late His Excellency Sheikh Isa bin Abdullah bin Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa. The late descendant of the Danish royal family was educated in Sweden and briefly attended the Stockholm Military Equestrian School there at a young age. After she studied in college in the USA, she met and married to the late Sheikh Isa whilst he completed his degree at University of Southern California in 1955. Dana was appointed the manager of the Bahrain Royal Equestrian Stables to maintain the Royal Bahraini horses. Dana was instrumental in registering horses with the World Organization for Arabian Horses (WAHO) and issued the first Stud Book which invited them to register horses in the kingdom. In 1974 she was Royally tasked with forming the FCI recognized Bahrain Kennel Club to register pure bred canines and she collaborated on the Saluki Book. She wrote two books Living treasures of Bahrain and the Arabian Saluki. She died peacefully of natural causes in Jasra village…
Dafuq, who is now 10 years old, has three close crosses to Sitah D1 for a total of 37.5 percent of his pedigree. He is the most like her of the three stallions, more so than Daneer and Darak. Photos by Marion Wassilewski. He also has two close crosses to Mlolshaan Almarshoosh M37, photo below from Volume 2 of the Amiri Arabian Horse Studbook of Bahrain, and a less flattering screenshot from the video of Anton Tucek. Dafuq’s coat will likely have the same heavy fleabites as he ages.
Five years after Bogdan Zientarski and Carl Raswan’s 1931 horse-buying trip to Arabia, which took them to Bahrain among other places, it was the turn of Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk to make a similar trip for the Royal Agriculture Society. He too visited the stud of the ruler, Sh. Hamad, and had the following to say about it: I was introduced to the Amir, brother of the ruler of El Bahrein, who allowed me to see his horses and those of his brother. All the pedigreed Arab horses are in the possession of the Hamad family. Photographs and descriptions of some of these horses are published in the following pages. I regret to say that these horses, like those of Amir Galawi [Edouard’s note Ibn Jiluwi in al-Ahsaa] are not desert bred, but confined in two stables, one situated near the ruler’s palace and the other at a distance of 60 kilometers from El Manama, the capital of El Bahrein, where the winter palace of the Amir is situated. Regardless of his views on what constitutes a desert-bred horse, Dr. Mabrouk left us photos and brief descriptions of seven mares, two stallions and one colt that caught his eye. He must…
Eugene Geyser of the Nabilah Arabian Stud has recently acquired the Rosina tail female mare Kamarie Bint Yosreia and her daughter Kamarie Marikah, bred by Mel Mutafis. He writes: “We are so grateful and pleased to add these lines to our preservation breeding program. These bloodlines add to our existing Nabilah lines with Nabilah and Baraka dam lines both imported from Egypt during 1945.” In the video below the dark bay is Kamarie Bint Yosreia, and the red bay Marikah. Video courtesy of Eugene Geyser. Rosina was bred by H. V. Musgrave Clark of the Courthouse Stud, and was a product of Blunt Crabbet ancestry combined with two of Musgrave Clark’s desertbred stallions, Nimr and Atesh. Her descendants in southern Africa are the remaining source of both these stallions in asil horses, as well as the Crabbet mares Safarjal (dam of the stallion Sainfoin, who has a racing record in addition to being the sire of Bahram, the 1954 British Supreme Male Champion) and Belka. A 1950 brochure for the Crabbet Arabian Stud recounts Belka’s accomplishments (p. 31): “By the same sire as Champion Nureddin and ‘Crabbet,’ won the English 250 miles race carrying 13 1/2 stone, in 1921, outdistancing…
Bogdan von Zientarski (1884-958) — photo below by Carl Raswan — was the manager of the Gumniska stud farm for Prince Roman Sanguszko from 1927 to 1944. In 1931, Sanguszko sent him and Carl Raswan on a shopping trip to Arabia to buy original Arabian horses. They came back with four mares and four stallions. The stallions — Kuhailan Haifi, Kuhailan Zaid, Kuhailan Kruszan, and Kuhailan Afas left a strong imprint on Arabian horse breeding in Poland, and from there on, Europe and the rest of the world. The mares disappeared in the mayhem of World War II, leaving little or no trace. In the course of their Arabian trip, Zientarski and Raswan visited Bahrain and saw the stud of the ruler, Sh. Hamad Isa bin Ali Al Khalifa (ruled 1925-1942). They liked and bought a colt, the future Kuhailan Afas (photo below as a yearling), the pedigree of which I translated here. They also saw the colt’s sire, a herd stallion about which Zientarski wrote: “We went out in the courtyard to look at the horses. There were 43 of them. In general, beautiful, noble animals of great lines, mainly beautiful heads … I learn that the colts are…
A beautiful photo of Danah Alkhalifa with her salukis “Princy” and “Flicka”, taken in Bahrain in August of 1972 and published in Arabiana magazine 1975. Thank you Laura for the scan.
I found a booklet simply titled “Stammhengste” (Foundation stallions) and “Stammstuten” (Foundation mares). I guess with a bit of digging one could figure out which stud it belongs to. What I found interesting is the pedigrees listed with measurements, something I for one, rarely see these days. I picked out the asil pedigrees, especially because many appear in Southern African horses. Neferotete I WISH would have appeared in local pedigrees, because I have a soft spot for the Tahawi horses. The measurements listed are for the “Widerrist: Stockmaß:” (Withers: Measurement:), “Brustumfang” (girth circumference) and “Röhrbeinumfang” (cannon bone circumference) in centimetres. Ibrahim is sire to Mahib (imp) out of the Madkour daughter Mahabba. Mahib was imported to South Africa and then Namibia by Helga Aschenborn of Gülilah Stud and her daughter Gisela Uijs who managed the Uijs family’s interest in Nabilah Stud. In his 1989 article “Zurück unter Allahs Sonne” (Back under Allah’s sun) in Arabische Pferde magazine, George Olms tells of Ibrahim export to Kuwait. Sadly Ibrahim did not survive the invasion the following year. Farouk is sire to Shams el Farin (imp) out of Omar el Shaker (imp)’s paternal half-sister Inshraa. Sarwat sired Sasab who is maternal granddam to…
The late Danah Al Khalifah wrote in Volume 1 of the Amiri Arabian Studbook of Bahrain that “the breeding program at Danah Farm is centered around the foundation mare SITAH, ‘Hamdaniah Feisul’ and her offspring. Sitah’s history is documented from the time she was acquired as a two year old filly in 1964, at the Najd encampment of Emir Abdulla bin Saud. It was stated by the caretaker of the horse herd that Sitah was bred by Crown Prince Feisal bin Abdul Aziz, and was out of a Hamdaniah Ghiam mare of the horses of Al Saud, and by a stud stallion Saqlawy El Njemy from the horses of Al Rasheed.” She also wrote the following in a 1975 issue of Arabiana (article scan courtesy of Laura), on the circumnstances of Sitah’s acquisition: “After a futile horse buying trip to Riyadh, on our way back to Dhahran, we discovered a small band of horses grazing in the desert, belonging to Emir Abdulla bin Saud. We went to see them and found that three of the mares were going to be disposed of […]. Three mares were pointed out to us, a Kuheilah, Obeyan and a Hamdanieh […M]y husband and daughter…
To the right, Diva (Jellaby Mojaahid X Mabrooka by Jellaby Alasil x Sitah d.b.); in the middle, Danika (Rabdaan Muttaawi x Deede by Ibn Sitah x Mabrooka), in the background, Hamdanieh Dania (Rabdaan Farajallah x Danika). Hamdanieh Dania coming to the USA for Lyman Doyle. Marion Wassilewski
Zaala (Aissaoui x Ifada, by Sabour) 1969 arabian mare Breeder: Sheikh Amara B. Lacheb Owner: M. Jelaila Born at Maknassy, Tunisia Photo: Roland Stichlmeir https://beta.allbreedpedigree.com/zaala-SiQKYn6J/pedigree Samra (Esmet Ali x Ifrikia, by Kefil) 1966 arabian mare with her 1986 foal by HosniBreeder: Sidi ThabetOwner: Sadok Essaied Photo: Roland Stichlmeirhttps://beta.allbreedpedigree.com/samra-TiIgY1re/pedigree Saada (Esmet Ali x Rafiaa, by Bango) 1966 arabian mareBreeder: Sidi Thabet Owner: Mohammed EssaiedPhoto: Roland Stichlmeirhttps://beta.allbreedpedigree.com/saada-aa0YoHLj/pedigree Chaabane (Oramino x Ifada, by Sabour) 1971 arabian stallionBreeder: Othman B. AliHead sire at Sidi ThabetPhoto: Roland Stichlmeirhttps://beta.allbreedpedigree.com/chaabane-R4Rn6thr/pedigree “Mourad M’Barek, der Gestütsleiter von Sidi Thabet, mit einer zweijährige Vollblutaraberstute.” (Mourad M’Barek, the stud farm manager of Sidi Thabet, with a two-year-old purebred Arabian mare.)Unter staatlicher Aufsicht (Under State Supervision)by Susanne Schreibvogel (photo)Arabische Pferde 14. Jahrgang Nr. 4 (Volume 14, no. 4) Omran (Esmet Ali x Simrieh, by Oukrif) 1964 arabian stallionBreeder: A. Kaddour, TunisiaPhoto: Roland Stichlmeirhttps://beta.allbreedpedigree.com/omran-ywnwB5fJ/pedigree
Wilton Burger shared these these new-to-me photos of the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisan, imported to South Africa by Valerie Noli-Marais. The first one has Hasan Bin Salih Al Ruwaiyi riding him in Bahrain, the second was taken in South Africa. Photo credits to the Estate of Dr. Valerie Noli-Marais.
Hamdaany Daneer (Jellaby Radad x Danika) is the one of three Bahraini horses from Danah Stud that Lyman Doyle will be taking to the USA this summer. Of the four Bahraini stallions that Lyman and I acquired, Daneer is certainly the showiest and the best mover. He does not trot, he floats. He does not canter, he flies. More on his strain and lineage later.
The acquisition of the majority of the horses of Danah Stud of Sh. Rashid bin ‘Isa bin Abdullah bin Hamad Al Khalifah, son of the late Danah Al Khalifah, marks the beginning of a new venture in the nearly 20-year old trajectory of the Al Arab stud. After a focus on some of the best old American Arabian horse lines, the time has come for me to infuse these with some of the best lines from the Arabian homeland.
I am very proud to announce the acquisition of the black roan stallion Kuheilaan Umm Zorayr Zyad D23. Zyad was bred by the late Danah Al Khalifah in 2001. He belongs to the extremely rare strain of Kuhaylan Wuld Umm Surayyir that is now unique to the Kindgom of Bahrain. Originally the “house strain” of the Bedouin clan of Ibn Hathleen, leaders of the Ajman Bedouin tribe of East Arabia, it passed to their neighbors the rulers of Bahrain around the turn of the XXth century. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM), compiled around 1850, lists at least three stallions from this strain as herd sires, including one acquired by famed Najd ruler Faisal Ibn Turki Al Saud (below my rendering of the strain genealogy based on the APM entry for this strain). In Central and East Arabia in the XIXth century, the mares from this strain were collectively known as the “Duhm” — the black ones — and individual stallions as the “Kuhaylan named Dahman” (no relation to the better known Dahman strain), because of their consistently dark color. The foundation mare from that strain in Volume I of the Amiri Studbook of Bahrain was also black, and so were…