A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
Somehow I had never seen this photo of Spencer Borden’s stallion Segario, an important sire in early American Arabian horse breeding. Someone posted them on allbreedpedigree.com. He is in the pedigree of Mayassa Al Arab, and of her son Munir Al Arab (by Pulcher Ibn Reshan), photo below. Munir belongs to Debbie Mackie, who’s been … Read more
Ahmad Tariq al-Hashimi sent me this old photo, likely taken in Iraq at the beginning of the 20th century. You see an Ottoman official, and the text is in Ottoman Turkish. The mare on the left is Kuhaylat al-Ajuz and the one on the right is a Kuhaylah Bu’ayrah. Both are superb representatives of the … Read more
This stallion is not your usual Egyptian horse. Born at Gustl Eutermoser in Austria in 1974, he traces to the desert-bred Mabrouka, gifted by King Ibn Saud to the King of Egypt in 1945. He is special in that six out of sixteen of his 4th generation ancestors are desert bred. The headshot photo was … Read more
Atlass is by Adjar out of Aram. Photo through Jens Sannek. Not sure who took the picture. A foundation mare of the Iranian lines that came to Europe, although she did not come to Europe herself.
Now aged 25 years old, Hayoun (Hashem x Palmirah) is a grandson of Hamdan II (Hamdan x Folla) and looks like him. He is 50% Iranian, 37.5% RAS/Inshass Egyptian, and 12.5% Tahawi to Folla. Photo S. Freitag.
Photo gleaned off social media without a source. If you know it’s source please share. [Update: Kate tells me rthat there was another photo of King Faisal on the same horse at ctesiphon.com]
Jens Sannek again shared with me a photo of the stallion Haddad (Selim x Arezoo), an important sire in Iran, and the full brother of Khamseh that went to Europe. Haddad and Khamseh are of the Hamdani strain of the Sh. Hajat of the Al Katheer Bedouin tribe.
Jens Sannek has been kindly supplying me with a lot of new-to-me information about the horses of Gustl Eutermoser and Ulrike Marcik. He tells me that they were good friends of Prince Muqrin bin Abdul Aziz Al Sa’ud, then governor of the Hail province, and that they imported two desert-bred Saudi mares through him from … Read more
On their journey back from Hail to Bagdad in early 1870, Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt met the Al Kathir tribe, which she refers to in the plural as “Ketherin”, with their leader Mutlakh, and nearly purchased a handsome Wadnan Khursan horse from them. The Al Kathir are part of the larger Bani Lam tribe. … Read more
This is just to have an idea of the people behind the horses. I found these on a (human) genealogy website. His brother is Abdel Khan, mounted on a dark Arabian horse. His father’s full name including titles is Gholam Hossein Khan Sardar Mohtasham Bakhtiar (Haji Ilkhani). His grandfather’s full name is Emam Gholi Khan … Read more
Linking out to Gudrun’s Waiditschka’s informative article on the Arabian horses of Iran, which she republished on her website after Germany’s Asil Club accepted some 300 foundation horses from Iran.
Through Kina Murray also comes this short movie about an ealier iteration of the centuries-old, seasonal migration of the Bakhtiari tribe. The sequence of the horse falling, hitting a rock, rolling then rising again as if unhurt is stunning.
From her Journals and Correspondence (J&C, edited by Archer and Flemning), comes an account of the travels of Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt among the Bani Lam of Lower Mesopotamia and Khuzestan. It took place during their 1879 journey through al-Amarah in Lower Mesopotamia through Khuzestan/Arabistan by way of Dezful and Shustar all the way … Read more
Stephan Eberhardt shared with me these photos from a book he has: from top to bottom: Hamza (chestnut Nesman stallion), Jallad (grey Wadnan stallion) and Palmira and Bint Palmirah (the two chestnut Wadnah mares, out of three in the bottom photo). He tells me that he saw both Jallad and the black mare Jezabel at … Read more
Jens Sannek shared with me this rare photo, which purports to show the Iranian foundation stallion Karoun, a Jilfan Jarjari by strain, tracking to the horses of the Bani Malik tribe. He’s had it for 30-35 years, but does not know its source. Hopefully a reader can point to its origin. Mary Gharaghozlu wrote the … Read more
By Khamseh out of Parsa by Hashem out of Palmira by Jallad. 75 percent Iranian lines, 25 percent Egyptina lines. Photos taken in 2021 at 26 years old.
Reposting this old photo of Fanaira (Fanifeh x *Muhaira), a bay 1962 Ubayyah mare of the strain of Ibn Jiluwi, bred by the Searles in the USA, entirely from Ibn Jalawi’s breeding. She is in the same style as my AAS Nelyo, who traces to her five times. The tail set and carriage, the croup, … Read more
Wilton posted these two photos of Jezabel a few years ago. I believe that he got them from a German magazine. The first one features an older Jezabel with her last foal Juno by an Egyptian horse of show bloodlines. The second shows her with the Hamdani Simri stallion Inta (Ibn Insiatur x Sabah).
The lovely Sotoudeh, a 1998 Iranian Asil Meleihieh of the strain of Ghassem Ali Zargani of the Zarqan/Zargan Bedouin tribe of Iran. I wrote about Ghassem Ali Zargani (multiple spellings) here. Photo courtesy of Jens Sannek, who just like me, is awed by this strain.
I found online traces of the Shaykh Hanash Mojadami that Mary Gharazoglu writes about as one of the foremost breeders of Arabian horses in Iran. Accordingto her, the clan he led bred several strains: The Kaab, under whose name General Tweedie recognizes the Arab of Iran, are a large tribe divided into sub-tribes. Those best … Read more
A screenshot of a fine chestnut mare from the movie “Migrate to Survive” on Mary Gharagozlu’s horses, around minute ten.
Yet another movie recommendation from Kina Murray is the 1925 silent movie “Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life” on the migration of the Bakhtiari tribes of Iran. It’s an hour long. Kina tells me that there is a much a better version, without all the irritating advert interruptions on youtube, but that one has to … Read more
THe Encyclopedia Iranica has an interesting article on the Arab tribes of Iran, which takes a long historical perspective over thousands of years. The following excerpt on the tribes of Khuzestan is informative: There are numerous Arab tribes in Ḵūzestān, all of which still speak Arabic. The most important ones at the turn of the … Read more
The stallion Karoun, a Jilfan Jarjari from the strain of the Bani Malek tribe of Khuzestan born ca. 1942, is the main sireline progenitor for Iranian Arabian horses. Genetic Y-DNA studies have found this sire line to fall under the most common Arabian male haplogroup (Ao-aA1a). Below is a table from Kate McLachlan’s recent Khamsat … Read more
Lately, I have been digging into the origins of Iranian Arabian horses. Using authoritative works in the Arabic language such as ‘Abbas al-‘Azzawi’s monumental “Tribes of Iraq” in four volumes and other sources, I was able to identify several of the older, original horse breeders mentioned in the first studbook of the Asil Stud of … Read more
Jens Sannek continues to gratify me with photos of desert Arabian imports to Europe and their progeny. This photo came to him from the late Austrian breeder Anton Tucek. It shows Anton’s 1991 bay stallion Jezar, by the Bahraini stallion Sarhan out of the black Iranian mare Jezabel. He had obtained Sarhan (Maanaghi Saghir x … Read more
Jens Sannek also shared with me this beautiful picture of Jezabel (Arras x Atlass by Adjar), a 1976 black Wadnah Khursan of the Mir strain, bred by the Asil Stud of Khuzestan. Jezabel was also imported to Austria in 1979, along with Jallad and several other young mares and stallions.
Jens Sannek shared with me this wonderful picture of the Iranian Arabian stallion Jallad (Arras x Atlassi by Sepid x Aram), a Wadnan Khursan of the Mir strain. Jallad was from the foundation stock of the Asil Stud of Khuzestan (ASK) and was imported from Iran to Austria by Gustl Eutermoser and Ulrike Marcik in … Read more