A Bedouin Shaykh of the Bani Lam on what to look for in an Arabian horse

The following are excerpts from a precious article, Introducing the Asil Horse Of Khuzestan, written by the late Mary Gharagozlu and published on the WAHO website. This is one of those rare informative articles that lets Arab voices speak about what features to look for in an Arabian horse. The Bedouin quoted here is a leader from the Aal Kathir, a large branch of the Bani Lam Bedouins settled in Khuzestan (ex-Arabestan) in Southwestern Iran since the 1600s.

Mary Gharagozlu (photo below) is the narrator. The foreign words used are in farsi, her native language. Read on, and savor the description of a good horse according to a Bedouin authority, all the way down to what he thinks of the “dish” and the flat croup. There.

Sheikh Hajat of the Al Kathir, said to be one of the most authoritative men on the dispersal and fame of the strains of Khuzestan, lived not more than forty kilometers away. It was at the risk of becoming stuck in the mud that we decided to attempt to go to him. We had a fantastic drive which was more like sailing on a sea of mud than driving, but we eventually got there, cold and very wet.

Sheikh Hajat, whom I knew well, was very glad to see us. He had been a good friend of Majid’s and was one of my instructors in the field of the Asil of Khuzestan. He had an enormous brazier of red-hot charcoal set before us, and once we were warmed by tea and coffee, the conversation turned to my guests and the reason for their presence. They wanted his opinion as to the qualifications of a good Asil horse. He said: “First ask them which horse they are talking about. The horse of the “khiaban” (avenue, meaning a horse for showing off, festivities etc.) or a horse of the “biaban”? (the desert or the wilderness, meaning a horse for fighting, long distances, speed for hunting etc.) The reply was “the horse of the biaban”.

He then replied: “First, before looking at the horse’s body, you must ensure that it has the five specifications of character: Courage. Intelligence. Stamina. Spirit. Above all “Nejabat” (a difficult word to translate, a mixture of nobleness, gentleness and the ethics of an aristocrat). If it lacks these virtues, no matter how pleasing he is to the eye, he is a worthless horse, so do not waste your time. If he has them then run your eyes over his conformation. The forehead should be wide, the eyes large and alive, the ears well placed and alert, the neck connection slender and refined, the shoulder sloping, the girth deep, the cannon short, the distance between the knees to come straight down to the ground” and so on. In short, many of his stipulations were similar to the opinions held by many writers, except when it came to the head, croup and tail carriage. He did not approve of the dish. He had seen it in exaggerated form on a stallion sent as a present from the States and considered it a deformity. The completely flat croup, he said, was pleasing to the eye, but not natural. […] The tail he said, should never be carried like a cane, rather like a flag. The cane-like carriage came from a weak back and the flag-like carriage from a strong and straight spinal column. With such a horse, in battle, if another horse fell, the rider could be taken up behind.