Asil *Abeyah tail female survives through show lines
Some time ago, I wrote about how the 1964 mare Carila (Caravan x Akila by Akil), the last asil mare from the female line of the Davenport mare *Abeyah was lost in the 1990s despite a last minute preservation effort..
Recently, while going through Datasource, I was thrilled to find out that an asil line to *Abeyah has actually survived, through modern show ring lines and outside any preservation program.
This is the line of the 1963 mare RO Jameelah (Faaris x Ramleh, by Ghazi x Fersaba, by Ferdin x Saba), who has a line to Nureddin II through his son Ferdin, which means she is not Al Khamsa, because Al Khamsa does not accept Nureddin II.
Now the case of Nureddin II (Rijm x Narguileh by Mesaoud) is a long and complex one, and a painful one at that. In my opinion, he is who the studbooks say he is, that is, the 1911 son of his two parents, the Crabbet horses Rijm and Narguileh. I have seen all the documentation available, and I don’t buy the arguments of either Carl Raswan or his disciple Jane Ott, about him being the son of an English Thoroughbred. This theory has been refuted many times by all serious researchers. In my standards, the horse is asil, and so is his descendant RO Jameelah.
RO Jameelah has anywhere between four and six asil descendants today, the youngest one of which is the 2000 mare Savannah Spring (Thee Sandman x Lappes Morrane, by Hi-Fashion Mreekh x Lappes Danette, by Lappes Sar Ali x Lappes Jaleena, by Hadaya Bay Halim Bey x Jamora, by Kamal Ibn Morafic x RO Jameelah), who is 99.99% Egyptian, but has three lines to RO Jameelah, and hence to *Abeyah. Her dam, born in 1994, and her granddam, born in 1989, should also be alive.
Below is a picture of Savannah Spring’s sire, Thee Sandman (Thee Desperado x Lappe Mreekhie by Hi-Fashion Mreekh), also a ‘Ubayyan Sharrak tracing to *Abeyah, from the website of his owners Hilltop Farms in Missouri.
Edouard I’d take your word over Raswans about Nureddin 2’s ancestry. The thing is the pictutes i’ve seen of nureddin show a horse that has good bone and overall is pretty good through the body. But maybe a bit plain in the head by modern show ring standards. But you don’t ride heads.
Tail female Abeyah huh? Something to think about.
Best wishes
bruce Peek
Lady Anne Lytton is said to have commented that *Nureddin II had a plain head, but he was not a plain horse. I understand that he had beautiful relatively upright carriage like *Nasik, Narghileh, and Nefisa, and a great deal of presence.
In the April 2011 Arabian Horse World magazine I wrote an article called Versace and the little bay mare from the desert.
The article pays tribute to *Abeyah by telling some about her story being ridden by Arthur Moore in the desert and convincing him of the magnificence of Arabians, during the gathering of the Davenport imports. I then showed her link to one of the most famous sires in Arabian show circles, Versace (Fame VF x Precious as Gold) who is tail female Abeyah. Other famous Arabian show horses of Abeyah descent that I mentioned were Davinci FM and DA Valentino, also very famous in Arabian show circles.
That article is part of an occasional series that I have written for AHW called Roots of Legends, in which I take desert bred ancestors of famous mainstream show Arabians and show their connection to the breed. For much of that particular reading audience, they have not seen ancestral stories like this so it is a way to make connections to the asil horses that Edouard’s site celebrates.
And we hope you will keep writing them for us, Joe. These gems help newer breeders and new owners understand the connections of the past with our current horses. Thank you for continuing to do this service to the breed.
Out of curiosity, was Savannah Spring ever incorporated into a preservation breeding programme? Her sire, Thee Sandman, is apparently still around, and, according to Facebook, stands at El Moro Egyptian Arabians, in Arizona, but I’ve found nothing about Savannah Spring, who seems to be the last asil produce of RO Jameelah’s mare line. It would be a real pity to have lost her, after miraculously discovering that Abeyah’s line still continues.
She shows no registered progeny in Datasource.
Alas! And she is rather old for a maiden mare now too.
This has been a bad millennium, so far, for conserving the asil Arabian horse.
19 isn’t THAT old if she gets bred this year. Has the AK Task Force picked up the lead on this one yet?
I don’t believe the PTF knows about this mare since she isn’t yet Al Khamsa (the Nureddin II thing). I hope someone can get on this!
Do we even know who owns her & where she is?
Yeah, shes theoretically with Lisa or Jennifer Warren in Silver Springs, MN. I’ve contacted both of them this am to sesee if they stil have her, especially since she would be so close to me.
Moira, you are amazing! Fingers crossed so very tight!
I’m still waiting on some info, but I got in touch with the breeder, Lisa, who sold her as a three or four year old to another breeder. Cloud Castle Arabians had her, and failed to get her in foal, so she was sold to a man in Iowa who wanted a fancy driving horse and whose name I am still waiting on. Do we have anyone involved with the Iowa Arabian Horse Association who might be able to ask around, in case my contact did end up tossing her paperwork on the mare when she moved ~1500 miles to the east coast?
please, please, lets find Savannah Spring. I hope she is alive still. Imagine a full strain restored if she can be brought back into production.
Yes, Carolyn Hasbrook is a good friend, and is active in Iowa Arabian horse affairs. Write me what you know, Moira, and I’ll ask her to check it out.
Jeanne, I’ll draft an email firstt thing tomorrow!
If anyone else wants the info I have on this mare, you can email me at stallionmay@gmail.com or message me via Facebook. I’m happy to last on what I have. I’ve even procured a few photos of her as a very young horse from the breeder.
Pass* not last
The curses of typing on a mobile phone [facepalm]
There is another tail female line to Abeyah through Fahm, Mailatrah, to contemporary ZT Phalectra.
Silvia – There are many tf lines to *Abeyah extant by pedigree, but overwhelmingly they are not in any way asil. ZT Phalectra’s sire is heavily linebred to Skowronek, for example, and would not qualify for the criteria we are looking for on that basis alone. her tail female line to Mailatrah is also a point of consideration, as Mailatrah brings to the pedigree the mare Bathsheba (Hauran x Butheyna), where Hauran’s sire, Jezail, is sired by the Hon. Ethelred Dillon’s stallion, Imam (El Emir x Ishtar.) El Emir and Ishtar are horses for whom we require more information regarding their provenance; they are also not accepted to Al Khamsa at this time.
Moira, yes, of course, not Asil.