Back in the 1990s, when Hansi Heck-Melnyk and I were trying to account for all Tunisian horses in Tunisia and Europe, there seemed to be an inexhaustible supply of these beautiful, dry Arabians with lines that traced exclusively to horses imported from the desert of North Arabia. Tunisia was indeed had the one of the largest pools of such Arabians, after Egypt but before Syria (pre-civil war) and Bahrain. The Tunisian state stud of Sidi-Thabet which I visited in 2004 (or was it 2005?), was filled with good broodmares. Today, almost thirty years later, one is hard-pressed to find a horse with a 100% Tunisian pedigree. Most everything at the state stud of Sidi Thabet seems to have been top crossed with doubtful French blood. There may be a few left at Gisela Bergmann’s near Jendouba, and a couple others in private hands, but that’s about it in Tunisia. Maybe a few more in Germany (thanks to the Bergmann’s influence), and one or two old mares in France, but there hasn’t been any Tunisian stallions there in a while, the last one being Jassem (Koraich x Nefissa by Madani). How can that be? Can someone undertake a survey of what…
Such reads the caption on the photo below, shared by Rehan Ud Din Baber on his wonderful Facebook page. Rehan tells us the photo is from the G. Eric and Edith Matson Photograph Collection, which I will certainly look up. Also sharing Severine Vesco’s beautiful comment on that photo, in French: C’est en regardant ces photos là qu’on comprend vite ce qu’est l’arabe… un cheval de guerre dans un des milieux les plus difficiles au monde, et dans une culture tribaleEt vu que le sport c’est quand même plus facile que la razzia ou la guerre, il devrait y exceller. Le cheval arabe est bien plus qu’un chanfrein concave ou une queue en panache. C’est un compagnon d’arme, garant et dernier rempart de son cavalier, un roc chargé de le protéger, de l’emmener en sécurité aussi bien qu’au combat, d’aller vite mais aussi loin, d’affronter tous les obstacles, avec Noblesse… Endurance, vitesse, polyvalence, volonté, proximité à l’homme, solidité, puissance, sécheresse des tissus, charisme, noblesse, Sang Voilà toutes les cases que doit cocher un cheval arabe pour survivre à ce mode de vie, et c’est tout ça qui l’a rendu si …. Parfait
Zalfa had to be put down yesterday, at the veterinary hospital. In many ways, she was just too good to be true. I just hate breeding when this happens. I just hate it. You buy a rare old mare in her twenties sight unseen from far, far away, you do export papers, you ask friends for help with shippers and vet papers, you have her hauled thousands of miles, you ask other friends to let you use their stallion a first time, she does not take the first year, you have her hauled to another friend, bred again, you give her to that friend, she offers you a future filly back, you wait, you hope, you wait again, eleven months, she is confirmed in foal, you’re elated when she delivers that big beautiful filly, you pick a name, you make plans to visit, then in a matter of seconds it all collapses, the dam, half blind, steps on the filly, displaces a hock, the filly can no longer stand, can’t nurse, your friend rushes to the vet hospital with her friend, you wait, you hope, then you get the bad news, you’re left with no other option, and you have…
1908. A barber setting up shop by the train station of El Marg, North of Cairo. This is the closest train station to Lady Anne Blunt’s stud of Sheykh Obeyd. Her journals indicate she regularly used this station to go to Cairo and back to her stud, about the time that picture was taken. I wonder if she ever saw that barber.. (Photo from the magnificent Facebook Page: Ahl Masr Zaman.
[My dashboard tells me this is blog post number 2000 on Daughters of the Wind, after more than eleven years of blogging] Marta Ulan has a page on Facebook where she shares photos of foundation horses. Not sure what the source is for this nice photo of the foundation stallion Kuhailan Zaid, the desert-bred import to Babolna. He was purchased by Carl Raswan and Bogdan Zientarski in 1931 from the Wuld Ali Bedouins. Kate McLachlan pointed me to this photo.
This morning Carrie Slayton announced to me the birth of a filly out of her grand old broodmare RL Zahra Assahra (Portent x Antezzah by Grand Pass). She is to be named Zalfa, with the suffix Al Arab. Zalfa means “the one who draws near” in Arabic. That’s because she came from so far away, and just about everything about her was far fetched. I am so excited about her. Notice the low set eye, the deep girth, the far-extending withers, the short back and the croup typical of this dam line. I obtained her elderly dam from the late Marilyn McHallam, at her farm dispersal, and had her brought from Canada to California. First to Northern California, where she was bred to Michael Bowling’s Latitude but did not take. Then to Carrie Slayton’s in Southern California, who first boarded her for me, then asked me if she could have her, and if I would take a filly from her. Carrie bred her to Porte CF (Portico x Recherche), for three close crosses to the grand Portia, and other crosses further back. A colt would have remained Carrie’s, and Carrie will get, if she wants, the first filly from this filly.…
Severine Vesco and Amelie Blackwell, wearing their treasure hunter hats, found this gem of a mare somewhere in rural Southern France. Lannilis, the mare, is a 20 year old Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, of Tunisian, Algerian, and old, pure French bloodlines. She had a career as a trail riding horse, and is now being used to produce endurance Arabians and Araloosas. This mare traces to one of the lesser known Algerian (Tiaret) tail females, that of the mare Mzeirib, a 1891 desert-bred Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah from the Shammar. The French imported Mzeirib to Algeria in 1898. The line went to the state stud of Tunisia at some point in the 1920s, then to private hands in France in the 1970s. In France it bred on with crosses to pure Arabian stallions of old Tunisian lines, including some of Robert Mauvy’s breeding. It is the same female line as that of the Tunisian stallion Omran that went to that zoo in Germany. The short back, the deep girth, the high withers, the long hip on this mare are somehow reminiscent of early Crabbet Blunt horses.
I am happy to report that Monologue CF (Riposte CF x Soliloquy CF by Regency CF), now 18 years old, has been busy pasture breeding two precious mares at Laura Fitz’s, her HH Karisma Krush and her Mi Blue Angel. Monologue has been doing so much better since going to Michigan with Laura on lease from Darlene Summers and I. As a youngster he was just gorgeous, below at Jackson Hensley’s in New Mexico.
Does it still exist in asil tail female? or did Sadana and her daughter Souha die without asil female progeny?
This photo is from the World Digital Library “from a collection of 65 projectable lantern slides relating to the Arab Revolt of 1916?18.” DOW readers and lovers of the true Arabian horse, click on the image to enlarge it, and please spend time gazing and squinting at each horse, and look at the chest, the eye sockets, the facial bones, the knees, the fine muzzle, and try to breed for similar traits to the extent possible.
This spring my 24 year old mare Nuri Al Krush will be bred to Jamr Al Arab for a linebred foal to the great Hanad. Nuri brings the lines of the Hanad sons Tripoli and Mainad, and Jamr adds Sanad, Ibn Hanad and Ameer Ali. The photo was taken at her breeder and owner Trish Stockhecke in Ontario, Canada.
Mystic UF (Janan Abinoam x Astranah by Astrologer), 1987 Kuhaylan Hayfi of Davenport lines, was a powerhouse. Owner Aida Schreiber riding.
The strain of the Frayjan is one of the oldest Arabian horse strains. It gets an early mention by K. Niebuhr in 1772 as of the five strains of Al Khamsa, with the spelling fradsje — see the beautifully researched article of Kate McLachlan on the five Al Khamsa strains. The strain is not a Kuhaylan strain, but is self standing. It takes it names from the Frijah section of the Ruwalah tribe, to which it originally belonged. The Frijah were one of the first sections of the Ruwalah to migrate from West Central Arabia to North Arabia. In the 1970s, two stallions from this strain were listed in the first Lebanese Arabian Horse Studbook submitted to WAHO. In the early 2000s, Hazaim mentioned to me a non-Asil mare from this strain in Homs. She traced in female line to an Asil Frayjah mare. She was the daughter of the Iraqi part-bred Arabian stallion al-Zir. It would be interesting to get some DNA from this line. The strain is now extinct in asil form. Incidentally, the Frijah is the section of the Ruwalah which owned the Saqlawi strain. The Qidran (or Gidran, hence Jidran and Jadran) are one of the…
From the Arabian Horse Archives: Part of a series of 120 primarily glass slides taken by Joe Buchanan’s father, Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, on trips to the Middle East in 1946 and 1949. In the Comar Arabians collection of Garth and Joe Buchanan. Now held by Carolyn and Dick Hasbrook, Twinbrook Arabians, Ames, Iowa. About the chestnut stallion: notice the strong backline, the deep girth, the high withers, the straight shoulder and the long hip. You can see the big eye sockets too. I really wonder what his breeding is. In the pen behind him is another stallion, grey. Only a blurry head shows, but here too you can the protruding eye socket, the dry and delicate muzzle, the prominent bone under the eye, and the fine black skin around the eyes and muzzle. The hindquarter looks droopy but it may be the posture. About the white male donkeys: these are from the precious breed that comes from al-Hassa province of Eastern Arabia; they are taller and stouter than average donkeys, and have bigger and drier heads. A very precious breed now vanished.
These posts weere initially published on the AKHorsemen Yahoo discussion group, over several days in August 2001. There is no evidence whatsoever that Bedouins ever bred according to strain theory. This is a myth. They most certainly never did it intentionally during the 20th century and the Abbas Pasha Manuscript is here at last to tell us it did not happen in the 19th century. There are definitely many different types [of Arabian horses], distinctive and special. The greatest contribution of North American breeders of Arabians to the breed (a contribution at least equal that of the Bedouins in preserving the purity of the blood from immemorial times) is that they have emphasized and developed these types. However it is my opinion that the mistake of these breeders was to confuse strains and types. They are not to be associated. Strains are just equivalents of family names for humans. Humans transmitfamily names from father to son, in horses family names (strains) aretransmitted from mother to daughter, simply because Bedouins thought it was more convenient, for several reasons (I’ll expand on this later). You have tall humans and short humans; and you have humans from the Smith family and other from…
The information on this rare strain found only in the Kingdom of Bahrain, primarily comes from the seminal 1971 article of Judi Forbis in Arabian Horse World, later republished in her book Authentic Arabian Bloodstock. Judi visited Bahrain in March 1970, and recorded the following information about the strain, in three different parts of that article. The first reference provides background on the strain: Kuhaylah Al Adiati is another strain rarely heard of before, but deriving from the Kuhaylah family. She came from Saudi Arabia and was presented to Sheikh Hamad when he was a prince, together with a letter of presentation from the offering Sheikh of Al Ajman: “I send to you this mare which fulfills Al Adiat”. That is, to him she embodied all the swift and desirable attributes understood in the beautiful El Adiat, Sura 100 of the Koran [A translation of Verse 100 of the Qur’an follows]. What greater or more meaningful gift could he possibly have bestowed? When Sheikh Hamad saw her race and found her to be exceedingly swift, he happily declared: “Truly She is of Al Adiat.” The second reference occurs during a visit to the stud of Sakhir: “Sakhir, the abandoned palace…
The ‘Ubayyan colt Kasim was a gift from King ‘Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud to the Earl and Countess of Athlone (Queen Victoria’s granddaughter) during their visit to Arabian in 1938. I donated this photo and that of *Turfa and Faras which you saw on this blog earlier, the Arabian Horse Archives. They were a gift from Kees Mol, who had received them from someone who had received them from the Dutch Consul in Jeddah who took the pictures, as indicated on the archives’ website.
Damascus SF (Memoir UF x Neroli CF by Regency CF) is a very smooth stallion of Davenport lines, bred and owned by Aida Schreiber in New Hamsphire. Through a close cross to Bint Ralf, he has a rare line to the Davenport desert-bred import *Farha, and most probably, the last line to *Haleb in Davenports, too. I loved that crested, muscular neck.
My friend and mentor Chuck Humphreys sent me this poem by Latin American poem Pablo Neruda: HORSES From the window I saw the horses. I was in Berlin, in winter, The light was without light, the sky skyless. The air was white like a moistened leaf. From my window, I could see a deserted arena, a circle bitten out by the teeth of winter. All at once, led out by a single man, ten horses were stepping, stepping into the snow. Scarcely had they rippled into existence like flame, than they filled the whole world of my eyes, empty till now. Faultless, flaming, they stepped like ten gods on broad, clean hoofs, their manes recalling a dream of salt spray. Their rumps were globes, were oranges. Their color was amber and honey, was on fire. Their necks were towers carved from the stone of pride, and in their furious eyes, sheer energy showed itself, a prisoner inside them. And there, in the silence, at the mid-point of the day, in a dirty, disgruntled winter, the horses’ intense presence was blood, was rhythm, was the beckoning light of all being. I saw, I…
Severine Vesco took this beautiful photo of my friend Jean-Claude Rajot and his Syrian stallion Mahboub Halep, bred by Radwane Shabareq near Aleppo in 2007.
Le débat que Louis a enclenché est le bienvenu, il est important. Essayons de le continuer en mettant tous les griefs de coté, dans l’intérêt du cheval. Nous sommes évidemment en présence d’acceptions différentes de ce qu’est un cheval arabe aujourd’hui. Celles-ci proviennent de la manière que chaque civilisation a eu d’appréhender la relation de l’homme au cheval au fil du temps, de l’évolution du rôle du cheval dans chaque civilisation, mais aussi et surtout de perceptions par les hommes d’hommes de civilisations différentes, donc de leurs chevaux. Je demeure cependant persuadé que ces acceptions peuvent se recouper. (La suite est à venir)
Bonjour Cher Edouard, très touché par ta marque de sympathie et sentiments à mon égard. Cela faisait bien longtemps et l’on aurait pu croire que le contact était rompu, faute je suppose à ma franchise ?! Mais si tu le permets, puisse un ami te crier gare !!! Ton auditoire t’emporte dans des sphères viciées et ineptes car, constitué pour une grande partie de beaux parleurs versatiles et sans expérience notoire. Entre ceux qui traitent Nimr de « Chèvre Syrienne » et qui ensuite le comparent au superbe Dahman de 1909, d’autres qui affirment que Mokhtar aurait du barbe, celui qui choisit d’acheter un cheval en fonction de sa selle, il en est de même un parmi ces illuminés qui m’a réclamé un produit, va comprendre ? J’en passe et des meilleures et à présent voici la chasse à l’«Asil » accompagnée de toutes ses critiques malveillantes envers ceux qui pourraient leur faire de l’ombre, parlant même au nom d’autres personnes, ceci afin de se hisser sur le pavois et écouler je suppose leurs produits, peut-être même par vice… C’est lamentable ! Quel piège que cet outil trop souvent mal employé où suspicions, commérages, babinages et niaiseries font loi. Toutes…
This was, until recently, the most beautiful city in the world, in my eyes. Paris, Rome, Chicago, Vienna, Budapest? No.
Kate McLachlan and I were recently exchanging about the treasure trove of Arabian horse related documents stored at the Qatar Digital Library. She has located, among other findings, a translation of the hujjah of the Bahrain import to Poland Kuhailan Afas, in the hand of Carl Raswan, as well as a translation of his full pedigree. Kuhailan Afas was a major stallion in twentieth century Arabian horse breeding. Click to read they are easily legible. There is also a typewritten Arabic hujjah, which Kate also found, and an extended typewritten pedigree in Arabic, both obviously based on a handwritten Arabic hujjah. These Arabic typewritten versions of the hujjah and pedigree are a bit odd, because they give the horse the strain of its sire (Kuhailan Wathnan) in addition to other glaring inconsistencies. Probably typos. “I declare I, o ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Abd al-Razzaq al-Sani’, the servant of Shaykh Hamad ibn ‘Isa Aal Khalifa, that I sold the horse known as Kuhaylan al-Wathnan to His Excellency the Mister Bogdan Zietarski and I produced this [piece of] paper for him, about the lineage of the horse to clarify its origin; he is of a young age; born on the 25th of Sha’ban the…
Kees Mol offered me this photo of the mare Faras (‘mare’ in Arabic), and in turn I donated it to the Arabian Horse Archives, on the website of which a copy can now be found. Faras was a 1927 desert bred Kuhaylat al-Krush, gifted by Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, King of Saudi Arabia to her HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone and the Earl of Athlone during their visit to Arabia and Bahrain in 1938. She was from the most precious and sougth after strain of Central Arabia. Peter Upton’s book “the Arab Horse” has a copy of her hujjah, written in Ibn Saud’s hand. She also appears to have been a producer of horses famed for their speed and endurance. Despite all these credentials, I am not sure she would be accepted in a halter show for Arabians today (or even thirty years ago). Most people familiar with Arabian horses in the West, and increasingly, in the East too, would not believe her to be an Arabian: where is the dish, the two-level profile? Where is the bird-like eye, popping out of its socket? the croup flatter than a counter top? the swan-like arched neck? the meaty face? the…
I just fell upon the photo of this superb younger mare of the Jilfan Dhawi strain from the breeding of Fabienne Vesco. Fedaia Beni Sakr is a blend of mostly Egyptian, Tunisian and Algerian bloodlines, with a hint of old French blood. Such a deep girth and nice hindquarter on this mare, on top of pointy ears and the black skin around the eyes.
This morning, Lyman Doyle sent me several videos of Pippa, which he had taken in the summer of 2018. Pippa (her registered name Daughter of the Pharaohs) is a three year old Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, by Lyman’s stallion Chatham DE out of SS Lady Guenevere, by SS Dark Prince), who belongs to DeWayne Brown. I leased her from DeWayne last year, boarded her at Lyman’s in Alfafla, OR, and attempted several breedings to Lyman’s stallions Kashgar, Tamaam, and Buckner. We will be trying again this year. The lineage traces to the Sba’ah Bedouins of North Arabia, as it should for this precious and highly prized strain.
This is yet another photo from the same collection at the Arabian Horse Archives, showing the mares of King A. A. Aal-Saud at his stud of al-Kharj. Notice the pretty head of the bay mare on the left, and the plain head of the chestnut one near, and the convex profile of the bay one in the center. Clearly, all desert mares, all royal mares, and all different. There was not one single type.
From the website of the Arabian Horse Archives comes this photos of a handsome desert bred stallion at the stud of King Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Saud of Saudi Arabian, in 1946 or 1949. Notice the very dark skin around the eye and the muzzle, a distinctive trait of authenticity (asalah). This photo is “part of a series of 120 primarily glass slides taken by Joe Buchanan’s father, Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, on trips to the Middle East in 1946 and 1949. In the Comar Arabians collection of Garth and Joe Buchanan. Now held by Carolyn and Dick Hasbrook, Twinbrook Arabians, Ames, Iowa.”
This precious image of a Bedouin in Saudi Arabia, recently uploaded on the website of the Arabian Horse Archives is “part of a series of 120 primarily glass slides taken by Joe Buchanan’s father, Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, on trips to the Middle East in 1946 and 1949. In the Comar Arabians collection of Garth and Joe Buchanan. Now held by Carolyn and Dick Hasbrook, Twinbrook Arabians, Ames, Iowa.”
Photographer Kevin Bubriski in a new book: “Legacy in Stone: Syria Before War”, which the blog “Roads and Kingdoms features here.
Saraly El Shahin (Ansata Aly Jamil x Saree by Salaa El Dine out of Selmah by Shakhs out of Sappho by Bleinheim) is, at 24 years old, one of the most precious asil mares in Europe. She is with Laszlo Kiraly in Hungary. One of the very last asil mares of the precious strain of Hamdani Simiri, tracing to the mare Selma of Abbas Pasha, she has a predominantly Egyptian pedigree, with the addition of two of the desert bred stallions of the Courthouse Stud, in England, Nimr and Fedaan. She has a three year old daughter, which is not currently in a preservation program.
This unique photo is part of a series of 120 primarily glass slides taken by Joe Buchanan’s father, Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, on trips to the Middle East in 1946 and 1949. It is in the Comar Arabians collection of Garth and Joe Buchanan. Now held by Carolyn and Dick Hasbrook, Twinbrook Arabians, Ames, Iowa. It is on the website of the Arabian Horse Archives.
Laszlo Kiraly sent me this head shot of the Babolna mare 25 Amurath Sahib, from the last asil female line from Babolna. The photo was never published before Laszlo’s recent article in the Khamsat magazine about the asil lines of Babolna.
This morning I woke up to a message from Jeanne Craver to the Davenport Owners list serve on Google Groups that Triermain CF had died the night before. Her message, titled “Another end to another era”, was: I went to feed about 30 minutes ago, and Triermain was gone. It looks like he strolled out to the water tank and was heading back to the shed and just dropped. No sign of struggle. He ate his breakfast with his usual gusto, and had seemed well. I am glad he went so quickly. Jeanne The passing of the last senior stallion at Craver Farms indeed marks the end of an era. Triermain was my personal favorite, after his sire Thadrian. He will forever have a special place in my heart. He was just perfect. First photo by Anita Westfall. Second photo from the Craver Farms collection. Of his several sons and successors, Aurene CF (below, photo by owner Hannah Logan) is, in my opinion, the new king. Long live the king! In homage to Triermain, a quote from the poem of Walter Scott “the Bridal of Triermain” after which Charles Craver named him, because only him was worthy of Plantagenet daughters:…
Happy New Year everyone. May it be a year of peace, and peace of mind, for all of you. For me, it will be the year when I will launch this blog in Arabic. I am in my hometown, and I miss speaking and writing my language.
Bev Davison tells me my beautiful Ginger, 20 years old, is confirmed in foal. I am over the moon with this news. I had been trying since 2015 and the aborted pregnancy from the Bahraini stallion Mlolshaan Hager Solomon, which was a big blow. I am so hoping for a filly. The outcome of this breeding will be high percentage Abbas Pasha and old Crabbet blood up close, which I find miraculous. Kualoha (Ghadaf x Rabanna) and Jady (Jadib x Im Gulnar) are four generations away on Ginger’s side, and Parnell (Ibn Gulida x Bint Ghadaf) and Subani (Ghadaf x Im Gulnar by Nusi) three generations on the sire’s side. The lucky future dad, if all goes well, is one of Bev’s stallions, Subanet Jabbar SDA. Jabbar means mighty in Arabic. He sure looks so in this photo.
I keep marveling at this horse, and how close to the desert bred Arabians the Hadban Enzahi stallion Wahid CW (Wahid CW x RL Zahra Assahara) looks like, 112 years after the importation of his ancestors from North Arabia to the USA. Photo by Hannah Logan
I love these photos of my friend Yasser Ghanim, riding the Shuwaymah mare Challawieh of Jean-Claude Rajot who appears in the other photo on her dam, Naalah. Here he is on the Syrian asil stallion, Mahboub Halep, while JC is on Dahess Hassaka, the other Syrian stallion.
Jenny Lees posted this superb photo of the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisaan Thaathaa on Facebook the other day. The Tuwayssan reportedly strain came to Bahrain from Syria in the 1920s, and prospered there. It has disappeared everywhere else, and is now mostly associated with Bahrain and thought of as a Bahraini strain. The strain was formed in North Arabia, and is one of the oldest Arabian horse strains. I personally know of two branches of it: Tuwayssan ‘Alqami (‘Algami) and Tuwayssan Qiyaad. It will forever hold a special place in my heart because of my beloved Halima (registered in the Lebanese studbook as a Al-Tuwayssa), the grand-dam of which hailed from the ‘Anazah east of Homs, Syria.
I am so intrigued by these Iranian Asils. Some eight years ago, pictures of these were a fixture on my blog. I confess always having felt uneasy about the purity credentials of Iranian Arabian horses, mostly because Iran falls outside the cradle countries of the Arab horse. Pienaar Du Plessis and I were talking about this recently, and I confessed my attitude has more to do with my ignorance of these horses’ backgrounds than anything else. Above, the Iranian stallion Gap (Charis x Yeltakin) from an Instagram thread. Strain Hamdani Simri, bred by Shirin Salartash, and owned by Harandi Kerman. He is stunning, and not unlike the good Bahraini horses.
… poetically, as Pienaar Du Plessis put it to me. I am soo excited.. a 25 year old (yes!) dream of mine has come true, five generations later.. UPDATE: Less cryptically, Pienaar Du Plessis gave me the opportunity to realize a 25 year old dream of acquiring an asil mare from the Egyptian Kuhaylan Mimreh line. We had been looking for a mare from this line but without show blood, and he found this 21 year old grey beauty, which his family had owned years and years ago, MH Egyptian XTC, a couple hours down the road from his farm in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. She had been the owner’s daughter’s riding horse, and his daughter had gone to college. The mare is a problem breeder and has never had a foal. She is now at Pienaar’s Saruk’s Stud, with Mlolshaan Mutab, her future husband (top photo). The idea is to do embryo transfer at a clinic in George in the Western Cape. She carries eight diverse lines to Morafic (3x through Ibn Moniet El Nefous, 2x through Ahir, 1x through Shaker El Masri in the tail male, 1x through Inas, 1x through The Egyptian Prince) and otherwise plenty…
A new mare has joined my preservation herd of old American Arabian bloodlines. In what is by now a long-standing Edouard practice, she is 23 years old.. She is a Kuhaylat al-Krush tracing back to *Werdi. Her name is Nuri Al Krush. She was bred by Trish Stockhecke of Ontario, Canada, from the Krush stallion Janub Al Krush out of the Krush mare Mystalla. She carries some of the very last lines to the desert-bred imports *Haleb and *Azra in Al Khamsa. She has produced two outstanding colts before, one for Trish, gelded, and another for Kim Davis in Illinois. This latter one, dead in a freak accident, was the colt of the century in my opinion (photo below). I also owned her two half-sisters, and still own a daughter from one of these sisters, Mayassa. She will be bred to my Jamr al-Arab, to line-breed to Hanad (Tripoli, Sanad, Mainad, Ibn Hanad, Ameer Ali), but also he will complete her physically, with his short back, stronger coupling, and long hip. I am grateful to Laura Fitz for letting me have her.
The subject has come up in earlier entries, so I wanted to get a discussion going about where the black color came from in Arabian horses bloodlines in the West. In Crabbet bloodlines, it’s clearly through Queen of Sheba (and I think Mahruss and Sobha too, personally). In Egyptian bloodlines, it’s through Ibn Rabdan, but where from before that? Is is El Sennari and hence Muniet el Nefous (dark bay, says Lady Anne Blunt). In Blue Stars, it’s through *Furtha Dhellal, and perhaps *Muhaira? In Davenport bloodlines, it’s through *Jedah. Notice the connection of the color to the Hamdani Simri strain of both Muniet El Nefous and *Jedah, and maybe Sobha.
In 1971, Judi Forbis took this beautiful and timeless photo of a Kuhaylah Jallabiyah mare in Bahrain, the daughter of an old speckled Jallabi stallion. The photo was published in Arabian Horse World, in Judi’s series of articles “Pearls of Great Price”. The croup is short as in many Bahraini horses, but otherwise, what a mare, what look. She oozes Arabness. When will be go back to breeding horses like this, instead of the china dolls and ‘living art’ of today? And, this is by far my favorite color in Arabians.
Here is the proposal I submitted last year on the inclusion of 14 Bahraini horses and their offspring in the Al Khamsa Roster, for reference purposes. It passed the first year, and there will be another vote next year.
Keels Mol gave me this unique photo of *Turfa, likely taken in Jeddah prior to her export to the UK, Ias a royal gift from King Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia to King George VI, in return for the hospitality shown his son when the Saudi prince attended the British King’s coronation. I then donated the photo, along with several others, to the Arabian Horse Archives, which published it here in high resolution, with an explanation of its provenance.
The chestnut Arabian mare Kariban, a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, was imported from the Middle East by Hernan Ayerza in 1898 for his large El Aduar stud in Argentina. El Aduar can be thought of as the historical equivalent of Crabbet in Latin America. Kariban is the tail female for the mare *Aire. She has a very thin tail female in Al Khamsa, down to a single mare, San Luis Solstice, despite having contributed many important horses to US breeding programs. I had translated Kariban’s hujjah for Al Khamsa Arabians III some twelve years ago, but the fact that the mare is in the pedigree of one of my mares led me to take another look today, which proved fruitful. Here is my translation of the original Arabic document: On the below date, we sold our chestnut mare, the daughter of our burnt bay mare; the mare that was sold, her strain is Saqlawiyat Jadran, she was born with us; her sire is the bay Ma’naqi horse of Shawkat Pasha; her dam is from Bagdad, her origin being from the horses of Ibn Sattam Sha’lan, leader (Amir) of the tribe of the ‘Anazah Arabs. She was born with us, her age is three…
As we broached up the subject of Arabian Horse Archives in a previous entry, I am excited to say that I will be giving annotated, digital copies of my entire collection of photos and negatives, mostly taken in Lebanon and Syria in the 1970s-80s (by my father) to the 90s and 2000s (mostly by me). I encourage those of you who have relevant collections to do the same. I have already donated a never-seen-before image to Turfa taken in her home country, together with the British imports Kasim and Faras, which was given to me by Kees Mol. Below, Mawj al-Rih, a Saqlawi Jadran at the Beirut racetrack in the 1940s. From the book of Ali al-Barazi.
I am excited to introduce Kate McLachlan as an occasional blogger on Daughters of the Wind. Kate is a lecturer at the University of Cape Town, in South Africa, and holds a graduate degree in Ancient Philology from Oxford University. I am really looking forward to her contributions.
I am issuing this call as an adviser and a friend to the project ———————– Invitation YOU ARE INVITED to help shape the future of Arabian horse history as an Advisor to the Arabian Horse Archives Inc. — not to choose some aspects as important and sideline the rest, but to identify, preserve and protect archival materials relating to the world-wide history of the ancient and influential Arabian breed. The goal is to catalogue, and to facilitate the preservation of, such materials so that they are not only conserved but made accessible to students and researchers. We need to become visible in order to be noticed. Our first goal is to populate arabianarchives.org and illustrate the wide range of topics of interest, and the forms in which information exists. We ask that each of you provide a high-resolution scan (or photograph of a three-dimensional object) from your collections, representative of some aspect of Arabian horse history. Local or international, antique or mid-century modern — it’s all history. We need, in the current on-line environment, to develop an active social media presence. There is someone out there with the time and the skills to maintain Archives announcements on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms.…
The high resolution photos of *Halool and *Koubishan, in the new Annotated Quest, courtesy of Jeanne Craver.
The Society for the Preservation of Desert Bred Salukis has a new webpage, www.desertbred.org
Many of you who read this page know Lyman Doyle. He is so many things at the same time: the owner of the Doyle Arabian Stud, which is the longest Al Khamsa program in existence with the same family, going back to 1949; the CEO of Doyle Pacific Industries, in Shanghai, China, and a former armored cavalry officer. I have asked Lyman to publish some of his research on Skowronek and early Polish Arabian and not so-Arabian horses on Daughters of the Wind. Lyman has rediscovered a series of primary documents in the central and eastern European languages, by main protagonists of the time. He will present the information and sources as is, and leave readers to draw their own conclusions. Lyman will blog here and add materials on the page: daughterofthewind.org/skowronek
Posting the photo of Moth and her daughter Major Barbara that started Jeanne Craver’s long and fruitful relation with Davenport Arabians, as a book end to the photo of Faziza below. Thank you Jeanne.
… is this picture of Faziza (Fa Turf x Azyya by Kenur out of *Aziza), the half Saudi, half Egyptian Arabian mare exported by Krausnicks to W.G. Olms of Germany. The picture is from Foppe Klynstra book, “Nobility of the Desert”.
It just occurred to me, much to my surprise, that we are about to lose any lines to the great *Haleb in Al Khamsa horses. Follow the genealogy, as you look at his Al Khamsa progeny, here, while noting that anything from his daughter Saleefy does not actually trace to *Haleb, because of the mare switch in California. From his second daughter Meleky, all that’s left is my 5 year old Mayassa Al Arab, and the 23 year old Nuri Al Krush, which I am in the process of leasing. From his third and last eligible daughter Rhua, the line to *Haleb flows through Alcazar. Here all that’s left is: the handful Hamdani Simri horses, tail female Selma, through Koreish, most of them at the Detweilers in PA, with an older mare in Georgia (Jadah Selma) and another in the midwest (Faserras Star); the handful horses tracing to LD Rubic, most of them in PA (two with me, five or six with Monica Respet), the 27 year old Salil Ibn Iliad in South Carolina and his two daughters there with Pam Baker. Samiras Adlaya now in Arizona, who is rare in so many ways The stallion Le Coquin and his…
That’s the photo, courtesy of Jeanne Craver, being referenced in the discussion below.