Walid’s mare, Mouna (Kesseb x Mamdouha by Ilamane), a 2000 grey, is one of the last, if not the last, asil Shuwaymah Sabbah in Tunisia (Tosca line back to Primevere, a foundation mare of the Tiaret Stud in Algeria). She is special in that she is a younger mare that is very close to the desert (Barr, Cheikh El Ourbane, Mansoura are very close, and Bango and El Managhi are not far behind). She is also special in that she does not trace to Esmet Ali, who is ubiquitous in Tunisian breeding. She is also rich in bloodlines from the stud of French Navy Admiral Anatole Cordonnier, as it is very rare to find the blood of Cordonnier’s 1959 Ilamane (David x Berriane by Titan) so close up in modern Tunisian pedigrees. Judging from the photos, Mouna looks like she is a strongly build, well-conformed, deserty mare of the style to be found in Syria before the civil war. Walid is selling his mare, and wants her to remain in purist hands. If you know anyone who fits the criteria, please let him know.
Still digging into photo archives from ten years ago. These two pictures of the beautiful Rishah Shar’abiyah mare of Khudr al-Khawwaf, taken at sunset in October 2005 near Qamishli, Syria are one of them. Her dam is a daughter of al-Aawar, and the strain traces to the marbat of Hawwash al-Hatmi of the ‘Abdah clan of the Shammar.
This is one of the few photos I snapped of the young stallion Al Ameer Dahess (Dahess x Mari by al-Aawar) in Garhok, north-eastern Syria in 2005. He is the sire of the Syrian stallion in France Dahess Hassaka (below).
The hamlet of al-Talibiyah near Gizah in 1931. How did such beauty give way to ugliness? From the Facebook archives of Ahl Misr Zaman.
Yasser Ghanem’s beautiful and powerful Ju’aythiniyah mare, of Tahawi bloodlines and going back to the ‘Anazah Bedouins, is now Al Khamsa, since October 2015.
To the left, “Lady” (CSA Baroness Lady), 1999 grey Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah and her colt by Monologue CF, to the right, “Ginger” (DA Ginger Moon), 1998 chestnut Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, barren from Bahraini Mlolshaan stallion. Below, the Ma’naqi colt, who is absolute stallion material. Compare with the last photo, feauting his sire Monologue CF
Belle — Jadah BelloftheBall — is showing her pregnancy and looking good. I bet that’s thanks to the wonder diet you recommended for her, Jeannie Lieb. None of my other horses looked as good this afternoon.
When growing up in the Middle East, I would always look forward to the prospect of hearing the whinny of stallions in the stables, farms and racetracks, and it was an integral part of the experience of turning stallions loose in paddocks. Seeing this video brought this experience back to mind. It also made me realize how “quiet” and “muted” the stallions I have recently been around are. This superb 2009 stallion, Quamar El Lail (Ratib x Mascara by Larabi out of Saguia by Guercif — sire line Bango, dam line Wadha, strain Jilfan Dhawi), is one of the last four (yes, four) Algerian asil Arabian horses, owned by the Algerian National Stud of Tiaret/Chaouchaoua. His pedigree is a succession of legends often featured on this blog in previous years: Bango, Ghalbane, Safita, Masbout, etc. Quamar el lail pur sang Arabe par Ratib Mascara Posted by Haras National Chaouchaoua on Friday, October 17, 2014 Jean-Claude Rajot, who is very familiar with the asil Arabians of Algeria, tells me the whinnying is characteristic of the bloodlines of Quamar El Leil.
Pirouette CF in the center (and the center of my interest back then), Wisteria to the right, turning her back and acting like the aloof princess she is, and unidentified chestnut mares at Craver Farms in 2002. Click to enlarge.
I am not sure I posted this photo before, but it shows Brassband (Plantagenet x Tyrebah) at Craver Farms, with my father in 2002. Click to enlarge.
One of the most striking stallions bred at Craver Farms is the 2001 grey Flourishes CF (Lydian x Fragrance by Regency) with Randal Abler and Gail Wells in Georgia. Jeanne Craver, Jenny Krieg and Darlene Summers who saw him on the way back from the Al Khamsa Convention In Floriad were all taken by him. Jeanne even said that he looked like those paintings of the legendary Weil stallion Bairactar. I never saw him but the photos below, by Jeanne and Darlene, are a testimony to that.
Vice Regent CF (Regency x Violetta by Salutation) is the sire of my Jamr, out of Jadiba. He will be 24 years old now. Photos by Jeanne Craver last week. He looks regal. I love that big eye (wish Jamr had inherited that).
Carver DE, a Saqlawi Jadran stallion of old Doyle/Crabbet lines, gone too soon. Photo by Lucy Doyle.
This mare is the daughter of the mare featured in the entry below. Same breeder, a Bedouin of the Fad’aan. I had written about her breeding in the early times of this blog, here.
New scans, taken in 1997, of Wadeehah, 27 years old, the Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah from Atiyah Abu Sayfayn at Kamal Abd al-Khaliq outside Aleppo. An outstanding mare, born under a tent, and one of purest in Syria.
Rehan Ud Din Baber has this amazing Facebook page where he displays dozens of pictures of desert Arabian horses in their original environment. Most of the photos are from the US Library of Congress Digital Archives. My absolute favorite is this photo of the mare of Emir Abdullah of Transjordan. The photo, taken by John D. Whiting, has the following caption: “Emir Talal’s wedding. Emir Abdullah’s mare. The bridegroom wedding mount. c. 1934 – 35“. If this mare was the mount of the Emir (later King) of Jordan, and the mount of his son on this special day, then she must have been the best mare of the Jordanian royal family at that time. The precise date of the wedding of Emir Talal to his cousin Zein el-Sharaf is the 27th of November 1934. She was the eldest daughter of Sharif Jamil ‘Ali bin Nasser, and was to be the mother of King Hussain of Jordan, born in November 1935.
Gudrun Waiditschka has this nice article on her website about the stallion Tajar 1811 of Count Jozsef Hunyadi, a foundation stallion of European breeding imported from Egypt by Baron Von Fechtig to the Austro-Hungarian empire. Tajar was from the stud of the Mamluk Murad Bey. He does not have lines in Al Khamsa today.
I was unpacking today and I found my negatives’ scanner in a box I had not opened in years. I also came across some old negatives from the days of our travels to Syria, my father and I, to see desert Arabian horses, so I scanned them. These times did not feel particularly blessed back then, just normal days off from high school or university. If only I knew how fleeting these moments were.. During one of these trips in the mid to late 1990s, veteran Alepine horse merchant Abdel Qadir Hammami took Radwan Shabareq, my father and I on a drive a couple hours outside Aleppo — now a lawless area infested with ISIS thugs — to see three mares that had just arrived from the desert. This was our chance to see something new and different from the stud farms of our breeder friends. Hammami had brought the three mares for an Alepine man, the owner of an ice cream store who did not know much about horses, but Hammami — then in his nineties — knew what he was getting him. It did not take long for the old man to admit that he had the mares smuggled from the other side of the…
Also from my scans is this photo of old Leelas, the Kuhaylah Khdiliyah (an ‘Ajuz branch, highly esteemed in the Syrian desert) of ‘Abbud ‘Ali al-‘Amud of the ‘Aqaydat Bedouins, which he got from ‘Udayb al-Waqqa’ of the ‘Anazah. He was so attached to her, he would not sell her at any price, even though he was poor and he was getting handsome offers for her. He would not breed her either, because he thought no stallion was worthy of her. In old age, he agreed to lease her to Qatari diplomat Yusuf al-Rumayhi for a year, where she produced a filly by his Egyptian stallion Okaz (Wahag x Nazeema), and when she was in extreme old age, ‘Abbud finally conceded that the Hamdani Ibn Ghurab stallion al-A’war was worthy of her, so he agreed to breed her to him, and she produced a stallion, Saad al-Thani. She is in her late twenties in this photo. Note the extremely deep jowl, the small cup-shaped muzzle, the lower lip longer than the upper one, the bone structure in the face, and the large eye, naturally lined and extended in black, like kohl makeup. That’s how the Kuhaylans derive their name.
I took this photo in the early 1990s, on one of the trips my father and I used to take to the Biqa’ valley of Lebanon to see our horses. A flock of sheep grazing in the morning sunrise.
I have been saying it over and over, but the Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare FinDeSiecle CF, with Jeannie Lieb, has one of the most beautiful heads I have seen on an Arabian horse. It’s perfection, in my opinion. The eyelashes, the muzzle, the deep jaws, the proportion. A case study.
He is growing nicely. Just in July he was still a big colt, a bit clumsy; now he is a young stallion. He put up quite a show, and has some of the trotting and prancing action of his sire Triermain.
The day before yesterday marked a milestone in my breeding career: it was the first time I horse I bred (Wadha in 2010) was ridden by a girl I bred (Solenn in 2012). Solenn was feeling very proud, and it was the first time Wadha was around children, let alone being ridden by someone other than her trainer, Sue. She turned out to be very accepting of young children screaming and running around her. Sue says she will be very reliable as a mount for children.
There is a very nice Facebook page about the Beirut racetrack at its beginnings, when it was called “Hippodrome des Pins”. It’s full of historical pictures. Here is one of my favorites, which came with the following caption: “The first race meeting was held on 06.10.1921 at the Hippodrome: the meeting consisted of 4 races, each one including between 3 and 5 horses.”
It’s time for little Haykal Al Arab, born two months ago — on August 11, 12.30 am — to make his online debut. He was born three weeks early, so I waited till he grew stronger before showing pictures. He is by Monologue CF out of CSA Baroness Lady (Sab El Dine x Takelma Rosanna). He is an example of a rare cross of a Davenport stallion over a mostly Straight Egyptian dam (three crosses to Alaa El Din) with the addition of the code-red, rarest of the rare Ferida tail female of the Ma’naqi Sbayli strain. I like him VERY much, and I now somewhat regret letting go of his sire Monologue CF before seeing what Monologue would produce. I think little Haykal takes a lot after his sire: the strong, long, flat croup, the very broad forehead, the long neck, the huge eyes surrounded with black skin, and above all, the delicately tipped ears. His dam has the black skin and the long croup too. His back looks like it would be shorter than his sire’s, and closer to his dam’s, whose back is so short she almost does not have one. He does credit to both his dam and…
A rare photo of the Tunisian stallion Raoui (Cheikh El Ourbane x Bornia by Loubieh x Benti by Ibn Fayda I) has surfaced on the Internet, and I just gleaned it and saved it here. He was a great racehorse, winning 19 races in Tunisia. He was the son of the last desert-bred stallion imported to Tunisia from the Syrian desert.
I had all abut forgotten about this long article, in two parts, adapted from a presentation I made at the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse’s February 2005 Symposium on Preservation. Both parts were previously published in Al Khaima, the Institute’s magazine (part 1 in vol. II no. 2; part 2 in vol. 3 no. 1) as “The State of Arabian Breeding in its Area of Origin.” Oh, how much worse has it gotten since 2005… 2020 update: I added a link to this blog, in case the page it is on is taken down.
One of my favorite Davenport mares alive. Could have been a mare the Shammar bred. I live that wild bird look. Photo C. Emmert who owns her.
I am digging into older pictures of Jadiba and reminiscing about how grand a broodmare she is. Too bad I came across her in her later days and that she only produced one foal. By the way, there is something special and attractive about the shape, thickness and setting of the tail in these horses of predominantly Blunt bloodlines. The thickness of the muscle around the tail was a feature the Bedouins of Arabian held in high esteem in their horses. See close up below.
It was taken by Ursula Guttman (thanks Betty Finke for the credit), and features the 1925 Saqlawi Jadran son of Mabrouk Manial out of Negma that was sent from Egypt to Germany’s Weil stud. What tail carriage this line has.
This desert bred Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from the ‘Anazah in Syria was one of the purest, noblest and best Arabian mares in the world, in my opinion. Now gone, like so much else in this dear place. Photos from the early 1980s in Syria.
Hassan Bey (Ghawi x Ghazil by Abu Zeyd) a full brother to Gulida’s dam.
and an eternal favorite of mine, among Davenport stallions. What class, what style, what carriage, what prancing.. Pedigree here.
The fifth horse I have bred since coming to the USA fifteen years ago was born August 11, a bay Ma’naqi Sbayli by Monologue CF out of CSA Baroness Lady. A Davenport and Egyptian cross with a tail female to Lady Anne Blunt’s Ferida. He was born three weeks early. At first his mother refused to nurse him and he was too weak to stand on his own, but thanks to the heroic efforts of Sue Moss, who held him up and fed him every two hours for thirty six hours, he survived, and has since caught up, and is now doing very well. His name will be Haykal Al Arab. In old Arabic Haykal means strong and tall, and that’s what I want him to become, after being born weak and small. Sixth century AD poet-king (and king of poets) Imru’l Qays composed this famous verse about his stallion: wa-qad aghtadi wa-al-tayru fi wukanatiha bi-munjaridin qayyada al-awabidi haykal-i I set off in the [early] morning, when the birds are [still] in their nests, on a strong and tall short-haired [horse] [whose speed is such that] it makes [fast moving] wild animals [seem] shackled and motionless In Arabic, Haykal also means temple, as in a strong and…
He is a slow grower, but has already made a lot of progress. I believe this horse will show his full potential once he’s reached the age of 7 or 8. Jamr is the son of Jadiba daughter of Jabinta daughter of Bint Malakah daughter of Malakah daughter of Zoe daughter of Serije daughter of Sedjur daughter of Aared daughter of *Wadduda.
Hansi Heck-Melnyk is one of two women (the other being Tzviah Idan) behind my acquaintance with Asil Arabian horses in the USA. In 1994, at the WAHO conference in Morocco, she saw a teen-ager sitting on his own at a dinner, started talking to him, then after he went back home in the pre-internet age, started to supply him with articles and books about asil Arabians. In 1995, she introduced him to Joe Ferriss and a long correspondence ensued before they finally met in the US in 2000 (Tzviah was there too). In 1996, she made that teen-ager an offer to study at the University of Florida in Jacksonville, which he declined. That teenager was me.
I was thinking this morning, after re-reading this entry here; the shape of Domow’s head as seen in these early twentieth century pictures provides an additional argument for her being by *Astraled (Mesaoud x Queen of Sheba), who had a large, long and rather plain head, instead of Abu Zeyd (Mesaoud x Rose Diamond) who had a much shorter head and a finer muzzle.
“Belle”, a.k.a. Jadah BelloftheBall (Invictus Al Krush x Belladonna CHF) was confirmed in foal to my Wadd Al Arab (Triermain CF x Wisteria CF) two days ago. It’s just great to have a home-bred stallion at hand to breed to.
This year a Bezatal grand-daughter won the Tevis Cup 100 miles ride 50 years after Bezatal’s first win in 1965.
SMR Filouette is 14 years old and her rider, Potato Richardson, third time Tevis Cup winner (and 22nd time finisher) is 73 this year. Respect. The mare is general list, tail female *Werdi through Kapiti and her daughter Talima by Oriental (like my Mayyassah)
If you happen to take good care of your horses, or you if you know that you will take of your first horse, and are interested in starting a new preservation breeding program centered around the esteemed Arabian horse strain of Ma’naqi Sbayli, please contact me: ealdahdah@hotmail.com I have a mare from that strain, 10 months pregnant, and she and/or her foal would be available to the right home to start such a program. Below is a noted in Arabic penned by one of Homer Davenport’s Arab guests during his 1906 trip to North Arabia to buy desert-bred Arabian horses. Part of it — the second paragraph — reads: “There is no better and more authentic strain to be found among the Arabs [Bedouins] than that of the Ma’naqi Sbayli which Mr. Davenport purchased. The Ma’naqi is from the Arab [Bedouins] of Gomussah, from the tribe of the Sba’ah ‘Anazah, and he is from the best strain in their possession; the name of his owner is al-Sbayli.”
Note the huge eye. He is leaving tonight to go to Kathryn Toth in Ohio, where he will be used on her two rare Arabian mares, a Hadbah and a Hamdaniyah. I want to thank Pamela Klein for her gift of him, and Darlene Summers for the chance to co-own him with her.
Another shot of Monologue from last weekend. Click on the picture to expand it.
This is the latest mare to join my herd, along with her 15 year-old daughter who is also black (not that it matters). Juans Aana (El Reata Juan x Suuds Juli Aana by PRI Saqlawi Suud) is a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, going back in tail female to Haidee imported by Major Roger Upton from the Gomussah Bedouin tribe of North Arabia in 1874. The mare is 25 years old, so don’t mind the sway back at her venerable age. That’s how the Gulastra sire line horses age, including the great Gulastra himself. A great-great-grand-daughter of Gulastra in the sire line with three additional crosses to him in the pedigree (and also to *Aziza, *Roda, *Zarife, *Fadl, etc). Her eyes are huge, and I love the prominent facial bones, the sloping shoulders, the clear legs and the long neck. I have high hopes to get this mare in foal to one of my stallions before it is too late.
CSA Baroness Lady “Lady” (Sar El Dine x Takelma Rosanna by Prince Charmming) is a 1999 mare from the rare Ma’naqi Sbayli line tracing to Ferida of Lady Anne Blunt. She is 10 months in foal to Monologue CF. She is for sale to a good home, if you know someone.
Jamr will be three years old very soon. He is coming along, but still needs more time, at least two more years to show his full potential. He’s always had nice ears, tipped inwards and slightly backwards at the top, that deep jowl keeps getting deeper, and the eye is showing better. Jamr al Arab is by Vice Regent CF out of Jadiba. He is a Saqlawi al-Abd tracing to *Wadduda, the war mare of Hakim (“Hatchim” in Bedouin dialect) Ibn Mhayd, the leader of the Northern ‘Anazah in 1906 (Nuri Ibn Sha’lan was the head of the southern ‘Anazah then). So far he looks a lot like his maternal grandsire Dib, overall. There is a bit of the Regency CF too.
This is Jadah BelloftheBall (aka “Belle”, and I am going to change this name with the registry). The background is an eyesore, but she otherwise looks good. She is a 2002 Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, tracing to *Nufoud, a mare from the stables of Ibn Saud. Her sire is Invictus Al Krush and her dam is one of my favorite Arabian mares, Belladonna CHF, by Audobon out of LD Rubic, another favorite.
This is my DA Ginger Moon (DB Destiny Moniet x Kumence RSI by Monietor), a Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, tail female to Rabanna carrying a high percentage of horses from the lines of Abbas Pasha and Ali Pasha Sharif. Her body is still too thin to take a full conformation shot. She was in foal to the Bahraini stallion Mlolshaan Hager Solomon, but did not keep the pregnancy. Next time I will bring one of my old Bedouin halters. I never think of these things beforehand.
So yesterday and today I went up to Pennsylvania to see my horses, and Jeannie Lieb met me there. I learned a lot from Jeannie about proper nutrition and hoof care, and I took hundreds of photos of my horses — with the iPhone unfortunately. Still, many are not that bad. Here are a couple of Wadha. Click on them to enlarge them. Wadha, born in 2010, is by Javera Thadrian out of Wisteria CF, by Triermain CF. They are three of my four favorite Davenport Kuhaylan Hayfis. Wadha is now being trained with the lounge; she has learned to lead, trot and canter, and just had a saddle put on her.
Gulastra (Astraled x Gulnare by Rodan). Charles Craver has taken video of him at B. Tankersley in D.C. at age 30-plus.
This filly is the best news of the foaling season in the US so far. A young Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah (yay!), by a Doyle (100% old Blunt) stallion out of a mare with seven crosses to Julep (Gulastra x *Aziza). She is the result of the first cross of a stallion from the Julep-Gulastra-Astraled tail male to Mesaoud to a mare from the Ghadaf-Ribal-Seyal tail male to Mesaoud ever, and the first cross between two different tail males to Mesaoud in at least 90 years. Think of it, the Doyle horses were never bred to the Julep horses. I like this filly, and I like her dam SS Lady Guenevere too, especially that purple chestnut color. The tail female is from Jane Ott, back to Haidee, imported by Major Roger Upton from Arabia, from the Gmassah Bedouins of Sulayman ibn Mirshid to be precise. That’s the wellspring of Ma’naqi Sbayli. The famous *Haleb was from there, too.