Edouard Aldahdah

Wadd October 2015

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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.

Solenn on Wadha!

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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 … Read more

Beirut racetrack at the beginnings

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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, … Read more

Raoui, 1965 asil stallion from Tunisia

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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 … Read more

The Desert Arabian in its Homeland today — article from 2005

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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 … Read more

Beautiful Jadiba

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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 … Read more

A queen

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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.

Hansi

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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 … Read more

Domow as an *Astraled daughter

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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 … Read more

Goodbye Monologue

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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.  

Lady this afternoon

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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.  

Belle this afternoon

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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 … Read more

Young EAO stallions

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Of the new generation of stallions rising at the EAO thanks to Ali Shaarawi’s tireless efforts, the Saqlawi Gabour (El Ragel x Gobrana by Kasemy x Gomanah by Maleeh x Bedaat by Ibn Akhtal) is certainly my favorite. He is not striking, but is well built and well balanced.

Back to the USA in July

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So we will be heading back to the USA this summer after two years in Egypt. I am both happy and not happy about this development. I don’t know what it is, or rather, I don’t know how else to put it, but in Egypt, gravity, in the sense of the force that ties you … Read more

New old Doha

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I am in Doha, Qatar for two days. I just came back from a visit to the brand new “old suq” of Suq Waqif. It’s an anthropological experience of the first order, in how a country can and did re-imagine and reinvent its past, or rather bits and pieces of the past of many neighboring countries, … Read more

Oldest color photo of Damascus — 1908

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This was taken in a Damascus interior by French photographer Gervais Courtellemont in 1908, and gleaned off the internet. The Facebook website I got it from notes that the oldest color photo ever was taken by the Lumiere brothers in Lyon in 1907 using the same autochrome technology. What epitomes of refinement old Damascus and … Read more

Lady Anne Blunt’s grave

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Today was an important and solemn day of my two-year stay in Egypt. I found the Cairo cemetery where Lady Anne Blunt is buried and the old lady who guards it led me to her tomb. The “noble lady of the horses” was right there. I had a thought for many of you, and wished you … Read more

Hope springs (3)

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A newly born Kuhaylah Hayfiyah filly of Davenport bloodlines by Presto CF (Ibn Alamein x Pretty Fancy by Ionian) out of Du Soleil BPA (Triermain CF x Circe by Odysseus) at Claudia and Jim Burris. The dam is a Triermain daughter out of a Triermain sister.

Hope springs (2)

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This wonderful, very promising black Kuhaylat al-Krush filly was born this month at Kim Davis’ in Illinois, out of HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush LD by Sportin Life). After the devastating tragedy that  befell the group of Krush mares in Texas, she is one of two rays of hope for the next … Read more

Mohamed Sherif Pasha

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The other day I was on the 16th floor of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance (the one where they have this impressive portrait gallery of all former ministers of finance), and I saw a painting of Muhammad Sherif Pasha (with a tenure date around 1840, don’t remember exactly), with the mention “father of Ali Sherif … Read more

Hope springs

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From Carrie Slayton, a fellow Arabian horse preservationist (thank God for these angels): “Polynesia LD foaled a lovely bay Sharp filly April 23rd,sire is the Davenport stallion Fire Dragon LF. She will be named DI (Desert Ice) Pele, for the Hawaiian volcano goddess”.  That’s the same pedigree as this horse, three generations of Davenports on … Read more

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