and here’s Wadd (Triermain x Wisteria by Triermain) who is 9 months old and who looks a lot like the rest of the family, especially his older brother Tantris, now dead, by Javera Thadrian.
Yesterday Anita Westfall (photographer emeritus) was at Craver Farms and she took thousands of pictures. Anita is not a professional photographer, she does it just for fun, yet her name will come down in the breed’s hirtory as the creator of some of the Arabian breed’s most iconic shots, including these of Prince Hal (Tripoli x Dharebah), Brimstone (Dharantez x Tyrebah), Monsoon (Tripoli x Ceres), Tybalt (Tripoli x Asara) and Javera Thadrian (Thane x HB Diandra) — click on the links. Photos of Anita are known to have converted dozens of people, young and old to the Arabian horse cause. Anyway, Anita took some photos of my horses there, including the young Wadhah and Wadd, and the stallion Monologue, the latter jointly owned with Darlene Summers. Here’s Monologue’s:
I am in Cairo for work, for the next few days, coming from Tunis. Very interesting time, horse wise and politics wise. I can’t say the same about the traffic though. I will never get used to it.
Abdur Rahman Mohamed is the new owner of Lexington CF (Regatta CF x Anthesis CF by Plantagenet) and he sent me these photos of his stallion, which the Davenport breeders community thought was lost in a West Virginia sale. Not professional shots (heck, none of the recent photos on this website are professional shots but I couldn’t care less), but they do show some of the horse, who is one of the greats. He is happy and loved and lives near Chicago, IL.
There an ongoing email conversation between a number of us about coming up with a list of existing priority stallions of Davenport lines with no progeny so far, which should not be gelded if at all possible, or only gelded after being collected and frozen, following the recent gelding (for valid reasons) of a good stallion. This goes along the lines of other ongoing conversations in preservation circles in the USA about prioritizing preservation projects, because we obviously can’t save them all. If you have suggestion for horses on this priority list, feel free to come up with them. One rule: it can’t be your own stallion. It would be too easy.
Not sure how clear this drawing of the mare Sahara is. She is the desert bred Kuhaylat al-Mimrah mare imported to Poland from Arabia in1845 by Count Julius Dzieduszycki, but don’t you think she looks an awful lot like the mare GH Janet (Thane x HB Diandra) at 0:21 in the youtube video here:
I am back in hotel room in Tunis after a long way at work, and I am looking at a copy of Al Khamsa Arabians III I brought with me to give to a friend in Egypt. I just came across a paragraph from an aticle by Michael Bowiling, reprinted from the Sept/Oct 1997 issue of Arabian Visions that I had not noticed before: As to the notion sometimes encountered that preservation breeding is not compatible with selection for improvement or with breeding “quality horses”, I think there are two separate ideas here: we want to improve our individual animals, in the sense that breeding to combine more of the best features of our kind of horse in each individual. What we do not subsribe to is the conventional vision that one can “improve the breed”, which seems to mean, in practice, “make it look more like some other breed”. Most of us are breeding within specific pedigree limits precisely because in our experience they turn out specific kinds of good Arabians”. I wish I knew how to put things as concisely and eloquently as Michael does.
Today, my 27 year old Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir) was bred to Monologue CF (Riposte X Soliloquy CF by Regency CF), through artificial insemination at Tom and Jess Maiyer’s in Galion, OH. If she conceives, there will be an embryo transfer to one of the Maiyer’s mares. This is a foal I have been planning to breed for at least seven years now. Tom and Jess are piloting an experience in repro breeding services (AI, ET, embryo freezing) jointly with Galloping T vet services for preservation purposes. Another of my mares is there too, the K. Haifiyah Javera Chelsea (Thane x HB Diandra) as well as the Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare ASF Ubeidiyah from the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse.
Today the magnificent Clarion CF (Regency CF x Chinoiserie CF by Dharanad) owned by Kirby Drennan bred the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Cinnabar Myst (ASF David x Mystalla by SL Jacob).
Is anyone keeping a log of part-Davenport Arabians? They used to be featured in Craver Farms’ newsletter Our Quest, but I haven’t seen a tally in many years. Isn’t this something an Al Khamsa volunteer would want to do? By the way, I am longing for a push to revive the identity of “Old American” asil Arabians as a group of horses, which are so different from the New Egyptian (post 1958) horses that constitute the overwhelming majority of show horses qualifying as Al Khamsa. These Old American Arabians, which as a group would include Davenports, Babson Egyptians, Doyles, plus *Turfa, Sirecho, Hallany Mistanny, plus horses from the Hamidie, Huntington, Harris, Brown and other older bloodlines, look a lot more like each other than each group looks like the New Egyptian horses as a group. They represent a set of horse types– which I lump under “Old American”, while recognizing wide variations within it– that is worth preserving in its own right, without further admixture of New Egyptian blood (the invading Nazeer and Moniet El Nefous influence, broadly speaking).
Check out this journal article by Louise Sweet in a 1965 issue of the “American Anthropologist” on “Camel Raiding of North Arabian Bedouin: A Mechanism of Ecological Adaptation”. The entire article is available for viewing free of charge.
Somehow I missed this 6 years old article on the Shammar of Iraq in French weekly Paris-Match newspaper, which is translated into English here. I wish I could find the original, so I can see the photos, especially that one: [PHOTO CAPTION (page 74): Proud of belonging to a dynasty of glorious horsemen, Sheikh Abdullah shows us a purebred Arab, one of the twenty horses in his personal stud farm.]
Abu al-Tayyeb is another one of these early Government Stud stallions in Syria, as was Sultan. That photo was also taken in 1958. He was reportedly a son of Krush Halba, the Kuhaylan Krush stallion from Lebanon that was sold to Turkey where he became a founding sire for the Turkish Arabian horse program. His dam was a Kuhaylat al-Krush from the Hama area in central Syria, and tracing to the Anazah Bedouins. His line is likely to be related to that of the Davenport imported mare *Werdi.
Video by Carol Mingst. I don’t know who the grey mare is, but she sure is impressive..
I just spoke to an old friend from Syria today. The economic situation is some parts of the country is so dire, cost of fodder has been multiplied by six, so much that people have been selling their asil mares and stallions to slaughterhouses in Iraq. I learned for instance that the young Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion from Shammar I had my eyes set on (below) was sold by the pound for meat. So sad, yet children are dying by the scores in both Syria and Iraq, so I will not shed a tear over a horse.
Bill Cooke gave Jeanne Craver permission, who gave me permission to use this previously unpublished *King John photo, courtesy the Arabian Horse Trust collections at the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington. He was a Saqlawi Jadran from the marbat of Dari al-Mahmud, Shaykh of Zawba’ Shammar in Abu Ghraib. This was the best marbat of Saqlawi Jadran in Arabia in the 1920s/30s. Please use proper credit (above) when using. The line died out in Al Khamsa with the death of Beau Nusik (Nusik x Reshan Azab by Janeo, a son of *King John) in 1984. Thanks, Bill and Jeanne.
I had never heard of this branch of Kuhaylan until Radwan Shabareq told me about a number of Kuhaylat al-Beed (plural of al-Abyad, femine al-Baida) at the stud of Dr. Iskandar Qassis in Aleppo in the 1960s. I don’t know from which Bedouin tribe they came from.
I am very fond of these, because Arabic names in the period before Islam did not yet have a religious connotation. One of my favorites is the masculine name Mu’awiyah. It’s the name of the first Ummayyad Caliph, Mu’awiyah Ibn Abi Sufyan (661-680 AD), as well as that one of the kings of the ancient South-Arabian kingdom of Kinda in the third century A.D, whose capital was Qaryat al-Faw, in south central Arabia. It’s also my cousin’s name.. Interestingly, although a masculine name, it means something like “barking bitches”, or better still, “whining bitches”. By the way, the article I linked to above mentions a number of Arabic inscriptions from the collection of Sam Roach of ARAMCO. I wander if that’s the same as the importer of four Roach Blue Start horses to the USA.
Bassam Hawarneh just informed me that the 2002 Hamdani Simri mare Jadah Selma (Paul Maud Dib x LR Jane by Maxxum CF), one of the last asil tail female descendants of the Blunt/Ali Pasha Sherif mare Sobha (Wazir x Selma) is now a riding horse in Alpharetta, GA. She is next on the Preservation Task Force’s agenda.
A lot has been taking place lately on the preservation front, which has not been appearing on this blog. It’s not quite for lack of time, it’s just that at some point this past year, I realized I needed to move from talking about things to helping get things done. And since a lot of that is process, and talking to people, and talking people into getting horses from vanishing lines, I have not been reporting on it here. The Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force, which I chair, has been particularly busy. Lately it scored a big success: the 2002 mare Jadah BellofTheBall (Invictus Al Krush x Belladonna CHF by Audobon out of LD Rubic), from the rare tail female line to the desert bred Kuahylat al-‘Ajuz mare *Nufoud of King Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Saud, and one of the last Sharp mares in the world (no Blunt/Crabbet blood in the pedigree) has been saved from a difficult situation and acquired by a dedicated preservation breeder. Jeannie Lieb of Carlisle, MA, is the new lucky owner of this nice mare, and a breeding to Triermain CF (Javera Thadrian x Demetria by Lysander) is planned for this summer. This development places the…
Teymur from Germany sent this old photo of the desert berd mare Fazila, a Jilfah by a Ma’naqi Sbayli, imported to Turkey in 1920s.
This weekend I went to see my mare 24 year old mare Jadiba in Pennsylvania. She is due in two weeks. I am praying for a successful delivery, and for a filly. These were the best photos I could get on the downhill lot.
Like Tripoli (Hanad x Poka), but even finer. Regatta CF (MV Reflection x Frill by Adrian) Photos by owner Cindi Pollman
Back in 2005, when we had just met, Hazaim al-Wair and I used to exchange horse photos on a quasi daily basis. One day he sent me this and two other photos of the stallions maintained by the Syrian Government’s Ministry of Agriculture in 1958. This photo shows the Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Sultan.
Also from sporthorse-data.com is this photo of the 1969 ‘Ubayyah mare Bint Bint Muhaira (Ibn Fadl x Bint Muhaira by Sirech0), and the 1967 Hamdani stallion Sulka (Ibn Fadl x Blue Start by Ibn Fadl). Where are the descendants of these great horses? There should be hundreds of them today.
It’s the first time I see this photo of the 1946 Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion Ibn Fadl (*Fadl x Turfa). I can’t help but marvel at how great a mare this *Turfa was. Photo from Sporthorse-data.com. It’s heartening to know he was put to good use and sired at least 50 foals.
Yasser Ghanim Barakat sent me this recent photo of the asil Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq Tahawi mare Felha (El Kharass x San’aa), aged 25. Felha was bred by Shaikh Soliman Eliwa al-Tahawi and is now owned by his grandson Hossam Abdullah Soliman. An ongoing campaign is currently taking place to get her and 11 other Tahawi mares accepted by the EAO and mtDNA testing was done to compare this line with that of another Tahawi Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq mare, *Malouma, as well with the existing K. al-Nawwaq lines in Syria and Lebanon.
A beautiful new website by Sandi Olson and Peter Bryant on another major passion of mine, Arabian archaeology.
Peter Harrigan’s latest article in Saudi Aramco World, on potential evidence for early equid domestication in Saudi Arabia.
Patrick from Belgium sent me the list of the Tunisian Arabian stallions accredited by the Tunisian government’s Fondation Nationale D’Amelioration de la Race Chevaline (FNARC), which is under the Ministry of Agriculture. He tells me that 30-50% of the stallions are still from the old Tunisian bloodlines (at least on paper), and the rest from the invasive French part-bred “pseudo-Arabian” lines, and now the pseudo-Arabians from the Amer-type Saudi Arabian bloodlines. Patrick likes the first two on the below list, and so do I. http://www.fnarc.nat.tn/etalons2012/TURKI.pdf http://www.fnarc.nat.tn/etalons2012/GABER.pdf http://www.fnarc.nat.tn/etalons2012/HAMZA.pdf http://www.fnarc.nat.tn/etalons2012/HYRAM.pdf http://www.fnarc.nat.tn/etalons2012/KAHLOUN.pdf http://www.fnarc.nat.tn/etalons2012/MOUSSOUL.pdf
Check out this comprehensive and really lovely 1972 interview with Dame Violet Dickson (1896-1991), the wife of H.R.P. Dickson, British Political Resident in Kuwait from 1929-1936. It vividly describe the old way of life in this Eastern Arabian port, with a face to the sea and a face to the desert, and how modernization brought that old way of life to a rapid demise. I am in Kuwait now, and have a terrible case of insomnia.
The beautiful Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Jadera (Jadib x Im Gulnar by Nusi) of Doyle/Crabbet breeding is a close relative of my Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta by Jadib), and does look like her in some ways.
I have written time and again that this horse was one of my all time favorites, judging from pictures only. I own a daughter of his full blood-sister, Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), and I am trying to breed her through ET. I hope something good will come out.
Anyone has the new contacts of Pam Baker of Myrtle Beach, SC? Her old email is bouncing back..
Does anyone know anyone who knows anyone who did an update on Miss Ott’s list of Sub-List *Nureddin’s? The task is daunting, and I don’t want to reinvent the wheel. I am curious to see what’s left that is otherwise Al Khamsa eligible.. Just out of curiosity.
A beautiful photo of the 1962 stallion Fa Knight (Fa Turf x Konight by Kaniht), a grandson of the desert-bred import *Turfa and a great grand-son of the desert-bred import *Samirah.
This is the first time I see a decent picture of this stallion, who is in the pedigree of two mares I have leased. They really have the same body shape as him.
From Fabienne Vesco in France comes this photo of the Jilfan Dhawi stallion Aftan Beni Sakr (Hortal El Din x Tahiz Beni Sakr by Jahir)
This 2005 video by Carol Mingst features some of the nicest Davenport Arabian stallions and mares on the US West Coast, all from Craver Farms: Betty Ball’s Dubloon CF (Lysander x Decibel); Michael Bowling’s glorious Trilogy (Prince Hal x Trill) and also Shiraz CF (Regency CF x Ariadne CF); Diane Lyons’ En Pointe CF (Triermain CF x Pirouette CF), Carrie Cabak’s Nuance CF (Odysseus x Audacity), and Lustre CF (Javera Thadrian x Audacity). It also shows some of Michael Bowling Davenport colts.
The informal working group on the Arabian horses of the Tahawi in Egypt is unearthing new written and oral evidence of the Tahawi horses day after day. Stay tuned for two upcoming stories on the French/Tunisian desert bred stallion Nasr, a Saqlawi Shaifi from the Tahawi, and the US import *Malouma, a Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah also from Tahawi breeding.
Another one of the nice tail female *Muhaira horses is the asil ‘Ubayyan stallion El Rabih (Al Felluje x Sharifa Abkar by Famaje), bred by Buddy Argo, and owned by Susan Whitman until his death in 2008.
I am a big fan of the asil Arabians that trace to the ‘Ubayyan mare *Muhaira. I believe she is as important an influence as *Turfa in US pedigrees, especially the ones close to the desert. The mare below, Maur Halawa (Arrogaance x Maur Blue Treasure by Arrogaance), bred by Maureen Matheson, is one of these tail female *Muhaira mares, and is very reminiscent of the good desert-bred broodmares that I recall when growing up in Lebanon and Syria.
Jeanne Craver sent me this link with amazing pictures of Egypt in the 1870s.
Since it’s that time of the year, and my work is leaving me a few minutes to breathe, here are photos of another new 2012 arrival, the filly Qoreibet, daughter of the Syrian stallion Hussam al-Shamal and of the Shuwaymat Sabbah mare Qhadidja (Ourki x Quejala by Fawzan), from the breeding program of Adrien Deblaise in France, and traces to Moroccan lines.
Also from Kim Davi’s Krush program comes the mare HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush by Sportin Life), bred by Carol Lyons in 2005… … the 2001 mare HH Sonata Krush (Preseus KF x Sarra Al Krushah by Asar Al Krush) … and the 2009 daughter HH Serafina Krush, by Quantum LD as well as the 2009 stallion HH Tantalus Krush (Quantum LD x Kashmir Krush by Sportin Life) and finally, the new colt’s sister, the 2010 filly Sabella Al Krush (Pulcher Ibn Reshan x HH Nadira Krush), who is also very promising Many of Kim’s horses also trace to Jackson Hensley’s old-established Kuhaylan Krush program.. and some of the exchanges between the two programs are pretty recent.
Kim Davis shared with me these photos of very promising young Kuhaylan al-Krush colt from her “marbat”. He is now about a month old is by her stallion HH Solstice Krush (Brass Band x Sarra Al Krushah) and the mare HH Nadira Krush (RC Janub Krush x Naufali Al Krush).
Also from British Pathé comes this short movie of some of the stallions at the Kellogg Ranch in California; if you can’t find it, type “British Pathé” in Google; click on the site, and search for “Arabian Horses”. RJ Cadranell and Michael Bowling have identified most of the stallions here, too.
Just a dropping a couple of lines to say that I look forward to reading the upcoming Khamsat, which includes — an article on Vanishing Lines (*Al Mashoor and Euphrates, represented by the mare Sarita Bint Raj), — ground-breaking research article by R.J. Cadranell about the Abbas Pasha mare Ghazieh (one of the best articles I have read on Abbas Pasha horses in years, based on original documentation), — a write up by Jeanne Craver of my presentation at last year’s Al Khamsa Convention in Pennsylvania, on a case study of a modern Syrian line (the Shuwayman Sabbah of the Jarba Shammar) and its link to US imports of the 19th and 20th century. — a report by Rosemary Doyle on the WAHO Conference in Qatar. It’s nice to see this small, self-funded publication featuring so many cutting edge topics in one issue. I love the spirit the Khamsat embodies. Homegrown, volonteer based, yet global in it reach and cutting edge in its coverage.
This afternoon, Jeanne Craver some of us this wonderful footage of Crabbet stallions in 1922 (click here) . Nasik and Raseem are featured among others. I have watched four times already. What a delight to see these stallions moving. I really want to know who the second stallion in the circle is, the one with the high tail carriage.
If you have a Facebook account, click here and take a look at this wonderful slideshow of photographs of the Jordanian Majali Bedouins in the 1940s, taken by Australian photographers Frank Hurley. Wow. Only the Raswan photo collection comes close to the beauty of these pictures. Link shared by Majid al-Sayigh. Let me know if the link works.
Anita Enander sent me this very interesting study on the “Genetic Structure of Nomadic Bedouin from Kuwait“. It’s about people, not horses.
A recent photo of the 2006 Dahman Shahwan stallion DB Ibn Najem Huda at the stud of Rodger Vance Davis in Illinois. The rider in the photo is the Davis’ head trainer, Sarah Sanders who has been preparing him to be another one of her demo horses in her Ride with Excellence clinics. Photo by Lone Oak Photography.
Also from Teymur comes this photo of the 1981 Turkish Arabian mare Almimruhiye.16 of the precious Kuhaylan al-Mimrah marbat of the Shaqfah family in Hama, Syria. The hujjah of her ancestress in the tail female, the original Almumruhiye is on the WAHO website, under “General Interest” then under “Turkish Stud Book Report”, and is reproduced below. She was purchased in the Syrian city of Hama in 1936 at the age of 5. Allah Almighty said in his precious book Q’uran ‘The love of passion that comes from women and children has attracted mankind, as well as accumulated gold and silver treasures, pedigreed horses, livestock and crops.’ The Asil Horses are blessed and valued for that Allah Almighty mentioned them many times in his precious book. The Republic of Turkey purchased from Hama by the help of Ali Saif Aldeem from the people of Hama some Asil Horses. Among them is the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh, her family tree is shown above. We witness that her fourth grandmother the bay is the mare of Hilal Bin Adnan from the Sbaah (Anezeh) and her father is Ma’anagi Sbeli. At Anezeh, she gave birth to the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh whose father is the Ma’anagi Sbeli,…
Kurus, known in Turkey as Baba Kurus and in Lebanon as Krush Halba, was born in the Syrian desert in 1921, first became the foundation stallion of the racing-oriented Lebanese Arabian horse breeding program and was then exported to Turkey where he also founded the Turkish Arabian horse breeding program. Here a photo of a daughter of his, courtesy of Teymur from Turkey. She is SÜBEYHI.4., Grey 1936, Mare, Strain: MANEKIYE SÜBEYHI. Sire: KURUSH.1921 OA (Baba Kuru?) , Grey. Dam: SÜBEYHI.2.1929, Grey.
I have been telling you about that Hamdani Simri line in Europe, the one from the mare Sobha of Ali Pasha Sharif, which went to the Crabbet Stud and eventually to the Courthouse Stud. A Hungarian preservation breeder, Laszlo Kiraly, bought what seems to be the last three registered asil mares from that line, Saraly El Shahin. The other two still need to be located. There might be a couple more who are not registered. The mares have been through a lot, after leaving the care of their breeder and last preservation owner, Penelope Pembleton. Laszlo sent me pictures of Saralee, who is still recovering and still in poor shape, some of which are below. I also found some pictures of one of Saralee’s ancestors in the tail female, the beautiful and very desert-like Courthouse mare Somra II (Fedaan x Safarjal by Rasim). He sire was the desert-bred Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Zubayni stallion Fedaan, imported by Mr Clark of the Courthouse Stud to the UK in the 1920s. With desert-bred, well authenticated, beautiful grey horses like Fedaan and Mirage in the UK in the 1920s, there was really no need for Skowronek. Oh well.
Ten days ago, on April 8th, Pamela Klein drove to Pine Grove PA, with her Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Aurene CF (Triermain CF x Aureole CF by Fair Sir) pictured below, and he bred the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Bint al-Barra (ASF David x Mystalla by San Luis Jacob).
Monologue CF (Riposte CF x Soliloquy CF by Regency CF) is coming along, and is closer to what he used to look like some years ago. I hope he will breed a couple mares this year.
The best news for 2012 on the preservation front came yesterday from Hungary, and I am not quite over it yet. Preservation breeder Laszlo Kiraly was able to acquire a precious treasure: the 18 year old Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Saralee El Shahin (Ansata Aly Jamil x Saree, by Salaa El Dine x Selmah by Shakhs x Sappho by Bleinheim), one of the two or three European asil descendants left to the Ali Pasha Sherif mare Sobha (Wazir x Selma). From a sheer preservation perspective, this mare is precious is so many ways: first, because of its tail female; second, because of the extraordinarily high amount of Ali Pasha Sherif bloodlines she carries through her great grand dam Sappho (Bleinheim x Selima by Bahram x Siwa II by Rheoboam) pictured below; third, because of the two lines she carries to the asil Courthouse Stud desert bred imports Nimr and Fedaan, who have virtually disappeared from the global asil gene pool (save for another line in South Africa to Nimr but also to the third Courthouse desert bred import Atesh); fourth, because of the last asil line left to the Blunt desert import Meshura; fifth, because this is the only asil Crabbet damline…
Today Wisteria CF left the care of Craver Frams in the trailer of her proud new owner Kathy Busch. Along with her rode Enchante CF (Zachary x Velveteen by Sir). I am sad to see Wisteria go but I am very happy that Kathy is the one who has her now, because Kathy keeps her horses for a long time and takes great care of them. Wisteria leaves behind a colt and a filly, and I could not wish for more. I am also forever grateful to Charles and Jeanne Craver for having kept her at their place, after selling her to me, and having taken such good care of her over the past five years. The day before, Javera Chelsea (Thane x HB Diandra by Mariner) and Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir) left Craver Farms to go to Tom and Jess Maiyer in Galion, Ohio, for embryo transfer.