The short answer is yes. Because strains are just family names given by the Bedouins to Arabian horses that are related through the dam line, there is no reason why one name should be “superior” or “inferior” to another (Is Smith better than Doe, or than Al-Dahdah?) It all boils down to the quality of the individual horse. Some horses are just better than others (I will defer the discussion of what my opinion of a “better” Arabian horse is), and if bred well, these horses may in turn produce better horses, and so on. Other individuals are less good, and if bred poorly, will end up producing inferior horses as well. If these individuals are females that in turn produce females so that the strains can be carried forward, then yes, the result in the very long run is one strain becoming better than the other. In essence, strains improve as a result of sound breeding over long periods of time, and degenerate otherwise. Nevertheless, all strains are all created equal. Lady Anne Blunt, who came as close in understanding Bedouin Arabian horse breeding as any other Westerner ever did, wrote that her stud manager, a Mutayr Bedouin by the name of Mutlaq al-Battal, never ceased to remind her than “All (strains) are…
This question was one of several that were asked to a virtual panel of American, German and Arab breeders and students of Arabian horses, to be featured in Al-Khamsa‘s flaghship publication, Al Khamsa Arabians III. You will no doubt have guessed that the question elicited as many different answers as there were ‘experts’. This was my answer to the question: “Strains are typically a collection of names (Kuhaylan, Saqlawi, Ubayyan, Dahman, etc.) that constitute the Bedouins’ way of identifying a horse and tracing its provenance. This would help them determine whether a horse is an Asil Arabian or not. Strains function very much like family names for human beings. The only difference is that Arabian horses’ family names (i.e., strains) are invariably transmitted through the dam, while in most societies human beings family names are transmitted through the father.”
Let me share with you this picture of one of my all-time favorite desert-bred Arabian mares. *Al-Hamdaniah, the bloody-shouldered mare, was a present from the governor of the oil-rich al-Hasa province of Saudi Arabia to Admiral Richard Lansing Connolly, who brought her to the USA in 1947. Superstitious Bedouins believed that the large reddish spots on some horses’ shoulders were the blood of slain warriors, and considered that these horses brought bad luck to their owners. Others, on the contrary, valued these marks as a sign of purity and good breeding. Take a look at similar markings on the body of the mare Helwah, a Maanaghiyah Sbailiyah born in the Syrian desert in the early 1970s.
A few people come to mind each time I am about to embark on a horse-related endeavor such as this blog. These are the people without whom true Arabian horse breeding – and our understanding of it – would not be what it is today. Some of these people I had the honor to meet and get to know well, others I simply heard of or read about. Robert Mauvy of France is one of them. His enduring contribution to the breed will be featured prominently on this blog. Charles Craver in the United States is another. His and his wife Jeanne’s Craver Farms continue to produce one crop of authentic, desert-like Asil Arabians after another, and his breeding philosophy is an inspiration for many breeders here in the USA. The dedicated Bedouins individuals who handed us these magnificent creatures from time immemorial are yet others whose legacy I reflect upon as I write these lines. The next few entries on this blog will seek to highlight the contribution of some of these Bedouin individuals, and put it on par with that of the great ‘masters’ of Europe and America.