An 1893 grey Hamdani Simri stallion. His dam, Safra, was by the Ali Pasha Sharif stallion Shueyman and out of the Mahmud Bey-Ghezireh mare Sobha. His sire, *Shahwan, has been featured on this blog before, and you can read about him here. Safran was used by the Blunts for breeding, although his influence ended up being pretty much negligible, and he was sold at the 1898 Crabbet Park sale. He had actually been bred to his 2nd dam, Sobha, who produced a grey colt in 1899, “…died immediately, a loss as [Safran] had been sold in 1898.” A description of him, Country Life Illustrated, 7 August 1897: “…but the pick of the basket was a really beautiful four year old named Safran, by Shahwan – Safra (Hamdani Simri). He is quite a pony, only 14h., I think , but a perfect little gentleman, with wonderful power and substance for his size, on the shortest of legs, with long sloping shoulders, short powerful back and loins, the most bloodlike head and neck imaginable, and all quality. He is a perfect little picture, and worth a big price, if only to look at, though I was told…
Scans of an article published July 30th, 1898 for “A Weekly Illustrated Record and Review” popped up recently, revealing photos of Safran (*Shahwan x Safra) and Moallaka (Mesaoud x Meroe). The publication itself was a British illustrated weekly periodical founded in 1891 by Charles Norris Williamson, and was known for printing fairly high-quality photos within its pages. SAFRAN – more on him later. MOALLAKA (If there is another photo of this mare in circulation, I do not know of it.) R.J. Cadranell reports of Moallaka and her dam, Meroe: Moallaka (by Mesaoud) was sold as a two-year-old at the 10th Crabbet sale on July 23, 1898, to George Grey, Esq., if Tunbridge Wells for 147 gs. with her full sister Munfyeh. Their dam was Meroe, an 1885 mare by Kars x Meshura. On Meroe: “In the summer of 1897 Meroe showed symptoms of failing health. Between the beginning of May & the beginning of July she was driven in the team, chiefly as wheeler, and went even long distances, such as from Newbuildings to Wootton one day, & the next morning on to Dorking station & back to Wootton then on home to Newbuildings, but she never seemed herself, and…
See previous post for more information on this stallion and the people who owned him. He sure is one masculine stallion. His sireline is extinct to Al Khamsa, with the last of the stallions carrying this line having been born in the 1950s.
This photo was found on the website for the City of Arcadia, located within their Arcadia History Collection. In it, Anita Baldwin can be see holding the reins of *Ibn Mahruss (Mahruss II x Bushra). His sire, Mahruss II, did not have a particularly exceptional breeding career, and his is probably best felt in bloodlines through his sons *Ibn Mahruss and Rijm, both of whom were born in 1901. *Ibn Mahruss was imported in-utero along with his dam, *Bushra, where both found their way to Homer Davenport. He had at least two breeding seasons with Davenport before being sold to Eleanor Gates Tully, a playwright in California who owned, among other horses, the stallions *Obeyran and *Nedjran. He enjoyed several years as a breeding stallion, with a limited foal crop spanning 1910-14. 1914 is also the year that Gates divorced from her husband, Richard Tully, which is likely when the horses were dispersed. From there, he found his way to Arcadia, California, under the ownership of Anita Baldwin. From her obituary, 25 October 1939, published in Madera Tribune, Volume LXXIV, Number 150: “Mrs. Anita M. Baldwin, daughter of the late E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin, colorful mining and turf figure of…
Pardon the silence on my end, life has been busy. I wanted to share a photo of one of the desert bred stallions that found their way to South America (namely, Argentina) in the early 20th century. A chestnut with a large blaze and four white legs (edit: I appear to have been mistaken. see comments for further information), Tatar came to Argentina to stand stud at Hernan Ayerza’s farm in 1931. As best as I can understand, his arrival to South America was a coordinated effort, with Hernan enlisting the help of the prolific Carl Raswan. Carl Raswan went to his friend (his blood brother) Fawaz al-Shaalan, a leader of the Roala people in the southern part of Syria. Per Peter Upton’s publication “Arabians,” Fawaz sold Tatar to Carl Raswan, though it’s unclear to me if he was also the breeder. Fawaz was also involved in the Hearst importations of 1947, was involved with the Arab League delegation to the United Nations in the wake of the post-WWII developments of Israwl and Palestine, and if I’m not mistaken (someone please correct me if I am!) he was involved in Syrian parliament in the 60s as part of the Bedouin…
In an earlier thread on Dwarka, Astrid Moegling shared the following photo print of a horse that was captioned as being of Dwarka, located on the Meisterdrucke Fine Art Prints website: Astrid asked the additional question of: “And is it really Dwarka? I thought only one of his hind feet was white? On the other hand, the head seems to be the same (including the makeshift halter etc) as in the headshot above. Probably taken at the same shooting.“ I think it is him! The rope halter is definitely similar, and the star matches other headshots of Dwarka where his marking is visible. There are precious few photos of Dwarka in full, and some of them are very poor in quality, but we can compare with a few of them to determine that, yes, Dwarka does, in fact, have two white hind socks, both visible from the near side, but with the partial sock on the off-side hind only extending slightly around the front to to be visible from the off side.
** Note: this post contains a picture of a dead horse’s partially dissected skull. ** Ginnie Pope sent me this scan of an article related to Dwarka, published May 16th, 1923 — two years after Dwarka had passed away — within The Illustrated London News. The article, “A Problem For Horsemen: The “Blind” Nostril” was by W. P. Pycraft, Author of “The Infancy of Animals,” “The Courtship of Aimals,” etc. etc. This was in fact William Plane Pycraft, an Englishman and a zoologist that wrote extensively on natural history while involved with the British Natural History Museum. The article includes a photo of Dwarka from his very last days, as well as a postmortem shot of his skull which is used to compare against reconstructions of earlier protohorses. It also discusses the evolution of the horse and its functional anatomy. Gruesome as it might be, it’s cool to find out that another of our desert horses played a role in the advancement of scientific education. Photo under cut, but if it’s too small for you to read the font, you can access it via dropbox by clicking this link.
The following article on the life of the mare *Naomi was tracked down by Kate McLachlan and dug up by myself, and can be read online through the Hathi Trust website courtesy of the New York Public Library [click here.] Written by the Rev. F. Furse Vidal, it was published August 16, 1900 in The Country Gentleman – an American agricultural magazine founded in the 1830s. He writes about his acquisition of the mare, her disposition with children, and of several of the foals that he bred out of her. I am struck by his pointed description of her attitude toward children, and it only further confirms for me what I’ve long thought: Arabian mares and children go together like the moon and the stars.
This is a photo of Dwarka, published on page 55 in the book Hooves in the Heather by Virginia Pope, granddaughter of Arthur Hurn, who managed the Tor Royal Stud during the time that Dwarka stood at stud. This image was apparently taken after he landed in from Arabia in 1897, meaning it very well could have been taken whilst he was in India! I think this is my favorite photograph of his profile that I’ve seen thus far. You can see the slight bulge of the forehead, the slight dip in the nasal plane, and what is clearly a wedged shape of a head attached to an arching throat. The photo presented is a direct scan from her book, which the author has granted me permission to share until she can find her original digital file to share.
Today marks the 100th year anniversary of the end of World War One, and incidentally the real beginning of the end of the horse’s era as a creature of war. Without getting too political, I have been reflecting on the loss of so many Arabians in the breed. The Polish studs were virtually decimated in WWI, and along with them a very high percentage of horses that were likely asil. And what might well be one of the greatest tragedies of the Blunt horses (and there are a good many, alas) is that Mesaoud, one of the most influential herd sires to come out of the program, was sent to Russia in 1903 and was presumably lost to the world in the slaughter of the Russian Revolution, shortly before the end of World War One. A ghastly end for an elderly stallion such as he. Nothing much else to say, except that I am glad that our horses have survived modern warfare and are still with us today. It’s a precious thing.
The original scan of this photo has cut off the name of the horse, but it’s fairly legible even so, and the following page is able to identify this horse as Osman III: As you can see, he was sired by Aslan and out of the mare Ablulu (Aslan x Hazam), born Oct. 27th 1890. The article this photo was found in dated to 1902 at the very earliest, making this horse 12 years or younger at the time of it being taken. Osman III was owned by Nathan Miers Cox. Interestingly enough, in this same series of articles, Aslan is said to have been imported in 1871, and the same paragraph indicates that he was around 29 years old in 1896 – putting his date of birth at around 1867. Both of these dates are different than the previous information listed for Aslan, but the proximity suggests that we may be on the right track with those dates.
Shared by Miguel – this is Gomussa (or Gomuza), the son of Naomi and Kouch*, born in England in 1884. * Spencer Borden appears to have attributed Gomussa’s sire as the bay stallion Kars, which I find myself curious about, now – Naomi was red, and Kouch was grey, but Gomussa is bay. Kouch was probably heterozygous grey, but I have no idea what his base color was – black or bay**, if he is in truth the sire of Gomussa. I can’t find any discussion on this, though – anyone want to spitball? ** Interestingly enough, Kate and I were speculating a little bit ago that perhaps one of the reasons that black was seen so infrequently in the desert was not that it was necessarily ‘rare’, but because because black was generally not bred for, those born with black pigment were winners of the genetic lottery in that they had both a recessive ‘aa’ agouti expression AND at least one copy of grey. After all, all horses are born with either black or red as their base extension, with the agouti controlling whether a horse is black, or bay – with most non-grey horses presenting phenotypically as red…
Amurat II is by Aslan, and out of the German Weil mare Hazam, a full sibling to the mare Ablulu. It looks like this is a male horse. In ‘El Stud Book del Valparaiso Sporting Club’ (1895) a list of registered Arabian horses reveals that there is a registered horse, also by Aslan and out of Hazam, named AMURATH. What is unclear at this time is if Amurat II is in fact the son of Amurath, or if Amurat II is a typo, with the ‘II’ having been switched in the stead of the ‘H’. Hopefully more will be revealed when the full studbook is accessed.
This is MAHABA, the full sister of the mare I posted yesterday (Aslan x Ramdy). She has a quality about her – she could gladly grace my stable anytime, I think.
Arneb is yet another offspring of the stallion Aslan, and is also the foal of the other earliest German Weil mare that found her way to Chile, Ramdy. Ramdy was born in 1867, her dam also carrying the name Ramdy and her sire being the bay 1851 stallion Tajar (Amurath x Geyran III). Again, we see the foundation elements of Bairactar, Sady III & Hamdany I, Geyran I, and Bournu & Kabron I. This horse’s name, I believe, means ‘hare.’ It was unclear to me whether or not this horse was a mare or stallion, but I believe Arneb is a mare. In ‘El Stud Book del Valparaiso Sporting Club’ (1895) a list of registered Arabian horses contains this gem on pg 85:
This is RASCHID (the “b” is a typo), a grey stallion born in 1894 by Gomuza (Gomussa, Kouch x Naomi) and Kothaf (Aslan x Ablulu). Ablulu was also by Aslan, and her dam was the mare Hazam, one of the original imports from the German Weil along with Aslan and Ramdy (also spelled Randy). All of these horses are very interesting – it can be noted that the Early American Arabian supermare Naomi is felt in Chile through an element that precedes any Huntington or Borden influence, and is one of the stallion Kouch’s very few registered Arabian offspring. Aslan appears to be a desertbred stallion, but Raschid’s tail female line to Hazam contains several generations of Weil breeding, including three crosses to the Or. Ar. stallion Bairactar and three crosses to the Sady III and Or. Ar. Hamdany I mareline. We also see the asil elements of the stallion Bournu, the stallion Dzelaby, and the mare Geyran I. You can view a copy of the pedigree here.
I am posting this on behalf of Miguel, who is quite knowledgeable of the history of the Arabian horse breed in Chile, where he tells me that he believes the Chilean registry is the oldest of all those in South America. The Chilean registry includes Peru, and is said to have begun in in 1872, the details of which you will find below.
Earlier I shared a photo of the Chilean Tahawi stallion, PB Muahjid. I am now sharing a photo of the other Neveen foal in Chile that Miguel Acuña Álvarez has in his program, PB Mushka, who is tail female to the Hamdan Tahawi mare, Folla. This is her with her 1997 grey filly, Nueva Ortigosa Ghezira, by the Chilean National Champion stallion HS Kisra.
Miguel Acuña Álvarez has shared this photo of his foundation stallion, PB MUAHJID [pedigree] by the Ansata-sired Nasani and out of the imported Hamdan Stables mare Neveen, with whom he was with in-utero during her importation to Chile. Neveen’s dam was the 1963 Bint Folla II, and her dam was the Tahawi mare and Hamdan Stables foundation mare, Folla. In the United States this is a rather rare line, as Bint Folla II is only felt through the mare Neveen, and Neveen had but one daughter to carry her line forth, the 1990 grey mare Amira Neveen, by the ubiquitous TheEgyptianPrince. Amira Neveen had several offspring: two stallions, 1996 Amir Farid and the 2010 Amer El Khalid LDV; and four mares, Sulayah LDV, Morocco LDV, X Quisite LDV, and Perla LDV, all bred by La Dulce Vida Arabians / Martha Suarez and born respectively in 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2008. So far, it appears that the only one of these 6 offspring to breed forward is Sulayah LVD, who foaled the mare Amira Jewel LDV in 2008, meaning that it’s been a decade since this line last saw a foal on the ground. There’s still time, but this is definitely…
The following photos have been shared with me (and with permission to share) by Virginia Pope, the granddaughter of Arthur Hurn. Among other things, Arthur Hurn was the stud manager for HRH the Prince of Wales (Prince Edward)’s Tor Royal Stud in Dartmoor from the years 1918-1931, meaning he was present when the stallion *Aldebar was born in 1919, and knew/cared for Dwarka up until his death in in 1921 at the advanced age of 29 years old. Virginia Pope has just published a book about her grandfather’s time at Tor Royal, which reportedly includes an account of Dwarka’s journey from the desert to India and then to the UK – which I will hopefully be reading and perhaps obtaining permission to share with the more global audience on DOTW, since the book itself is currently only really available for shipping in the UK (I was very fortunate that Virginia and her assistant were willing to personally work with me to get a copy shipped Stateside.) Until then, these are several pictures of Dwarka’s personal bridle! I may be wrong, but I think this bridle may have come with him from India.
((please click on the photos for larger views!))
This photo was identified as BINT FEREYHA with an IBN NURA filly. I was hoping that a quick check of the pedigrees would identify her, but such is not the case – the book was published in 1898, and both Ibn Nura fillies out of Bint Fereyha that are listed on Allbreed (I know, not the best of sources) were born within this timeline: the 1893 bay filly FULANA and the 1898 grey filly WUJRA. My guess based on that was that this is Fulana, just because Wujra was born the same year this book was published, but that’s not definitive proof. The only photo I have been able to find of Fulana unfortunately does not show her face very well, so I’m uncertain of the facial markings. That said, Edouard also shared this with me, from the Sheyk Obeyd Studbook: 1897 – WUBBR, chestnut colt that (I believe) eventually went grey, by Ibn Sherara — which brings us to a third possibility. Does anyone else recognize this photo, or the little foal (perhaps as a grown horse?)
Both below are courtesy of The Toronto Star Archives and have been provided by the Special Collections Department of the Toronto Public Library. Either that was a very tall man, or *Aldebar was a rather short horse. Caption: ” PRINCE’S STALLION FOR CANADA. The Prince of Wales’ Arabian stallion Aldebaran, which was shipped on the Canadian Pacific liner “Minnedosa” from Glasgow. The animal will compete at the Canadian National Exhibition at Toronto before going to the Prince’s ranch in Alberta.“
The caption says Rose of Jericho and Dahna. Both mares were bred at the Crabbet Farm and then exported to Australia to live at the Quambi Springs Stud owned by Sir James Penn Boucaut. Rose of Jericho and Dahna, were both in 1891, and had foals on the ground as early as 1893. Dahna had 7 foals by Rafyk – 10 in total – whereas Rose of Jericho had at least 11 foals by Rafyk in her time in Australia – including Bedaween, the “Grand National Champion of Australia,” and his younger brothers, Zubeir and Suleiman – shown below. Zubeir, in particular, was a rather successful sire, breeding not only pure Arabian get but also horses suitable for the colonial life of Australians in the early 20th century. He was purchased by Mr. Warburton of Northern Australia. I was fortunate enough through the power of the internet to have a copy of his stud listing sent to me, which you can see below — It is from Zubeir that we derive the mystery of Minaret. Michael Bowling wrote a wonder article on this a while back, but to rehash: with any familiarity with the story of the Crabbet Stud, you’ll know that for some…
I’m always a little disappointed when people tell me that Arabians cannot jump, despite evidence to the contrary. As Kate likes to put it, they’re unique, and “they trust to the hand of God.” These mares are at the Arab Stud Farm in Needham Market, which is, of course, the farm of the Rev. F. F. Vidal. I’m not surprised that they’re jumping at his farm. Naomi herself was said to be quite a successful hunter in England before being imported overseas to Huntington’s farm – I know I’ve read it in a periodical source somewhere, but the easy example is the Allbreed info citing her as “An exceptional and widely-acclaimed field hunter known for clearing 7-foot fences carrying 196 lbs.” I wonder who these mares are. Michael Bowling suggests that they might be Shiboleth and the Anglo-Arab Trigonia.
Neither of these photos are new, but they are the largest, most complete versions I have seen, extracted from the 1898 reprint of Sarah Buckman-Linard’s book “My Horse; My Love.”
Extracted from ‘The Rasp – 1914’ — a picture of a younger Obeyran II (*Obeyran x Zitra) from Califnornian El Rancho de las Rosas, owned and bred (edit: well, maybe not) by the Tullys. I’d never seen a photo of Obeyran II before, and wanted to share this. This photo is also uploaded in the flickr I have set up, as well as photos that I find as I search (or as Google finally finishes reviewing books for me), and is updated as I go.
This was extracted from the Toronto Star Daily, circa August 29, 1929. The horse was identified as Aldebaran, and the markings (and bridle, though that is less conclusive) match up! This would be a photo of a 10 year old stallion, still relatively young and fit. He reminds me here of some of the other early asil horses I’ve seen, actually – Ashgar and Joseph, both from the Crabbet farm, and a younger Ibn Mahruss. There is also this photo of Aldebaran, also found in the Toronto Star Daily archives, taken in October of 1929– You can see here the quality of his face, and the ill-fit of the cavesson, which mirrors the usual photo of Aldebar that we see – though, again, that is hardly conclusive, but it may be that the bridle was Aldebaran’s personal bridle, and that is why you can see how rigid the newer/younger leather is, and why the older/more supple leather of the noseband has dropped down his nose.
The captions for this photo were: “Mahruos, Arabian Stallion of the Santa Anita Ranch-1914 California History Print” and “At the ranch near Pasadena, the horse belonged to Mrs. Anita Baldwin McClaughry, daughter of E. J. Baldwin (noted California pioneer). ” Mahruos is, of course, a misnomer for Ibn Mahruss, who was owned by Anita Baldwin around this time. The leg and facial markings match up with other known photos of the stallion, as well. For any who haven’t seen it – there is a 1916 Santa Anita Rancho and Anoakia Breeding Farm Private Catalogue available for viewing online, located here.
“One of these horses, Obeyran I, is of the few rescued from the fanatic love of the Bedouins, which came so near proving the destruction of the entire importation of Arab horses brought to Chicago for the World’s Fair. By special permission of the Sultan of Turkey, twenty-eight Arab thoroughbreds were sent here for exhibition, with the express understanding that at the close of the fair every one was to be returned to the desert, alive or dead. This because of the perfect breeding and rarity of the animals selected. The men who financed the exhibit became so involved that they could not pay the cost of the importation and exhibition of the horses, which were consequently seized for debt and were to be sold at auction. The Bedouins in charge of the horses, horrified at the thought of their passing into the hands of unbelievers, on the night previous to the auction entered the stables, cut the throats of five of the horses and burned nine others. Of the remaining fourteen, nearly all were sent to England. Obeyran I was one of three left in the United States, and he it was that bore the Princess Eulalia of Spain in…
Kate and I were looking at the 1898 reprint of Sarah Buckman-Linard’s book “My Horse; My Love,” which is available as a public domain book on Archive.org courtesy of the University of Toronto (so, no need to buy the very poorly scanned reprints that are available via retailers right now!) This is a photo of Shibboleth, said to be the sire of both Kars and Sherifa in the book. The photos within this book, and the information, were apparently courtesy of both the Rev. F. Furse Vidal and Lady Anne Blunt. This is the first I have ever heard of a named (and photographed) sire of Kars, and I have to admit that I’m thrown for a loop here. Any more verse members of the community have more information on him to offer as we dig for more? A thought, however – the door and what have you is quite similar to that of what we see in the background of the infamous El Emir photo. Not sure what to make of that, either. Edit: This is the daughter of Kars and Sherifa. A connection, but not the one cited. Still, neat to see a photo of her.
This tiny head shot proved to be confounding for me when I originally first saw it in Our Dumb Animals, Volume 45 [x]. The article it was attached to, “The Arab Horse,” had been written by Spencer Borden, and I couldn’t for the life of me place who the horse was; nor did Borden deign to identify him for me. Published in April of 1913, it was contained in a large volume, and a little bit of digging found two articles written about this very tiny and grainy photo of an Arabian, who turned out to be *Obeyran. I figured the articles were worth a share, and can be seen below – with an attached photo and transcription of them for those who might not be able to see the photos:
I have been thinking a lot about the early South American Arabians, imported before things went sideways. I know a few years back some folks here were looking into potential old asil lines for the horses, and I think it was concluded that non are extent today save for the horses that descend from the mare *AIRE – which is tragic. Nevertheless, I have been able to find photos of some of these old horses, and while it does little in the way of preservation efforts, I think it would serve as a bittersweet reminder of what we have lost, and what we strive to preserve. AJMAN (Feysul x Ajramieh), when he was still at Crabbet Park
WINNERS OF THE ENDURANCE RIDE. 1st. Halcyon, Arabian mare, H. H. Reid, rider. (Note: she was technically 3/4 Arabian and 1/4 Thoroughbred) 3rd. Yaquis, Arabian stallion, Lieut. R. M. Parker. (asil) 4th. Rodan, Arabian stallion, ridden by K. Malcolm Grinnell. (asil) Halcyon’s win is somewhat remarkable. Per the article: “Halcyon cast a shoe about 2.30 o’clock in the morning. A smith was aroused from his bed at the next town and the mare was shod by the light of an automobile that came along.” The second place horse was a Morgan horse. Unsurprisingly enough, these photos and the article accompanying were found in The Vermonter: The State Magazine, Volumes 16-19, edited by Charles Spooner Forbes, Charles R. Cummings, published September 1913. Photos of the individual horses can be seen below: HALCYON (Hail x Heiress / Maidan) YAQUIS (Garaveen x *Nejdme) RODAN (Harb x Rose of Sharon) source
I was patiently waiting for a larger digital copy of this photo, which has just been sent to me by Heritage Auctions to be shared. The photo is of [Left] Buffolo Bill Cody aboard *Muson with [Right] Said Abdallah aboard *Wadduda. It very clearly evokes the grainy image from the Annotated Quest that I have always seen labeled something along the lines of “Wild East meets the Wild West.”
I am cross-posting this here from another place that I had written this, and would love to pick everyone’s brains on their thoughts. Full disclosure: this was jumpstarted by reading Teymur’s posts here on DOTW and by reading and re-reading Michael Bowling’s three part series on Leopard and Linden Tree (…and perhaps by some personal spite re: the long-dead Randolph Huntington. I ended up not overly caring for his theories on breeding.) ~~~ ^ Source: The Illustrated Stock Doctor by J. Russell Manning, published 1890, pg 66.
For those unfamiliar with the previous El Emir post, I direct you here. For those having already read the post, I am posting this on behalf of Kate McLachlan and at the request of Jenny Krieg.