Alexis Wrangel on the Arabian horses of Iraq 1958
“Nowadays breeding of the Arabian in the Middle East has concentrated on race horses for the Beirut and Cairo race tracks. However this breeding has been tainted by the intrusion of English Thoroughbred blood in the Arabian horses of Iraq. The Iraqi Arabian is bigger and runs faster — but he has lost the look of the desert bred pure Arabian — that pristine beauty and lead toughness of the desert horse is disappearing alas too fast.”
When living in Lebanon before the year 2000, I have seen, owned, and bred from some of these Iraqi horses. They are beautiful horses but they are not Arabians. A few years ago, some high profile Iraqi breeders have engaged ina full-blown communication effort aimed at claiming asil status for these Iraqi “Arabians”. I call it “asil-washing”. Progress in DNA analysis (Y-DNA, mtDNA and autosomal) will uncover these bogus claims.
Wrangel added this footnote:
However, this does not mean that no Iraqi horses are purebred Arabians. There are some magnificient desert-breds in Iraq which are bigger than the Neged or Djezireh Arabians due to better food and water conditions in the vicinity of the Euphrates river. When you acquire such a type, you have an excellent horse standing about 15 hands and still as “dry” and “fine” as the smaller Nejed or Djezireh types”.