Belle and Barakah
This young filly is the happy outcome of a sustained preservation effort of the Kuhaylan ‘Ajz line of *Nufoud, and of the small number of Arabian horses without Crabbet bloodlines. Her name means “divine blessing”. May she be blessed and continue this precious line of royal horses.
Her dam Jadah BelloftheBall (“Belle”) was rescued several years ago by Jeannie Lieb, who drove to Colorado to pick her up after the previous owner had fallen on hard times. Upon seeing her, my father, who was here visiting, told her she reminded him of the daughters of the great asil Lebanese stallion Machaal. He was very fond of these.
I will breed her to a stallion from Saudi lines next time.
Congratulations and thank you for continuing the *Nufoud tail-female, without Crabbet-Blunt bloodlines for another generation! She’s a lovely filly.
I am very excited to see Barakah grow up! I loved owning Belle for the time I had her. She was an extremely sensible sensible mare even with her almost nonexistent vision in one eye. I will never forget the day my then 11yo helper Zoe saddled Belle up and did not tighten the girth sufficiently. You guessed it, the saddle rolled under Belle’s belly while Zoe was getting on. Rather than bucking and trying to rid herself of that “thing” she trotted a few steps to the fence, stopped and looked back at us with an expression of “Please come over and get this thing out from under me.”
Congratulations. You have done a very good thing and have been rewarded for having done so.
Barakah is a huge success for preservation! Congratulations.
Baralkah appears to have an un-typically good hind end angle. If she stays that way maybe she could be the foundress of reliably strong hind ended, Asil, conformation improvers. Lord knows most arab lines desperately need it!
best wishes
Bruce Peek
but let me ask you, Bruce, because I am concerned about this, don’t you see a droopy croup there and low set tail?
Droopy croup on the baby? It is hard to tell from these pix.
Droopy schmoopy! In the photo where she’s getting her lunch you see the tail well above the end point of the pelvic bone. I bet she’s going to be able to tuck her pelvis and lift her torso like a champ! I’ve always wondered if the ,’flat top line,’so often mentioned as a mark of breed type wasn’t something that was over valued by westerners to the point that it became an innovation- much like the overly dished faces seen on a lot of halter arabs. And we do know that she’s the same tail female as Sunshine the Saudi stallion, and he showed a very strong hindquarter and tons of substance. I’ll bet she’s going to mature into a remarkable mare.
best wishes
Bruce Peek
I’m with you Bruce Peek! She is a leggy, well put together foal with a wonderful hind end IMHO. Me thinks you spent too much time in Egypt recently Edouard (VBG).
Me thinks you may well be right. Also, the flat top line is indeed an innovation by the western show system. The round croup is the real thing, not the flat one.
Edouard, You are not going to find a “flat croup” in the Saud lines I don’t think. I have been researching the effect on the horse to engage the hindquarters UNDER the body and according to what I’ve been able to find the ability to round the back, carry a rider comfortably, have elastic gaits and work from behind instead of from the front is equated with a croup angle that is not too dissimilar from the hip angle. Anyone else find anything different?
no i am not looking for a flat croup. A flat croup is a western invention, building on the orientalist paintings. i am looking for a round croup, like Jamr’s or Thalia’s.
Can you post a picture of a hindquarter you are breeding for and one you are breeding away from? I’m a knowledge junkie and I want to learn more about everyone’s take on what makes a good “engine” in an Arabian. And we’d need to state the type of riding or racing or whatever one is breeding toward. Back in the day, from my reading, the desert Arabian was bred for speed and courage and docile temperament. What else? Because what it WAS bred for is no longer what it is now being bred for which necessarily changes the phenotype.
Interesting views…. my own, for what it is worth, is that Bruce and Jeanne, are right about the proper functional angle of the pelvis itself, which is essential, but on top of that a high tail set gives the horse a certain style and class that (to me), with the tail carried like a flag, proclaims the aristocracy of the horse.
The relatively level croup of the Arabian is a good thing, compared to other breeds. Relatively is the key word. To get a really level croup (resting), you need to soften and lower the loin. That makes the tail ‘pop,’ but it is not a good trade-off in my opinion. In movement, how the horse uses the whole rear end makes a big difference.
I absolutely agree with your emphasis on the word ‘relatively’, it is used in this exact context in one of the early English descriptions (I forget whose for now) and is very important but humans, sadly , tend to ignore qualifying words like this and just breed to extremis. I see many horses with really level pelvises moving with trailing, bicycling hocks, a pet hate of mine, loads of ‘movement’ going on behind but no actual forward propulsion.
Lisa you are so right. You can see the hocks rotating out behind the hindquarters in so many of the rail class show horses. Its the kind of movement that gets very poor marks and comments from any Dressage judge worth her salt.The thing is it is so easy to train arabs to move efficiently with their buts underneath themselves if they have half way decent hind end angles.
best wishes
Bruce Peek