A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
Nasr, the chestnut [January 23rd: Sporthorse-data lists hims as “brown”, and the French studbook as “bay”] horse pictured below was a desert-bred stallion that was imported to the Tunisian stud of Sidi Thabet in the 1920s. He was imported from Egypt, where he’d had a good career as a racehorse. French masterbreeder Robert Mauvy, who knew … Read more
Even the otherwise ultra-standardized pedigrees of Egyptian Arabians can yield a surprise or two. That of the mare Bint Nafaa and her descendents, with their cross to El Gadaa, a horse bred by Fad’aan Bedouin leader Miqhim ibn Mahayd, and later raced in Egypt and used by Hamdan stables, is a case in point. The … Read more
I bet some of you think this is overkill, but here are two more pictures of that lovely Kuhaylat al-Mimrah mare that went from Egypt to South Africa. The first one also features a headshot of the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisaan. With kind permision Pauline Du Plessis, Saruk Stud, RSA
In 1909, a French government commission led by Inspector Quinchez bought 24 desert-bred stallions from the Egyptian racetrack of Sidi Gaber in Alexandria. Of these, 17 went to Algeria (then a part of France), and the remaining 7 were distributed in government studs across mainland France. The seven were: Dahman, Meenak, Farid, Aslani, Hamdany El Samry, Latif and Maarouf. The … Read more
Pretty mare, eh? Nabilah Fanatasia (Omar El Shaker x Nabilah Bint Saklabilah) is from South Africa’s Nabilah Stud and traces to the Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Nabilah (Enzahi x Zamzam) in tail female, as well as to the Kuhaylat al-Mimrah Barakah in the midde of the pedigree. Both Nabilah and Baraka were imported to South Africa … Read more
Also from Calvyn.
I can’t help keep showing pictures of the Kuhaylat al-Mimrah mare Baraka (Ibn Manial x Gamalat). Here is a photo with her daughter, Sahibi Bint Baraka, by the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisaan (Jellabi al-Marshoosh x a Tuwayssah). Below is Sahibi Bint Baraka as a grown-up mare. Both photos courtesy of Calvyn Badenhorst of South Africa.
Thanks Edouard, for posting that photo of Yalim. In 1974 we visited his owners the Andersons in Davison, Michigan. Actually I knew who they were well before my involvement with Arabians because they ran a music store near the city where I grew up. When we got involved with Arabians we made friends with some … Read more
As a follow up to an earlier post on the Asil Kuhaylan al-Mimrah strain that breeds on in South Africa, this is a rare picture of the lovely Barakah (Ibn Manial x Gamalat), the mare through which the strain survives in Asil form. Photo courtesy of Albert Kaffka of the Al-Yatun Asil Stud in South Africa. By the way, … Read more
WARNING: DON’T READ ON UNLESS YOU ARE A PEDIGREE FREAK OR INTEND TO BECOME ONE. Of the Arabian horses bred in the three North African countries of Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, the latter is the only one that did not develop its own “brand” of Arabians. Rather, Morocco relied on importations from its two North … Read more
The gorgeous Bint Nafaa was born in Egypt in 1962, and bred by Ahmed Hamza’s Hamdan Stables, yet she does not have the “Straight Egyptian” label. The Pyramid Society, who coined the “definition” of a Straight Egyptian and Egyptian breds, does not accept El Gadaa, Nafaa’s sire, as a Straight Egpytian. El Gadaa was a racehorse, who stood at … Read more
A rare picture of the magnificent black Asil stallion Fabo (Fabah x Misimma by Fa Serr). Fabo, a 1962 Saqlawi Jadran, and the head sire at the late Walter Schimanski’s Masada Arabians. Photo from the collection of the late William J. Sheets (Billy). Check out another gorgeous picture of Fabo here.
Believe it or not, this extremely pretty and typey mare is an Asil Arabian from Tunisia. Hadia, a Kuhaylah al-‘Ajuz, by Kefil out of Rafiaa, by Bango) was bred at Sidi Thabet in 1958, and is the dam of many successful racehorses. She is one of the few greys Sidi Thabet retained for breeding. She … Read more
Western Arabian horse breeders are relatively familiar with the Arabian horse strain of Kuhaylan al-Krush (also known as Kuhaylan Krushan) through a variety of sources. A specific branch of this strain, Krush al-Baida (“the white Krush”) will be the subject of the sixth part of the “Strain of the Week” series (which, by the way, … Read more
A previous post listed the strain of the desert-bred Asil Arabian stallion El Sbaa as Ma’naghi. That’s the strain France’s premier purist Arabian horse breeder Robert Mauvy attributed to him in one of his books. A manuscript note, found in El Sbaa’s file in the archives at the government’s Pompadour stud, and cited by Nicole … Read more
The mare in this picture is desert bred, from the strain of Jilfan Stam al-Bulad. Her breeder is an old Bedouin from the al-Yassar section of the tribe of Tay. The picture is frm the early 2000s, and I think that mare is still breeding today. She is of interest because she traces to a stallion of the Dahman … Read more
The starting point of any serious discussion on El Nasser should be a short statement in Judith Forbis’ “Authentic Arabian Bloodstock”, p. 137, where she cites a letter from Henri Pharaon, the one-time owner of El Nasser. “Pharaon wrote to me on October 6th, 1970 that El Nasser was born on May 1938, that he had purchased the horse from … Read more
I feel I have been maintaining a fairly uncontroversial blog – so far. But it did not escape me that the only times I broached slightly contentious topics (the issue of an international registry for Asil horses, and the piece on the myth of Kuhaylan Jallabi in Egyptian breeding), readers’ interested was sparked, comments reached the … Read more
The Kuhaylan Jallabi strain as an extant female line in Egyptian bloodlines will forever be something of a curiosity. Modern evidence of MtDNA work on this line combined with interpreting Lady Anne Blunt’s notations should make people feel comfortable in choosing the Saqlawi Jidran strain for this line though it is not officially recorded as … Read more
I find it baffling that some Arabian horse breeders here in the US still believe that the strain of Kuhaylan Jellabi is carried on in Egyptian Arabian horse breeding. Ten years have elapsed since Michael Bowling’s ground-breaking article on the Arabian mare Bint Yemama and her descendants at the stud of Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfik in Egypt, yet most breeders of Asil Arabians … Read more
The “Strain of the Week” series continues this week with the second strain featured: Kuhaylan al-Mimrah. Modern breeders and pedigree students, especially those familiar with Asil Arabian bloodlines from Egypt will remember Kuhaylan al-Mimrah as the strain of several of the older Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) horses: the stallions Mansour and Mabrouk Manial, present in … Read more