General

I find this photo of Walter Schimanski and his beloved stallion Fabo very touching, and emblematic of the friendship between man and horse. The horse clearly looks proud to walk next to his owner.

Does anyone know how the mare *Werdi made her way to Davenport in 1906? There is no mention of her in his “Quest”, and her original documentation (hujjah) points towards the central Syrian city of Hama as a place of origin. Hama is not a place Davenport or his friends visited, he only visited Aleppo … Read more

Mayyassah Al Arab is by Clarion CF out of Cinnabar Myst and is the youngest foal of the Al-Dahdah preservation program of old American asil lines. She has lines to Hanad from his son Mainad and his daughter Dhanad. All the photos are by Kim Davis. I am genuinely interested in your candid and critical feedback … Read more

Fayrouz Beni Sakr (Mahboob Halab x Safiyah Beni Sakr by Hortal El Din) is a young and promising son of the Syrian stallion Mahboob Halab, now in France. Bred and owned by Fabienne Vesco.    

Another filly — now a mare — I have been following on this blog for some time is Jenny Krieg’s Labwah Al Shaykhah (DB Khrush x HS Marayah) now 4 years old.. Many more pictures here. I have to keep reminding myself to learn more about which family of Ubayyan she belongs to.

One of the pleasures of being in Lebanon for a few days is having access to my father’s Arabian horse library. I have been feeling deprived of all these books over the years, as I never dared taking them with me to the States when I moved there in 2000. As always, after glancing at … Read more

Did you know about this book? Published in 1998.  

I am in Beirut, Lebanon, visiting family for a week. I opened my email with 24 hours delay and found this wonderful piece of news from Kim Davis, who told me that the Kuhaylat al-Krush Cynnabar Myst (ASF David x Mystalla) foaled a filly yesterday at 4.15 pm. Sire is the grand Clarion CF. Pics … Read more

Did you know that what is currently considered as Volume I of the Egyptian Agricultural Organization studbook, the one published in English in 1948 (I think) was only the English translation of a previous volume published in Arabic in 1942 by Dr. Abdel Halim Ashoub? Well, I didn’t,  until Yasser Ghanem al-Tahawi pointed me to … Read more

Does anyone has a valid email address for Pam Baker of Myrtle Beach, SC? I had a valid email address but when I tried writing last week, it bounced back.  

I have now relocated to Cairo, Egypt for three years. If you want to write to me, please use this address: Edouard Aldahdah CAIWB 3301 Pennsy Drive Landover MD 20785 USA Mail (and books, magazines, etc, but not horses) to this address will be forwarded to my work address in Cairo via diplomatic pouch twice … Read more

  This little girl looks exactly like my youngest daughter.

A “new” photo of *Exochorda, the best of her so far, has recently surfaced on Facebook. Here it is below, with filly Suleika at her side. It shows a well built mare of good Arabian type, reminiscent of some of the asil bloodlines from the Syrian desert such as the early Davenport Arabians, and the … Read more

This is the text of Jane Ott’s obituary by Edie Booth on the Blue Arabian Horse Catalogue Facebook page: “On Wednesday, April 24th, 2013, at 1:50 AM, Miss Jane Llewellyn Ott slipped peacefully away.  Miss Ott is a major historic figure and prime mover in recognizing the loss of the original desertbred horses among American … Read more

Just love this photo of Flourishes CF (Lydian x Fragrance CF by Regency CF) on Randal Abler’s Facebook page. That Anthesis dynasty (Fragrance, Chancery, Firebolt, Lexington) is quite something within the Davenport lines.

Randal Abler posted this photo of Vice Regent CF son Laarado (x Laarisa EAF, who is by Alaadri). He is owned by Kathy Kelly in Georgia. My Jamr Al Arab (out of Jadiba) is his half brother.

This she-camel recently won first prize in a regional Gulf beauty contest in the category of white camesl “al-wuduh”. I am increasingly interested in the production of camel beauty criteria in modern Arabia, because unlike Arabian horses, the lack of significant camel breeding in the West could mean that the codification of such criteria for … Read more

That’s how the clerk at the Egyptian consulate in Washington DC spelled my name on my visa’s receipt, when I dropped my passport last week.. I had always thought of myself as a Ma’naqi, but this fellow did not seem to agree.

Carrie Slayton of the Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force has succeeded in placing the blind 1998 mare Jadah Kerasun (ASF Raphael x ASF Ubeidiyah by ASF Ezra), a rare Hamdaniyah Simiryah tail female to the Ibn Saudi mare *Samirah in the hands of preservation breeder Marge Smith of Oregon. The mare just got there yesterday. … Read more

This nice portrait of the Syrian desert-bred stallion Nimr Shabareq unfortunately sold on Feb. 2013. I wish I had know about it.  

The horses of Mustafa Jabri, located in rebel-held areas, were stolen and sold to Turkey, and so were the horses of Fouad al-Attar and other breeders. Half of the horses of Radwan Shabareq have died, not from starvation (plenty of grass there) but from inhaling strange and suspicious gases. The other are sick. Their caregivers … Read more

It’s that time of the year again, and Arabian foals are popping up here and there. One of the newborns I chose to feature is little Niinah Nufoud (AEP Kamar x AB Dafiinah by HHA Manabi), a 2013 bay Kuhaylat al-Ajuz tracing to *Nufoud of the Saudi Royal Stud. This little filly traces twice to … Read more

This is one of the foundation stallions for the Blue Star program, he is a Hamdani Simri, a son of the imported Sindidah, and of the Ibn Jalawi stallion Jalam Al Ubayyan. The more I look at this picture, the more he reminds me of old Lebanese asil horses. The photo was posted by Susan … Read more

This morning I was looking up “Ibn Duwayhiss” , owner of an excellent marbat of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak in my notes — why? I will tell you later; this is more like a note to myself at this stage — and I found the following: “Ibn Duwayhiss, a family from al-Mawazin, from al-Jabbar, from al-‘Umayrah, from … Read more

Few passages from Lady Anne Blunt’s (LAB) Journal and Correspondence have left me thinking more than this one, from May 14, 1906:   “Saw Mutlak for some time going through old list I had of families in various tribes, owners of special strains of blood. Found most of them correct.” How I wish I had access … Read more

I am sure I have said this here before, but here it is again: Lady Anne Blunt’s Jauza is my favorite Arabian mare of all time.  

I am so fond of this picture of Lady Anne’s Radia/Ghadia (Feysul x Ghazala) and can’t stop looking at these eyes and muzzle. Why did so many of today’s Egyptian horses, as beautiful and pretty as they are, lose these soulful eyes? Their eyes now have the size, the sparkle, the stare, the dark skin, … Read more

There are a couple of hypotheses that could be tested. If anyone has a horse that is tail female Bint Kareema or knows someone who has one, please contact me: ealdahdah@hotmail.com

The other day I spent a most beautiful day between Abu Kebeer and Geziret Saoud in the Sharqiyah province of Egypt with the Tahawis. Yehia Abdelsattar al-Tahawi, Mohammed Abdallah Saoud al-Tahawi and Yasser Ghanem Barakat, their friends and I spent hours talking about horses and looking at them. One can hardly find people with a richer … Read more

Here is a comment from Gerd, from Chile: “Three friends, readers of his blog, also inspired by the Blog, joined forces to try to keep the line of a Tahawy Arabian mare who arrived in Chile. So they found 3 mares.The only Arabs asil there are in chile are Egyptian, so they must continue in … Read more

(This post will remain on the top of the page of Daughters of the Wind for  a month. Fore more recent posts, scroll down please) If you want to support the goals of the Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force of rescuing, rehoming and advocating for Al Khamsa Arabian horses from rare, precious and endangered lines, … Read more

  Black Sambo (Mahroun x Biroufa by Khebir) was the sire of the two Managhi Sbayli mares Milanne and Velours who are the source of the asil Ferida tail female in the USA, through the excellent mare Fejr (Rijm x Feluka out of Ferida), also photo below. You’ve go to love that powerful Crabbet hindquarter on Fejr.

Check out this really nice picture blog about Egypt.

I grew up in Lebanon during the civil war, witnessed my shared of charred bodies and bloodstains on the sidewalks, and consider myself rather immunized against violent sights, but this photo of a little one sobbing after Thursday’s suicide bombing near a school in Damascus (83 dead, including several dozen children) broke my heart, and … Read more

Some time ago, I announced on this blog a series of blog posts on “ten myths about Straight Egyptian pedigrees”, which I contended were harder to dispel than misconceptions about other groups of Arabian horses (see here, and the ensuing discussion). I did not plan to start with this one, but a recent side discussion about … Read more

Is anyone interested in going through the online roster and tracking down how many tail female Rabanna mares of breeding age?    

Then send US$ checks payable to Al Khamsa Inc. designating the money for the Preservation Task Force. Send by postal service to Al Khamsa Business Office, 7275 Manchester Road, Capron, Illinois 61012, USA.

Photo by Syrian traveler Hussain Ibish, who was accompanying faculty from the American University of Beirut (AUB, my alma mater) to a trip to the Syrian desert in 1935. I am sure the AUB library has a lot of hidden treasures about this period and part of the world.

Gleaned off the internet.. an announcement about the spring festival of 1937 in Deir El Zor, Syria.

See what you could with mtDNA? Modern breeders who knowingly cheated with Arabian female lines should be scared… “Despite this, a team of enthusiasts and historians traced the likely area – and, crucially, also found a 17th-generation descendant of Richard’s sister with whose DNA they could compare any remains recovered. Genealogical research eventually led to a … Read more

                                                                                                    I was re-reading Edouard’s December … Read more

I enjoyed the story that Edouard related about the Shammar Hadba female line and indeed it has fame in American racing bloodlines through Kontiki. It also interesting to note that in the Al Khamsa bloodlines one branch of the Hadba Davenport dam line has distinguished itself in racing according to AJC and DataSource. First of … Read more