Yet another great article by Joe Ferriss, this time in the Khamsat magazine (scroll down), with comparisons, pictures and descriptions asil Arabian horses, old and new.
I can’t believe it’s been more than one month I haven’t blogged. I just flew into Kuwait city, coming from Yemen, where I spent a little less than a week, for work. I had been meaning to see the registering authorities of the newly accepted Yemeni WAHO studbook, but ended up working round the clock for three days in a row, in the mountain areas of Ibb and Ta’izz. Yemen is just gorgeous. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, it is one of my favorite Arab countries, and I like everything about it: the people, the culture, the history, the architecture, the food, etc. I will be in Kuwait for five more days, also for work. That’s another country I have come to like over the years.. I have been fascinated by Arab seafaring history for some time now, and Kuwait was one its hotspots. If you are a sailing buff or just happen to like good travel literature, then I recommend you read “Sons of Sinbad”, by Australian traveler and photograph Alan Villiers. It is an account of the author’s voyage on of the last Arab sail boats along the centuries old maritime trading line from Kuwait to Zanzibar via Aden (and back).…
As usual, scroll down along the right column, and you’ll find it..
Nothing to do with horses, but I thought some of you would enjoy these pictures of the green mountains of Yemen, which I gleaned from the internet. They help dispel some stereotypes about this area of the world.. The name ancient Romans knew Yemen by was ‘Arabia Felix‘, “Fertile Arabia”, because of its running waters, its lush vegetation and the riches it garnered from the frankincense, myrrh and spice trade.
I haven’t written for more than a week, and feel guilty about it. I just landed in Cairo this morning, where I will stay for three days, after spending one week in Morocco. The weather here is cold, and I am about to get out for a breath of (not so) fresh air. I wish the view from my window looked like the picture below, but it doesn’t..
It looks like the WAHO conference in Syria has given a number of Syrian entrepreneurs a bright idea: the desert Arabian horse as a commercial good. They are hosting “Arabian Passion: the Damascus International Horse and Equestrian Fair” (I made it a policy not to link to commercial stuff, so Google it yourselves if you want), for the second time, on October 16-19th, 2009 in Damascus. Not sure which passion they mean.. The exhibitors’ target is “making this exhibition an ideal place for those who would like to offer their products and services”. Fascinating. Gone indeed are the days when idealistic Syrians would offer visitors their lasting friendship and the hospitality of their homes and barns. Now they want to offer you their products and services, including those coveted “bedding and flooring products”. I knew that era would reach Syria one day, but I didn’t know that it would happen so soon… which reminds me of this quote from French writer Antoine de Saint Exupéry (1900-1944): “Nous nous sommes nourris de la magie des sables. D’autres peut-etre y creuseront leurs puits de petrole et s’enrichiront de leurs marchandises. Mais ils seront venus trop tard. Car les palmeraies interdites ou la poudre vierge des…
Yesterday, January 11th 2009 marked the first birthday of “Daughter of the Wind”. I want to pause for a minute and take a look at one year of blogging about desert Arabian horses. As a trained economist I can’t resist sharing the latest figures from my dashboard. Since March 26th, 2008 (which is when I started keeping track of stats) there have been 10,694 unique visitors and 163,884 clicks or visits to the website; it has featured 6 bloggers (me included), who posted a total of 240 posts, with 87 readers posting 925 comments. 100 links were added and 281 tags created. Also, 70% of the reader used English on their web browsers (which doesn’t mean they all come from English speaking countries); 10% used French; 5% used German; 2% used Hungarian; 2% used Arabic and the rest were divided in 19 other languages. Beyond the numbers, Daughter of the Wind has drawn together readers from countries as diverse as Croatia, Hungary, Iran, Israel, Mauritania, Namibia and South Africa, in addition to the US, Canada, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia, etc. It has featured the wonderful asil Arabians of South Africa as well as the precious Babolna lines of Hungary, and shed some light on…
Do you happen know who this gorgeous beauty is (was)? Clue: bred in the USA, but a daughter of the desert. Definitely an absolute favorite of mine, judging only from the few (rather poor) pictures I have of her. Here is another one:
I just wanted to take this occasion to wish everyone a Happy, happy new year. It’s been a great year for Daughter of the Wind, which by the way will blow its first candle in a just a few days.. Here’s to another great year of enjoying these wonderful horses and the great people who breed them across the world.
I can’t resist sharing with you the nice holiday card I just received from Joe and Sharon Ferriss. Thank you Joe and Sharon.. and the one Laszlo and Eva Kiraly also sent me.. Thanks Laszlo and Eva.. and a Happy Holiday to all..
I know there were Al Khamsa eligible tail-female descendants of Dajania after Nadirat, although they might not yet be in the Al Khamsa database. One is Nadirat’s 1946 daughter Aalastra, by Gulastra. And of course there was Nadirat’s famous 1935 daughter Aarah, by Ghadaf. Nefisa is one of the most interesting of all the Crabbet broodmares, with her 21 live foals. Nine of these were fillies. Although Narghileh and Nasra were the two retained for breeding at Crabbet, and probably two of her best, the other fillies are worth a look too. Nefisa’s first filly was Nahla 1889 (by Ashgar). The Blunts actually planned to retain her for breeding, but she died in the fall of her three-year-old year from overeating acorns in Crabbet Park. Nefisa’s next filly was Nejiba 1892 (by Azrek). From her picture, this was a really dandy grey Azrek daughter. She did produce four foals at Crabbet, all colts. One died, one was sold to India, one to Scotland, and one was given to a nephew of Lady Anne’s who lived in Greece. Nejiba herself was given away at age 11 to the son of a longtime friend of Wilfrid Blunt’s. Nefisa’s next filly was Narghileh 1895,…
Third and last photo sent by Laszlo Kiraly of his horses in Hungary. This is Dahhmany Bagdady (Wahhabit x Tisrina B), Laszlo’s stallion. Dahhmany is a unique combination of Egyptian bloodlines, Davenport (Old American) and Babolna blood (through Siglavy Bagdady VI). Wahhabit was Siglavy Bagdady VI’s only asil son.
As Edouard said “relying on second hand sources can be a problem”.I say relying on first hand sources can also be a problem. Are the sources and information for accepting a horse as Asil always reliable.? Take the Egyptian Stud Book we have to rely on the word of Egyptian stud manager who sometimes wrote under “Asil” Anglo Arabs(Raswan index photocopies),we never heard about this horses, were they being used as “Asil” on Arab mares ? who knows? maybe. The horses bought from Hazem Pasha( a thcherkesse) by El Hadad were very tall horses,a little bit unusal for Bedouin bred horses. the mares height: Geheilt el Sheriff 1.58m, Kheila 1.60m, Siglavy Bagdadi was 1.56m.Mersuch 1.57m.Those horses were not ,except Mersuch, Hazem pasha breeding.Siglavy Bagdadi is said to be by the Ruweylat, Wifrid Blunt wrote that Iraqi tribes crossed their mares with Turkmen horses,the south of Bagdad region was breeding horses for the Indian race market, (Major General Tweedie,The Arab and his horse). It is very difficult to recognize a Pure from a part bred ,Edouard father experienced this in Beirut,the only way is inside informers like the police. Ie:In 1897 Prince Roman Sanguszko acquired from Ali Pasha sherif a white stallion called “Massad”.”Massaad” was “the one sent from…
Cher ami, Un grand merci pour vos très édifiantes communications. Oui,le cheval arabe asil a toujours été très rare et extraordinairement précieux . Il a toujours été majoritairement aux mains des bédouins car c’est chez eux qu’il est apparu et chez eux qu’il se maintient dans sa pureté originelle. Le pur-sang arabe est ARABE et ses éleveurs sont les bédouins. Vérité première . Avant de poursuivre, j’ai cru percevoir dans vos propos une certaine nostalgie voire une certaine inquiétude quant à l’avenir de la race. Si cela était le cas , et bien que je ne puisse me targuer d’une expérience semblable aux vôtres, il est de mon devoir de vous soutenir et de vous donner confiance. Sachez qu’aux pires moments pour ce cheval, R. Mauvy , tout en dénonçant amèrement les dérives constatées, n’a jamais douté que la race perdurerait dans toute sa noblesse et toutes ses qualités. A une certaine époque (au milieu des années 70), l’hypocrisie des « marchands » était telle qu’ils annonçaient, à grand renfort d’articles dans les revues spécialisées, sa disparition effective dans son berceau d’origine et présentaient bien évidement l’occident, et eux-mêmes en particulier, comme ses nouveaux détenteurs. Là encore, seuls les Mauvy, plus timidement les…
Food for thought: “The Arabian is not a color breed, so markings and color are not all that important, except that the body spot has been discriminated against in the judging rules — though recently modified and accordingly, has been considered “unclean” by novices. Some the more naive — unfamiliar with the breed’s tradition of plentiful markings — have considered it a “sign of admixture.” Instead, it is more likely a sign of the breed’s antiquity. In the first place, the reason for this “anti-white” clause was to discourage production of pintos in the breed, and after decades of teaching that “Arabians are never parti-color,” it is embarrassing to admit that they are.” Gladys Brown Edwards “Know the Arabian Horse”
This is a picture of Nouro, an Arabian stallion from Syria being trained at the stables next door to where I work as a racehorse trainer.
This paint horse has 99.8% Arabian blood. If he were to be crossed with an Asil mare, the offspring would be a 99.9% Arabian horse, much like more than 95% of all WAHO-accepted horses. Count Alexander Dzieduszycki, the president of the Arab Horse Breeding Society of Poland from 1925 to 1945 called such horses “full blooded Arabs”. Now someone try and explain this to a Bedouin!!
Kuhailan Haifi I is the only son of the desert bred import Kuhailan Haifi out of the Babolna mare Mersuch 1-3-1 (Kohejlanka in Polish breeding). He was exported to Babolna in 1938, where he was renamed “Tajar”. He left two Asil mares: 21 kuhaylan Haifi I, which left no Asil progeny; and 250 kuhailan Haifi I the dam of the Stallion Siglavy Bagdady VI which Edouard recently wrote about. This leads me to surmise that there may be Asil horses from Babolna lines left, trough the Babolna mares taken by the Germans during WWII, rescued by the Poles, who returned them in 1951 to Babolna. Maybe Tzviah can help ?
The three mares Rabda Khuszaiba, Hadba Inzihi, and Szeikha were bought by Zientarski and Raswan in the same mission as the stallions Kuhailain Haifi, Kuhailan Zaid, Kuhailan Kruszan and Kuhailan Afas. The photos of these 3 mares are taken from Britta Fahlgren’s “The Arabian Horses Families of Poland“. All three mares were bred by and bought from the large Muntafiq Bedouin tribe. Rabda Khuszaiba (by a Kuhailan Krush x Rabda Khuszaiba) had a small breeding record, and all her progeny seems to have been lost during World War II. Hadba Inzihi (by a Kuhailan Krush x Hadba Inzihi) was also lost during the war with nothing left from her (neither Asil or non-Asil). Szeikha (by a Dahman Shehwan x Kuhailat Adjouz) produced three mares by Kuhailan Kruszan OA. Only one mare, Udzda, left some non-asil progeny: that was the asil mare Ferha by Kuhailan Abu Arkub (himself by Kuhailan Zaid db).
Kuhailan Afas (by a Kuhaylan Wadnan x a Kuhaylat Aafess) came to Poland from the island of Bahrain in 1931. This stallion, along with Kuhailan Haifi, Kuhailan Kruszan, Kuhailan Zaid and a few mares, were bought by Bogdan Zietarski and Carl Raswan for the Gumniska stud. The Gumniska stud was owned by the Sanguszko princely family of Poland. Kuhailan Afas left three asil sons: -Bad Afas 1940 x Bad by Diab db -Drop 1939 x Donia by Koheilan Haifi db -Don Afas 1940 x Donia by Koheilan Haifi db Donia is out of Donka (Schehan Shammar db x Koheilan II), she is Babolna bred; this is the same dam line of the asil mare 25 Amurath Sahib.
Pictures taken at Mustapha al-Jabri’s farm in 1991-92. Later, a photo of Al Ward el Mayel was widely used, especially in the “Arabian horse world” were he was pictured jumping in front of a wall, if somebody can remember. Please Edouard give us the pedigrees and strain of the grey Taan and of Al Ward al-Mayel. Thank you.
(See the comments section below for a translation of this blog entry to English) A l’origine, en tant qu’améliorateurs des races locales, essentiellement en vue de fournir des produits pour le service de la guerre. La base de nombreux élevages a été les animaux pris dans les combats contre l’Empire Ottoman. Il en est résulté dans de nombreux pays une jumenterie plus ou moins pure que l’on a tenté de conserver par l’achat d’étalons importés d’Orient. La Hongrie avec la race Shagya a été éminemment honnête. La France, avec deux variétés régionales, le Tarbais et le cheval du Limousin a eu la même démarche. A partir de Napoléon III, le pays a cherché à se constituer une jumenterie pure (Asil) afin de pouvoir disposer de reproducteurs pour améliorer la race Barbe en Afrique du nord et perfectionner l’Anglo-arabe naissant. Les établissements les plus remarquables ont été Tiaret en Algérie, Sidi Thabet en Tunisie et Pompadour en France. C’est à partir de cette époque que l’on s’est rendu compte de la différence de qualité entre les produits de la métropole et ceux des deux autres établissements (dégénérescence rapide sous l’influence des sols et du climat). Entre les deux guerres et surtout…
Amer is one of the most successful current arabian racing sires and has produced nearly 300 offspring to date. His progeny has raced in Europe and Middle East and currently more than 80 offspring have won a total of 339 races. 40 of these wins are Group 1 wins, 39 by horses bred and raised at Umm Qarn’s farms in UK and Qatar. His progeny have additionally been placed in 25 Group 1 races, won 4 Group 2 races and 6 Group 3 races. The text and photos are taken from Umm Qarn Farms, Qatar, Amer’s owners (joe)
The first Saudi Arabian Stud book was issued in 1991 by the “Dirab Arabian Horse Center” later named the King Abdul-Aziz horse Center. In 1935 Dr. Mabrouk of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt, traveled to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a horse-buying mission. He wrote about and took pictures of the horses he saw, from the stud of Prince Faysal in Taif near the Red Sea to the stud of Ibn Jiluwi stud near the Persian Gulf. As I’m now in Beirut and the book is in my stables in Damascus ,a post will follow with pictures from Dr. Mabrouk’s trip (if they are good) inshallah. In 1936 a lot of Saudi horses died of a horsesickness, so King Abdul-Aziz received as a present a lot of mares and stallions of Syrian origin,especially from Ibn Mehayd, the sheikh of the Fad’aan Bedouins, Looking at Volume I of the Saudi Arabian studbook one notices the following : The strains are Hamdani Simri, Kuhaylan Abu Arqub, ‘Ubayyan al-Saifi, Kuhailan Suwayti al Firm, Kuhaylan al-Sekti, etc. Saqlawis are very rare. A quick survey of the 1980’s Saudi mares gives the following: Daughters of Safeer (100) a Hamdani Semri: 474 Farasha Kuhaila Sowaitia; 476 Soad Kuhaila Um Arqub; 481 Afeefa Kuhaila Sowaitia; 503…
I’ve just geotagged several photos in my Flickr roll. You can now see the horses’ photos on a map, according to where they were bred. I will add more geotagged photos as we go.
Well, after that introduction, I probably shouldn’t write my first post about the location of the gray gene in the horse. (That’s Michael’s cue, anyway.) Instead, let’s talk about one of the joys of backyard stallions. Here at Deferred Maintenance Acres, the stallion pens are seven feet from the bedroom window. Being able to glance out the window at Palisades is an unqualified delight. (The shot, below, of Palisades enjoying breakfast in bed was taken through said window.) At night, the occasional contented snort or thump on a feed tub is soothing. Stallions exchange news and views over the fence, the wind blows, the birds sing. All is well in California in the autumn. However, pasture breeding season is another story — time to break out the earplugs and the bedtime whiskey. Three AM seems to be a favored time for noisy couplings. I’m sure there’s a paper in this somewhere — Conception Rates Considered As a Function of Time of Day of Service or some such. That would require Data, though, in the form of enough pregnancies to bring any statistical link to light. While Palisades would serve enthusiastically, I’m sure, I’m a bit short of minions for such…
Do you visit Ralph Suarez’s blog? I think you ought to.
The readership of Daughter of the Wind keeps growing. Yesterday it reached the 100,000 clicks milestone. Sometimes I struggle to keep up with the flow of queries, comments, and new topics for blogging that readers address to me through the website or by way of email. Yet, sometimes I feel that the blog’s focus on pedigrees, strains, and concepts is too narrow, and perhaps a bit too “intellectual”. In the spirit of broadening the blog’s focus to address general issues of interest to the global Asil Arabian horse community, and reach out to a new generation of Asil Arabian breeders and enthusiasts, I have asked a number of friends to contribute to Daughter of the Wind as regular bloggers. They will bring a new perspective to breeding and understanding Asil Arabians in their native land (Arabia) and in their countries of adoption (the rest of the world). Their ideas will complement the valuable contributions of Joe Ferriss, Joe Achcar, R.J. Cadranell, and other guest-bloggers to come. I am glad that Jean (Ambar) Diaz has agreed to be a (more or less) regular blogger on Daughter of the Wind. Ambar acquired her first Asil Arabian, Petit Point CF, in 1999. Since then, she’s completed a BS…
Looks like some of my last posts (here, and here) have really (like, really) angered a particular category of people: cynical French breeders who make big money out of breeding and selling “pseudo-Arabian” racehorses. They are now fully mobilized and want to launch a campaign to defend their horses by the next WAHO conference. Some even stand ready to destroy the reputation of anyone who dares pointing a accusatory finger at their horses. Poor them. They think they are victims of another campaign to kick their horses out of WAHO – now that they have recovered from the Manganate controversy that erupted at the 1974 WAHO conference in Sweden. Don’t worry, cynical French breeders of “pseudo-Arabians”. There is nothing to be scared of. Your livelihood will not be threatened, and your financial interests are safe. WAHO will certainly keep you in its fold. Its circular, hopelessly tautological definition protects your horses: “A pure-bred Arabian horse is one which appears in any pure-bred Arabian Stud Book or Register listed by WAHO as acceptable”. That’s bullet-proof. My two posts – and the others to follow 🙂 – are not an attempt to throw French pseudo-Arabians out of WAHO, this low-ceiling benchmark of purity.…
This little known importation is the earliest ever made to the United States. Between 1851 and 1856, Keene Richards took two trips to the Arabian desert, visiting virtually every region of North Africa and the Middle East. He came back with several horses, of which the stallions Massoud, Faysul, Mokhladi (no doubt a Mukhallad, the same rare strain as the French desert import Merjane) and Sacklowie. He left an account of his travels, edited by Thornton Chard, who also wrote this article about the importation. Sadly, the US Civil War broke out and completely destroyed what were extremely promising seeds of early USA Asil Arabian breeding.
The number of clicks on the “Daughter of the Wind” blog as of 3.30 pm on Monday, September 22nd, less than 9 months into its launch. Even I am surprised by the magnitude of the phenomenon. What is as interesting is the number of separate users: 4,971 so far, which means that the average number of pages viewed is 14 pages per reader…
… Mukalla, the capital of Hadhramut, in eastern Yemen, is not quite the place where you can stroll around in a swimsuit, but is a most interesting town nonetheless. Historically, it linked Arabia with east Africa, India and Indonesia (where a diaspora of more than 4 million Hadramis thrives), and was the main port for the exportation of myrrh, frankincense, and arabic gum, and the importation of precious wood, spices and slaves. Today, it’s a diving spot, and a good place to eat lobster (although not quite like Maine 😉 Check out this blog about Hadhramut, you’ll like it.
Due to increasing requests from Daughter of the Wind readers, a number of entries will be published in French from time to time. English speaking readers will be able to access them through online translation softwares, however imperfect these tools are. Somewhere down the road, I will need to rely on someone’s help to translate some posts to German, which constitutes a growing part of the readership..
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 Hamdan stables for a while and was bred by Miqhim ibn Mahayd, the Shaykh of the Bedouin Fad’aan tribe. Egyptian records have him as being by El Sabaa, also a racehorse, out of a Ma’naghiyah of Ibn Mhayd. Fine. But many questions remain unanswered. Did Miqhim race Arabian horses in Egypt? or did he sell the horse to a racehorse owner? did he own El Gadaa’s sire El Sabaa? where was El Gadaa bred, in Egypt, or in the desert? I know Miqhim ibn Mahayd left Syria sometimes in the 1950s (will get back to you with the exact date) after a series of problems with the Syrian regime, and moved to Saudi Arabia, where he received royal treatment from the King – himself a fellow Anazeh tribesman, who incidentally bred Bint Nafaa’s dam Nafaa, a desertbred Kuhaylah (so marbat) by a ‘Ubayyan al-Suyayfi – a strain that branched off ‘Ubayyan al-Hunaydees. I know Miqhim kept a…
The 2008 Al Khamsa Convention is taking place in Tulsa, Oklahoma from October the 23rd until the 26th. Check out the schedule here. I plan on being there.
I just realized that a good deal of the content on the “Daughter of the Wind” blog has been “hijacked” by another blogger who has posted it on his blog, “Banu Sanhadja Arabs” (here). I have chosen to take it as an additional proof to the success of “Daughter of the Wind”, six months into its launch, and will wish the “hijacker” good luck with his endeavor. Just wanted to let the readers of “Daughter of Wind” know that I am not associated in any way with the author of this other blog, who writes under the pseudonym of Abu Uwais al-Maghribi, even if my name appears on it. [Sept 2 Update: The posts “borrowed” from “Daughter of the Wind” have been removed from the blog “Banu Sanhadja Arabs”. Thank you, Abu Uwais]
Yesterday was a painful first work day after five weeks away from Washington. It’s pouring rain outside, and a quick glance at my office window makes my PC screen – where unread emails are piling up – a pleasure to stare at. Oh well… But I am back to blogging, and boy does that feel good.
Tomorrow I will be taking my family to Europe for vacation, and I will be back in the USA on August 26th. I will also be going to Yemen from August 6 to 15th, for work. I plan to see horses there too. I took the decision not to blog while on vacation. I don’t know if I’ll stick to it. This stuff is addictive! Enjoy your summer.
Looking at Denouste’s dam we can easily understand why he looked this way at 2.This is a powerful mare, look at these shoulders and at her hidquarters, you find a lot of horses with the same head in Syria where it is called ‘arneh‘. It is not a beautiful head but does not mean at all that it is not a head of an Asil horse. The head of horses changes when they mature, my stallion ‘al Bark’ now 6 years old, did not have the same head at two. It is more refined now. As for the slooping croup nearly all my (10) Asil race horses have the same croup. A slooping croup does not mean ar all that a horse is not Asil. It depends on what horse you are looking for, if it is for racing this kind of croup is more suitable, giving more power to the hindquarters.This kind of powerful horses existed in the famous horse breeding tribes and still exist today. I will scan the photo of ”Ghazwane” by ”Krush Halba” out of “Kuhaylat al-Kharass” one of the most famous Asil racehorses in Lebanon and Syria, next to him Denouste looks like a Scottsdale winner.. As for Denouste if, according…
I visited Yemen for the time in 2002 – for work. I was a panelist in a conference that brought together government officials, academics, representative of the private sector, and traditional leaders. Among the latter, I recall seeing a man surrounded by a large retinue of armed bodyguards and followers. People stepped aside when he passed by, and everyone seemed to treat him with much awe and respect. I was told his name was Naji ibn Abd al-Aziz al-Shayif, and that he was the Supreme Shaykh (tribal leader) of Bakil. Bakil is one of the two largest Yemeni tribes, with several million members (the other tribe being Hashed, to which the President of the Republic of Yemen, H.E. Ali Abdallah al-Saleh, belongs). Later in the evening, I asked whether there still were Arabian horses in Yemen, and was told that the same Naji al-Shayif owned about 20 to 30 of them, and that he’d recently given one of them to a Western ambassador as a gift. I was also told that the shaykh of the tribe of Juhannam, on the Red Sea coast of Yemen, owned some 40 to 50 Arabian horses too. That was all the information I could gather on the horses of a country that is believed…
This evening witnessed the visit of the 2000th reader of this blog, while the number of total hits was reaching 30,000 over five months. I am encouraged by these results, as they show there is some interest in what is ultimately a tiny niche within Arabian horsebreeding. As this blog continues its journey, I will be adding new features: video, podcasts, polls, and more. In the meantime, there is a new translation feature at the bottom of the second column, which allows readers of German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, Russian, Chinese, Japanese and Arabic to access the materials in their own language. It’s not perfect, but it’s there.
By now, five months into the life of this blog, there has been enough material for a first-time user to get confused. So if you are looking for information on a particular topic, just click the link to the topic of interest to you on the first right-hand column under “Themes”, or click on a specific keyword under “Tag”.
Georges Philippe Tabet, was the Finance minister of Lebanon under the French Mandate (1920-1943).He owned ‘’Al Mushrefeh’’ a big estate near Homs in Syria where he use to breed Arab horses for more than 20 years. Moreover he was member of the ‘’Arab Horse Society ‘’ his name appearing in Vol I of the AHS stud book 1919. His status of big wealthy land owner and Arab Horse breeder certainly made the Bedouins of the Homs and Hama region ,mainly ‘’Sbaa’’, to sell him mares and stallions, moreover he must have had good relations with the “Kassasse’’ of both Homs and Hama ,famed horse breeding regions in Syria. In 1937 he edited a small book in French and Arabic called’’ Les noms de Familles des chevaux Arabes’’ (Arab horses family names).This book taken from Bedouin sources, makes the difference between the ‘’Pure Asil” “The Asil’’ and the ‘’Kadish’’ more over Georges Tabet listed the ‘’The Chebou’’ horses’’ and the ‘’Non-Chebou’’ horses. I quote the introduction of his book: …….’’The pure Asils or Chebou’’ have all they ancestors known as only ‘’Chebou ‘’horses, the Bedouin only mate their mares only from ‘’Chebou’’ horses . ‘’The Asils’’ are pure breds but all their…
Samarcande will be five months old next week. She better become a horse freak.
Tonight I landed in Doha, Qatar, for a work-related conference. I will be confined in the city’s overwhelmingly luxurious Sheraton hotel for the next three days, while you ride, train feed and enjoy your horses. Thank God they have wireless internet in the conference room. I will be blogging about Asil Arabians in my little corner. If I am caught, I will say it’s for the good cause (and I will continue to hope that my boss does not read this blog). Arabian horses are a really big deal here. The majority was imported from the West. “Decorative” horses mostly. Not quite my cup of tea. Others hail directly from Egypt and Syria. A tiny minority are indigenous Asil Arabians from old Qatari bloodlines. I recall this wonderful picture of a bay Wadhnan stallion in one of the early volumes of the Qatari studbook. If only Qatar had a hundred more like him left. How many are left? Where are they? Who knows their histories? I wish I could sneak out and see some of these gems..
I just opened a Flickr account, and I put on it photos of Asil Arabian horses that I got from the web. I will be putting more photos I took myself as we go. Click here for a slideshow. Place on your cursor on the horse’s photo if you want to know his name. There is also a permanent link to these photos on the first right sidebar under “My photos”.
After an unfortunate technical problem with uploading pictures that lasted over one week, this blog is back at work. Apologies for this glitch. Last week, I provided the translation of the hujjah (authenticity certificate) of a desert-bred mare that mentions the stallion Duhayman al-Ajarrash. The mare traces to the horse through her maternal great-granddam. Duhayman al-Ajarrash may well be the sire of the stallion El Nasser, as discussed in this entry. I now provide a scanned copy of this hujjah, in Arabic. Click on it to enlarge it.
It was by chance that I learned from my late mother that the “Khalil Sarkis” of the “Hamidie” Society was her maternal grandfather, when one day she told me: “If you like horses you must know that my grand father lost a fortune in horses”. “Gambling” I asked? and she told me that he had lost a lot of money taking horses to the USA. Very excited I went to the “Oriental Library”, belonging to the Jesuits order in Beirut, hoping to find the “Lissan ul Hal” collection, a daily newspaper founded 1875 by Khalil Sarkis in Beirut and widely read. By chance they had all the old volumes from 1882 to 1955, since “Lissan ul Hal” was for many years the leading newspaper in Lebanon and Syria. Khalil Sarkis was the first president of the press syndicate in Lebanon, he was fluent in both English and German, he married Luisa the daughter of professor Butros el Bistani, who was famous in the Arab world for writing and publishing the first Arabic Encyclopedia. Khalil was for many years the paramount figure of the Evangelical community in Beirut. His son Ramez was minister in various governments, and his grandson Khalil is a renowned philosopher and writer, now retired…
I thank you for welcoming me to Edouard’s blog, I’m 65 married with 3 step-sons, I raced arabians in Beirut without knowing that they were part breds, I owned Arabians in Brazil, without knowing that they were part-breds. I also raced Thouroughbreds in Sao Paulo, Brazil and was partner in a horse who won the Brazilian Derby. My maternal great grandfather was Khalil Sarkis, the manager of “the Hamidie company” I wrote once an article on him and on the Hamidie bringing new lights on the way the horses were chosen. I also wrote on Davenport and on Ameen Zeitoun his “translator” with also new informations. Both infos were sent to the Craver’s at that time. I promise to post the two materials but I need time to rewrite them as they are in Arabic, and now is foaling time at the breeding farm… I manage two farms, the breeding one and the racing one located at the Damascus race track while the breeding farm is 15 miles far, we do have the best herd of bedouin racing mares, I promise to send pictures. Edouard, please be kind in posting the Hussam picture it is in “the media library”. I’m…
One purpose of this blog is to bridge the gap between arabian horse breeders in the East (the cradle of the breed) and the West (its area of expansion). After introducing Joe Ferriss, RJ Cadranell and Charles Craver (who has yet to send me his contribution), all Asil Arabian horse figures from the West, now is the time to turn to the East. My first guest blogger from the East is Joe Achcar. Joe is a veteran Arabian horse breeder and enthusiast from Lebanon, and an early supporter of Asil Arabian breeding. He has published widely on Asil Arabians in Gulf country press outlets. He currently trains Arabian race horses in Damascus, Syria.
A headshot of the same Ma’naghiyah Hadrajiyah mare, whose name now escapes me. Her sire was a Kuhaylan al-Krush from Shammar, from the marbat of Mayzar al-‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarbah. That marbat is known to trace to the “white Krush” of the Mutayr tribe. Kuhaylan al-Krush will be featured next in “the Strain of the Week” series.
The term Asil in the Arabic language means “pure”, “authentic” and “original” all at once. In principle, all Arabian horses should be Asil. Either Arabians horses are “pure”, “original”, and “authentic” (Asil), or they are not Arabians, but partbreds. Arabians just cannot be a little bit Asil. Still, things are not that simple! Most Arabian horses studbooks around the world include horses with varying, often tiny, percentages of non-Arabian blood. These horses are not Asil, and hence not Arabians, as far as I am concerned. Indeed, in some cases such as Spain, Russia and Poland, such horses compose the entire studbook (except for imports from another country that breeds “pure”, “original”, and “authentic” Asil horses.) These non-Asil, non-Arabian horses are nevertheless registered as Arabians in the Arabian horse studbooks, and these studbooks are accepted by WAHO (the equivalent of the United Nations for Arabian horses, and I leave it up to you to push that analogy as far as you want). Indeed, most of the world recognizes and designates these horses as Arabians. People like me and many of the readers of this blog are a small minority, a “subversive cell in Arabian breeding” to quote the words of Reba Troxell to Charles Craver (thanks Ambar for the quote). Hence the need arises to differentiate these so-called…
Wilfrid Blunt thought seriously about the breeding program at the Crabbet Stud. Some of his thoughts are preserved in his stud memoranda and also his remarks prepared for delivering to the crowds at the Crabbet auction sales. The Wentworth Bequest includes comments dating from 1904 discussing the wisdom of developing a separate breeding program at Crabbet using horses not tracing to Mesaoud. Mr. Blunt posited that those horses could be used as the Crabbet Stud’s own outcross, should one be required in another 50 years. Mesaoud was the most successful stallion the Blunts ever used. They had sold him to Russia just the year before, in June of 1903. Mesaoud’s 12 seasons at Crabbet resulted in more than 100 foals, with the last arriving in 1904. After Mesaoud’s departure, it’s no surprise that Mr. Blunt was wondering whether it was possible to have too much Mesaoud blood. Of the 94 horses listed in the 1904 Crabbet catalogue, only 22 did not have Mesaoud in their pedigrees, and only two of those were male: Nejran and Rijm. Nejran’s 1904 non-Mesaoud colt out of Bint Helwa died. It was a grey colt, so it was unlikely that the Blunts would have used…