Frolicking in the Wisconsin snow at her new owner’s Moira Walker.
Warriors of the past and warriors of the present. Gender roles reversed. Two radically different worlds side by side. Today both worlds interact through the desert Arabian horse. The median breeder of desert Arabians in the US is a woman, while young Bedouin men are claiming back their old horse heritage.
Richard Pritzlaff riding. Photo gleaned off the internet, without a source. Rabanna, like her contemporary the Doyle mare Gulida, is a boon for any breeder to have in the pedigree of their horses. So much of the real Abbas Pasha blood in these two mares. Much gratitude for dedicated breeders like Sheila Harmon and others for having carried that line forward in recent times. My personal favorites are the grey “Rabannas”, e.g., Kumence RSI, Aloha RSI. They look different from the chestnuts, not just color wise. I see more of the original Rabanna in them.
Somebody has been bugging me to help set up Arabian racing in Southern Africa. I can’t help but wonder what the members of this group think. If “per definition” (i.e. Skowronek, etc.) WAHO Arabians are allowed, is it really Arabian racing?
From time to time — I am not sure why — I have intense flashbacks of Yemen, where I spent perhaps the most memorable stays of my life. I visited it often between 2005 and 2015, traveling around the country from the ancient cities of San’aa, Dhamar, Ibb, Ta’izz and al-Mukallah to the remote villages and fortresses atop the mountains. The people and the culture left a deep mark on me, and so did the architecture and the landscape. It is the one part of the Middle East where the most ancient manifestations of an original Arabian civilization express themselves the most vividly, without noticeable Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Persian, Ottoman or now ubiquitous Western influences. I found these pictures on a Facebook page dedicated to Yemen (Mahdi al-Dubaybi’s page). Most of the pictures are from villages and towns in the mountain provinces of San’aa, Raymah and al-Mahwit, incuding of the towns of Haraz, al-Mahjabah, and Dar al-Hajar, which was the residence of the last Imam of Yemen before the 1962 revolution.
This should be the first foal of my Mayassa Al Arab (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David). She will then be ten years old (below, at two years old). So grateful to Deb Mackie for having made it happen!
The origins of the three horses presented by Shibly Bisharat to King Faruq of Egypt are currently somewhat obscure, as the only information we have at present comes from Shibly’s son Midhat Bisharat’s correspondence with Dr Hans Nagel, which gives their strains and includes the fact that they were purchased from the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force when it was disbanded in 1948. There is no mention of their breeders, and no direct connection to the Bedouin. Only the stallion Besheir El Ashkar and one of the two mares, Badria, still have descent in horses accepted by the Asil Club and Al Khamsa. What we know of these two from Pearson and Mol’s 1988 The Arabian Horse Families of Egypt is given below: Besheir el Ashkar was a chestnut foaled on 26th March, 1935. He was presented to the Inshass Stud by Basharat Bey in March 1948 and sold to the Wasta Farm in October 1951. p. 59 Badria was a chestnut foaled on 26th March, 1941. She was presented to the Inshass Stud by Basharat Bey in March 1948 and transferred to the Veterinary Section of the Army in June 1953 and later to the EAO. p. 129 Both horses have an exact…
The second issue of the Bedouin Horse Journal of South Africa has an upcoming article on Belle and her rare Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain.
This what a “very beautiful head” meant in 1895. Let’s keep it that way.
Samantha Mattocks published this feature on our new book “The Arabian Horses of Abbas Pasha” in the British “Arabian Magazine”
Hamidi al-Dham al-Hadi al-Jarba was the supreme leader Shaykh of the Jarba Shammar. Westerners know him mostly for hosting a delegation of breeders to the Shammar in 1996.
Nelyo looked very “old style” Arabian the other day. I love how fine his mouth amd muzzle look. There was too much visual noise in the background, so I converted the picture to black and white.
Kinza arrived at the Doyle farm in Oregon some ten days ago. She will most likely go to Bashir Al-Dirri in the spring, when she will have put more weight on. Bev Davison keeps her dam Ginger, as well as two siblings, a filly and a colt, and has sold another full sister.
Billy Sheets, who with his father and grandfather before him owned Arabian Stud Farms [ASF] told me some twenty years ago that the bay stallion active at ASF under the name ASF Gersom [Dhahran x Esperanzo Asal Fanifara] was not ASF Gersom, who had died young, but his younger full brother, ASF Jedeciah, the 1977 model, also bay. Not sure why I remembered this today.
Superb photo of Fragrance CF [Regency CF x Anthesis CF] taken by Carol Mingst in 2012.
Jamr, despite being small, is magnificent. In fact, he does not look small at all when moving. Yesterday, I also took these photos of him walking in hand. He is short [13.3 and a half], I am tall [6 feet], so that makes for titled photos where his legs look shorter and his body bigger. I wish I had taken some video too, as he was moving in a way very reminiscent of the 1920s Crabbet stallions in this British Pathe short film, one hundred years later.
The horse I enjoyed seeing the most yesterday was Monologue CF. He has never looked better since Darlene Summers and I acquired him from Pamela Klein in 2011 [I think 2011, I have been getting all mixed up with dates lately]. You can click on the photos to enlarge them. His eye was shining and so was his coat, despite the dusty winter coat, and his gorgeous neck crest is back. It is hard to imagine a broader forehead, a larger eye, a deeper jowl and more balance in any horse. He is a model of balance, harmony and proportions. I will have him bred to Barakah next spring. I wish Davenport breeders used him more, and I wish I had more mares for him.
Yesterday I went to see my horses up in Pennsylvania, and took a lot of pictures with my smartphone. Smartphone photos are what they are. This is a head snapshot of little Bassma Al Arab [Jamr Al Arab x Jadah BelloftheBall], now one and a half years old. In this picture, her head looks like that of her sire Jamr: she has his deep jowl, small muzzle, elastic nostril, triangular head, and especially his large, soulful, low-set eye. She also has her dam’s very long ears, which is a plus. The profile is flat, without a hint of a dish, and I like it like this. Lots of asalah and old type in that filly.
Lyman Doyle took nice pictures of my Sharif Al Arab the other day. He is in that ungainly, growthy phase, but he is really promising. He takes more after his sire, Bashir Al Dirri, than his dam, DaughterofthePharaohs [aka “Pippa”].
Lyman Doyle also took this impromptu shot of the two year old colt I used to call Shaykh Al Arab, by Tamaam DE out of DaughterofthePharaohs, and which now belongs to his family. I like the old-fashipned Crabbet look on this horse, and I think he is very promising. I am so happy that horses of this kind are still being produced here and there in 2020.
A headshot of the Ubayyan stallion AAS Nelyo, my recent acquisition from Edie Booth. He is registered as a bay, but the colors I see range from a very dark liver chestnut to a light, dusty bay, almost dun, to a seal brown. Some days, he just looks purple, like when Moira Walker took this photo.
And this is DaughterofthePharaohs, aka “Pippa”, the other Ma’naqiyah mare I have leased from DeWayne Brown, until she produces a filly for me. Click on the low res photos to enlarge them. All photos by Lyman Doyle.
This is Shaman’s dam SS Lady Guenevere, which I have leased from DeWayne Brown a few years ago, until she produces a filly for me. Click on the low res photos to enlarge them.
Lyman Doyle recently gratified me with several nice pictures of the horses I board at his and his parent’s farm in Oregon. Click on the low res photos to enlarge them. Here’s a couple of Shaman Al Arab, my Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion-to-be, by Tamaam DE out of SS Lady Guenevere. He turned two years old this past August. He is really excellently conformed, and I am finding it hard to fault him — my favorite pastime as some of you may know.
I finally dug up these two screenshots from a video of the Davenport stallion Invictus Al Krush, which the late Carol Lyons had given to Randall Harris. He is the sire of Jadah BelloftheBall and the grandsire of Barakah Al Arab and Bassmah Al Arab. Belle has his big, long head.
This past weekend, Belle left with her new owner, Moira Walker, after some nine years in my ownership. She leaves two nice fillies behind. She is in foal to Jamr for a March 2023 foal. She was the sweetest of mares, especially with my children as they were growing up. Here’s to a long line of Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from her. Moira’s photos at her farm.
I own the very last Al Khamsa mare alive with a tail female to the 1886 Blunt desert-bred mare Ferida. Her name is CSA Baroness Lady, a.k.a. “Lady”. Lady is now 23 years old, and is available to the right home. Get in touch if you are interested. She is available because I now have four frozen embryos from her for future use, two from the Bahraini stallion Shuwaimaan Al Rais, and two other from the Syrian desert-bred stallion Dahjani Al Arab. Hopefully one of these four embryos is a female that will be able to take the line forward. She is available to the right home at no cost because of her age. She still cycles regularly, though, and her uterus is clean and in good shape. The vets at U Penn recovered seven eggs from a first aspiration last August, of which four matured and were inseminated. Two of these cleaved and developed into embryos which were quickly frozen. The second aspiration also led to ten eggs, of which three matured and of these, two developed into embryos that were also frozen. That’s a great success rate. The Blunt taproot mare Ferida was the matriarch of one of…
Laura Fitz is selling this handsome colt, by Monologue CF out of Mi Blue Angel. He has a rare cross to the Bahraini stallion Mlolshaan Hager Solomon. She told me that he has had quite a bit of ground work. He loads, clips, lunges, round pens…. He was 14.1 the last time she measured him. The last two photos display his sire Monologue’s very board forehead and large eyes.
Very happy to announce my acquisition, a few months ago, of this handsome and truly desert-bred jet black Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion [click link for the pedigree] hailing straight from the Shammar Bedouins. Hopefully, he will make his way to the US at some point in the future. He is currently standing at the stud of Shaykh Hashim Al Jarba [Abu Hmud] in N.E. Syria, where he has been put to good use over the past three years. He’s had some ten foals this year only. His offspring, among them the two fillies below, are very promising,
Just a quick update about the mares. Sidi Bint Maistro will be coming here around the middle of October. Her paddock is already picked out. I’m going to have a hard time letting her go. Assad Princess Surrayah is a different case entirely. After nine years of living on almost nothing, the moment she got here the old girl developed laminitis. With the bum knee, she’ll still stand there, blissfully trusting you, as you have a look at her hooves. I really don’t know if we can expect a foal.
This beautiful photo of the Saqlawi Al-‘Abd stallion Jadaan (Abbeian x Amran) in older age standing by the memorial dedicated to early Hollyoowd star Rudolph Valentino was posted by Andrea Kaiser on Facebook and relayed by the Davenport Arabian Horse Conversancy. Jadaan is represented in a small number of Arabian horses of Davenport lines, especially those from the Krushan strain Fun fact: the term “latin lover” was apparently first coined for Valentino
Jadah BelloftheBall, Kuhaylah ‘Ajuz in foal to Jamr Al Arab Mayassa Al Arab, Kuhaylah Krush, in foal to Anecdote CF Wadha Al Arab, Kuhaylah Hayfiyah, in foal to Shuwaymaan Al Rais [Bahrain] SS Lady Guenevere, Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah, in foal to Cascade DE
Yesterday, I finally received my own copies of our book “The Arabian Horses of Abbas Pasha – New Discoveries: The 1860 Abbas Pasha Sale List and Other Original Documents” in the mail. It really does look very nice.
Below is a copy of an advert for *Munifan, from volume 5 of Here’s Who In Horses of the Pacific Coast, an annual publication compiled by Betty Jellinek. Published in 1949, volume 5 covered the horse shows of the previous year.
The account of the visit of Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk of the Egyptian RAS to Prince Saud Ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi (or Jluwi), Governor of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in 1936 can also be used to shed some light on the desert-bred stallion *Munifan. The same reasoning used in the recent blog entry about *Al Hamdaniah also applies to *Munifan. *Munifan was also born in 1940, four years after Mabrouk’s visit. He was gifted to George O’Brien by Ibn Jalawi, and imported in 1947 to the USA by O’Brien. His Saudi export document indicates that he was by an ‘Ubayyan out of a Kuhaylah. His sire could be any of the five Ubayyan horses Dr. Mabrouk saw on his visit two Ibn Jalawi: a 7 year old bay stallion, an 11 year old dark bay stallion, a 7 year old chestnut stallion himself sired by a chestnut ‘Ubayyan stallion, and two bay colts, both sired by a bay ‘Ubayyan, likely the first one on this list, who appears to have been the head sire. Dr Mabrouk’s list of the mares he saw at Ibn Jalawi includes several mares of strains typically classified as branches of the generic Kuhaylan strain.…
In his 1936 book “A Journey to Arabia”, Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk of Egypt’s Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) has this to say of the horses of Prince Sa’ud Ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi, the governor of the al-Hasa province of the new kingdom of Saudi Arabia: “In the Prince’s stables, near his private palace, I saw about 80 horses. These I believe are the most pedigreed in Arabian owing to their concentration in a limited spot and the consequent exclusion of any outside blood.” Dr. Mabrouk lists two mares of the ‘Ubayyan strain: 8. Ebeya El-Safra, grey, 8 y., fine bones and short neck. 9. Ebeya El-Hamra, bay, 10 y., big eyes but progeny with small eyes, spavin [sic], off hind, faint star and marking off hind coronet, very fine. He also lists two ‘Ubayyan stallions and two ‘Ubayyan colts: 1. Ebeyan, bay, 7 y., 140 cent, both fore off hind white, faint race 2. Ebeyan, dark-bay, 11 y. white coronet, near fore, off hind, week [sic] hocks. 3. Two colts, bay, ex Ebeya El-Safra, by Ebeyan El-Ahmar, four whites, blaze, like sire. [sons of number 8] The markings on stallion 1 appear to correspond to this picture in Dr. Mabrouk’s book,…
Just looking again at this nice 2016 photo of my Kuhaylat al-Ajuz mare “Belle”. It’s the Arabian horse equivalent of that 1950 Edward Hopper painting “Cape Cod Morning” with the woman looking out the window at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC.
Perhaps it’s time to share my latest attempt to keep the gene pool in my horses as broad as possible. It’s also a story of dedication, steadfastness and perseverance by Jessie Heinrick, who made it all happen. The bottom line up front is that some time ago, I acquired sight unseen an 11 year old stallion, MD Turfairan, tail female *Turfa close up, so a Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz by strain. I had been following him for a decade, year after year. At the time, I loved his overall balanced, his long withers, his shoulder, the facial bones and the deep jowl, based on these pictures. Some two years ago, at my suggestion Jessie Heinrick drove down from Oregon to Arkansas to visit with his breeder Susan Whitman. Jessie came back with Turf in her trailer. He did not have papers, and for a while it looked like he wouldn’t be able to get any. Susan was not sure of his sire, so the first attempt at matching his DNA with that of the most likely candidate (MD Hadids Hammer) failed. A second attempt with MD Ibn Hattairan succeeded. The registered owners of his dam, and his breeders, who were elderly, were…
Young Sharif really is a looker. DeWayne Brown who owns his dam Pippa, visited the Doyle farm last weekend and took the pictures. You gotta love the Doyle motor on this Ma’naqi colt. And the black skin around the eyes. Terry Doyle is standing in the background.
Today, my Barakah was bred to Monologue CF. I love this young mare of mine, and I am looking forward to the outcome of that cross. In general, I find that this particular branch of the *Nufoud damline is a diamond in the rough. It has plenty of desert type, but some defects too. Barakah’s dam Belle is the most deserty mare I own, but the girth lacks some depth, the back is a tad long, the forehead a little narrow and the barrel — the rib cage — is not round enough for my taste. But she has plenty of bone, long ears, a proud carriage and the croup and tail set are just the way they should be. The addition of Wadd — Barakah’s sire — fixed the girth, the longish back and the ribcage, all structural features that I have found hard to fix in one generation, but it messed up the croup. Barakah inherited her sire’s short droopey croup and short-ish hip, although when moving like in the pictures below, this does not show. So I am hoping Monologue will now fix the croup with his long, straight hip like in the photo, without affecting the…
From Severine Vesco comes this beautiful photo of the handsome Syrian stallion Mahboob Halep, with his owner Jean-Claude Rajot in France. He is a Shuwayman Sabbah originally from the Shammar, and a personal favorite of mine. This stallion becomes finer and dryer year after year.
This morning I received this email from the Penn Equine Assisted Reproduction Laboratory (PEARL) at U. Penn’s veterinary school, where I was trying this new ICSI technology on one of my older mares, CSA Baroness Lady. We have 2 cleaved embryos in culture for Baroness Lady x Dahjani Al Arab. Today is “Day 7” and 1 has developed to the blastocyst stage! Congratulations!! As a reminder, this embryo was frozen for future transfer into a recipient mare. We will continue to monitor developmental progress of the remaining 1 cleaved embryo in culture for another several days and I will provide a final update next week. How cool is that, the lay person that I am thought.
My beautiful Ginger, now owned by Bev Davison, got a pretty, pretty filly for Bev by her stallion Ahsahm. This is Ginger’s third filly in four years. Surely this great broodmatron, now 24, has done more for the Rabanna female line than any other mare of similar lines in the last decades. Photos by the proud owner.
DeWayne Brown took these. This young horse has style and substance.
My beloved Wadha nearly died while foaling, and her foal by Monologue died too. A large bay colt, both hindlegs white, so large that he was stuck at the level of his hips for two and a half hours and died before he could come out. Wadha’s vagina was teared up pretty bad and she did not pass her placenta until several hours after she was rushed to the vet hospital of the U. of Pennsylvania. She remains there, but is doing better now. It was traumatic. It reminds of me of the note Lady Anne Blunt put in her herdbook about her Jallabiyah mare Makbula: “Foal dead, mare nearly dead”.
Lovas Nemzet, Laszlo Kiraly’s 22 years old Hungarian horse magazine is having its annual photo competition. The deadline is July 24, 2022. Everyone is encouraged to apply.
The last thing I wanted this year is another colt. Still, my appreciation for this latest one is growing at each candid shot Terry Doyle sends me through DeWayne Brown, who owns the dam. Look at that neck, that gaskin and these hocks, at such a young age. Bashir is really a good sire. I fancy the lines to *Mirage, *Euphrates, *Shahwan and *Al-Mashoor way in the back of the pedigree, and more closely, the cross to *Faleh and of course the Doyle blood. I have the highest respect for the influence of *Faleh and his full brother *Farazdac in any pedigree. Just a drop of that blood makes a huge difference (likewise with their maternal uncle *Aswan).
I finally managed to get a better photo of Assad Princess Surrayah. Please excuse the candid photo. She’s putting weight on nicely. Assad Princess Surrayah She will be put out to pasture with Gülilah Sawwan very soon.
I like this little chap. He speaks well for his sire as a breeding stallion. The dam is of course excellent.
It’s a colt — the third in a row from that Ma’naqi line. This morning Pippa went into labor and quickly delivered a healthy chestnut colt at Terry and Rosemary Doyle’s in Oregon. He is by Bashir Al-Dirri, Jenny Krieg’s excellent horse (below). His name is Sharif Al Arab. Sharif means “distinguished, eminent, illustrious, noble, highborn, high-bred”, and he is all of that by birth. Other than his tail male to Mesaoud, his Ma’naqi tail female to *Haidee and his high percentage of old Blunt blood, he is the last horse — together with his sire — to carry the bloodlines of early Arabian imports *Euphrates and *Al-Mashoor in Al Khamsa, and one of the last ones to carry lines to desert-breds *Leopard, *Mirage, and *Houran. These are quintessentially American lines of Arabian horses.
Wadha’s foal by Monologue is due this week, and Pippa’s foal by Bashir (“the Dude”) the next. I am hoping for a bay foal in the first case, regardless of gender, and for a filly (chestnut, because no other option) in the second. Both should be nice foals, if delivery goes all. In other news, Belle is in foal to Jamr again.
My new book with Kate McLachlan and Moira Walker, “The Arabian Horses of Abbas Pasha” will be published in late-July 2022, capping six years of work. It is based on the (re)discovery and translation of the Abbas Pasha Sale List, an original Arabic document drawn at the close of the auction sale of the famed collection of Arabian horses of Abbas Pasha I, Viceroy of Egypt and the Sudan (r. 1848-1854), following the sudden death by drawning of his son Ibrahim Ilhami Pasha, who had inherited his father’s horses and bred them them on for six more years. The Sale List has 278 stallions, mares, colts and fillies, excluding very young foals at their dams’ side. The new book also features translations of six other smaller documents, including an early scrapbook of Ali Pasha Sherif, and two entries from his studbook, which is now lost. Taken together, the Abbas Pasha Sale List and the six smaller documents translated and analyized in this book allow us to fill in blanks in the pedigrees of the horses which Lady Anne and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt acquired from Ali Pasha Sherif between the 1889 and 1896. These horses traced entirely to Abbas Pasha stock…
Kate and I started talking about the mare Sidi Bint Maistro a while ago. I finally summoned up the nerve to get my 2 cents together and make an offer for her. Who was the first horse you bought?
This photo from Mirko Ulram at Yeguada Schieferegg this morning. Their third foal and first filly. Both mom and daughter are doing well. sired by Ibn Hamza out of Hassirah
The other day I was telling Carrie Slayton that I wanted to breed and own very powerful Arabian horses horses, with very deep girths, very round barrels, short backs, long hips, high and extended withers, flamboyant action, lots of spirit, fire in the eyes, dark skin on the face, very fine skin, shiny coats, masculine males, feminine females, very dry overall. And of course of unquestionably pure origins.
Just about a year ago I wrote about the mare Jezabel , “die Wüstenstute” and her journey from Iran to Europe. Mirko Ulram graciously sent me these photos of her great-granddaughter Jasminah. She is the product of a mating between a grandson and a granddaughter of Jezabel. Mirko confirmed that the pedigree is correct. (AllBreedPedigree can sometimes be… entertaining, shall we say?) The photos are from last summer.