On July 27 — my birthday — Wadha foaled a chestnut filly, sired through artificial insemination by the Bahraini stallion of Jenny Lees, Shuwaiman Al Rais (photo below). Further news about this loooong-awaited filly will be shared once she is out of the woods (i.e., the U Penn vet hospital in New Bolton, PA), so no photos just yet. In keeping with the W line back to her granddam Wisteria CF and her great-granddam HB Wadduda, I named her Wujra — which in Arabic means “the one fed or medicated by mouth”. She will pull through.
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.
See previous post for more information on this stallion and the people who owned him. He sure is one masculine stallion. His sireline is extinct to Al Khamsa, with the last of the stallions carrying this line having been born in the 1950s.
This photo was found on the website for the City of Arcadia, located within their Arcadia History Collection. In it, Anita Baldwin can be see holding the reins of *Ibn Mahruss (Mahruss II x Bushra). His sire, Mahruss II, did not have a particularly exceptional breeding career, and his is probably best felt in bloodlines through his sons *Ibn Mahruss and Rijm, both of whom were born in 1901. *Ibn Mahruss was imported in-utero along with his dam, *Bushra, where both found their way to Homer Davenport. He had at least two breeding seasons with Davenport before being sold to Eleanor Gates Tully, a playwright in California who owned, among other horses, the stallions *Obeyran and *Nedjran. He enjoyed several years as a breeding stallion, with a limited foal crop spanning 1910-14. 1914 is also the year that Gates divorced from her husband, Richard Tully, which is likely when the horses were dispersed. From there, he found his way to Arcadia, California, under the ownership of Anita Baldwin. From her obituary, 25 October 1939, published in Madera Tribune, Volume LXXIV, Number 150: “Mrs. Anita M. Baldwin, daughter of the late E. J. (Lucky) Baldwin, colorful mining and turf figure of…
((please click on the photos for larger views!))
Both below are courtesy of The Toronto Star Archives and have been provided by the Special Collections Department of the Toronto Public Library. Either that was a very tall man, or *Aldebar was a rather short horse. Caption: ” PRINCE’S STALLION FOR CANADA. The Prince of Wales’ Arabian stallion Aldebaran, which was shipped on the Canadian Pacific liner “Minnedosa” from Glasgow. The animal will compete at the Canadian National Exhibition at Toronto before going to the Prince’s ranch in Alberta.“
Extracted from ‘The Rasp – 1914’ — a picture of a younger Obeyran II (*Obeyran x Zitra) from Califnornian El Rancho de las Rosas, owned and bred (edit: well, maybe not) by the Tullys. I’d never seen a photo of Obeyran II before, and wanted to share this. This photo is also uploaded in the flickr I have set up, as well as photos that I find as I search (or as Google finally finishes reviewing books for me), and is updated as I go.
This was extracted from the Toronto Star Daily, circa August 29, 1929. The horse was identified as Aldebaran, and the markings (and bridle, though that is less conclusive) match up! This would be a photo of a 10 year old stallion, still relatively young and fit. He reminds me here of some of the other early asil horses I’ve seen, actually – Ashgar and Joseph, both from the Crabbet farm, and a younger Ibn Mahruss. There is also this photo of Aldebaran, also found in the Toronto Star Daily archives, taken in October of 1929– You can see here the quality of his face, and the ill-fit of the cavesson, which mirrors the usual photo of Aldebar that we see – though, again, that is hardly conclusive, but it may be that the bridle was Aldebaran’s personal bridle, and that is why you can see how rigid the newer/younger leather is, and why the older/more supple leather of the noseband has dropped down his nose.
The captions for this photo were: “Mahruos, Arabian Stallion of the Santa Anita Ranch-1914 California History Print” and “At the ranch near Pasadena, the horse belonged to Mrs. Anita Baldwin McClaughry, daughter of E. J. Baldwin (noted California pioneer). ” Mahruos is, of course, a misnomer for Ibn Mahruss, who was owned by Anita Baldwin around this time. The leg and facial markings match up with other known photos of the stallion, as well. For any who haven’t seen it – there is a 1916 Santa Anita Rancho and Anoakia Breeding Farm Private Catalogue available for viewing online, located here.
“One of these horses, Obeyran I, is of the few rescued from the fanatic love of the Bedouins, which came so near proving the destruction of the entire importation of Arab horses brought to Chicago for the World’s Fair. By special permission of the Sultan of Turkey, twenty-eight Arab thoroughbreds were sent here for exhibition, with the express understanding that at the close of the fair every one was to be returned to the desert, alive or dead. This because of the perfect breeding and rarity of the animals selected. The men who financed the exhibit became so involved that they could not pay the cost of the importation and exhibition of the horses, which were consequently seized for debt and were to be sold at auction. The Bedouins in charge of the horses, horrified at the thought of their passing into the hands of unbelievers, on the night previous to the auction entered the stables, cut the throats of five of the horses and burned nine others. Of the remaining fourteen, nearly all were sent to England. Obeyran I was one of three left in the United States, and he it was that bore the Princess Eulalia of Spain in…
This tiny head shot proved to be confounding for me when I originally first saw it in Our Dumb Animals, Volume 45 [x]. The article it was attached to, “The Arab Horse,” had been written by Spencer Borden, and I couldn’t for the life of me place who the horse was; nor did Borden deign to identify him for me. Published in April of 1913, it was contained in a large volume, and a little bit of digging found two articles written about this very tiny and grainy photo of an Arabian, who turned out to be *Obeyran. I figured the articles were worth a share, and can be seen below – with an attached photo and transcription of them for those who might not be able to see the photos:
WINNERS OF THE ENDURANCE RIDE. 1st. Halcyon, Arabian mare, H. H. Reid, rider. (Note: she was technically 3/4 Arabian and 1/4 Thoroughbred) 3rd. Yaquis, Arabian stallion, Lieut. R. M. Parker. (asil) 4th. Rodan, Arabian stallion, ridden by K. Malcolm Grinnell. (asil) Halcyon’s win is somewhat remarkable. Per the article: “Halcyon cast a shoe about 2.30 o’clock in the morning. A smith was aroused from his bed at the next town and the mare was shod by the light of an automobile that came along.” The second place horse was a Morgan horse. Unsurprisingly enough, these photos and the article accompanying were found in The Vermonter: The State Magazine, Volumes 16-19, edited by Charles Spooner Forbes, Charles R. Cummings, published September 1913. Photos of the individual horses can be seen below: HALCYON (Hail x Heiress / Maidan) YAQUIS (Garaveen x *Nejdme) RODAN (Harb x Rose of Sharon) source
I was patiently waiting for a larger digital copy of this photo, which has just been sent to me by Heritage Auctions to be shared. The photo is of [Left] Buffolo Bill Cody aboard *Muson with [Right] Said Abdallah aboard *Wadduda. It very clearly evokes the grainy image from the Annotated Quest that I have always seen labeled something along the lines of “Wild East meets the Wild West.”
For those unfamiliar with the previous El Emir post, I direct you here. For those having already read the post, I am posting this on behalf of Kate McLachlan and at the request of Jenny Krieg.
From the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — that bottomless treasure — page 546: “and we mated her a second time to the Hadban horse of Saffuq al Jarba, and he is of the horses of al Jaless of al Kawakibah” Elsewhere in the Manuscript it is recorded that the stud/marbat of Hadban Enzahi of the al-Kawakibah section of the Ruwalah belonged to Nahi al-Mushayteeb of al-Kawakibah, and that it was an old stud. Al-Mushayteeb obtained them from al-Nazahi of the ancient Bedouin tribe of al-Fudul. That Hadban stallion in the testimony was the great-grandfather of a horse that was three years old in the early 1850s. This means that in the 1830s or early 1840s at the very least, there was already a branch of the Hadban strain of the Kawakibah with the Jarba leaders of the Shammar, and that one of the horses of this Shammar branch of that Hadban strain was used as a stallion. Saffuq al-Jarba, nicknamed “al-muhazzam”, meaning “Saffuq of the belt” because he was so warlike that he reportedly never left his military gear, died in 1843. This is very consistent with the testimony of the Jarba leaders of the Shammar in the mid 1980s about their prized Hadban strain…
DA Ginger Moon (“Ginger”, by DB Destiny Moniet x Kumence RSI by Monietor RSI), my 1998 Saqlawiyah of Ibn Dirri is looking increasingly good and has stopped loosing weight and even started gaining some. The last shot is from February 2016, with Chris Yost, who owns Ginger’s 2014 yearling colt El Moubarak BLY.
Meet Thalia CF, a 23yo 100% Davenport mare of very old lines whom Edouard stepped up to give a home to and also hopes to get a foal from in the future. He officially became her owner when I recently picked her up in Virginia and brought her to my place for “rehabilitation”. All Edouard and I knew about the mare aside from her pedigree, before picking her up, was her age and that she’d had laminitis (founder) in the early fall of 2015. We had seen a couple of pictures of her taken by friends who visited the farm where she lived with her then owner. They had noted Thalia, at that time, resting in a laminitic stance. This resting stance is recognized by the front legs being extended out in front of the body to take weight off the toes, and the hind legs camped under the body to support the weight of the body. This was in mid-October 2015. Thalia had recovered from that laminitic episode enough to be safely trailered by the time I picked her up on December 28, 2015. What I saw when she was led out to the trailer, for her trip to…
This Kuhaylat al-Krush filly of Davenport lines is the second ray of the hope this strain, also born this month at Kim Davis’. She is by HH Tantalus Krush out of HH Nadira Krush.
I am happy to report that Chris and Kara Yost of Bar Lazy Y Ranch are the new owners of my DA Ginger Moon’s young black colt by Serr Serabaar. The colt, who will be named “Twin Turbo” will be entered in endurance racing, and you will hopefully see him competing in the Tevis Cup in the coming years. Chris is a three times Tevis Cup finisher with three different horses, including on the colt’s full sister, DA Ebony Moon. By the way, his dam DA Ginger Moon is in foal to Mlolshaan Hager Solomon for a mid 2015 colt.
Kina Murray just wrote to me that a gelding son of the asil Tunisian Arabian stallion Okba, out of a Polish/French/Russian mare, won the 100 mile Tevis Cup endurance ride. Kina tells me that “the winner, ridden by experienced endurance competitor Heather Reynolds, is called French Open (Okba x Selma Croixnoire, by Ala Croixnoire) – he raced for 7 years, earned over $78,000 and was stakes-placed 3 times.” This is great news and bodes well for Tunisian and Algerian asil lines in the USA in the future.
The Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force is just done with the re-homing of two mares from the rare and precious Ma’naqi Sbayli strain tracing to Lady Anne Blunt’s desert bred import Ferida: the 1997 CSA Amira Kista (Sharif Zaraq x Takelma Rosanna by Prince Charmming), and the 2000 CSA Zaraqa (CSA Maneghi Amir x Takelma Velours by Prince Charmming), which is not registered, but a full sister of this horse. I am happy these mares are getting a second chance at leaving offspring, after the good work Carol Stone has done with this strain over the past twenty five years. Yesterday, Carol shared pictures of their two dams which I post here: Takelma Rosanna is the chestnut, and Takelma Velours is the grey, and their common maternal grandsire, the Egyptian stallion Prince Charmming (Ibn Alaa Eldin x Egyptian Charm by Shamruk), which I found to be impressive.
This is the asil Hamdani Simri stallion AAS Najl Enan (AAS Enan x AAS Ardal Rafiqa by Ibn Taamri) bred by Edie Booth of Antique Arabians Stud for Canton, TX. A promising young stallion. He is very reminiscent of some of Lebanon’s asils of the 1940s and 1950s.
Regina and Warren from Germany wrote the other day to give me an update about their asil Arabians which are from desert bred Saudi and Bahraini lines (no Egyptian blood) by way of the US, and from the rare and precious Dahman Shahwan strain. Here is the 2009 Dahmah mare AAS Muharraq (AAS Theeb x AAS Ghazala by Ibn Taam-Rud), whose tail female is to *Savannah, a mare bred by Shaykh Salman Ibn Hamad al-Khalifah of Bahrain and imported from Bahrain to the United States of America in 1954 by K.M. Kelly. Note the striking resemblance with the mare Bahraini Bint El Bahrein of Lady Anne Blunt in Sheykh Obeyd, of same strain, marbat and same provenance (the Royal Stud of Bahrain, we need to run an mtDNA test). Striking, no, even though AAS Muharraq has not one ounce of Bint El Bahrein blood! This one is Ralihadiyyah, Muharraq’s brother. Note the shoulder. This one is his brother Gudaibiyah, Muharraq’s other brother.
Last week I was talking with a Syrian friend from Aleppo over the phone. Conversations always start with updates on the security situation there, and end with what they were supposed to start with — horse talk. I was telling him about the recent concerted preservation effort that is underway in the USA, to conserve what remained of the Davenport Arabians of the Hadban Enzahi strain, which goes back to the desert mare *Hadba of the Northern Shammar Bedouins, imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. I was telling him how much I was struck by the racy, elongated, body structure of these Davenport Hadbans — see Anita Enander’s photo of the heavily linebred Hadban RL Boomerette as one example. He laughed, and told me how a now deceased horse merchant had told him that, in the past, the particular branch of the Hadban Enzahi strain from the Northern Shammar (which *Hadba belongs to) were very prized as racehorses across the Middle East, despite their small size. He told me the story of one of these Hadban stallions, who raced and won at the Beirut racetracks, was so successful there that he was sent to the Iraq racetracks, where…
The blind Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Jadah Kerasun, one of the last four remaining tail females to the Saud Royal Stud import *Samirah seems to finally have found a permanent home with Marge Smith of Oregon. Pamela Klein agreed to haul the mare from the Midwest to the Northwest at a discount rate, and Carrie Slayton single-handedly fundraised to raise the money for the shipping expenses, through facebook and on this website. This constitutes one of the nicest examples of the Al Khamsa preservation minded groups coming together to take collective action.
Also from Facebook — and I gave up on trying to compete with it here, lol — comes this gorgeous photo which Edna Ehret posted of the asil 1984 Ma’naqi Sbaili stallion Dakhala Bashiq (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), the full brother of my 1985 Dakhala Sahra, both bred by Jeanne Craver. Two failed embryo transfer attempts on Sahra so far, third is the charm, please wish me luck. Mrs. Ehret sold him to a person whose name she does not remember.
Lorien HD (Trilogy x Jonquil CF) 2006 gray mare. 2012 photo by Carol Mingst. Her sire Trilogy (Prince Hal x Trill) 1980 grey stallion. 2003 video capture by Kat Walden.
… a Kuhaylan Hayfi grandson of Portia. This was taken yesterday (22 Sep 2012) at the New Albion Stud in Davis CA. (Also recently confirmed by a repro vet: Porte’s semen should ship well.)
Today I am crossing my fingers that Pirouette CF, shown below with her 2012 gray filly ADA Sareeah (by Dubloon CF) will check in foal to the late Palisades CF. Another of Sareeah:
Also from sporthorse-data.com is this photo of the 1969 ‘Ubayyah mare Bint Bint Muhaira (Ibn Fadl x Bint Muhaira by Sirech0), and the 1967 Hamdani stallion Sulka (Ibn Fadl x Blue Start by Ibn Fadl). Where are the descendants of these great horses? There should be hundreds of them today.
Photos by Chris Emmert, taken at the 2007 Al Khamsa Convention in Paso Robles, CA. Polynesia LD, a 1993 bay Saqlawiyah Jidraniyah, is one of the glories of the late Carol Lyons’ “Sharp” program (Al Khamsa Arabians with no Blunt ancestry). As mentioned in the comment thread on his entry, her dam was a granddaughter of Mista-Bin. The gray with her is the Blue Star yearling filly Awasef, a ‘Ubayyan who is tail female to *Muhaira, previously discussed here.
This is the first time I see a decent picture of this stallion, who is in the pedigree of two mares I have leased. They really have the same body shape as him.
I am a big fan of the asil Arabians that trace to the ‘Ubayyan mare *Muhaira. I believe she is as important an influence as *Turfa in US pedigrees, especially the ones close to the desert. The mare below, Maur Halawa (Arrogaance x Maur Blue Treasure by Arrogaance), bred by Maureen Matheson, is one of these tail female *Muhaira mares, and is very reminiscent of the good desert-bred broodmares that I recall when growing up in Lebanon and Syria.
Also from British Pathé comes this short movie of some of the stallions at the Kellogg Ranch in California; if you can’t find it, type “British Pathé” in Google; click on the site, and search for “Arabian Horses”. RJ Cadranell and Michael Bowling have identified most of the stallions here, too.
Today Wisteria CF left the care of Craver Frams in the trailer of her proud new owner Kathy Busch. Along with her rode Enchante CF (Zachary x Velveteen by Sir). I am sad to see Wisteria go but I am very happy that Kathy is the one who has her now, because Kathy keeps her horses for a long time and takes great care of them. Wisteria leaves behind a colt and a filly, and I could not wish for more. I am also forever grateful to Charles and Jeanne Craver for having kept her at their place, after selling her to me, and having taken such good care of her over the past five years. The day before, Javera Chelsea (Thane x HB Diandra by Mariner) and Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir) left Craver Farms to go to Tom and Jess Maiyer in Galion, Ohio, for embryo transfer.
Here’s a photo of three sons of the influential mare Domow (registered as *Abu Zeyd x *Wadduda, but may well have been *Astraled x *Wadduda), all three important early American Arabian horse sire. Check out their names: Mahomet, Abu-Selim, and Ahamed. What a change in the culture between then and now: now the big names are Versace, Armani, and other haute couture references. It signals a shift in the marketing and perception of the Arabian horse: from an animal connected with its original Arab environment and simple Bedouin culture, to a global luxury consumption good. Yikes.
This 1948 Hanad son, out of Chairmain (Abu-Selim x Aatika by Tabab) is in the pedigree of two of the mares I am trying to preserve today: the full sisters Bint al-Barra and Cinnabar Myst. Mainad traces to *Urfah in the tail female and has two lines to the desert-bred import *Azra, a Saqlawi Ubayri from the Fad’aan Bedouins.
One of the only Davenport horses to stay out of the preservation adventure launched by Charles Craver, Fred Mimmack, Reba Troxell and a handful others in the 1950s and 1960s was the 1955 stallion Sunny Acres Darius (Ibn Hanad x Gamil by Kasar), bred by Margaret Shuey. I never had the chance to ask why this was so. All but three of his offspring were non-asil.
A minute of walk at the end of a nice workout. He’s a work in progress, of course, but I’m enjoying the steady improvement.
I have written about the 1982 “war mare” LD Rubic (Plantagenet x Tarrla by Tarff) several times on this blog. She is the kind of mare I wish I had owned or bred. She is a great-grand-daughter of the desert bred mare *Nufoud, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from the Saud royal studs. *Nufoud was imported to the USA by Albert Harris in 1932 through Amin Rihani. At that time, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was still the Sultanate of Najd and Hijaz. LD Rubic is also a great-grand-daughter of another Saudi royal mare, *Turfa. LD Rubic was bred by the late Carol Lyons, out of the last Al Khamsa mare of that strain, Tarrla. Carol saved that line and many others from extinction. Rubic left two sons and five daughters: of the sons, Salil Ibn Iliad produced a number of asil mares here and there. He is getting older. The other son AB Razeel, is younger but has not had progeny as far as I know. The five daughters of LD Rubic are: MSF Rubie, Bint Rubic CHF, MSF Shamis, AB Dafiinah, and Belladonna CHF. MSF Rubie is a problem breeder, and has not had a foal in a long time.…
A handsome horse of old Blunt lines, the 1929 Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion Farana (Nasik x Farasin by Rasim) stood at the Kellogg Ranch in California. He was a popular sire, but is barely represented in modern asil breeding today. I know Rebecca Quick has a line to him through the 1944 Kuhaylat Rodan mare Suebe (Feyd by Farana, x Gisela by Akil x Shemseh by Nasik x Rifla by Rasim), who was double Nasik. There is also a line to him through Milanne (Feyd x Kishta by Akil). The line still goes in tail female, through Milanne who also goes back to Ferida, but I feel it’s lost its type as a result of being diluted in an ocean of Egyptian blood. I feel that the Blunts could have made a better use of this Ma’naqi Sbayli line to Ferida while the line was still at Crabbet and before to migrated to the US. If I am not mistaken, the first stallion from this line at Crabbet was Faris (Nureddin II x Fejr).
Don’t you just love the tail carriage on that horse? HR Judaan (Fadaan x Jusera by Julyan) is 50% Julyan (Julep x Bint Maaroufa) and as such carries two close lines to Gulastra (Astraled x Gulnare) and a total of 10 lines to Astraled. See how reminiscent that is of his double great grandsire Julep (Gulastra x Aziza).
My friend Jenny Krieg has suggested the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Port Angeles CF (Portico x Aureole CF) as a horse I might want to consider breeding from in the spring. He is a brother of Porte CF from his sire, and a brother of Aurene CF from his dam. Here is a photo, gleaned off the website of his owner Randall Abler, at Eden Arabian Farms in Georgia.
Cindy, who trains the stallions at Desert Bred Arabians in Illinois sent me this impressive video of the horses of Rodger and Mimi Davis displaying their versatile athletic skills. Just watch it.. and watch it again.
I really like this small photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Fair Sair (Sir x Lady Fair by Tripoli), whom I saw at Alice Martin’s in 2005. I find him very reminiscent of his grandson Aurene CF (Triermain CF x Aureole by Fair Sir), who is at Pamela Klein’s.
Kathy Busch and Crista Couch kindly took a day trip to see the stallion Rahim Regency WAF (Regency CF x Dakhala Sahra) near Kansas City, MO, of which here is a video (click on rahim). Sired by Regency CF (Ibn Alamein x Bint Antan by El Alamein) and looking very much like his sire, Rahim is the son (and otherwise the only offspring — so far) of my new acquisition, the 26 year old Ma’naqiyah Sbailiyah Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir). He is some 88% Davenport, with a tail female to Miss Ott’s Sirrula, all the way back to Major Upton’s Naomi. His owner Joseph Walters, has been breeding him to Polish mares, and was not aware of his Al Khamsa, asil status.
Speaking of jewels (Confetti CF is on the left, Provance CF on the right): Edouard, take this out if you want — but their owner, Mary Ann Brewer, has decided to stop breeding, and is offering these two Kuhaylat, and Tokens Ceelen (a straight Davenport mare, tail female to Schilla) on a free lease to interested Davenport breeders. Contact her for details — she’s in Texas.
The two Saqlawiyat Jadraniyat full sisters Haraka and Bint Hamida (Kenur x *H.H. Mohamed Ali’s Hamida) have founded a dynasty of their own in the USA. Their dam Hamida (Nasr x Mahroussa) was bred by Prince Mohamed Ali and was a half sister of *Zarife, *Fadl, and *Maaroufa; their sire Kenur (*Sunshine x *Tairah) was the offspring of two Albert Harris’ Saudi imports to the USA. Both photos are from the archives of Billy Sheets, but I have seen them before in a Khamsat magazine issue too.
Jeanne Craver has sent a number of precious photos of the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Asara (Kasar x Badia by Jadaan) to be uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website. Asara is one of the Second Foundation Davenport mare, whose is the tail female of a number of favorites featured on this blog, such as the Krush stallions Janub Al Krush, CL Hi-Ned, and Indie Star. Below are are some of these photos, which you can click on to enlarge. What a mare.
One of the new photos recently uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website is this one of CL Hi-Ned (Dharanad x Hi-C by Sir), a 1977 Kuhaylan al-Krush of Davenport lines.
I am a big fan of the 1998 Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Indie Star (Mandarin CF x Gbarh Asjah by Astrologer), bred by Carol Lyons. I really would like to breed a mare to him at some point. The photo is by Christine Emmert (who is a really good photographer) and was recently uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website. I had posted an earlier photo on this blog.
Last weekend I went to Pennsylvania to see Jadiba, and I stopped at Monica Respet’s farm. Monica and some of her friends are specializing in breeding a small and increasingly rare group of horses who are tail female to *Urfah, a Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd imported from Arabia by Homer Davenport in 1906. One of these mares is JDA Husaana (Salil Ibn Iliad x Saafadda CHF by Fiddlesticks), photo below, a 1999 chestnut mare who was bred by Pam Baker. Just like the Davenports or the Doyles, or like my own Jadiba and Sahra, JDA Husaana is Early American Foundation, meaning that she traces 100% to the horses listed in AHR Volume V, registration numbers 1-2924. These are basically the Arabian horses found in the USA by and before 1944. Lots of very, very old American Arabian horse blood flows in her veins. In addition to her two “Davenport” grandsires, she carries the blood of three stallions bred by Jane Ott and her mother, who launched the first large-scale asil preservation effort in the USA: Joramir (Sirecho x Fad Roufa), Dahrecho (Sirecho x Dahma Al Zarka), and Zarlan (Mistlany x Zarieha), as well as the Ott mare Blue List (Saafaddan x Zarieha by…
Another of the Hindi imports of 1949 from Lebanon was *Bint Attebe (Attebe x Yumna), bred by Subhi Hindi. She was Grand Champion mare at the All Arab Show in Estes Park, Colorado in 1958, and US Top Ten mare in 1959, where she beat one of the recently imported Nazeer daughters.. Definitely one of the best mares ever imported to the USA from the Middle East, in my opinion.
AHA’s Datasource has some nice photos of the 1949 Hindi imports. Here are a couple of the handsome Sa’dan Tuqan stallion Daham (Shaykh al-Arab x Muna). His sire Shaykh al-Arab was featured on this blog, a couple years ago, and was the cornerstone of Lebanon’s asil Arabian horse program in the 1940s.
Another photo that recently appeared on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website is this photo of the Hamdani Simri stallion Lydian (Lysander x Viola by Prince Hal).
The Hamdaniyah Simiryah mare Viola (Prince Hal x Cressida by Sir) was bred by Craver Farms and is the maternal grand-dam of Vice Regent CF (Regency x Violetta by Salutation x Viola). Vice Regent is the stallion I chose to bred my Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd mare Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta by Jadib) t0. Not sure who deserves credit for taking this photo, but it’s an awesome one. It is also featured on the DAHC website where I took it from. Bedouins believed that a long, think forelock just like Viola’s is a sign of great asalah (authenticity) in Arabians.
One of my all-time favorite pictures of Arabian horses is this famous photo of the superb 1977 Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Janub Al Krush (Pompey x June by El Alamein) with a young Kim Davis at his side. The first time I saw this picture, all I could think is that I wanted to be Kim, and be owned by a horse like Janub. The photo is from the DAHC website, who now has a bunch of new photos under the 1970s category, many of them I saw of the first time.
This is another photo from the late Billy Sheet’s collection. It shows the Dahman Shahwan stallion Saafaddan (Faddan x Saaba by Fay El Dine) who was bred at the Babson Farm.
This old photo of the 1937 black Saqlawi Jadran stallion Hallany Mistanny (Zarife x Roda) is from Billy Sheet’s photo archives. I am not sure it’s been published before. Hallany Mistanny sired his first asil foal in his twenties, and along with his Travelers Rest (General Dickinson’s stud) mate Sirecho (Nasr x Exochorda) was a cornerstone of the preservation renaissance which Jane Ott led in the 1950s.