A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
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, … Read more
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)Â 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 … Read more
Wadha (Javera Thadrian x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF) is now 18 months old and is looking more and more like her sire. I am very happy with how she’s turning out. Jeanne Craver told me she is starting to look like Pirouette CF (Javera Thadrian x Piquante by Plantagenet), which in my opinion as … Read more
As I am going through the horse photos in my restored hard drive, I thought I’d share with you photos of some of the horses we have owned over time, some asil, others not. As it were, there were 25 years of continuous Aldahdah breeding in Lebanon, but there never was an Aldahdah breeding program. … Read more
The 1990 Hamdani Simri stallion Regatta CF (MV Reflection x Frill by Adrian) is one of my favorite Davenport stallions alive today. Regatta is, together with Marge Smith’s Pal-Ara Sensation (MV Reflection x Nectar CF by Salutation) and Fred Mimmack’s Militaire CF (Salutation x Vivacity by Tripoli) one of the very asil tail male stallions to the … Read more
An American couple bought the 1993 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Regalia CF (Regency CF x Taradiddle by Ibn Alamein) from Craver Farms some years ago and took him to the south of France, where he is currently. Not sure whether he still there now.
Terry Doyle kindly shared with me this unique photo of Dr. Joseph Doyle’s foundation mare and 100% Old Crabbet broodmare Gulida (Gulastra x Valida), along with Richard Pritzlaff’s Rabanna (Rasik x Banna) which was taken by Carl Raswan at their farm in Iowa in the 1950s. Rabanna was there for a breeding to Ghadaf (Ribal … Read more
The 26 year old chestnut Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir)Â just joined the group of old broodmares whose lines I am trying to preserve. She was bred by Jeanne Craver in 1985, and then went to Charles’ cousin Crista Couch, and then to Kathryn Busch, who sold her to me. … Read more
Nice photo by Christine Emmert in 2007 of the 2000 bay Kuhaylat Krush mare Cataree (Mandarin CF x Minaret CF by Heir Apparent). The photo appeared this week on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website.
RJ Cadranell just circulated this picture of the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Capulet (Lysander x Silvia by Sir) from the Arabian Horse World magazine.
The Kuhaylat al-Hayf mare Enchante CF (Zacharia x Velveteen by Sir) was bred at Craver Farms, and then sold to Shirley Jacobsen who then gave her to Pamela Klein.. She is now at Craver Farms, where this photo was taken last week by Nancy Becker. I saw this mare three times, and she never looked … Read more
This is Hart Asheera (Rafeer x Nisrs Asha by Ansata El Nisr), a 1986 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd bred by Sheila Hart, and owned by Megan Detweiler, who is the lady in the picture. Click on the picture to enlarge it. This lovely mare is a cousin of my Jadiba, as both their great-grand-dams come from Fred … Read more
Some time ago, I wrote about how the 1964 mare Carila (Caravan x Akila by Akil), the last asil mare from the female line of the Davenport mare *Abeyah was lost in the 1990s despite a last minute preservation effort.. Recently, while going through Datasource, I was thrilled to find out that an asil line to *Abeyah has actually survived, … Read more
Last week, Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta by Jadib), the Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd mare I recently purchased (photo below), was checked in foal to the bay Hamdani stallion Vice-Regent CF (Regency X Violetta by Salutation), photo also below by Randy Abler. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a normal pregnancy. If all goes well, inshallah, there … Read more
She is in foal to her sire, Triermain CF.
Beautiful long forelocks on this bay Kuhaylat al-Krush mare at Jackson Hensley’s in New Mexico. “Al-Khayl ma3qud bi-nawaasiha al-khair ila yawm al-qiyamah” (Goodness is tied to the forelocks of horses until Judgement Day), according to a saying of the Prophet Muhammad.
This is the first time I see a photo of Nusi (Gulastra x Nusara by  Abu Zeyd), a 1928 Kuhaylan Da’jani stallion bred by W.R. Brown in Berlin, New Hamsphire, USA.
Yesterday, I went up to Pennsylvania to see the mare I recently bought. This time Jadiba looked much better than the first time I saw her (thanks in part to the great care Sue Moss, the lady in the photos, is giving her), and I was pleased with her overall. I thought she had some … Read more
ASF Gersom (Dhahran x Esperanzo Asal Fanifara, by Fanifeh) was a 1974 bay stallion who headed the Arabian Stud Farms (ASF) stallions battery in its later years. He sired 27 registered Arabians, mostly out of mares tracing to *Turfa, *Muhaira, and *Al Hamdaniah. Himself was a Kuhaylan al-‘AJuz tracing to *Turfa. Billy Sheets, who owned … Read more
A short video of the excellent Tribute CF (Telemachus CF x Oreana CF by Plantagenet), now a gelding but still impressive, and two of the best Plantagenet daughters, the grey full sisters Domina and the chestnut Anjou (both out of Bint Dharebah), at Pamela Klein’s in Virginia in 2007. All three Kuhaylan Hayfi by strain. When … Read more
Jadah Samirah (photo below), owned by Stephanie Theinert who sent me these two pictures, is a special, precious mare in many respects. This 1993 grey mare is one of the very last survivors of the Sheet’s Arabian Stud Farms (ASF) breeding program, which in the 1990s was one of the largest asil preservation programs in … Read more
Vice-Regent CF (Regency CF x Violetta CF by Salutation), a Hamdani Simri tracing to Galfia, bred by Craver Farms, and owned by Randy Abler, is yet another candidate for breeding Jadiba in a couple weeks. He is one of the very few Davenport stallions registered for shipping semen. Photos courtesy of Jeanne Craver. More photos … Read more
You may be wondering what’s with the recent flareup of blog entries on *Wadduda and some of the Doyle horses… Well, there’s a reason. As of this morning, I am the proud owner (I still can’t believe it actually) of Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta, by Jadib) a 23 year old chestnut Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd tracing in … Read more
Karsten Scherling took this photo of the 1990 Saqlawi Jadran stallion Huntington Doyle (Dib x Gulida Nadjia by Bragadoon Fa Raad) at the 60 year celebration of the Doyle breeding program in Oregon in 2009. Huntington Doyle is the senior stallion at Doyle Arabians, and has the highest percentage of Abbas Pasha blood in any … Read more
Does anyone know where the three mares: Kali Ma Eee (Cerulean CF x Sha Bint Ameera), 1987, bay; Sha Princess (Kamil Ibn Sahanad x Shaa Bint Ameera), 1986 bay; and Bint Bint Moda (Kamil Ibn Sahanad x Sha Ghazya), 1986 bay, are, if they still are alive? All three tail female *Samirah, from the horses … Read more
“You go to the stables and … look into the box and see the war mare of Sheik Hashem Bey with spear scars adorning her neck and sides and prayers to Allah from different tribes hanging from silken cords around her neck. She is small, chestnut in color, bone like flint, slender, high carried tail, … Read more
Grace Note CF (Pericles x Most Fair CF by Fair Sir) was bred by Craver Farms and later owned by Randy Abler of Georgia. Photos Shirin Samiljan. Note the long, tipped ears, the prominent facial bones, the delicate nostrils, and the placement and expression of the eyes. Faras ‘atiq like we say back home. … Read more
Bred by Charles Craver, by El Alamein out of Saranah by Salan. I saw him in extreme old age in 2000 shortly before his death. He produced more than 50 get, inclucing his son Regency CF, who is still alive at 30, and who in turn produced 65 offspring for Craver Farms.
Lili Marlene SHF (Sergeant Major CF x Kestrel by Salutation) is a 2004 Hamdaniyah Simriyah of Davenport bloodlines bred by Fred Mimmack of Colorado. I really like this mare. She is reminiscent of some of the best-bred and best-balanced Arabians that were to be found in the 1950s and 1960s in my home country of … Read more
The young Hamdani stallion Chancery (Regency x Anthesis by Plantagenet x Meringue by Sir Marchen), pictured here at age 4, is from one of the last crop of foals bred by Craver Farms, before large-scale breeding was discontinued in 2006. Photo from Jeanne Craver.
This is the beautiful 1960 stallion Al-Khobar (Ibn Fadl x *Al-Hamdaniah), a Hamdani Simri of mostly Saudi Arabian bloodlines. Photos from George Hooper, who owned his daughter Nauwas.
IÂ have now officially become infatuated with the desert-bred mare *Wadduda. I am reading and re-reading everything I can find about the mare and her famous descendants (Hanad, Antez, Jadaan, Caravan, Dhareb, Bint Sahara, Bint Sedjur, etc)Â squinting at fuzzy old photographs, and obsessively making notecards like I used to do when I was ten years old. … Read more
Veteran preservation breeder George Hooper sent these old pictures of the asil ‘Ubayyah mare Nauwas (Al-Khobar x *Muhaira), one of my favorite mares of old Saudi bloodlines, and her filly foal Hisani Jzairah by the desert bred sire *Jalam al-Ubayan. The one below is of Nauwas and her colt Princeton Kadil:
Marie Arthur sent me these four lovely pictures of her asil Kuhaylat al-Krush filly: IV Milady Qiana Krushah by IV Sir Nekey out of IV Shtika Al Krush. This one will be a true beauty. I can’t wait to see her grow.
Guest blogger and friend Ambar Diaz in California is now the proud owner of the very pertty Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare Pirouette (Javera Thadrian x Piquante by Plantagenet), one of the jewels of the Craver breeding program.
Rodger Davis of Desert Bred Arabians and Cindy Stafford, of Freeburg, IL, sent me the above pictures of a gelding they bred, DB Dahman (AHR*576605), out of the mare DB Jasidah by DB Shahhat. DB Dahman is currently owned by Paula Kaigh who has been competing with him an endurance since 2004.  He has completed 1,230 endurance miles with … Read more
Almost ten years after I became acquainted with the horses descending from the 1906 importation of Homer Davenport, one of the many things that still astonish me about them is the relatively large number of the grandsons and great-grandsons of *Wadduda (one of the stars of the importation, with *Haleb and *Urfah) who rose to … Read more
I have never seen these two pictures of the Saqlawi al-‘Abd stallion Tripoli (Hanad x Poka by *Hamrah), the foundation sire of the modern Davenport program. Both are from the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website.
Ambar Diaz told me that the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Ascendant (Monsoon X Demetria by Lysander) died last week at Michael Bowling’s in California. He was 32. The only remaining link to the Monsoon sire line is through Ascendant’s son SA Apogee.
If you have not done so already, check out the rerun of this article by Charles Craver on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy (DAHC) website. It is adorned with this beautiful photo, below, of the 1998 Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Indie Star (Mandarin x Gbarh Asjah by Astrologer), bred by the late Carol Lyons. My kind … Read more
This is the Kuhaylah Haifiyah GH Janet (Javera Thadrian’s full sister), welcoming her 2005 gray daughter (by Ascendant), Brighton TAH. I’m not sure who took the photo — probably Tanya Hardin, the breeder. (Because it’s a little bit of an obsession with me lately, I want to point out that Janet’s head has never seen … Read more
Between the photo of Aghal and the one of Audacity, I had to share this one taken of an Audacity granddaughter in 2007, as a long yearling. This is ADA Skylarking, a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah, as photographed by the talented Christine Emmert.
Audacity (Lysander x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon) was one of the pretties Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mares of Davenport bloodlines, and the matriarch of a important sub-family of equally beautiful horses, including Audobon, Nuance, Affinity, Piquante, and Pirouette . Bred by Craver Farms.
Another stallion of Lee Oellerich in Canada in Hulaif (Bahri x Hulaifa by Naizahq) a 1997 asil Dahman Shahwan stallion of the strain tracing the *Sawannah, imported from Bahrain to the USA in 1954. The photo is from Lee and a bit fuzzy, but it shows the might of this horse.
This is Jenny Krieg’s mare HS Marayah, from the rare Shaykhan strain from Lebanon, which is actually Ubayyan Sharrak. Photo C. Emmert, 2009
Edouard’s posting of the mare Afaf reminded me strongly of En Pointe CF. She is a 1998 chestnut Kuhaylah Hayfiyah, by Triermain CF out of Pirouette CF. The first photo gives a better sense of her style; the second of her conformation (although note that she’s not standing on level ground, so don’t be fooled … Read more
With thanks to Jeanne Craver, a photo of the 1911 chestnut mare Satwan (*Deyr x *Haffia), a Ubayyan. Satwan persists in the straight Davenports through the Bint Ralf descendants; her full brother Harara is everywhere, most notably as the sire of Antez.
This is an old photo from the collection of French breeder Pierre-Henri Beillard. It shows the 1916 asil mare Noble Reine (by Dahman d.b. out of Nacre by Achmet out of Naeleh d.b.), a mare bred at the French government stud of Pompadour. Noble Reine is a daughter of the magnificent desert-bred stallion Dahman (by … Read more
The 1919 grey desert-bred stallion *Mirage (photo below, with owner Roger Selby) is a legend in American Arabian horse breeding. This Saqlawi Jadran stallion was born in the desert, and selected as a mount of the newly installed King of Iraq, Faysal I, before he was sold to a European ambassador and ending up in Lady … Read more
The camels were white and elegant, fast and enduring, as befit the mounts of kings. The mare, tethered to the saddle of the first camel, was as white, as elegant, as enduring, and even faster. Her ancestors had traveled the same way, tethered to camels, waiting for the shock of the rider’s leap and the … Read more
Nine, ten, eleven, …many. Let’s throw counting to the winds, shall we? (Bonus Red Dwarf humor included, because that’s the way my mind works.) The mares say: This is mine:1 And this is mine:2 This is mine too:3 In fact, all this here is mine:4 Except that. But he can nurse anyway.5 Key Capucine and … Read more
If I want to guess at the looks of a Davenport I only know from their pedigree, I look at their grandparents. This is the 2004 Hamdaniyah Simriyah Lili Marlene SHF, granddaughter of Major Barbara and Trill, of Ibn Alamein and Salutation. She certainly is. Lili Marlene is the work of the hands and hearts … Read more
Not a straight Davenport this time, but too good to keep to myself: the 1987 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Audition LD (Audobon x Leafs Echo). This is one of Carol Lyons’ “Sharps” (no Blunt breeding). I know very little about him, other than his location (Illinois—these images look like StarWest to me), his pedigree, that he’s … Read more
A picture of a new foal for a new year. Hang in there, spring is coming. This is the 2009 Hamdaniyah Simriyah filly, Lirac HD (Shiraz CF x Bint Meringue), shown at two days. The bare patch on Bint Meringue’s cheek is from the Breeder Alert sensor taped to her halter during foal watch.
“It’s been a long December, and there’s reason to believe Maybe this year will be better than the last.” — Counting Crows, “A Long December” Saqlawi al-’Abd Tripoli, a cornerstone of the straight Davenports as they exist today (images in the left column), and his Kuhaylan Hayfi grandson Memoir UF, called Rory by those who … Read more
A father-son pairing this time, both Kuhaylan Hayfi. Atticus (Dharanad x Fairy Queen) is 24 in the first image. Attikos (Atticus x Marigold CF) is three (and, I think, in the middle of a trot-canter transition—). See how Attikos is using his LS joint, “sitting down” in the rear to push off? A quick look … Read more
I have drawn a list of 5 asil mares in the USA, which if lost, would represent a huge loss of diversity in the asil Arabian horse in the USA. None have been replaced so far, and four out of five are old mares. Many of them have been mentioned on the website before. In order … Read more
The 1911 Ma’naghiyah mare Abbess has no remaining descent, and her sire *Abbeian‘s sire line in the straight Davenports died out with Ibn Ralf. Her dam, *Farha, has a thin line remaining (both in straight Davenports, and another family in Al Khamsa more generally) through Ralf. I don’t know if Abbess’ age in this picture … Read more