Madron and Denis at Hatchem’s encampment in 1925

The following excerpt, in French, followed by my translation to English, from the French government buying commission led by Madron and Denis, describes three stallions it examined at the encampment of Hatchem (Hakem) Ibn Mhayd, leader of the Fad’aan Bedouins, north of Raqqa, in May 1925. Their long, detailed report, is the French equivalent of Davenport’s Quest, but has more informed insights about the status of Arabian horse breeding in Syria and Northern Arabia:

“We had come to this tribe so renowned for its horses, hoping to find compensation for our previous setbacks. But as the same causes produce the same effects, there too, as a result of the misdeeds of winter and the drought of spring, we were only able to see horses in a rather miserable state. The mares we were presented with had all the hallmark of [Arabian] type, sufficient scope and even a strong bone structure, but many suffered from physical blemishes or conformation defects.

After these, we were shown three grey horses. The first (below), which displayed the characters of the Obeyan family fairly well, stood out, with prominent withers, a good topline, a beautiful shoulder and good bone in his forelegs; but his hip was too long, his croup was too brief and his hind legs were defective.

The second one (below) had a nice profile, but he was weak in the middle, his joints were too high and his pasterns were too sloping.

Finally the third (below), a two–year–old colt Hatchem did not want to sell, was a pretty remarkable animal; he was certainly a Saqlawi from one of the main families; he looked very much like the one we had seen at Mr. Ibish’s stables in San Stefano (Alexandria).