The 1983 stallion Mas-huj stood at the farm of Basil Jadaan near Damascus for one season, when this photo was taken. Basil gave a copy of the photo to Hazaim Alwair who published it online for some time. Mas-huj was from the city of Hama, from an old lineage of Ubayyan Sharrak tracing to the Sbaa tribe.
I remember Mashuj well, from seeing him in Hama year in year out during the late 1980s and early 1990s at the farm of Fuad al-Azem.
His sire was a Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Zubayni from another old Hama lineage (that of the family of al-Khani). He raced in Beirut under the name of Zad al-Rakib. My father recalls seeing him — the Saqlawi — pull a cart on the streets of Beirut in the early 1980s after his racing career was over. I was in the car apparently but too young to remember.
He’s a very handsome horse (and his tack is splendid too) – how would his sire have landed up pulling a cart after being a racehorse?
That was the fate of racehorses that were not good enough to become sires of future racehorses. He stood no chance against the part-bred Arabs from Iraq that he was racing against.
Mashuj was the great grandfather of my horse Najm yarob by mother line
Shame that any pure Arabian ends up being dumped in the streets! … The 2nd half of the 20th century was catastrophic to the Arabian Horse desert lines and breeding traditions.