Note on “Amer: Saudi race stallion”

The blog entry “Amer: a Saudi race stallion” and the ensuing online conversation has generated a heated debate, with potentially explosive consequences for many involved. 

To summarize using politically correct language: the stallion Amer, currently owned by Umm Qarn farms of Qatar, is an extremely controversial horse, owned by extremely powerful people. He has dozens of offspring around the world. Many people have questioned Amer’s purity over the years, more or less openly. Many people have written to WAHO about him (good luck with that…). There is lots of big money involved, and a lot of vested interests at stake.  

Fraud, when it does take place, takes place behind closed doors.  You will not see the real pedigree in any WAHO-approved studbook records, and I don’t imagine anyone putting their lives and jobs on the line to enter a royalty-owned stud (how?), ask for DNA sample from Amer and his likes (how?), receive it, compare it with DNA sample from English Thoroughbreds in Jordan or elsewhere (which ones? how? culprits died long ago), send the whole package to labs for analysis (which labs?) and publis the results somewhere (where?). 

So all that’s left is people word, good faith, reputation, and judgement, like in the old times, when Bedouins swore by Allah that their horses were Asil. There was no DNA analysis back then. Buyers relied on breeders reputation and on their appreciation of the horse’s type. 

I will maintain my comment on the Amer post: “Amer is the biggest scandal in  modern Arabian horse breeding.” I saw two daughters of him in France in 2006 and they looked NOTHING like Arabian horses.

Bottom line: Preservationnist breeders who care about the Asil horse, do not include Amer in your registries and databases of Asil Arabians. Let WAHO keep it in its fold. He is in good company there, with the likes of Skowronek, Rymnik (Poland), Kurdo III (Argentina), Flipper (France), and other “pseudo-Arabians” accepted by WAHO. Do not breed to Amer. His 10,000 BP stud fee is already much of a turn off anyway. 10,000 BP can buy you one, two, maybe even three well authenticated Asil horses. And peace of mind. Peace of mind is priceless.