On *Hamrah’s sire line

Dr. Ameen Zaher did a study which found that *Hamrah had the highest relationship to the breed in U.S.A. of any stallion for the period 1907 to 1946.

We ran pedigrees on samples of horses in a few of the stud books back in the 1970s and 1980s, and determined that between 88% and 90% of Arabians in the U.S.A. traced to Davenport blood, which means they probably trace to *Hamrah too (it’s hard to find Davenport ancestry without *Hamrah).

A thin *Hamrah male line was maintained by Betty Baker through Ibn Wazir (foaled 1956) and his son Wazirs Azab (foaled 1971). Wazirs Azab had a son born in 1983 (Azabs Jem) and two more in 1985 (Azabs Jody and Azabs Fancy Man), but the line is believed to be extinct today.

*Hamrah sired 34 fillies but only 19 colts. Only three of his colts sired purebred foals. Jeremah left a daughter, but both Ziki and Kilham founded sire lines, even though the sire lines are extinct today.

The breeding herds sold from Hingham Stock Farm tended to be heavy on *Hamrah daughters and correspondingly light on *Hamrah sons. For example, F.E. Lewis bought six *Hamrah daughters: Hasiker, Tamarinsk, Moliah, Sedjur, Kosair, and Adouba (along with one daughter each of *Obeyran, *Haleb, and *Kusof). The stallions Lewis bought to breed to these mares did not trace to *Hamrah. They were Harara (*Deyr x *Haffia) and Letan (*Muson x *Jedah). This is a logical way to set up a breeding herd. That Lewis ended up with a *Hamrah son at all was by chance, because Ziki (*Hamrah x Samit) was an in utero purchase.

The Clarke mare band was equally heavy on *Hamrah daughters. There were four: Arak, Fasal, Amham, and Sotamm, along with one daughter each of *Gomusa and Letan. The Clarke stallions were *Deyr, Jeremah, Jadaan, Mizuel, and Ben Hur. Of these stallions, Jeremah was a *Hamrah son, and Mizuel was out of a *Hamrah daughter. The others were “non-*Hamrah.”

Jeremah sired one 1927 foal at the Kellogg Ranch, Zoba, out of Hasiker, a breeding planned by Carl Raswan. The Kellogg Ranch leased him out in 1927 and he died four years later, apparently without ever returning to Kellogg’s.

The central part of the Hingham breeding herd, including *Hamrah himself, was sold to the Winants in 1921. But the Winants bred very few foals before selling most of the horses, and although *Hamrah sired a few more fillies, he never sired another colt.