On the desert-bred stallion Hadban
The bay stallion, Hadban, the sire of the two Crabbet foundation mares Rose of Sharon and Nefisa, comes from my tribe, ‘Utaybah. His strain was Hadban Enzahi. His breeder was Jafin (not Jakin as recorded) ibn ‘Aqil al-Da’jani al-‘Utaybi. The house of ‘Aqil are well known among us, and are among the Shaykhs of the Da’ajin section of the tribe of ‘Utaybah. The paramount Shaykh of the Da’ajin who yield great respect comes from the clan of al-Hayzal. Al-Hayzal Shaykhs such as Thiql al-Hayzal are cited several times in the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. For instance, Saudi leader Faysal ibn Turki gave a Saqlawiyah mare that had belonged to al-Hayzal to Abbas Pasha of Egypt.
Very interesting, it still breeds horses?
One should increase import Arabian horses from the desert.
Hadban covered very few mares at Crabbet. The Blunts did not appreciate his value as a sire until after he was sold. He was imported to England from India in 1884, but appears to have covered just two Crabbet mares that year, producing two of the most important foals ever produced at Crabbet: Nefisa (bay filly out of Dajania) and Rose of Sharon (chestnut filly out of Rodania).
In 1885, Hadban covered four mares, then was sold later that year to Australia. Of the four mares, Sherifa and Dajania were barren in 1886, but there were two Hadban colts: Majid (chestnut out of Meshura) and Bitumen (chestnut out of Bozra). Both of the Hadban colts were sold at the 4th Crabbet sale, in 1888, long before the two Hadban daughters had proven their worth as broodmares.
The most heavily used stallions at Crabbet in 1884 and 1885 were Kars and Proximo.
Now was Nefisa really by Hadban or was she by Proximo?
This is what Al Khamsa Arabians III says about Proximo:
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OH, it left it out. Here it is… without marking.
Proximo
Proximo (BLT)—see photo and detail, p114—was included in Al Khamsa Arabians (1983) in the Foundation Horse section as follows: an 1875 bay stallion of Ibn Khoreysan of the Qumusa-Saba imported in 1881 to India for the aqayl Abd Ar-Rahman, purchased from Abd Ar-Rahman by Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt, and imported in 1884 to England by the Blunts. His sire was shown as a Mu’niqi-Sbaili, his dam as a Kuhaylat-Akhras. Weatherby’s General Stud Book required that all stallions covering a mare in a given year, even if months apart, be shown as possible sires. Proximo is shown in Weatherby’s as a possible sire of Nefisa (BLT)—otherwise by Hadban (BLT) out of Dajania (BLT)—and Rosemary (BLT)—otherwise by Jeroboam (BLT) out of Rodania (BLT). Lady Anne Blunt wrote in Proximo’s entry in her travelling herd book, “It was stated above…. that Darley was the only failure among imported horses, but though Proximo was a truly magnificent horse, it must be admitted that he, too, was a failure at the stud. There were but two foals by him during three years—one a colt of Jerboa’s, the other a filly of Bozra’s. Both were remarkably fine foals, but both unfortunately died. Proximo was given to Count Potocki, and exported by him to Russian Poland, but there was no improvement in him for stud purposes, there being no produce.” The record of Rosemary’s birth also contains the statement, “But the foal was certainly by Jeroboam.” (Quotes from unpublished private Crabbet Stud records of Lady Anne Blunt, transcribed by Michael Bowling, through the kindness of the late Lady Anne Lytton.) No entry for Proximo (BLT) will be found in the Foundation Horse section of this book.