Online Al Khamsa Roster being updated
Al Khamsa is updating its online roster to include registrations from 2012 and 2013, and I was very happy to see two of my own breeding feature online: both Mayassa Al Arab and Jamr Al Arab now have their own pedigree page, and it’s very rewarding to see their old American pedigrees on an Al Khamsa page.
Very looking forward to seeing the Tahawi foundation horses there soon!
Both Gulastra and Gharis in their dam lines..Neat! Wasn’t Gulastra a remount stallion?
best
Bruce Peek
He was not but three of his sons (and his sire Astraled of course!!) were: http://www.uscavalryremount.com/data/frmHorseSearch.aspx
How were remount horses used? Was there still a US cavalry around WW2?
Oh yes. The remount Bureau kept going until 1948 when it was turned over to the department of Agriculture. The roots of the remount bureau were in the civil war when depots were setup near Washington d.c. and st.louis to provide cavalary horses. Horses were purchased by Cavalry bureau officers and then trained at st. louis and Giesboro maryland. Wounded horses were sent back to the two depots for vet care if possible because of the time it took to train new horses and expense of buying green horses. The union army bought over 850,000 horses at an average cost of 110 dollars.Breeding got started after the first world war( 1918). Following Pearl Harbor arab breeders- Kellog and Albert Harris most prmoninently volunteered many horses for the remount. Arabs were accepted because of their good showing in the 100 mile vermont distance race . There were 16 arab stallions and 375 mares used, compared to 11000 Thoroughbreds. The Cavalry Bureau had very very high standards for exceptionally good saddle horse confirmation
before they would consent to allow a horse to be enrolled in the breeding program. No table top croups need apply. So it was a feather in the cap of a breeder if his stallions made the grade. Of course Harrises horses mostly had great legs and bone so it was an easy fit. By todays standards the interwar cavalry horses were quite superior in confirmation and performance. The remount system in europe was literally centuries ahead of the u.s.with breeding farms all over the place- Babolna, Marbach,Michalow, Janow Podlasky, Alsozuk, Radautz, Topolcianky, Tersk, Pompadour, Mangalia, were just a few of the arab farms that either bred directly for the remount service or had horses predominantly sent on to the the cavalry.
best
Bruce Peek
Lots of W. R. Brown and Spencer Borden horses in that cavalry remount sire database. One interesting point is that someone (the Army? the agent?) measured *Astraled at 14.1, in light of the varying heights given for that horse in the literature.
Jadaan was 14.2, and *Rodan at 15.1 1/2, not too much smaller than his half-brother Rijm. Sidi was 15.1, Segario 14.3, Ribal 15.0, Rabiyas 15.1, Kolastra 15.2 1/2, *Halim 15.0.
Thank you. That’s definitely worth an article in the khamsat, given the remounts experience is the closest proxy to the original conditions prevailing in arabia at the time of the ghazus.
just for fun I searched the remount link for all breeds using the “Dodge Brothers” selection and came up with 5 Thoroughbreds but no Arabians. The Dodge brothers are famous for starting the Dodge line of cars over a century ago. John Dodge’s, daughter Frances was famous as a breeder of Saddlebred horses and is renowned for the famous Meadowbrook estate here in Michigan. She was said to have been intrigued by all things relating to ancient Egypt, and in 1934 she imported the stallion Ibn Gamila (Kazmeen x Gamila Manial) from the RAS. This stallion was not used for breeding in Arabians so I was just curious to see if he was used in any other way by Meadowbrook but have not found any information on him. However, the Dodge brothers must have had a few Thoroughbreds but no Arabians.