Daughters of the Wind

I now have a reliable account of the story of warriors eating horses in Iraq and Syria. When I first heard the story, it was about American soldiers buying and eating Arabian horses, but it did not make much sense, given food habits in this country and restrictions imposed on US soldiers. Lately, someone told me that it was actually ISIS fighters from Kazakhstan, a country where people eat horse meat regularly, who were seeking Arabian horses, and white ones in particular, to eat them. Several Kazakh squadrons appear to operate within ISIS ranks.

So a Syrian man, Amir Mardini, plagiarized the reference book of renowned Arabian horse authority ‘Ali al-Barazi — now out of print — and put the entire content of the book online, under his name, here: www.kutub.info_18708. He removed the name of Barazi and put his name instead on the entire book. Oh, and he added a cover image. Fortunately, some of us still have copies of the Barazi book, which I can scan and put online for everyone.  Who does he think he is fooling?

Towards the end of 1831, the French National Stud’s Journal dedicated a series of articles to the Prussian studs. French imports of horses for cavalry remount from their eastern neighbors, including the Prussians, had been massive for several decades. This matter was indeed of utmost importance to the French and this report provides interesting details on several Arabian stallions used in Prussia during the early 19th century. The first report of this series is devoted to the private Stud of the King of Wurtemberg in Stuttgart (which became renown as the “Weil Stud”). The use of “Oriental” stallions was first reported in 1818 with the use of Persian, Turkish, Nubian and other stallions, but more importantly a good number of Arabian stallions. Fifteen to eighteen of them were maintained at the Stud. However by 1831 only five of them remained and are described as follows: – Bairactar (aka Bayracdar): a magnificent dapple-grey stallion, bought in 1817 aged 4 in Trieste for the King by Colonel Baron Von Gemmingen and used at stud since 1819. For 4 years, he was one of the King’s mount, and without a doubt one of the most magnificent. He was after appointed head stallion for the stud and…

This one is for my daughter: Today I explained to her to that her mare “Belle” was the daughter of Invictus son of Sportin Life son of Brimstone son of Dharantez son of Dhareb son of Letan son of *Muson.

First, I would like to thank Edouard who generously offered me to post on this blog about the numerous findings from the French archives. It will be, I hope, the first of many posts to be shared with the worldwide community of Arabian horse breeders and enthusiasts. In January 1829, the “Journal des Haras”, the French National Stud’s Journal, included a very detailed article of a visit of National Stud officials to the Babolna Stud in the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The visit took place in 1827. At that time, the French were presented with 10 Arabian stallions. From these 10, 5 belonged to a group of 13 Arabian stallions and a couple of “other” horses sent in 1824 to Hungary by M. Glioccho (spelled “Pliocho” by the French). They were purchased from the Panz family of Constantinople for 8,000 ducats and had already been used as breeding stallions before. Here are the details provided by M. Erdelyi, with my translation: 1 – Siglavy-Gidran aka *Shaklavy-Gidean, 16 years old, 14 hands and 3 inches, a Saklawi of Nedjd, Gidran family, dark chestnut, a star on the forehead and both white hind legs. 2 – Gidran, first son of Siglavy-Gidran and the Nedjdi mare Tifle aka *Fisle…

Amelie is a French breeder lover of Asil Arabians. She belongs to a new generation of savvy researchers and has recently been making some pretty amazing discoveries mining the old French Studbooks (the oldest from the earliy 1800s) now available online on Gallica, the French National Library’s open access catalog. Her hypotheses are daring and some of her findings will please Arabian horse historians.  

Talawat is a superb broodmare from the line of Cherifa, a bay Shuwaymah Sabbah imported by the French from the Sba’ah ‘Anazah Bedouins in Syria in 1869. She is now owned by Fabienne and Severine Vesco in France.

This past Thursday and Friday, Jamr covered Shadows (SS Shadows Aana = SS Shadowfax x Juans Aana by El Reata Juan). I hope Shadows takes and I am really looking forward to the outcome of this breeding.

It’s that time of the year, my favorite time horse-wise, when you get to make breeding decisions, despite promises to yourself and others to cut down, and sometimes you even get to implement them. So yesterday Wednesday April 20, 2017, Wadd covered Thalia CF who is 25, a good cover. She had come into heat on Monday, and that was already very good news. I am going to put her on Regumate (progesterone) so she can hold the pregnancy. So here’s to a foal, hopefully a colt this time, Thalia being such an outstanding mare that I don’t mind a colt at all, and would keep him as a stallion.

The 2014 son of my DA Ginger Moon (“Ginger”), gone to endurance rider Chris Yost (photo), is now training for the Tevis Cup 100 miles ride, and has turned into a magnificent black stallion. I had named him Kanz Al Arab, but he is now registered as DA El Moubarak BLY (“Mou”). DA El Moubarak BLY, black 2014 stallion, Saqlawi Ibn Dirri, by Serr Serabaar out of DA Ginger Moon. Bred by Sheila Harmon, foaled by Carly Cranmore. Born a few weeks after I acquired Ginger.

The sire of my Mayassah Al Arab still looks good at 26. Photo by his owner Kirby Drennan, in Virginia, IL.

Haykal is my 2015 Ma’naqi Sbayli colt, by Monologue CF out of CSA Baroness Lady, which has one of the breed’s rarest tail female in Asil form, back to Lady Anne Blunt’s Ferida. Both parents went to preservation homes last year, but I regret letting Monologue go so early without leaving more offspring behind, in light of what he has produced. Haykal is for sale, because I need to bring numbers down, keep the fillies (which will have more colts!), and focus on the old American lines. Of the six horses I have bred to so far in this country, he is the one with the best action and disposition. His head and tail carriage and his flying, aerial trot stood out since he was a foal, as has his joy of being alive. He was the one born prematurely, could not stand up on his own, and just as I was ready to give up on him, Sue raised him every two hours for the first three days of his life so he could nurse. Since then he has grown by leaps and bounds, and never ceased to want to remind everyone that he was present. He would make a good riding horse,…

A Syrian friend of mine is doing painstaking, courageous and tireless under-the-radar work tracking the remaining Syrian Arabian horses, identifying them, reconciling their registration markings and imprints with the video or photo evidence, and keeping count of what’s in the hands of thugs and militia groups of all kinds and what remains in their rightful owners’ hands. He operates from a Turkish town near the Syrian border, and spends his days on social media liaising with a broader network of informants in the Jazirah (Upper Mesopotamia part of Syria), the area around Aleppo, and the the Euphrates valley. Sometimes I am tempted to write about the details of what he does, and how he does it, because I am just so proud of him, but I won’t, for his sake and for the horses’. I will however work so he and his network of friends get the recognition they deserve. If there was a Nobel Peace prize for horses, he’d deserve it. Many have died from starvation and neglect, some have been killed, but all hope is not lost. Some lines remain, at least for now. Some of those stolen from the farms and the studs and the backyards have survived.

One feels he can walk right into it.. too bad the mare (“Belle”) is hiding the black filly behind her.

March 28 2017 update: he has found a home. More later. Reposting from Aug 2016: I am putting Wadd, my 5 year old Davenport stallion, up for sale. He is the youngest offspring of the grand Triermain CF, out of Wisteria CF, one of the prettiest Triermain daughters and a favorite of Charles Craver. He is a Kuhaylan Haifi by strain, bred within the strain for four generations. His sire was the main Kuhaylan Haifi stallion at Craver Farms in the last period of its activity, as was the sire of his sire before him. He would be best used to perpetuate his breed, preferably within the asil group of horses, including the Davenports, Saud, straight Syrians, North African, Bahraini, Sharps, and other Arabian horses lines that came directly from the Arabian and Syrian deserts. He sired one offspring for me, a filly now two months old, and is an easy breeder. He has a curious and playful disposition. He leads easily but is not broken to ride. For readers from the Arab world where these things matter, almost every one of his ancestors came from the desert with a certificate of authenticity (hujjah) from its Bedouin breeder or owner.…

Ma´anaghieh Shagrah M367, chestnut mare, born 2003, by Dhahmaan Alashgar M139 out of Maánagieh Dana M188

According to their own histories and the reports of British agents, the ‘Ajman are a Yemeni Bedouin tribe with an ancestral homeland around the city of Najran, today in South-West Saudi Arabia, but historically a Yemeni city until 1934. Their parent tribe of Yam still live in the Najran area. They trace further back to the Hashed, the dominant tribal confederation in modern Yemen. The ‘Ajman seem to have moved to the north-east first, to southern Najd around 1720 AD. Captain George F. Sadleir, the first Westerner to cross the Arabian Peninsula from shore to shore, encountered them in Eastern Arabia in 1819, and dated their settling thereto the end or the twelfth century Hijri, or around 1780. Around 1820, the ‘Ajman joined forces with Turki ibn ‘Abdallah, the 5th ruler of the Saud dynastty and the founder of the Emirate of Najd, which was seeking to reestablish control over Eastern Arabia, where the Shiite tribal emirate of the Bani Khaled held sway. In 1823, a large tribal coalition led by the ‘Ajman defeated  the Bani Khalid and moved into their Eastern Arabian realm. The battle, known as al-Radhimah, reportedly lasted for three months, and unfolded over four phases: the first pitting the ‘Ajman on their own against the…

Zayn al-Khayl, a desert bred Rabdan stallion from the breeding of the Sheykh of Tay, was one of the main stallions in Syria before the war. He was something of a sensation. Everybody wanted to breed mares to him, and his daughters were superb, and correctly conformed as he was. He was standing at the farm of the sons of Mustafa Jabri when ISIS-affiliated thugs came and took him away, along with most of the herd. Later on information filtered that he was kept in an ISIS-maintained stud in Albu Kamal, on the Euphrates valley near the Iraqi border crossing, and that he may have died there about six months ago. I don’t know who took the photo and when it was taken.