Daughters of the Wind

Another series of amazing videos of the presentation of Bahraini horses at the WAHO conference in Feb. 2017. Thanks to Chuck Saltzman for sharing. This is part 5, sharing in no order.

Jessie Heinrick send me these nice photos of her Wadd, who seems to be enjoying the vast expanses of the Oregon High Desert. He has never looked so happy, and that makes me happy for him. Thank you, Jessie. I hope he will show his worth with your new mares. The last and smallest photo in the evening light, shows similarities with the XIXth century Arabian horse lithographs of Carle Vernet and Victor Adam, very much in the style of his mother Wisteria: an arched neck, a powerful shoulder, a broad chest, a deep girth (deeper than many of his relatives I have seen), a short back, a round barrel and that small Wisteria croup.

Third mare not in foal this year, after Thalia CF and RL Zahra Assahra. SS Shadows Aana is at, 17 years old, the youngest of the three, is a built like a tank and is a personal favorite despite her lameness. I long for a colt by her. And a filly. Why is it that the best mares have the hardest time conceiving?

One of Hungary’s veteran Asil Arabian horse breeders, Laszlo really needs no introduction. Laszlo owns and edits a horse magazine owner and editor Lovas Nemzet, an historian of the breed, and a believer in the universality of Asil bloodlines. Suffice it to say he owns some of the last lines to Babolna’s Siglavy Bagdady VI and 25-Amurath Sahib, and the very last line to Abbas Pasha’s Selma that runs through Musgrave Clark’s Courthouse Stud, and that he has been successfully breeding them to some of the best Egyptian lines in addition to the Davenport bloodline of Delicate Air

“Le Naceri”, Nicolas Perron’s (1798-1876) classic translation into French of the masterpiece of Andalusian author Abu Bakr Ibn Badr Eddine Ibn al-Mundhir al-Baitar, who was master of horses and head veterinarian of Mamluk Sultan Al-Nasir ibn Muhammad ibn Qalawun (1245-1341) is now available in Gallica, the digitalized archives of the French National Library. The publication of Perron’s translation caused quite a sensation in nineteenth European equestrian horse circles, and helped spread the idea that Arabic veterinary science and horsemanship was the most advanced of its time. The full reference to the book is “Abu Bakr ibn Badr, Le Nâçerî. La perfection des deux arts ou traité complet d’hippologie et d’hippiatrie arabes. Traduit de l’arabe d’Abou Bekr ibn Bedr par M. Perron. Paris, Bouchard-Huzard, 3 vol., 1852, 1859 et 1860.” The original manuscript titled “kitab kashif al-wayl fi ma’rifat wa ‘ilaj amrad al-khayl” appears to have been written in Cairo for the Mamluk Sultan in 1333 AD, and is available somewhere in Istanbul. A later copy from the XVIIIth turned up at Christies’ a few years ago, and my friends Yahya Eliwa al-Tahawi and Muhammad Saud al-Tahawi have two later copies from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, done by a Syrian copyist.  

In another bout of bad luck, Zahra (RL Zahra Assahra, by Portent x Antezzah by Grand Pass) turned out not to be in foal to Latitude HD (Atticus x Lycia CF by Lydian), to which she had been bred to last October. That cross if successful was going to be the 2017 vintage of the Al-Dahdah program. Carrie Slayton, who boards her for me, took this shot of her below, which shows her conformation well. I really like the dark black skin of her muzzle, and I also like the strong back and coupling, which are characteristic of this strain. Carrie also bred her yesterday and the day before to her beautiful Audacious CF (Telemachus x Audacity), photos of Audacious below. Lets see if she takes, she is 22 so still young by my standards. I am so looking forward to that cross, they are a good match. Photos from Carrie.

So I went to see the horses today, all were beautiful especially Haykal and Barakah. I was riding Wadha, and had just started galloping, but the saddle strap was loose so the saddle slid to the side and I fell on my back, while my foot remained stuck in one of the stirrups. The whole thing hurts.

This story starts in Syria in the 1820’s. In those years, many European nations maintained trade and diplomatic representatives, or “consuls” in the Orient, especially in Aleppo, a cosmopolitan city, hosting European, Turkish, Greek, Jewish, Armenian traders. Aleppo was also one of the best places to start looking for the noble Kuhaylat horses bred by the Bedouin tribes of Northern Arabia. Many of these European consuls hosted horse buying expeditions during the 1820’s, such as those led by Count Rzewuski or by the French de Portes and Damoiseau in 1819-1820. Among these consuls were Van Massec (Van Masseyk) the Dutch consul, de Riguello the Spanish consul and the four Pithioto brothers (or Pitiota but the original spelling was probably Picciotto), the respective consuls of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Piemont-Sardinia, Prussia and Russia. This commercial web extended beyond Aleppo, and these diplomatic traders often dispatched various members of their family to other Mediterranean trading cities such as Trieste, Smyrna or Marseille. The European consular community and the town of Aleppo were vividly described by Damoiseau, the veterinary of the de Portes French expedition, in his book “Trip to Syria and the Desert”. During part of their expedition, the French traveled with the Polish Count Rzewuski and an Armenian agent of the Austro-Hungarian consul Pithioto/Picciotto, both looking for noble…

How I miss those days. 2005. North Eastern Syria, not far from the border with Iraq. From right to left: Ibn Ghurab’s son, yours truly, Ibn Ghurab, our driver. Ibn Ghurab had the best collection of desert bred Hamdani Simri mares I had ever seen. His family has owned them for some 250 years. From his stud, they spread to the tribes.

My friend Lyman Doyle is showing this “new” photo of Dib (top) on his Facebook page. Dib was the sire of Huntington Doyle, the stallion who revived Doyle breeding, and of my beloved Jadiba (bottom), now in a retirement home. Compare the likeness between sire and daughter, especially in the hindquarter.    

Many mysteries surround Marengo the mythical white stallion of Napoleon Bonaparte. Did he really exist or was he just a mirage created by the Emperor’s predilection for the “oriental” horse? Did the British really capture the old stud after the defeat at Waterloo? And why is he not recorded in the French studbooks listings of Napoléon’s horses? Napoleon’s legend tells us that his favorite white charger was named Marengo after the famous victory in Italy. This means that he was known after a different name before the battle of Marengo, and perhaps that name could be found in the French Studbooks. Interestingly, one of the horses described in the first ever published French Studbook (1838), fits the known description of Marengo perfectly. This stallion is called Seidiman (Sédiman in French). Seidiman was a light grey horse, born in 1794 or 1793. He was not taken during the battle of Aboukir as the myth says. Several other stallions were indeed…but this is another story for a later time. Rather he was shipped to France from Hungary by a M. de La Barthe (a royalist of this era) and likely confiscated for the benefit of the new Emperor after his coup d’état. For several years indeed he was one of the Emperor’s favorite war horse. Seidiman was without a doubt at the battle…

From Rehan Ud Din’s wonderful page on Facebook comes this photo of King Abdallah I of Jordan, petting his prized stallion, c. 1948. Photo by John Phillips — the LIFE Picture Collection. I wonder who the horse is. The halter is the way Bedouin halters should be.  

This mare is 25, but she is very precious, so I am not giving up.

This is work in progress. In face of fading memories and changing narratives, and documented truths that don’t seem to matter anymore, and in keeping with my obsession to safeguard all I can from a previous Middle Eastern order, I have taken it upon me to list and document the part-bred Arabian horses that came to the Lebanese racetrack from Iraq starting from the 1950s and well into the 1980s, and were later used as stallions by the most prominent breeders. Together with the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990), they were responsible for the destruction of the asil, purebred Lebanese Arabian horse breeding program, and there were spillover effects into neighboring Syria (mostly Homs and Tell Kalakh, but also Hama and Damascus and into Deyr Ezzor), where part-bred Iraqi stallions were also used. There were grandsons and great grandsons of the grey English Thoroughbred known as “Tabib” and “al-Suri” in Lebanon and Syria, and sometimes had more than cross. Iraqi imported stallions to the Beirut racetrack, grandsons of Tabib, 25% Engligh Thoroughbred blood, 1950s and 1960s, later used as stallions:   Hisham, by Walans/Violence by Tabib, one of the earliest and perhaps the most used to all these Iraqi imports; raced by Henri…

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.