Daughters of the Wind

There are only four mares and filles from the *Nufoud tail female accounted and all are in PA. Linda Uhrich owns AB Dafinah (HHA Manabi x LD Rubic), and Monica Respet owns her daughter, Niina Nufoud. Then there is “Belle” and her daughter Barakah, with me. Jadah Necessity, 1997 gm, is unaccounted for, last with Randal and Mary-Sue Harris in IL. MSF Rubie, 1993 cm (EA Salute x LD Rubic) is I think still with Pam Baker in SC, but she has never had a foal, and is now 23.

Kim Davis bred his superb Kuhaylat al-Krush yearling filly of Davenport bloodlines. She is by by HH Tantalus Krush (Quantum LD x Kashmir Krush LD) out of HH Nadira Krush (RC Janub Krush x Naufali Al Krush). She has 14 crosses to the original desert import Kuhaylat al-Krush *Werdi, and 10 out of 16 ancestors at the fourth generation. If she looks that great at this growthy stage, I wonder how she will look like when she matures fully. I had already written about her when she was born.

From the same Billy Sheets photo collection as the ones in the entry below. I don’t think these had ever been published before.

These are from the photo collection Billy Sheets gave me. For more on this 1960 stallion, click here. Maybe someone can find more about Khalid Hamid al-Dawsari who was living and working in al-Khobar in the 1960s.

I am very proud of this 16 year old mare, which I acquired about a year ago. She is having some trouble conceiving but we will be working on that over the coming year.

I have been trying to get a photo of him. He was Miqhim Ibn Mhayd’s slave and one of his most trusted men. Following the relocation (exile?) of Miqhim from Syria to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the late 1950s, he acted as Miqhim’s agent to acquire several hundreds of desert bred horses, mostly mares, and mostly from the ‘Anazah but also from other Bedouin tribes, as gifts to Saudi royals and other senior officials. As distressed ‘Anazah Bedouins from Syria gradually moved south to Saudi Arabia, they sought public sector and military jobs, registration and immigration documents, and various social and resettlement benefits in their new home country. They were eager to obtain the support and good will of Saudi officials and members of the royal family, and through Miqhim and his sons, presented them with their best mares. This explains the influx of hundreds of Bedouin mares in the Saudi royal studs in the 1960s. Several dozens of these mares found their way to the Saudi Arabian Studbook, where they were registered as “desert bred”. Back in Syria, Farhan al-Olayyan gained increasing influence with the ‘Anazah who had not left yet, to the point of speaking in the name of Miqhim and his sons.…

One of my favorite Davenport mares, based on photos I have seen, and on liking her two brothers: Pomp Charbonneau and Firebolt CF. Photo Christine Emmert.    

The handsome 2005 stallion Chatham DE (Huntington Doyle x Gulida Tara DE by Maloof Najid), photo from DeWayne Brown.  

The sweet Juans Aana (El Reata Juan x Suuds Juli Aana), a Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah from the line of Haidee, 26 years old this year, left to what seems to be a good retirement home yesterday. I kept her 16 year old daughter which I still hope to breed this year. If it’s a colt, I will keep him as a stallion. There is nothing better than a Ma’naqi stallion for breeding. I say this, but Hakim ibn Mhayd also said it and wrote it to Davenport, and he knew what he was talking about.  

Here you really see the Crabbet influence from his dam blending with the blood of his paternal grandsire Regency CF.

Pedigree here. She is six generations removed from the original desert import *Nufoud from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

I am in absolute awe of DeWayne Brown’s young Ma’naqiyah filly, DaughterofthePharaohs, a.k.a. “Pippa” (Chatham DE x SS Lady Guenevere by SS Dark Prince), photo below by DeWayne. She is a throwback to the old Crabbet type of a hundred years ago. She has crosses to three of the four Gulastra descendents in Al Khamsa, namely Julep, Gulida, and Nusi.

Belle (top) looks the most deserty of all my horses by far, and has the longest ears, Jamr (middle) has the crested neck of his Crabbet ancestors, and Wadha has the most “classic” head and largest eyes of the three. And there is only so much a smartphone camera can do.

This serves mostly as a note to myself: I found an intriguing reference to Farhan al-‘Olayyan in a Syrian hujjah of a horse born in the mid 1980s. I had long thought that Farhan al-‘Olayyan, a former black slave who had acted as an agent of the Saudi royal family for the purchase of hundreds of desert horses from Syria, was active in the 1960s and the 1970s, but this reference extends his activity up until the 1980s. It is from the hand of ‘Aissa al-Sallal, a stallion owner (in Arabic “hassan”, in french “etalonnier”), and in it he mentions that his main stallion, a Kuhaylan al-Khdili bred by Omar al-Huwaydi al-Mishlib, of the ‘Afadilah tribal Shaykhs, was bought by Farhan al-‘Olayyan for expert to Saudi Arabia, but had already sired a Ma’naqi Sbayli stallion in 1984. This is really interesting, and potentially establishes a connection with the horses registered in the Saudi Studbook and know to be coming from “the north”. Worth digging further.

My Syrian friend Radwan — one of the persons from whom I keep learning — told me that desert mares from the Ma’naqi strain were characterizeda, among other features by long ears, large and long mouths that ran deeper into the muzzle than horses from other strains, and horizontally placed eyes, more so than horses from other strains whose eyes were parallel to the axis of the head. This was in connection with a discussion of the precious desert Ma’naqi Sbayli strain known as “Ma’aaniq al-Tanf” (after their location at the Tanf desert border crossing between Syria and Iraq) or “Ma’aaniq Abu Jarn” and its tracing to the Black Marzaqani (al-Marzaqani al-Adham), the famous Saqlawi stallion of the Maraziq of Shammar later owned by Alaa al-Din al-Jabri in the 1960s. These are the horses of ‘Affaat al-Dbeissi of the Fad’aan, a precious marbat which Jean-Claude Rajot and other French and German purists visited in the 1990s in the Syrian Desert (Jens Sennek has stories about that visit to them in his awesome book), but the Syrian Studbook does not show that the line actually traces to the Black Marzaqani. The old chestnut Ma’naqiyah mare which Ibrahim Khamis of Hama owned in the early 1990s…

Ahmad Saffar from Bahrain told me the other day that wealthier Bahrainis from the ahali — the population, so not royals — kept marabet of Shawafan and Wadhnan until the 1970s, when they turned to Thoroughbreds and part bred Arabs for racing. They had obtained these strains from Southern Iraq — presumably the area around Basra and al-Zubayr.

I never believed straight profiles were a defect. Most of the desert Arabian horses I grew up with in Lebanon and Syria had straight profiles. Very early on, I found that quote in Lady Wentworth’s “Authentic Arabian Horse”, perhaps taken from Lady Anne Blunt’s unpublished manuscript; it echoed what I was seeing and learning about around me: “A straight profile should not be a defect if the forehead is very broad, the eyes placed low and very large, and the muzzle small” I would add deep round jowls and prominent facial bones to this description. Together, a deep jowl, a small muzzle and a broad forehead form a head with a triangular shape in both the profile and the face. I am actually striving to breed an Arabian horse with all these characteristics, to make the point that the resulting outcome is an attractive, even “classic” head. Jamr’s head, below, approaches this description. The jowl is unbelievably large, and the muzzle is small. The eyes are placed low, but they are not large (a legacy of his maternal grandsire Dib). The facial bones are somewhat apparent but the face will be drier with age. The overall shape of the head…

This young filly is the happy outcome of a sustained preservation effort of the Kuhaylan ‘Ajz line of *Nufoud, and of the small number of Arabian horses without Crabbet bloodlines. Her name means “divine blessing”. May she be blessed and continue this precious line of royal horses. Her dam Jadah BelloftheBall (“Belle”) was rescued several years ago by Jeannie Lieb, who drove to Colorado to pick her up after the previous owner had fallen on hard times. Upon seeing her, my father, who was here visiting, told her she reminded him of the daughters of the great asil Lebanese stallion Machaal. He was very fond of these. I will breed her to a stallion from Saudi lines next time.

Barakah Al Arab — fuzzy picture — was born on June 23, 2016, at 4.00 am, a tall filly by Wadd Al Arab (Triermain CF x Wisteria CF by  Triermain CF) out of Jadah BelloftheBall (aka “Belle”, by Invictus Al Krush x Belladonna CHF by Audobon CF). She will probably be grey. She is a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz by strain, tracing to *Nufoud of the horses of King Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia. She is the first “Sharp” (no Blunt/Crabbet blood in the pedigree) filly of that rare strain in fifteen years, the previous such filly being her own dam, born in 2002.  She is also my first “second-generation” foal, her sire Wadd having also been bred by me. I plan to go see her on Sunday.

This is the mare I will be breeding this spring. Shadows Aana (SS Shadowfax x Juans Aana by El Reata Juan), a 2000 Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah with five crosses to Julyan (and hence, Julep, and Gulastra), three crosses to Antez, and two crosses to Hanad (through his daughter Schiba) has been with me since last July. She will be bred to my Jamr, who will add another fourteen crosses to Antez, ten more to Gulastra and five to Hanad, through Sanad, Tripoli, Ibn Hanad and Ameer Ali. Their conformations are also consistent with each other: both have deep jowls, short backs, and are built like tanks.  

This is the 3rd trim since Thalia joined my barn around the first of the year.  An improved connection of her hoof capsule to the coffin bone (P3), which you can see in the “Right Front” photo,  has grown down from the coronary band enough for me to feel comfortable with REALLY backing her toe up.  I used my nippers laying flat on the barn floor to clip away dead hoof.  This is the rough cut before rasping smooth.  Saves me lots of rasping!  What you see in the picture is all dead hoof, called the Lamellar Wedge .   The lamellar wedge is what forms in between the live structures of the inner hoof  and the hoof capsule.  In other words the “white line”.  That thin yellow/whitish line between the hoof wall and the sole.  This is what happens to the white line  when the coffin bone loses its connection to the hoof capsule.  The white line in the area where separation has occurred stretches. And the more it stretches the more severe the rotation. The more severe the rotation the larger the lamellar wedge will be. The “Left Front” picture shows how Thalia’s coffin bones have become “sinkers”. “Sinkers” are…

The top picture is Thalia in early January right after I brought her to my place from Virginia for Edouard.  The bottom picture was taken yesterday, March 20, 2016.  I want you to notice how the fat pat from her croup to her tail head has evaporated.  She no long has a rear-end that looks like a Percheron.  She has been shedding her excessively thick and long haired coat since January.  As of now she is down to a normal winter coat.  The crest of her neck has slimmed down.  We had blood work done, glucose and insulin from the same draw, and ACTH to test for PPID (Pituitary Pars Intermedia Disfunction aka Cushings).  Thalia came back positive for both conditions though fortunately only slightly high in both. (See note below) This is the best scenario we could have hoped for given what her external symptoms were telling us. Getting her metabolic system back under control is obviously much easier and bodes better in terms of breeding her for a preservation foal.  The physical changes that have occurred  include appropriate supplementation to balance the major and trace mineral content of the hay she consumes.  She gets almost no concentrated feed…

Clarion CF (Regency x Chinoiserie by Dharanad), 1991 liver chestnut stallion, is the sire of my Mayassah, and is standing at Kirby Drennan’s, in Virginia, IL.

From my visit to Illinois, last weekend. With Marty Bugg. The first photo is my best shot of a horse in motion in a long time.

This 2003 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion (Regency x Kiddleywink by Regency) is, according to Jeanne Craver, the most look-alike of his Regency’s sons, and his second youngest.

Debbie Mackie’s Reema CF (Trilogy x Fragrance by Regency) was the prettiest mare I saw in my trip to Illinois over last weekend. She is so refined and yet so well built and balanced.

I was blown away by Pulcher (a.k.a Anecdote CF, by Triermain CF out of Aniq El Bedu by Iliad), while visiting Jackson Hensley and Alice Martin last weekend.What beauty, what type, what personality, what nobility, what “Arabness”, what “desert appeal” (I am coining the phrase) this horse has! Whew! Certainly Triermain’s best son.

We need a concerted, sustained c ollective effort to save what remains of the Asil Tunisian Arabians before the French invasion for racetrack pseudo-Arabian makes is too late. This is the gorgeous 1963 Kuhaylat al-Ajuz mare Naziha (Chetoui x Chouka by Ibn and Idara by Ibn Fayda and Selma by Azem and Isaoub by Negrach).

Jeannie Lieb took this beautiful photo of Thalia CF (Javera Thadrian x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon). She looks so much like her sire Thadrian, and his sister Cheslea, and his other sister Janet.

I had not seen this photo of Letan (*Muson x *Jedah) before, but now I understand who some of the pretty faced grey Davenport stallions, like Tantris CF, and Quatrain CF, took after. It comes from Dharebah, through Dhrareb, a son of Letan.

These photos illustrate how the horse grows a new hoof with correct mechanics if it is set up by the trimmer to heal itself. Thalia’s front hooves were first trimmed by me 2 weeks ago on January 12.  I waited 2 weeks and did a touch-up trim on those front hooves today and took new photos.  I am very pleased with her progress.  She has a long way to go but good stuff is happening. Of particular note please notice how the hairline is starting to achieve a smooth straight slope to the ground if viewed laterally (from the outside).   The bulge in the hairlines in both the right and left front heels will not disappear until a tighter laminae connection is made further down the hoof wall as it grows out.  This tighter connection will “lift” the coffin bone back into the correct position within the hoof capsule , lowering the now elevated back wings of the coffin bone and leveling the bottom of the coffin bone,  and she will achieve concavity and straight hairlines  in her front hooves as this happens. A couple of things in her favor for a sooner rather than later recovery, she has…

Thalia’s hooves. Where do I begin? I knew she’d had laminitis (active) in mid-October 2015 due to eyewitness reports. What I’ve discovered, now that she is with me, is she has been having laminitis attacks, off and on, for at least a year. And without supportive care. The coffin bones (P3) in her front hooves have descended so close to the ground that if the compacted sole on the bottom of her hooves were removed (which I’d normally do) her coffin bone would penetrate right through the live sole. What this means is that she has had attack after attack after attack of laminitis and her laminae have torn apart all the way up to just short of the coronary band. Laminae are much like velcro in the way the sensitive tissue adheres to the insensitive horn of the hoof wall. This happens over time, a slow insidious degenerative process. How am I so sure of this? The state of her hoof tells me this. First lets look at the outer wall.   Each one of those rings represents a laminitis attack. Rings in and of themselves don’t necessarily say “laminitis”, however this clue, along with the angle of her…

Equally asil but very different.

Stan, now 10 years old (big boy!) and Haykal, 5 months, are equally handsome and are good friends.

Check out the link here.

Yasser Ghanem’s beautiful and powerful Ju’aythiniyah mare, of Tahawi bloodlines and going back to the ‘Anazah Bedouins, is now Al Khamsa, since October 2015.

To the left, “Lady” (CSA Baroness Lady), 1999 grey Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah and her colt by Monologue CF, to the right, “Ginger” (DA Ginger Moon), 1998 chestnut Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah, barren from Bahraini Mlolshaan stallion. Below, the Ma’naqi colt, who is absolute stallion material. Compare with the last photo, feauting his sire Monologue CF    

Belle — Jadah BelloftheBall — is showing her pregnancy and looking good. I bet that’s thanks to the wonder diet you recommended for her, Jeannie Lieb. None of my other horses looked as good this afternoon.