Charles Craver took this picture of my Wisteria yesterday, and sent it to me.
This is Popinjay (Banter CF x Persimmon by Brimstone), a 1992 Hamdani Simri tracing to Schilla, and at Maria Wallis’ in Texas. On these horses being Hamdani Simri as opposed to Saqlawi al-Abd, read here. I am trying to organize a breeding that involves him, and will tell you all about this exciting venture once it has materialized (fingers crossed).
Gisela Bergman has been living in Tunisia and breeding Arabian horses from old Tunisian lines for more than three decades. She is one of the very last breeders of the Dolma Batche tail female in Tunisian breeding. Gisela has recently had trouble feeding and taking care of her horses. She is elderly, suffers from arthritis, and lives on her own on farm in a remote area near the Tunisian-Algerian border. A number of her friends and supporters, some of them veterinarians led by Sofiene Ezzar, have set up a support group on Facebook, Tous Unis Pour Aider Gisela, and are doing the best they can, with limited means. The Facebook site has photos and a video which shows the condition of the horses (one photo below).. Things look pretty ugly. If you can do(nate) anything for Gisela, her horses and her asil sloughis, or just want to express your moreal support to this “Lady of the Horses” please hop on this site, or give Gisela a call at: +216 212 92 350. You would need to keep trying, because the cell phone network is poor in that part of the country.. Anything you can do will help. Over the past year and a half of doing the blog,…
Note again the huge expressive eye, the big jowl, the tipped ears, and the small muzzle. All that in a desert-bred stallion. I will dig his hujja out and translate it for you.
To follow up on the earlier entry on the desert-bred Kuhaylan al-Musinn stallion Raad, here is a picture of one of his sons and one of his daughters at the Anbarji farm some seventeen years ago. The colt, either a Kuhaylan al-Khdili or a Hamdani al-Ifri by strain ( I don’t remember, even though I am in the pic), was recovering from an illness, and the photo is not to his advantage, but you will no doubt notice the refinement that his sire Raad transmits, as well as the fine muzzle, the deep jowl and the big eye. Note also the dark, full bay color which Raad passed on to his progeny. The filly is a Hamdaniyah Ifriyah (a well esteemed branch of Hamdani Simri from the ‘Amarat Bedouins, more on it later), and in my opinion, is the epitomy of refinement and feminity. I don’t recall her name either, but Omar Anbarji, her breeder, can perhaps refresh my memory. Omar, you were standing behind my father who took the picture..
This is the fourth part of a great series by Joe Ferriss in Arabian Essence, featuring popular sire lines from the Egyptian breeding.
Blog reader and friend Omar Anbarji of Aleppo, Syria, sent me the following picture of his foundation stallion Raad, a desert-bred (yes) asil Kuhaylan al-Musinn, born in 1982, and now deceased. Raad was bred by Jamal Turki al-Saw’an, out the mare Nawal al-Kheil, and traces back to the famous marbat of Ibn ‘Amayir of the Fad’aan Bedouin tribe. Back in the early 1980s, Omar’s father, civil engineer Munir Anbarji, was working on projects in the Syrian desert. He purchased this young Kuhaylan al-Musinn colt to use on his desert-bred mares. The handful of Aleppo horse breeders who cared about asil arabians at the time knew that this colt, Raad, was of mazbut (authenticated) origin.
This video was taken in August at the open barn session hosted by Diane Lyons of Desert Lily Arabians. Lustre CF, Affinity CF’s full sister, is seen about 4:30 into the video. (I have it on good authority that Affinity is an even better mare–) Right after her is Javera Thadrian’s full sister, GH Janet. Enjoy! Desert Lily Arabians Open House 2009 This video was taken in August at the open barn session hosted by Diane Lyons of Desert Lily Arabians. Lustre CF, Affinity CF’s full sister, is seen about 4:30 into the video. (I have it on good authority that Affinity is an even better mare–) Right after her is Javera Thadrian’s full sister, GH Janet. Enjoy!
I just got word that two asil mares of the Kuhaylan Hayfi strain, from the horses tracing to the desert-breds imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906, were exported to the United Arab Emirates. Both are now owned by Mohammed Bin Humooda of Al-‘Ain, UAE. They are Affinity CF (Javera Thadrian x Audacity) bred by Craver Farms and Jadah Beshan (Baile La Bamba x Cinnabar CF) bred Randall and Mary Sue Harris. Mr. Bin Humooda already owns a number of asil Saqlawi Jadran horses bred by the Doyle family, as well as an asil Hadban Enzahi stallion bred by the Dirks family who is being used in endurance racing. This exportation is encouraging news for the asil Arabian, and a sign of Arab breeders’ emerging interest in old USA-bred, asil bloodines. May there be more of these. Below is a picture of Audacity, Affinity’s dam, and another of Javera Thadrian, Affinity’s sire, with Nancy Becker on top.
At last I get to see a picture of Bossa Nova (Iricho x Bassala by Masbout), thanks to Adrien Deblaise who sent me this one today. Bossa Nova, of the Jilfan Dhawi strain that traces to the mare Wadha from the Fad’aan tribe, was bred by the French government stud of Pompadour, by Iricho, an asil imported from Anatole Cordonnier’s breeding in Tunisia, out of Bassala, an asil imported from the Tiaret government stud in Algeria. Bossa Nova, together with the Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Ablette (photo below, by Sumeyr x Attique by Meat), was deemed the “best”, “purest”, and “most classic” mare in Pompadour” by master-breeder Robert Mauvy. Now I see why.
Ce modeste article intitulé des paroles du Sage (Robert Mauvy) fait suite à celui traitant de la consanguinité : « Ah cet embreeding », ainsi qu’en réponse au questionnement de Monsieur R.J. Cadranell. Il fallait lire : « (…) la dure vie nomade, alliée à l’environnement hostile ainsi qu’aux conditions climatiques implacables joueraient leur rôle de régulateur éliminant du même coup sujets et gènes récessifs indésirables (…) » Dans de telles conditions de survie, un sujet affligé du moindre handicap n’a que peu de chance de salut, et, par voie de conséquences, n’engendre aucune descendance. Le sujet éliminé ne peut donc être porteur ni parasiter de quelque manière que ce soit le reste du cheptel. Il est reproché très souvent à la pratique de la consanguinité d’infliger une diminution de la vitalité ainsi que de la fertilité et pousser à l’hypernervosité ; pour tout dire conduire à une dégénérescence. Nous nous trouvons donc au fait de la question : « le sursum des hérédités entre elles et la possibilité de leur faire atteindre leur maximum d’intensité » avec ce dilemme entre l’hérédité saine … ou morbide. Mais encore une fois, la race chevaline la plus aboutie qu’est le Cheval Arabe de Sang Pur nous a apporté des géniteurs dotés des plus…
In 1952, Charles Craver acquired the asil Crabbet mare *Ringlet (by Astralis x Rudeyna by Daoud), around the same time two other giants, Dr. Joseph L. Doyle, and Richard Pritzlaff were acquiring the asil mares Gulida (by Gulastra x Valida by Ghawi) and Rabanna (Rasik x Banna by *Nasr), respectively, which they bred to the stallion Ghadaf (Ribal x Gulnare by Rodan). Ghadaf, Gulida, Rabanna and Ringlet, all pictured below, are unique in that they carried the highest concentration of Abbas Pasha (Viceroy of Egypt, ca. 1850, and Arabian-horse-freak-in-chief) bloodlines available in the USA at the time. Gulida and Ringlet were entirely of old Crabbet stock, and so was Rabanna with the addition of the line to *Nasr (Rabdan x Bint Yemama), who of Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfiq’s breeding in Egypt, but out of a sister to Crabbet’s Mesaoud (Aziz x Yemameh). Gulida and Rabanna bred on, Ringlet didn’t. She is now lost to asil breeding. Thank God for what still remains of these glorious old Crabbet bloodlines.
Below is one of the first photos I took, at age 12 in 1990 or 1991, with my father’s Nikon. The mare in the picture is Tahirah, then a 25 year old ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah from the marbat of the Saffaf family of Hama. Hama is an ancient city in central Syria, just west of the Syrian desert, and as such was the main marketplace for the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe, which was famed for its many marabet of ‘Ubayyan Sharrak (‘Ubayyan al-‘Awbali, ‘Ubayyan al-Usayli’, Ubayyan Ibn ‘Alyan which by the way is Queen of Sheba’s marbat, ‘Ubayyan Ibn Thamdan,’Ubayyan Ibn Duwayhiss, ‘Ubayyan Labdah, etc). The Saffaf family were in close business contact with the Sba’ah Bedouins, from whom they obtained a number of desert-bred mares. One of these mares was Tahirah’s maternal grand-dam, a chestnut ‘Ubayyah Sharrakiyah, bred by Ku’ayran al-Amsa’, a Bedouin of the Rasalin section of the Sba’ah tribe. She was by a famous Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion, then the herd sire for the Rasalin section. Tahirah’s sire was a Kuhaylan al-Krush, also from the Saffaf family, who owned a Krush marbat as well. Her dam’s sire was a Hamdani Simri, also from Hama. Tahirah has many of the features…
Yesterday evening, I threw away my 2000 Arabian Horse Datasource CD-ROM, and bought a new one year online membership. The geek in me was so excited. Now guess what is the first studbook I looked up in search for lost and forgotten asil Arabians? Saudi Arabia? Syria? Bahrain? Iraq? the USA? France? No. I looked up Algeria first. I guess that’s where my heart really lies. This is where France sent its best desert-bred imports and its best horsemen. This is where, in my opinion, some of the most authentic, true-to-type Arabians were bred. Every mare at the the West-Algerian stud of Tiaret was a gem. Of course, following their country’s independence , the Algerians went ahead and imported “Arabians” from Spain, the UK and elsewhere, effectively putting an end to some 100 years of asil breeding. I wanted to see what remained of the Tiaret breeding, which up to the 1980s was centered on the two magnificent stallions Larabi (Fil x Ledmia by Ghalbane) and Guercif (Ghalbane x Gaila by Bang0). The news is not good, but there may be two or three mares of breedable age still alive, with progeny in 2000. I feel like jumping in an…
I just received my gift copy of the book “The Babson Influence: A Retrospective”, which is published by the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse. I started looking at it tonight, and there are lot of nice pictures I have never seen before. Thank you Anita, Kent and John. 🙂
Don Hernan Ayerza, a well-to-do Argentinian landowner imported desert-bred Arabian horses from France, Hungary (Babolna) and the UK (Crabbet) into his El Aduar Stud. He also went to the Middle East (but not the Arabian desert itself) and bought a number of Arabian horses from there. He also bought two stallions for his friend Leonardo Pereyra. I leave you to ponder this quote about the reliability of hujaj (authentication certificates), from a letter Ayerza wrote to Pereyra, quoted from “the Crabbet Heritage in Argentina” an article by Mary Lockwood in the the Crabbet Journal – Winter 2006 No. 7: “I am sending you the only kind available in all Arabia and anyone who says he has a legal certificate, like the ones used in Europe, lies! I’ve insisted on being shown something with every horse I inspect and they jot down more or less whatever occurs to them at the moment of sale in front of witnesses. I have seen over 500 such ‘certificates’!” Hmmm.. lets debate that one over the next few days..
In 1887, Lady Anne Blunt purchased the little-known desert-bred mare Jilfa from her breeder, Khashman al-Kassab of the Mawaheeb section of the Sba’ah Bedouin tribe. She was imported to Crabbet in 1888, as part of a batch that also included Azrek, and Ashgar, a Saqlawi Ubayri from the Shammar. Jilfa, a Jilfat Sattam al-Bulad by strain, was given away in 1896. I have never seen a photo of Jilfa.. At Crabbet, Jilfa produced Jamusa by Azrek, who in turn produced Mareesa in 1902, by Mareb (Mesaoud x Mansura, by Ashgar out of Meshura, another imported mare rarely found in Crabbet pedigree). Interestingly, Mareesa blends the three 1888 desert imports with the rare Meshura line, providing for an unusual early Crabbet pedigree. Mareesa produced the pretty Alfarouse by Berk (by now the line was out of Crabbet) and her sister Yakuta by Rasim (Feysul x Risala). In 1937, the latter produced Rasheeqa by the closely related Azym (Sher-i-Khurshid x Alfarouse), a son of Yakouta’s sister Alfarouse. Rasheeqa was 100% old Crabbet breeding and both her sire and her dam were of the same Jilfan strain. Rasheeqa produced the mare Resique in 1948, by Aaron (Algol x Rythma by Berk), carrying the asil Jilfa tail female…
In the 1990s, Syrian breeder Mustapha al-Jabri, of Aleppo, owned a sturdy, deserty little mare that was bred by the Shammar of Mesopotamia. He name was Mouna, and her strain was very precious: ‘Ubayyan Hunaydis (Lady Anne Blunt: “Mutlaq [her Mutayr stud manager] says mazbut strain”). She had at least two sons and one daughter by Jabri’s then head stallion Mahrous, a ‘Ubayyan Suhayli – another precoius marbat of the ‘Ubayyan strain. Both sons stood in Jabri’s stallion barn, but I don’t know whether he used them or not. I don’t recall their names, either, and I used to call them Ibn Mouna I and Ibn Mouna II. Below is Ibn Mouna I, with a youthful Edouard in the background. This horse had some defects, including longer cannon bones and a slightly thicker neck than I’d like, but he oozed real, bold, masculine, desert type. If he could roar he would.
Jeanne Craver sent me this photo a few days ago, in reference to the discussion on this entry.
Wilfred Thesiger (1910-2003) is known as the last of the great Western explorers and travelers. He was the first European to have crossed the heart of the lifeless Empty Quarter (al-Rub’ al-Khali), the great South-East Arabian sand desert. Before him, Bertram Thomas and Harry St-John Bridger Philby traveled around the edges of that desert, which Thesiger crossed twice, on foot and camel back. Thesiger, who is otherwise known for two books, “Arabian Sands”, and the “Marsh Arabs”, both classics of travel literature, was also a talented photographer, who donated his extensive collection of negatives to Oxford University’s Pitt Rivers Museum. A hundred of Thesiger’s less know photos for Arabia, Asia and Africa, is available for viewing on the museum’s website, including the one just below. Note the 1948 picture of a youthful, bare-footed Shaykh Zayed B. Sultan al-Nahyan, then Shaykh of Abu Dhabi, and later (as of 1971) ruler of the United Arab Emirates. Also note the nice picture of the Yemeni port of Mukalla (below), which I visited in the summer of 2008. Also, read Thesiger’s 2003 obituary in the Guardian, here.
Another desert-bred imported to Algeria in the XIXth century is Ben Chicao. I don’t know his strain or his breeder. He is represented in modern pedigrees through his daughter Addresse (x Pervenche), to whom the stallion Madani (Souci x Sissana by Mossoul) has a line in the middle of the pedigree. He was otherwise rarely used. Is that a good Arabian horse conformation wise, judging from the photo? What do you think?
Recently, Ambar Diaz started posting photos of some of this blog’s authors and regular contributors mounted on asil Arabian horses, as a way to put names on faces. Here is a photo that reader Predrag Joksimovic sent me of himself, mounted on Mahiba (Shams El Arabi x Mansoura), a very deserty little mare. Mahiba’s sire Shams El Arabi (Farouk x Bint El Arabi by El Araby) is of Egyptian bloodlines, her dam’s sire El Aswad (Ibn Galal x 10 Hosna) is also Egyptian, but her grand-dam Malaga (Madani x Berriane by Titan) was bred in Tunisia from predominantly Algerian bloodlines (and some old French through Mossoul). Malaga traces to several desert-bred imports featured on this blog, such as Bango, El Managhi, Ghazi, and others. She was a Jilfat Dhawi by strain, and so is Mahiba. She was exported to Germany in the 1960s. Egyptian and Algerian/Tunisian lines tend to blend very well with each other, further empasizing the added value of “combined source” breeding.
This beautiful mare with big, black, femine eyes is Kokhle, the daughter of two desert-bred horses imported from the Syrian desert to the USA in 1906. Her sire, Hamrah is a Saqlawi al-‘Abd, and her dam, Farha, is a Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah. I know I sound like a broken record, but who said Ma’naghis did not look like classical Arabian horses? Unfortunately, Kokhle’s tail female no longer survives in asil Arabian horse breeding, but she does have a line in modern pedigrees through her son Kokhleson (by Ashmar), whose son Ralk (x Halloul) sired Ibn Ralf and Bint Ralf.
Here is a seminal article by Charles Craver advocating for need to breed “Combined Source” bloodlines..
The more I browse through the Al Khamsa Online Roster, the more I realize the importance of the desert-bred mare *Wadduda. She was a chestnut Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd, and was the war-mare of the Bedouin chieftain Hakim Ibn Mhayd of the Fad’aan tribe, before she was imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. There is even a series of children books about “Wadduda of the Desert”. *Wadduda has left a lot of asil offspring in the tail female, mostly through her descendent Sahanad (Abu Hanad x Sahabet by Tanatra), a mare that started a dynasty of her own. Sahanad has an active preservation group of her own, and there are around 150 horses tracing to her today! However, there are other lines of asil Arabians to *Wadduda, too. These run the risk of being overlooked in part because of the success of the Sahanad preservation effort, and in part because they do not belong to any of todays breeding groups/silos within US Arabian horse breeding. Jeanne Craver recently mentioned on this blog that an attempt was currently being made to find a preservation home for a 21 year old mare from one of these lines. The mare is Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta by Jadib). Jadiba’s sire…
As Daughter of the Wind slowly turns into an international virtual community of people involved or interested in preserving the real asil Arabian horse where it can be found, I thought I’d issue this message: By now, many of you who read that blog know which Arabian horses are of interest to this community. These include Arabian horses from lines native to the following countries: Syria, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Kuwait, Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Libya, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Israel/Palestine, and to a lesser extent Mauritania, Sudan, Chad, Pakistan, and India. Of course, not all the Arabian horses from these countries are of interest, and I will be making that call for now, pending a broader discussion (one of the privileges of owning a blog is that you get to make the last call on what gets published and what doesn’t). In the West, the following breeding groups are of interest: Babolna (Hungary), old French (Pompadour, Mauvy), Weil (Germany), early American Foundation (Davenport, Babson, Brown, Dickinson, Huntington, Hearst, Crane..), Saudi imports to the USA (Harris, Roach, Cobb, Rogers..), old English (Courthouse, Crabbet), etc. I may have missed a few. If you think you own or know of a horse…
Teymur Abdelaziz of Germany sent me this photo of the 1993 grey mare Chira (Saymoon x Cylia by Madkour I), a great-great-grand daughter of Nafaa, the desert-bred Kuhaylah mare gifted by Ibn Saud to the king of Egypt in the 1940s. Chira is unique in the sense is that she is the last mare to trace to Nafaa through Nafaa’s daughter Bint Nafaa (by El Gadaa) and as such, the last mare to carry El Gadaa’s blood. Read more about Bint Nafaa and her sire El Gadaa here. I am glad to know Teymur is working on preserving this precious line, which is so close to some of the choicest desert bloodlines. Best of luck with that, Teymur.
I have read and re-read this article by Michael Bowling time and again.. and always learn something new. The article is about the early stages of Arabian horse breeding in Australia, and focuses on early Crabbet bloodlines. I am always struck by this photo of the magnificent Rafyk (by Azrek x Rose of Sharon by Hadban), a small stallion of 14 3/4 hands that looks like a 16 hands horse. Wow, what a horse! Why the heck were the Blunts parting with horses like this one?
This is another photo of the magnificient Dahman (a Dahman x a Rabda). He is to France what *Haleb, who was bred about the same time, is to the USA. Dahman, a Rabdan by strain, is by the far the best desert horse horse ever imported to France, in my opinion. He was a herd stallion with the Shammar Bedouins of Mesopotamia, when French Inspecteur Quinchez, noticed him and bought him in 1909. This picture was taken in 1914, and is courtesy of Adrien Deblaise. I wrote about Dahman earlier, here.
One more picture of old desert-bred stallions from Algeria, from Adrien Deblaise. This is Salamie. I don’t know his strain, nor his breeder. His name suggests an origin around the steppe area east of Hama, in Central Syria, where the town of Salamie lies, and which is a grazing ground for the Sba’ah, Mawali, Hadideen Bedouin tribes. The French imported well over a hundred stallions and mares to their studs in Algeria. Not all of these were equally good. Some were outstanding, like Ghazi. Some were average, like Salamie here. He does have a short back, deep girth, strong legs, a nice hindquarter, and a well placed neck. That said, his eyes are placed too high and his head is somewhat plain. The French, who were seeking stallions to produce cavalry horses (typically Arab-Barb crosses) to police their Algerian possessions, couldn’t care less about a good head, although they sometimes imported pretty typey individuals such as Aziz, featured earlier. Salamie left some progeny at the French government stud of Tiaret, in Algeria. Most notable is his daughter Kabla, out of the Aziz daughter El Kaira. Kabla is the dam of the stallion Bouq (by the desert-bred Hellal), really influential in early Tunisian…
Part 3 of Joe Ferriss’ article “Something Old, Something New” is out in the Arabian Essence online newsletter. Check it out. I was with Joe last month in Oregon and I can tell you nobody knows how to describe a horse like Joe. He sees things we average folks can’t see.
The series on desert-bred Arabian imports to North Africa continues thanks to breeder and blog reader A. Deblaise. This is Aziz, one of the earliest desert-breds imported to Algeria by the French. I know nothing about his strain or his original breeder. All I know is that he is present in the back of the pedigrees of some really good Tunisian and Algerian horses, like the pretty Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare Hadia (Kefil x Rafiaa by Bango) from Tunisia, pictured below. Hadia has three lines to Aziz, though his three daughters El Keira, Fakhera, and Gueddima.
Something tells me that there may a number of asil lines down in South America. A non-negligible number of Arabians of Crabbet, Babolna, and French bloodlines were exported to this part of the world, which to me is terra incognita. There were aslo some direct importations from the desert, such as that of Don Hernan Ayerza. All these horse must have left something. In the USA, the best known South American asil mare is the Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare *Aire (by Ali x Raira by the Crabbet-bred Rustnar) was bred in Brazil, from Ayerza bloodlines and was imported to to the USA in the 1934 by General Dickinson of Travelers Rest Farms. She still has asil descendents in the USA (and nice ones, too) and her tail female, although endangered, is still extant. Jill Erisman wrote a nice article summarizing the status of line within Al Khamsa, in the last Khamsat. Let me cut to the chase. If anyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone who can and wants to write and research asil Arabian in South America, then please let me know. He or she would be invited to contribute to this blog. Language is not a problem, I will find someone to…
Today French horse-breeder Adrien Deblaise made my day. He sent me a set of very rare, old pictures of desert-bred Arabians imported to France, Tunisia and Algeria in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Some time ago, I started a series of blog entries featuring photos of some these outstanding and so little known desert-breds (Dahman, El Sbaa, Nibeh, Burgas, Taleb, Niazi, El Managhi, etc), but I ran out of original photos to share. I am happy I now have a few more pictures to resume this series. Merci Adrien! This is Ghazi. Chestnut; desert-bred; born in 1901; recorded sire: “Arkoubi”, a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz; recorded dam: “Zarifa”, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz; raced successfully in Egypt; imported by the French government to Algeria (then a part of France) in 1909; head sire at the Tiaret stud for many years. Robert Mauvy, who knew him well, said of him: “Alezan dore, trois balzanes et liste, et dont presque toutes les juments nees a Tiaret descendent. Couvrant beaucoup de terrain avec de tres grandes lignes, il brillait par l’elegance de ces gestes et de ses allures … Ce fut, en outre, un excellent performer.” By 1954, on the eve of the bloody (more than a million dead) Algerian eight…
This is Nauwas, a chestnut mare born in 1967. Her sire is the Hamdani stallion Al-Khobar (Ibn Fadl x *Al Hamdaniah), and her dam is the desert-bred mare *Muhaira, a ‘Ubayyah from the horses of Prince Saud ibn ‘Abdallah ibn Jalawi Aal Saud. Her pedigree is interesting because the sire line is Egyptian, and all the mares are desert-bred imports to the USA from Central and Eastern Arabia. Fadl sired the stallion Ibn Fadl, out of the desert-bred mare *Turfa; Ibn Fadl in turned sired Al-Khobar (photo below), out of the desert-bred mare *Al-Hamdaniah (the “bloody shouldered mare”, who was featured in one of the first entries of this blog); the beautiful Al Khobar sired Nauwas, out of the desert-bred *Muhaira. You can’t get better bloodlines than these, so noble, and so close to the source. I love this photo of Nauwas. It blends two of the characteristics of the true Arabian mare: the sweet, soft look of a new mother; and the strength of a war mare. This is a mare I wish I had seen, and owned. PS: I just noticed, after publishing this post that Nauwas bears some resemblance in her body structure, her ears, and the…
Adrien Deblaise breeds Arabian horses of Tunisian, Moroccan and Algerian bloodlines in Western France. His father Philippe was a bookseller that specialized in equine literature. Philippe’s inventory contained one of the largest collections in France books on horses in general and Arabians in particular. Below are pictures of two of Adrien’s mares: B’Oureah Marine (by Ourki x Bismilah by Irmak), and Qhejala (by Fawzan x Jelala II by Abouhif). B’Oureah is shown here competing for a 60 mile endurance race (which she won). She is a Jilfat Dhawi by strain, tracing to the mare Wadha imported by the French government from the Fad’aan tribe in 1875. Qhejala traces to Cherifa, a Shuwaymat Sabbah imported by the French from the Sba’ah tribe in 1869. Note the resemblance between Qhejala (who is 75% Egyptian) and the Babson (a group of asil Arabians of Egyptian bloodlines) broodmatron Fada (Faddan x Aaroufa by Fay El Dine). Fada’s rare photo below is from the late Billy Sheets’ photo collection.
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.
This was taken at StarWest Stables, New Berlin, Illinois USA, in 2001 during the Al Khamsa convention (I think; maybe someone else will correct me). The horse is the 1982 Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Javera Thadrian; the rider is Edouard.
Blog contributor RJ Cadranell with his 1980 Davenport stallion, Atticus. I’m guessing Edouard is having a busy few days, so I thought I’d try to collect photos of participants here on horseback. If you have a photo to share, feel free to mail it to ambar@ambararabians.com. I also realized after my initial posting that this is a response to Joksimovic’s recent question: hello ! Dont misunderstand me but everybody talk about horses line ,pedigree,generation ,etc Nobody about riding this daughter of wind, the character of this good horses why ??Its to believe thats nobody riding .Why have or need the bedouin this horses ? And why they are what they are (very good horses) ???? (gazu)ride of long distances or what do you think? Maybe this horse is not for riding?? Thank you Joksimovic, you have an excellent point. This horse is absolutely for riding. It’s always good to be reminded what all this effort and verbiage is actually for. Blog contributor RJ Cadranell with the 1980 Davenport stallion, Atticus. I’m guessing Edouard is having a busy few days, so I thought I’d try to collect photos of participants here on horseback. 🙂 If you have a photo to share,…
Une question qui doit certainement être aussi vieille que l’élevage et assurément son antienne. Sujet controversé qui a fait couler déjà beaucoup d’encre et user de salive. Il est fort probable que cette polémique reste encore longtemps en bonne place au titre des débats alambiqués. Il n’est pour s’en rendre compte de confier au commun des mortels que tel ou tel sujet (cheval ou autre) est le produit d’un accouplement en famille, puis observer : très souvent, la première réaction de notre interlocuteur est de gêne enveloppée dans un profond mutisme, après un recul, l’indignation ne se fait pas attendre et c’est le tollé… Tout ceci malgré maintes expériences, observations, études et par suite discours ou dissertations malheureusement subis et reçus comme prolixes et dérangeants. Travaux devenus stériles et retombant inertes dans le creuset du savoir en attendant d’être rebattus. L’Inbreeding nous dit-on : “désigne chez un individu une consanguinité plus forte que celle de la moyenne dans une race donnée” plutôt subjectif ! Je laisserai donc cette définition à l’appréciation de chacun. Pour traduire, il s’agit dans les origines d’un sujet donné de la présence d’un ou plusieurs ancêtres communs répétés dans les générations. A certains de rétorquer qu’après…
Don’t ask me how this ancient line made it into the 21st century. It’s a near miracle. Lady Anne Blunt imported the Hamdani Simri mare Sobha (Wazir x Selma) from Egypt in 1891, from a certain Mahmoud Bey who got her dam from the Abbas Pascha collection. Sobha’s line was one of the most represented lines at Crabbet Stud, after Rodania’s and Dajania’s. It produced a stallion at the first generation: Seyal (Mesaoud x Sobha), despite the latter’s grey color (the Blunts were not big on greys). Lady Anne also used Sobha’s other son Antar at her Sheykh Obeyd Stud in Egypt. Seyal’s sire line is still in existence today: Seyal -> Berk -> Ribal -> Ghadaf -> Jadib -> Ibn Gulida -> Omagh -> Dib -> Huntington Doyle, a chestnut 1990 stallion I saw at the Doyle Ranch in Oregon last August. But that’s not what I wanted to talk about here. Sobha had a daughter at Crabbet, Siwa (by Ahmar), who had Somra by Daoud, who had Safarjal by Berk. Safarjal was Lady Wentworth’s gift [purchased Thanks for the correction RJ] to Musgrave Clark of the Courthouse stud, which I wrote about in an earlier entry. Clark bred Safarjal to…
In an earlier post, I had written about an asil Kuhaylan Rodan line that seems to have miraculously survived in South Africa. This was the line of Rosina, tracing to Lady Anne Blunt’s Rodania through the latter’s daughter Rosemary. There is another asil line tracing to Rosemary that also survives in the USA. I stumbled upon it while browsing through the Al Khamsa Roster. This is the line of Rayim (Abu Zeyd x Roshana), a 1927 bay mare bred by W.R. Brown. Just follow this breath-taking genealogy of Crabbet mares from the “R” line: Rodania –> Rosemary, 1886, by Jeroboam –> Rabla, 1899, by Mesaoud –> Rokhama, 1906, by Astraled –> *Rokhsa, 1915, by Nasik –> Roshana, 1920, by *Berk –> Rayim, 1927, by Abu Zeyd. At this point the line is bred to old American bloodlines, as Rayim produces Amirat by Arafat (Ameer Ali x Serije, a Saqlawi al-Abd tracing to *Wadduda) in 1947. Amirat in turn produced Nuqat, by Nasir, a son of Rayim, hence doubling the Rosemary line. Nuqat is bred to Abu-Talib, another Kuhaylan Rodan son of Rayim, to produce the 1960 mare Salsalet (3 close crosses to Rayim). Salsalet is bred to the Egyptian stallion Saba…
From The Training and Management of Horses by J.P.F. Bell, published 1904. The colt should be in possession of a small head, broad between the eyes, clean, open jaws, and a small, tapering muzzle. His eyes should be full, generous, and prominent, showing plenty of fire when the colt is put upon his mettle. His ears should be small, tapering, and inclining towards each other at the tips when erect. His nostrils should be delicate and curved, with broad, expansive cavities, and when distended they should appear almost transparent at the edges. His neck should be long, lean, and planted on a set of oblique shoulders, with good play. He should have a moderately long, straight back, with strong, well-developed, muscular quarters. He should be deep-chested rather than broad, because if he is very broad in the chest he will never be fast, though he may be able to stay. His fore-legs should be well set on, clean, bony, flat, and free from splints and side-bones, while they should not be too long from the knees to the pasterns. The knees should be flat and fairly large, while the pasterns should be moderately long and elastic, to insure easy springing…
A fascinating article on volcanic Arabic by Peter Harrigan, in the 2006 issue of Saudi Aramco World. I had the pleasure of meeting Peter at the 2009 Al Khamsa Convention in Oregon, where he gave a talk about the Czech explorer and writer Alois Musil. Peter is a director of Barzan Press, a publishing house “dedicated to promoting awareness of Arab history, literature, novels, heritage and school books.” Click here and scroll down for Peter’s bio. Check out Peter’s talk on Musil in the next Khamsat.
The video below was shot in Qatar, and the rider is a Bedouin from Bani Hajar, a large branch of the tribe of Qahtan. This way of riding is called “Bdaawi riding”. I believe – but I am not sure – that the mare he is riding is from the from the horses exported to Qatar from the Hasa (al-Ihsaa) eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Most of the horses, the camel and the sheep owned by ordinary Qataris come from the eastern part of Saudi Arabia. Here in Saudi Arabia, we have several hundred horses like this mare that were not registered in the WAHO accepted studbook, despite being asil. These horses are currently overlooked. Notice how the mare runs with her hindquarters wide part. The Arabic term for a mare with hindquarters wide apart is “fajhah“. One can also tell this is a racy mare, because of the way she throws her forelegs forward, and the way she pushes her head and her neck forward too. This type of song is called “Samiri”. The words are, in transliterated Arabic: “atliqu al-khayl dama al-khayl mukhtalah, fikku quyudaha banat al-kuhaylah, nahmidu allahu ‘alyana ‘ammat akhbaruhu” which means, roughly translated: “let the horses run,…
The archives of Gertrude Bell, sometimes referred to as the “Uncrowned Queen of Iraq” ( how I hate that title!), are at Newcastle University in the UK. If you do not know who Gertrude Bell is, or simply wish to know more about her, then click here. The archives include this first photo of a Shammar camel rider, with horses in the background, near the ancient Arab ruins of al-Hadr (ancient Hatra), in Iraq; and this second photo of Fahd Ibn Haddal, leader of the ‘Amarat Bedouins, and Gertrude’s “friend”.
Dr. Ameen Zaher did a study which found that *Hamrah had the highest relationship to the breed in U.S.A. of any stallion for the period 1907 to 1946. We ran pedigrees on samples of horses in a few of the stud books back in the 1970s and 1980s, and determined that between 88% and 90% of Arabians in the U.S.A. traced to Davenport blood, which means they probably trace to *Hamrah too (it’s hard to find Davenport ancestry without *Hamrah). A thin *Hamrah male line was maintained by Betty Baker through Ibn Wazir (foaled 1956) and his son Wazirs Azab (foaled 1971). Wazirs Azab had a son born in 1983 (Azabs Jem) and two more in 1985 (Azabs Jody and Azabs Fancy Man), but the line is believed to be extinct today. *Hamrah sired 34 fillies but only 19 colts. Only three of his colts sired purebred foals. Jeremah left a daughter, but both Ziki and Kilham founded sire lines, even though the sire lines are extinct today. The breeding herds sold from Hingham Stock Farm tended to be heavy on *Hamrah daughters and correspondingly light on *Hamrah sons. For example, F.E. Lewis bought six *Hamrah daughters: Hasiker, Tamarinsk, Moliah,…
I just noticed something while clicking through Al Khamsa’s online Roster. Of course, it may be a no-brainer to many of you: the stallion *Hamrah, a Saqlawi al-Abd imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906, is the maternal grand-sire of at least five of the most influential Early American Foundation Arabian horses in the USA: Tripoli (dam Poka by *Hamrah); Dhareb and Antez (dam Moliah by *Hamrah); Hanad (dam Sankirah by *Hamrah) and Akil (dam Sedjur by *Hamrah). Wow. What a horse.
Joe Ferriss wrote: “But perhaps now is a good time for some of us to free ourselves from the temptation for compartmentalized thinking about asil bloodlines with the aim of producing more Waddudas, or Sindidahs or Old Speckled Jellabis.” I couldn’t agree more. I think that we, and those who came before us, have done a wonderful job of both educating the public and preserving the various AK/asil lines over several decades. Dividing them into sub-groups by various criteria in order to preserve the uniqueness of the various groups was certainly the right way to go, and the Craver model with the Davenports, which created even more possibilities within a limited pool, sheer genius. It has occurred to me from time to time that perhaps we have now reached “Stage Two” where we should be deliberately blending more of the subgroups in new ways. I’m not saying we should stop doing what we’ve done, only starting doing something new alongside. Certainly some of it should be well-planned and done in the ‘Western mode’ of thinking, with specific goals in mind, but I can’t help thinking that some of it should be done ‘haphazardly’ [in comparison to our Western, compartmentalized way…
He was by Prince Hal x Sirrulya. Photo from Jeanne Craver
Here is the info on the Clark desert stallions: Nimr. Arab Horse Society stud book vol. III (1926) says: Foaled 1914. Imported. Brown; blaze, off fore and both hind socks white. Nimr’s sire was a Seglawi Jedran belonging to the late Abdul Hamid II., Sultan of Turkey. Yaz, his dam, was a Seglawieh Jedranieh. The original owner of the dam was Shiekh [sic] Ul Mashaeikh of the Anazeh tribe, who gave her to Hazim Bey, Governor of Baghdad. Hazim Bey took her to Constantinople, where he sold her to Sherif Ali Jaffer who gave her to Prince Mohuiddin. Owned by H.V. Musgrave Clark. Journal of the Arab Horse Society: “At the same time [as Atesh] came Nimr to the above Stud, a brown horse of the Seglawi Jedran strain, standing 15 hands, having great bone and substance. He was bred and owned by Prince Mohuiddin, son of the late Sherif of Mecca [sic], and ridden by him as a charger. He is a magnificent type of Arab, a good foal-getter and a winner of many prizes in the show ring.” Peter Upton adds that Nimr was imported c.1923 and owned by H.V.M. Clark c.1925. He also quotes Lady Wentworth: “A…
To expand on Edouard’s last comment here about our chats in Oregon: I believe that the Asil bloodlines are very flexible and forgiving in that they can be bred for generations in one narrow direction (i.e. show ring, or non-Bedouin riding disciplines), outside the influence of the originating culture, and then they can also be returned to the type of the kinds of horses found among the originating culture as long as the breeder maintains a good understanding of what that culture values in the horse, its purposes for the horse, and keeps an open mind to the broadest possible choices. One example is modern combined source breeding in Al Khamsa, which I feel represents a great deal of liberation from bloodline constraints. I am optimistic that there are still lots of possibilities for breeders. We need to preserve all the ingredients of the ideal recipe for the Arabian horse, and by example long time breeders have done a fine job of it. But perhaps now is a good time for some of us to free ourselves from the temptation for compartmentalized thinking about asil bloodlines with the aim of producing more Waddudas, or Sindidahs or Old Speckled Jellabis.
This beauty is a young stallion of Egyptian bloodlines who was shown at the 2009 Al Khamsa Convention in Oregon. I don’t know his pedigree (I think Haziz Halim is his maternal grandsire) and I don’t necessarily want to know it. My daughter Samarcande loved him very much and made friends with him. Sometimes, even a pedigree freak like myself likes to take a pause and just look at the horse. Photo Karsten Scherling.
I wanted to highlight an interesting conversation on inbreeding taking place in the comments on Javera Chelsea’s photos. I hope this exchange will serve as a teaser: Lyman Doyle wrote: […] Inbreeding is certainly a fascinating and very complex topic. Googling “inbreeding” can turn up a lot of different information. Granted, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but some of it appears to be fairly well reasoned. […] I think there are several points of significance: 1. Inbreeding does create some degree of uniformity. The main genetic result of inbreeding is to increase the occurrence of the coupling of like genes. 2. Inbreeding does bring out those genes that are recessive including those that may be harmful to animals that are inbred. 3. Inbreeding is useful in uncovering otherwise harmful or undesirable characteristics and purging these characteristics from the genetic population. 4. Inbreeding is important in the development of animals that are “potent” with certain more favored characteristics that manifest in their offspring. R.J. Cadranell wrote: Lyman, regarding your point #1, inbreeding by itself does not create uniformity. Here is a passage from Michael Bowling’s article “Preservation Breeding and Population Genetics” from 1995: “We all learned long…
Some time last year, this blog featured the precious asil Kuhaylan al-Mimrah line to the mare Baraka (Ibn Manial x Gamalat) which has been flourishing in South Africa. The series of postings on Baraka and her descendents attracted a lot of attention from South Africa and Namibia, and is by far the most popular thread on this blog. Now is the time to feature another asil line that has survived in South Africa, and which carries crosses to desert-bred lines that are extinct almost everywhere else around the globe. That’s the line of the mare Rosina (Saoud x Ruth II by Bendigo), a 1950 Kuhaylat al-Rodan exported by H. V. Musgrave Clark to South Africa in 1953. The line is a tail female to Rodania, an 1869 desert-bred Kuhaylat Rodan imported by Lady Anne Blunt in 1881, and one of the most influential mares in Arabian (and asil) horse breeding. What’s so special about this line, will you ask? Kuhaylan al-Rodan asil horses are all over the place. Well, first of all, the absolute majority of Rodania tail female horses are within what is known as “Straight Egyptian” breeding, a sub-set of asil breeding which has branched out into a category – and…
Since I am back talking about Ma’naghi Sbayli stallions (see yesterday’s short post on RB Bellagio), I thought I’d bring up a picture of the stallion Dakhala Sabiq (Prince Hal x Sirrulya by Julyan), a 1975 stallion bred by Jeanne Hussong, when she was just about to become Jeanne Craver. A coouple of years ago, I was seriously considering to buy a daughter of Sabiq’s sister Soiree (Sir x Sirrulya): Dakhala Sahra is a lovely 1985 chestnut mare by Plantagentet out of Soiree, and is owned by Crista Couch. Perhaps I should have made a move. Dakhla Sabiq and RB Bellagio who was featured below, are closely related, since their respective dams Sirrulya and Sirrunade are sisters, both out of Jane Ott’s broodmatron Sirrulla (Sirecho x Drissula). Unfortunately, Sabiq never had the opportunity to be used as a stallion I have always had a soft spot for Ma’anaghi Sbayli stallions. It dates back to the time I read a story by Ali al-Barazi, an old-time Syrian horse breeder, about one of the last ghazus (Bedouin raids), in the early 1940s. That was just before the French, who were ruling over Syria at the time, put an end to all raiding activity and imposed peace…
One of my favorite stallions on the US East Coast is RB Bellagio (Arabi Fad Onyx x Sirrunade by Faaryan), an asil Ma’naghii Sbayli tracing to the desert-bred mare Haidee, bred by the Sba’ah tribe and imported to the UK in 1874. His maternal grand-dam is Miss Jane Ott’s famous Sirrulla (Sirecho x Drissula by Sultan). The back of his pedigree is really interesting which one of the very few crosses to the stallion Sultan (Ibn Nafa x Exochorda, and hence Sirecho’s half brother), another cross to Antez, and plenty of linebreeding and inbreeding to Haidee. RB Bellagio is owned by Terri Somers of New Jersey, who also owns a number of Ma’naghi mares that trace to Haidee, but also to the Blunt’s Ferida, another desert bred from the Shammar tribe. Terri has a nice website that has all sorts of information about RB Bellagio and his harm of Ma’naghiyat. By the way, don’t you think there is a similarity with the picture of the desert-bred stallion *Mirage, below?
Carol Mingst took this beautiful photo of Zachary CF (Zacharia x Recherche by Prince Hal), an asil Kuhaylan Hayfi at Diane Lyons’ open barn in Dallas, Oregon last week. I had seen Zachary back in 2003, but don’t recall that he was nearly as beautiful as in this picture. It makes me want to own him. Thanks to Carol for sharing this photo.
Amidst last week’s flurry of events, I almost forgot to report that Daughter of the Wind was awarded the 2009 Publication Award at the Al Khamsa Convention in Redmond OR, for “garnering international support in favor of the asil Arabian horse”. That international support is coming from you, dear reader, and it is you that this award recognizes. I cannot tell you how much this award means to me, and I wish to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the folks who nominated me for this award. I started this blog in early 2008 because I wanted to keep all my musings about horses in one place. Eighteen months and three hundred and fifty thousand clicks later, I am still amazed at how fast it grew, and at the quality and variety of the readership. (My web stats even show a growing 5% propportion of Chinese readers, who are just lurking for now, so I guess it’s time for a multi-script interface that also includes Arabic). Photo below by Karsten Scherling (by now, I have learnt to type Karsten’s name with my eyes shut..)