Photo: MAHABA, grey Arabian mare of Chile
This is MAHABA, the full sister of the mare I posted yesterday (Aslan x Ramdy). She has a quality about her – she could gladly grace my stable anytime, I think.
A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
This is MAHABA, the full sister of the mare I posted yesterday (Aslan x Ramdy). She has a quality about her – she could gladly grace my stable anytime, I think.
I am in love with this mare. She reminds me of some Davenports I have known.
She is also easily my favorite out of all of the early Chilean Arabians that I have seen so far. Such a beautiful horse, with large, expressive eyes that really shine through over a century later.
Many good syrian horses looked like that too. Wow.
Stunning! Reminds me of Dulcet CF, my all-time favorite mare.
She might be 100% Weil breeding. It is not clear to me that her sire was a desert bred horse.
I have been wondering about Aslan, myself. There is a grey Aslan (Asslan II x Lama) from Weil breeding that was apparently born in 1870, but this guy was apparently foaled in 1868. The studbook information that Miguel sent me, however, says this in his entry: “Importado del criadero del rei de Wurtemburg.”
Either way, both birthdates are plausible, as Aslan was imported to Chile in 1872, but it’s still unclear as to weather Aslan is a desertbred colt that was imported to the Weil and then to Chile, or a Weil-bred horse that found his way to Chile. Someone more versed in the French Arabians (-looks in the general direction of Amelie or Edouard-) would probably have to answer this for us.
The book where I take out these pictures is not of Arabs. It is the book “El Caballo Chileno, 1541 a 1914” by Uldaricio Prado, 1914, Santiago de Chile. In the first chapters he reviews the different breeds in Chile since he was a breeder aside a veterinarian and agronomist. So some errors in the names are understood, but in the stud book it is all clear. Unfortunately we have not found other sources with photos, the great earthquakes and their subsequent associated fires explain the great amount of loss of these materials. We look forward to the miracle to find a copy of the book we know that Nathan Cox wrote about his horses.
Thanks for weighing in on that Miguel. I actually got my hands on a digitized copy of this book myself today, and it was lovely to look through all of the old photos. What a tragedy that so much of your country’s history has been lost!
In what all of us who have studied all of Aslan’s background we agree that it is not a desert breed, he is a 100% Weil breeding.
She is really lovely; that face is exquisite.
Re the Aslan by Asslan II ex Lama, he seems to have been exported to France in 1873, which is oddly close to the 1872 date of export of Aslan 1868 to Chile. I am scratching my head a bit over Asslan II (foaled 1856), and his full brother Asslan I (foaled 1854). Interestingly, Sporthorse Data (which is not really any better than Allbreed) gives Aslan 1868’s sire as another Aslan, an 1854 son of Koheil Aguse, who is the dam of Asslan I and II on Allbreed – but has no recorded sire for Aslan 1854, which is unexpected for a horse supposed to be bred at Weil.
Right now, all I can conclude is that there is some confusion over the number of Aslans out there and their exact relationship – so I will be doing some digging through older German records. (At the moment I have an 1863 reference to an eight-year-old fleabitten grey daughter of Koheil Aguse and Amurath I, in foal to Amurath II, but haven’t found anything on the sons of Koheil Aguse, or any Aslans.)
Just for fun – there’s another Aslan (called a Turk in some sources and an Arab in others) who was also exported to France 50 years prior, and used at Le Pin and Pompadour for Anglo-Arab breeding – and has nothing to do with this discussion except for sharing the same name.
I have been frustrated in my attempts to try to find more on the various Aslans, until I remembered that I have the catalogue of horses exhibited at the 1873 World’s Fair at Vienna – and there was the Aslan by Aslan ex Lama:
“Nitzschwitz Heinrich Von, Königsfeld bei Rochlitz in Sachsen.
56. ACLAN, Silberschimmel, arabischer Vollblut-Hengst, 8 Jahre alt, 15 F. 2″, von Aclan aus der Lama. Verkäuflich.”
So that Aslan/Aclan was foaled not in 1870 but in 1865, if he was eight in September 1873.
I have not yet found the Aslan who went to Chile in 1872, but if I keep on digging, I’m sure I will turn him up.