Photo of the Day: GTS Hawa El Adhar, 2004 Ma’naghi Sbayli gelding
I am a big fan of the breeding program of Terri Somers at Royal Blue Arabians in New Jersey. Terri is the owner of the striking grey Ma’naghi Sbayli stallion RB Bellagio (photo below, in harness, by Arabi Fadh Onyx x Sirrunade by Faaryan), and has been breeding classic and athletic horses of this Ma’naghi Sbayli strain for some years now (check out her story here). Her horses trace all the way back to Haidee, the Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah mare of Sulayman Ibn Mirshid, the leader of the Bedouin tribe of Qumusah – no less. Haidee was bought by Major R. Upton and taken to the UK in 1874; her daughter Naomi was then exported to the USA in 1887 where the line bred on.
The young stallion [okay, Terri tells me he is a gelding not a stallion. Tood bad] pictured below is one of the most promising yet bred by Terri. His name is GTS Hawa El Adhar (RB Bellagio x SS Fajulya by PRI Saqlawi Suud) and his pedigree is a tapestry weaving together several 1960s American Arabian breeding programs the likes of Jane Ott’s, Charles Krausnick’s and Joseph Zoran (note the four crosses to Julyan and hence Gulastra, and the multiple crosses to Fa-Serr through his sons Negem and Faaris). I can’t keep my eyes off this photo ever since Terri emailed it to me this morning. The photo was taken last weekend at the Horse Park of New Jersey’s Arabian show, by the show photographer….What style, what class. Wow.
GTS Hawa looks like a great athlete and the program is so historic. Its so wonderful to see that the line to Haidee is still going strong.
Congratuations!
I am also a fan of Terris program. I have a non asil filly that is tail female to Haidee. She is high % early american foundation breeding.
Thank you! I’m really thrilled with Dharby’s performance. He has really lived up to my hopes and expectations. His sire is extremely athletic and has always been one of the easiest horses to work with I’ve ever had the pleasure to know. Dharby’s dam came to us later in her life, and Dharby was the only foal we were able to get from her and RB, unfortunately. Julya (SS Fajulya) was a very sweet mare and took to being my trail horse like a duck to water. Both she and RB have (had, in Julya’s case…) some *major* trot when asked. Dharby comes by his movement honestly. 😉
As for the line to Haidee still going strong, I wholeheartedly wish that were the case. When Anne McGaughey and I did the updates for the Rare AK Strains website, we weren’t surprised to find that within the AK roster, Haidee’s line is still growing ever thinner. Some branches of Haidee’s line, the mare Sirrulla, for instance, were almost completely gone, down to only a handful of mares of viable breeding age and those are getting up there in age, while other branches, such as Roman Jewel are doing fairly well.
It would be a wonderful thing to finally see this grand line safe and out of danger, and I hope that we can continue to contribute to it’s survival.