Photo of the day: La Tisa

A lot of “Photos of the Day” these days.. it is easier to keep a quasi daily writing routine when posting a photo with a short comment, as opposed to posting in the “Strain of the Week” series, which requires me to access research material, old and new..  Don’t take this as a sign of laziness however, it is just that work has been keeping me busy recently, or busier than usual.

Today’s photo is about La Tisa, a gift from Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud, (then Sultan of Najd and Hjaz) to Charles R. Crane, a noted Arabist and philantropist, and of the two main actors of the King-Crane Commission, which was to have such an impact on post-World War One Middle Eastern politics.  La Tisa was imported to the USA in 1931. A year later, the Sultanate of Najd and Hijaz became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Crane had helped the USA secure some of its earliest oil concessions in Saudi Arabia, so if you are feeling the heat at the gas pump and ran out of people to blame, you can just blame it on him.. Joking aside, the gift of that mare was probably a small “thank you” gesture from Ibn Saud to Crane, for brokering some of these oil deals. That said, the coffers of the Saud dynasty were desperately empty at the time, and there was not much more the Saudis could offer in return.

It also means that La Tisa must have been one of the choicest mares in the Saud stud. Too bad her line has almost completely died out in Asil breeding.. A couple older horses that trace to her are still alive, thanks to the coureageous efforts of some folks out West.

La Tisa was a Hamdaniyah by strain —  what else is new: every other mare coming out of the Saud family is a Hamdaniyah: from the Blunt’s Sherifa in 1878 to the Roach, Cobb, and Richards imports in the 1960s, not counting the horses that came to the USA from Ibn Jiluwi but were bred by the Saud family.

It is true that the  Saud were especially famous for their Hamdani strain, which according to the Abbas Pasha Manuscript they got from Ibn Ghurab of Shammar [not directly, though, but rather through someone else].   

The photo shows La Tisa well into her thirties, and is courtesy of William J. Sheets [Billy]. By the way, where has this guy disappeared?  If anyone has recent (less than 2 years) news about him, please email me privately.