JDA Husaana, 1999, Saqlawiyat al-Abd mare

A picture of Monica Respet’s JDA Husaana as a younger mare. Husaana, born in 1999, has one of the nicest old pedigrees on a US Arabian horse, with a rare tail female to *Urfah and plenty of old American blood. Her line was bred by Mrs. Ott and her daughter Jane Ott for three generations. Husaana, was bred by Pam Baker, and has one daughter born in 2004.

Jabinta, 1969 Saqlawiyat al-Abd

Going through some photos on my smartphone, which has an admittedly nice sample of the horses I like. This is the outstanding Jabinta (Jadib x Bint Malakah by Subani), a 1969 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd (*Wadduda line) and the maternal granddam of my Jamr Al Arab. As my father would say in Lebanese Arabic, ya haik khail ya bala, which means: “either horses like this or none at all”.

Jadaan at the Valentino memorial

This beautiful photo of the Saqlawi Al-‘Abd stallion Jadaan (Abbeian x Amran) in older age standing by the memorial dedicated to early Hollyoowd star Rudolph Valentino was posted by Andrea Kaiser on Facebook and relayed by the Davenport Arabian Horse Conversancy. Jadaan is represented in a small number of Arabian horses of Davenport lines, especially those from the Krushan strain Fun fact: the term “latin lover” was apparently first coined for Valentino

Jabinta, 1969 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd

Lyman Doyle sent me these scanned photos of grand mare Jabinta (Jadib x Bint Malakah by Subani), a 1969 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd tracing to Homer Davenport’s *Wadduda. She has my Jadiba (by Dib) at her side. Jadiba and Jabinta are the kind of mares that should have produced ten foals not one, and certainly not by the same stallion. As my father would say: “Ya hayk faras ya bala!“, or “Either a mare like that, or none at all!”

The Saqlawi ‘Ajrafi marbat of *Rajwa, a branch of Saqlawi al-‘Abd

One consequence of my re-discovering George Tabet’s booklet after a twenty year hiatus is that it allowed me to solve a couple of puzzles related to Arabian horses imported to the USA. One of these relates to the 1947 W.R. Hearst desert-bred import *Rajwa and her son the stallion *El Abiad, who was imported by to the USA by F.E. Mars. Rajwa recorded strain is Saqlawi “Ejrifi”. *El Abiad’s is a variant: “Ejrefi”. I had not heard of this marbat of Saqlawi Ejrifi or Ejrefi. I long thought it was a spelling mistake. Tabet’s bilingual list of Arabian horse strains finally resolved that puzzle. Under the Saqlawiyaat to be mated, it had this: Saqlawi al-‘Ajrafi/’Ujrufi/’Ejrefi, goes back to Saqlawi al-‘Abd [in the French version: with Turki Ibn Najriss of the ‘Aqaydat] Here it was, as a branch of the Saqlawi strain, with the exact same spelling as for *Rajwa and *El Abiad, with additional information on the strain and its breeder. Tabet’s booklet was written in 1937, ten years before the Hearst importation. Tabet’s reference to the Shaykh of the ‘Aqaydat, Turki al-Najriss as the breeder of this strain also provides a clue about *Rajwa’s breeder, given how rare that strain…

Beautiful Jadiba

I am digging into older pictures of Jadiba and reminiscing about how grand a broodmare she is. Too bad I came across her in her later days and that she only produced one foal. By the way, there is something special and attractive about the shape, thickness and setting of the tail in these horses of predominantly Blunt bloodlines. The thickness of the muscle around the tail was a feature the Bedouins of Arabian held in high esteem in their horses. See close up below.

Jamr this afternoon

Jamr will be three years old very soon. He is coming along, but still needs more time, at least two more years to show his full potential. He’s always had nice ears, tipped inwards and slightly backwards at the top, that deep jowl keeps getting deeper, and the eye is showing better. Jamr al Arab is by Vice Regent CF out of Jadiba. He is a Saqlawi al-Abd tracing to *Wadduda, the war mare of Hakim (“Hatchim” in Bedouin dialect) Ibn Mhayd, the leader of the Northern ‘Anazah in 1906 (Nuri Ibn Sha’lan was the head of the southern ‘Anazah then). So far he looks a lot like his maternal grandsire Dib, overall. There is a bit of the Regency CF too.

Jamr, last week

I could not get decent pictures of Jamr (Vice Regent CF x Jadiba), who is not three years old yet, and is going through a growth spurt — a real teen-ager. I was taken aback at first (my eye got used to the Egyptians) but then I took a second look and thought he was promising and had a lot of the right things in the right place. He still needs at least three years before I showing his true promise. What I could already see was that Vice Regent’s Davenport blood shortened the longer back of Jadiba and did not affect the deep girth. It turned Jadiba’s rectangle into a square. The legs are good. The head I could not tell yet (he had a few teeth coming out), I could already see his sire and dam’s big jowls, but it looks like he will be taking a lot after his dam’s sire, Dib.    

Saqlawi al-Abd is a branch of Saqlawi Jadran

One never stops learning. A read of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript section of the Saqlawi al-‘Abd strain teaches you that the strain is actually a branch of Saqlawi Jadran: It turns out that a man from the Shammar tribe was once taken prisoner by an Ibn Sha’lan (the leading clan of the Ruwalah tribe). The Shammari gave up his Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah to the Sha’lan man in exchange for his freedom. Later the Sha’lan man was somehow involved in the murder of a fellow tribesman (from the clan of al-Mani’ of the Qa’aqi’ah of the Ruwalah) and had to surrender the Saqlawiyah to this man’s family as blood money. The family’s caretaker was a slave (‘Abd in Arabic) who once rode the mare in battle against the Bani Sakhr tribe, and was unhorsed from her.  From there the strain spread to the tribes, including back to the Ruwalah. In that specific case, the Bedouin traditional judges decided that the right to claim any mare of that strain  under trover — that’s a Bedouin practice allowing the strain’s first owner within a certain tribe to claim any horse from that strain that enters the tribe — remained with the family of the deceased Ruwalah…

Rare mare with funny name found

Carrie Slayton finally found the whereabouts of the oddly named 1994 Saqlawiyat al-Abd (*Wadduda tail female) mare Oupz Running W (Midbar Balladeer x Serbinti by Serhm), who is a niece of Jadiba, and which turns out to be chestnut (the AK online Roster says she is grey). Joe Ferriss had written about both mares a couple years ago in the Khamsat, and Oupz was presumed lost, until Carrie found a trace of her current owner. With this mare now located, the Al Khamsa Preservation Task Force has found all the mares on the endangered list that appeared on this blog in october 2011, except two (n. 13 and n. 15).  

A reflection of the times

Here’s a photo of three sons of the influential mare Domow (registered as *Abu Zeyd x *Wadduda, but may well have been *Astraled x *Wadduda), all three important early American Arabian horse sire. Check out their names: Mahomet, Abu-Selim, and Ahamed. What a change in the culture between then and now: now the big names are Versace, Armani, and other haute couture references. It signals a shift in the marketing and perception of the Arabian horse: from an animal connected with its original Arab environment and simple Bedouin culture, to a global luxury consumption good. Yikes.

Black Lightning, 1981 asil Saqlawi al-‘Abd stallion

This stallion is still going at 31 years old. A direct son of mare Sahanad (Abu Hanad x Sahabet by Tanatra), a Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd tracing to the desert-bred *Wadduda, and sired by the Egyptian sire Khemahr Moniet (Khemahr x Khe Miss Moniet by Ibn Moniet El Nefous), he is a foundation sire for the Sahanad Preservation Group that was built around that mare. Photo from the Howard photo collection, with Robin Howard handling the stallion.    

JDA Husaana, 1999 asil Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd in Pennsylvania

Last weekend I went to Pennsylvania to see Jadiba, and I stopped at Monica Respet’s farm. Monica and some of her friends are specializing in breeding a small and increasingly rare group of horses who are tail female to *Urfah, a Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd imported from Arabia by Homer Davenport in 1906. One of these mares is JDA Husaana (Salil Ibn Iliad x Saafadda CHF by Fiddlesticks), photo below, a 1999 chestnut mare who was bred by Pam Baker. Just like the Davenports or the Doyles, or like my own Jadiba and Sahra, JDA Husaana is Early American Foundation, meaning that she traces 100% to the horses listed in AHR Volume V, registration numbers 1-2924. These are basically the Arabian horses found in the USA by and before 1944. Lots of very, very old American Arabian horse blood flows in her veins. In addition to her two “Davenport” grandsires, she carries the blood of three stallions bred by Jane Ott and her mother, who launched the first large-scale asil preservation effort in the USA: Joramir (Sirecho x Fad Roufa), Dahrecho (Sirecho x Dahma Al Zarka), and Zarlan (Mistlany x Zarieha), as well as the Ott mare Blue List (Saafaddan x Zarieha by…

Hart Asheera, 1986 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd tracing to *Wadduda

This is Hart Asheera (Rafeer x Nisrs Asha by Ansata El Nisr), a 1986 Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd bred by Sheila Hart, and owned by Megan Detweiler, who is the lady in the picture. Click on the picture to enlarge it. This lovely mare is a cousin of my Jadiba, as both their great-grand-dams come from Fred Glass’s old breeding program which was centered around the mare Serije (Letan x Sedjur by *Hamrah). There is a relatively large group of Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd horses who trace to *Wadduda through Sahanad (Abu Hanad x Sahabet by Tanatra x Jadur by Jadaan x Sedjur by *Hamrah) via Jadur, but Hart Asheera and Jadiba are the only two left tracing to the other branch through Jadur’s sister Serije. Asheera is Megan’s favorite riding mare, and I wish she could leave her with a last foal, a filly this time (she had two colts who were gelded).      

Jadiba in foal to Vice-Regent CF

Last week, Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta by Jadib), the Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd mare I recently purchased (photo below), was checked in foal to the bay Hamdani stallion Vice-Regent CF (Regency X Violetta by Salutation), photo also below by Randy Abler. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a normal pregnancy. If all goes well, inshallah, there will be a foal around the 4th of July next year, with crosses to the grand Hanad through his four sons Tripoli, Sanad, Ibn Hanad and Ameer Ali. I am so grateful to Monica Respet and Linda Uhrich for helping me secure Jadiba, and to Randy Abler and Gail Wells for facilitating the breed to Vice-Regent.     

Jadiba pictures

Yesterday, I went up to Pennsylvania to see the mare I recently bought. This time Jadiba looked much better than the first time I saw her (thanks in part to the great care Sue Moss, the lady in the photos, is giving her), and I was pleased with her overall. I thought she had some nice features I had overlooked last time: a deep jowl, a fine muzzle, a tail set high, and well let out, a strong girth, a round croup and a well sloped shoulder. Her back is shorter — although still long in my opinion — and her ears longer than I had initially thought, too. I still think her eyes are set a little too high, and I also noticed that her forehead was narrow: her face is rectangular instead of triangular when seen from the front. Anyway, I will let you judge from these photos I took. There is a definite Crabbet air to her (obviously, since she is about 90% Crabbet/Doyle) and the influences of Rijm (Mahruss x Rose of Sharon), who is Ribal’s maternal grandsire, and Gulastra (Astraled x Gulnare) were some of the easy ones to spot. She also has some nice…

More Shasinada and Shasi

Following yesterday’s last blog, Jeanne Craver sent me these rare pictures of the 1949 Saqlawi al-‘Abd (back to *Urfah) mare Shasinada (Hanad x Shasi by Asil) and her 1942 dam Shasi (Asil x Sherah by *Hamrah), courtesy of Nyla Eshelman. Both mother and daughter are of the old Bedouin type that was prevalent in the USA in the 1930s and 1940s but has all but disappeared in modern Arabian breeding. Note the resemblance between Shasinada and the 1993 Davenport mare WDA Hyapatia Lee (Bon Jour CF X Sarsaparilla by Dharanad) that was recently posted on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website (and below).

Jadiba, welcome

You may be wondering what’s with the recent flareup of blog entries on *Wadduda and some of the Doyle horses… Well, there’s a reason. As of this morning, I am the proud owner (I still can’t believe it actually) of Jadiba (Dib x Jabinta, by Jadib) a 23 year old chestnut Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd tracing in tail female to *Wadduda. A dream come true. I haven’t been excited like this in years, and it’s all the more remarkable given the troubling turn things are taking all over the Middle East these days (Salih of Yemen is out, by the way, so that’s one more tyrant down). As a youngster, Jadiba was among the horses on Joyce Gregorian Hamsphire’s Upland Farm, then went missing for several years, before re-surfacing in the ownership of Annette Pattishall in Pennsylvania, who had not been breeding her. That’s where she was “rediscovered” a couple years ago by Monica Respet. Monica played a major role in facilitating the purchase of Jadiba and I will be eternally grateful to her for making it happen, and for her friendship. I am also grateful to Joe Ferriss, whose Khamsat article about Jadiba’s granddam Bint Malakah and other critically endangered lines…

Artist George Ford Morris on *Wadduda

“You go to the stables and … look into the box and see the war mare of Sheik Hashem Bey with spear scars adorning her neck and sides and prayers to Allah from different tribes hanging from silken cords around her neck. She is small, chestnut in color, bone like flint, slender, high carried tail, wide bulging jibba (forehead), and full, prominent eyes. Davenport tells you that never since she was first saddled was that saddle removed until she passed into foreign hands and that she stood ready day and night for the Sheik to leap to her back and ride into battle, on wild foray, or in swift flight. The slave boy carresses her; her peculiar wrinkled nostrils and delicate muzzle quiver and move like a fawn’s. You do not see the straw under her feet nor the boards of the stable behind her, but the hot desert, the flowing robes of the Bedouins and the tents of those who worship Allah spread out on the sands before you.” George Ford Morris, in Bit & Spur, 4/15/1907, excerpted from the Annotated Quest.

*Wadduda blood today

I have now officially become infatuated with the desert-bred mare *Wadduda. I am reading and re-reading everything I can find about the mare and her famous descendants (Hanad, Antez, Jadaan, Caravan, Dhareb, Bint Sahara, Bint Sedjur, etc) squinting at fuzzy old photographs, and obsessively making notecards like I used to do when I was ten years old. The pedigree geek in me in back big time, and I am loving it. Below is a photo of the 2003 asil Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Twickenham (Regency x Kiddleywink by Regency) (look at that smart friendly face and these short prickled ears). Twickenham is one of three stallions still pensioned at Craver Farms, along with his sire (and grandsire) Regency, now aged 30, and the grey Triermain. While not a tail female descendant, Twickenham carries the highest percentage of *Wadduda blood in asil breeding: 19.5%, on par with his sire.

*Wadduda’s grandsons and great-grandsons

Almost ten years after I became acquainted with the horses descending from the 1906 importation of Homer Davenport, one of the many things that still astonish me about them is the relatively large number of the grandsons and great-grandsons of *Wadduda (one of the stars of the importation, with *Haleb and *Urfah) who rose to prominence by becoming major breeding stallions at a time when the Arabian horse population in the USA was very small. Here is a list of grandsons: — Antez (out of Wadduda’s daughter Moliah); — his half-brother Dhareb; — their half-brother Mustakim (Oriental x Moliah). — Jadaan (out of her daughter Amran); … and great-grandsons: — Akil (out of *Wadduda’s grand-daughter Sedjur); — Hanad (out of her grand-daughter Sankirah); — Kasar (out of her grand-daughter Fasal); — his half-brother Salan; — their half brother Caravan. Wow. Below is the grear sire Caravan (Ribal x Fasal by Hamrah), at 32.

Photo of the Day: *Euphrates, Saqlawi al-‘Abd imported to the USA in 1906

This beautiful 1905 desert-bred stallion was imported from Northern Arabia to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. He is a son of the mare *Urfa, a Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd from the horses of Didhan al-‘Awaji of the Wuld Sulayman Bedouins’ ruling clan. His sire is the “Great Hamdani” Simri stallion, apparently a major sire among the Bedouin at them time, which also sired the Davenport imports *Haffia, and *Hamrah, the latter being *Euphrates more famous older full brother. None of todays’ asil Arabian horses that trace entirely to Davenport’s original imported Arabians carries the blood of *Euphrates. Indeed, a single asil horse carries *Euphrates’ blood today: an unregistered 1991 mare named Sarita bint Raj, by Rajmoniet RSI out of the Saqlawiyah Jadraniyah mare Nejd Sahra Nisan (*Faleh x Daalnisan by Daaldan), bred and still owned by Helen McClosky in California. Interestingly Sarita bint Raj also carries the single last line to the asil Hamdani Simri stallion *Al-Mashoor, of the famous marbat of Damascus’ Baroudi Pashas. She also carries one of the very last lines to the famous *Mirage, another desert-bred Saqlawi Jadran. This mare dies, and two Al Khamsa Foundation Horses go down the drain, with a third hanging by a thread.

More photos of Saqlawi al-‘Abd mares from *Urfah’s line

Robin Weeks sent me more of these, all tracing to the Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd mare Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), one of the main progenitors of the *Urfah tail female in asil breeding in the USA. All photos by Sugar Hill Farms, courtesy of Robin Weeks. Below is Dahriefa, still: The young grey one below is Sugar Hill Sassy (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), by a Sirecho son out of a mare by another Sirecho son. This is Dahmira (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), a full sister of the above and this is Dahmira’s daughter SH Hamira (Abay-Hami x Dahmira by Joramir), with her grand-dam Dahriefa in the background.. The last photo features SH Hamira on the left and her grand-dam Dahriefa, on the right. She looks so special even in old age, and strongly reminds me of the some of the old desert bred mares at Basil Jadaan’s in Damascus.

Dahriefa and the endangered tail female line to *Urfah

Robin Weeks sent me this photo of Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), a 1975 Saglawiat al-‘Abd and one of the few sources left to the Davenport import *Urfah in tail female, bred by Mrs. John Ekern Ott and her daughter Jane Ott, and the holder of one of my favorite asil pedigrees. One of the collateral implications of the mtDNA-based findings that the Davenport horses descending from the mare Schilla do not trace back to *Urfah in tail female (but rather do the Hamdaniyah mare Galfia), is that the remaining number of tail-female descendants of *Urfah left has automatically gone down to a couple dozen horses at best. The only remaining line to *Urfah — one of the foundation mares of American Arabian breeding — is through her 1931 great-grand-daughter Ferka (Ferdilan x Poka by *Hamrah), Tripoli’s maternal half-sister. Dahriefa one of the main progenitors of this line, which Pam Baker in South Carolina and Monica Respet of Pennsylvania are among the few breeders perpetuating. I am currently involved in an Al-Khamsa effort to identify and map out critically endangered asil lines in the USA. Mapping the tail female lines horses to both *Urfah and *Waddudah (both Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd by strain) is actually on top of…

A detailed look at *Urfah’s hujjah

[This article, first published on April 16th, 2010, was just updated and expanded, and is being reposted now] The inquiry on the “Davenport Arabian” hujaj begins with *Urfah, who is present in the pedigree of our “case study” mare Jauhar El-Khala 75 times. My own Wisteria has a 151 crosses to *Urfah, and her newborn daughter Wadhah traces to *Urfah a stunning 219 times (!) Click here for what the reference book Al Khamsa Arabians III has to say about *Urfah. Most of the information is essentially extracted from the hujjah itself, a translation of which is below (translation mine, adapted from the version I did for Al Khamsa Arabians III in 2005, which was a word-to-word translation): “I, Dhidan, testify by God that she came from [the clan of ] ‘Abdah from the tribe of Shammar; they [i.e, the clan of ‘Abdah] testified to my father Jar Allah al-‘Awaji, the father of Dhidan al-‘Awaji; they testified to my father that she is the Saqlawiah from the horses of al-‘Abd; I testify by God on the testimony of my father that she is Saqlawiah from the horses of al-‘Abd; I swear by God, I o Dhidan al-‘Awaji that she is Saqlawiah al-‘Abd; she is to…

Photo of the Day: Popinjay, Hamdani Simri in the USA

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).

Barely Surviving Lines: Saqlawi al-‘Abd line of *Wadduda through Serije

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…

*Hamrah

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.

Abbas Pasha Manuscript — First page in Arabic

This document recently appeared on one of the discussion threads below. For those of you who know the Abbas Pasha Manuscript in its English edition, this is just the first page in one of the original Arabic editions.. This is a quick and dirty translation (writing from work, gotta go home soon), without the Quran verses in the reversed triangle: “Warning/advice about breeding/mating horses; I say, about stallions to be mated; the first to be mated (yushabbi) is Duhayman Shahwan from the strain (rasan) of Kunayhir, and Duhaym al-Najib;  the second is Kuhaylan al-Mimrah; then al-Saqlawi al-Jadrani and it is from three branches, the dearest of which is the strain of al-Simniyyat, then the strain of al-Sudaniyat, then the strain of al-Abd; followed by the strain of al-Saqlawi al-Ubayri and al-Marighi, which are the same strain; and following that, Hadban al-Nzahi which consists of six strains: the first (ie, the best) is Hadbat al-Munsariqah; the second is Hadbat Mushaytib; the third is Hadbat Jawlan; the fourth is Hadbat al-Fard; the fifth is Hadbat al-Mahdi; the sixth is Habdat al-Bardawil which is not to be mated; following that is Kuhaylan al-Tamri; and after that, Shuwayman al-Sabbah; and after that, Hamdani Simri al-Khalis; and…