Edl Agbahr Yashma, asil Rosina-line mare in Namibia

Edl Agbahr Yashma is another of the asil horses in southern Africa with the Courthouse stallions Nimr and Atesh in her pedigree. The photos below were taken by LeeRay Photography, and shared with their permission. Edl Agbahr Yashma (foaled in 2015) is by the Straight Egyptian stallion Asala Al Khufu 2 (Ansata Aly Sherif x Sahibi Bint Ibn Minuet) out of Edl Agbahr Toirose (Sidi Ibn Halina x Sidi Erica). Yashma’s granddam Sidi Erica is a daughter of Whitehouse Yashma and Thee Cyclone, making her a full sister to Jauhar El-Zar, sire of the Mimrahiyah mare Sanniesguns Sahara previously featured on the blog.

Whitehouse Bint Yakouta, an asil Rosina-line mare

Continuing on with the Courthouse elements in asil South African breeding, below are photos of the Rosina granddaughter, Whitehouse Bint Yakouta (Anchor Hill Omar x Sahiby Yakouta). Foaled in 1986, Whitehouse Bint Yakouta is the head of the second of the three branches of asil Rosina-line horses in Southern Africa, with representation in Namibia and South Africa both. She has nine asil foals on record, five sons and four daughters, all by the EAO-bred import Mefdal (Zahi x Marzouka). Her first foal, the stallion Kamarie El Omar (foaled January 1994). Another of her sons, Kamarie Anter (foaled December 1994). Kamarie Anter again. Whitehouse Bint Yakouta (on the right) with her daughters Kamarie Yosreia (foaled 1995), Kamarie Bint Bint Yakouta (foaled 1997), and Kamarie Yasmeena (foaled 2000). Photos courtesy of Wilton Burger and Maretha Garbers Coetzee.

Sanniesguns Sahara, a Kuhaylah Mimrahiyah with Courthouse elements

(By Kate McLachlan and Moira Walker) Below is a photo of the rising five-year-old mare, Sanniesguns Sahara, a daughter of the asil Rosina-line stallion Jauhar El-Zar and the Kuhaylah Mimrahiyah Sidi Maschata. Her sire’s dam, Whitehouse Yashma, is by the stallion Anchor Hill Omar, bringing in Babson-Sirecho-Gainey breeding. Yashma’s dam, Sahiby Yakouta, is a daughter of the Courthouse mare Rosina, who has one line each to the stallions Atesh and Nimr. The Courthouse Stallions have been featured before, with barely surviving asil lines posted about 1/ here, 2/ here, 3/ here, 4/ and here. For functional purposes, the lines of descent have broken into two branches: the Austria branch, consisting of Nimr and Fedaan; and the South Africa branch, consisting of Nimr and Atesh. The preservation of the considerably more endangered Austrian branch has been spearheaded by Laszlo Kiraly, who rescued the 1994 mare Saraly El Shahin and 2015 daughter, Salome Hamdaniya, who both carry the unique tail female line going straight back to the Blunt mare Sobha. Hopefully this continues to thrive, as it is currently the only known line to carry forward Fedaan. The South African line, on the other hand, is a little more robust, although it…

Saraly El Shahin, 1994 asil Hamdaniyah Simriyah in Hungary

I have been telling you about that Hamdani Simri line in Europe, the one from the mare Sobha of Ali Pasha Sharif, which went to the Crabbet Stud and eventually to the Courthouse Stud. A Hungarian preservation breeder, Laszlo Kiraly, bought what seems to be the last three registered asil mares from that line, Saraly El Shahin. The other two still need to be located. There might be a couple more who are not registered. The mares have been through a lot, after leaving the care of their breeder and last preservation owner, Penelope Pembleton. Laszlo sent me pictures of Saralee, who is still recovering and still in poor shape, some of which are below. I also found some pictures of one of Saralee’s ancestors in the tail female, the beautiful and very desert-like Courthouse mare Somra II (Fedaan x Safarjal by Rasim). He sire was the desert-bred Saqlawi Jadran of Ibn Zubayni stallion Fedaan, imported by Mr Clark of the Courthouse Stud to the UK in the 1920s.  With desert-bred, well authenticated, beautiful grey horses like Fedaan and Mirage in the UK in the 1920s, there was really no need for Skowronek. Oh well.

So many hopes pinned on Saralee

The best news for 2012 on the preservation front came yesterday from Hungary, and I am not quite over it yet. Preservation breeder Laszlo Kiraly was able to acquire a precious treasure: the 18 year old Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Saralee El Shahin (Ansata Aly Jamil x Saree, by Salaa El Dine x Selmah by Shakhs x Sappho by Bleinheim), one of the two or three European asil descendants left to the Ali Pasha Sherif mare Sobha (Wazir x  Selma). From a sheer preservation perspective, this mare is precious is so many ways: first, because of its tail female; second, because of the extraordinarily high amount of Ali Pasha Sherif bloodlines she carries through her great grand dam Sappho (Bleinheim x Selima by Bahram x Siwa II by Rheoboam) pictured below; third, because of the two lines she carries to the asil Courthouse Stud desert bred imports Nimr and Fedaan, who have virtually disappeared from the global asil gene pool (save for another line in South Africa to Nimr but also to the third Courthouse desert bred import Atesh); fourth, because of the last asil line left to the Blunt desert import Meshura; fifth, because this is the only asil Crabbet damline…

Tail female asil lines in Europe (non-Egyptian)

This entry expands the list to non-Straight Egyptian asil tail females in the USA to lines surviving in Europe and South Africa. It ties together several other blog entries that preceded it. So in Europe, and also excluding relatively recent Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan, Bahraini, Syrian and Saudi imports to European countries, you have the lines of : Kuhaylan: 1) 60-Adjuse, Kuhaylat al-Shaykhah (a branch of K. al-‘Ajuz), imported to Hungary in 1885, with female descendants only through 25-Amurath Sahib, from the Sba’ah (Anazah) Hamdani: 2) Sobha, Hamdaniyah Simriyah, imported to the UK in 1891, a handful asil descendants in Austria now. No Strain recorded: 3)  Murana I, imported to what is now Germany in 1816, female descendants through Soldateska only, mainly in Germany. All three lines are accepted by Al Khamsa, including n. 2, which has lines to the Courthouse desert-bred stallions Nimr, and Fedaan, who were accepted by Al Khamsa in 1987.

Barely Surviving Lines: Courthouse Hamdani Simri line through Safarjal

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…

On the three Courthouse stallions: Nimr, Atesh and Fedaan

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…

Another asil line from South Africa: Rosina, a Kuhaylat Rodan

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…

Carol Monkhouse and the quest for the last asil Crabbet lines

I finally got to meet Carol Monkhouse at the Al Khamsa Convention in Oregon. Carol was visiting from the UK, with her husband Terry Lee. She has a couple mares, Maloof Habiba (Maloof Habibi x Maloof Sahara by Subani) and Maloof Hadiya (Parnell x Devlin), and their offspring, which she keeps at the Doyle ranch, in Alfalfa, Oregon. I had corresponded with Carol some fifteen years ago, after a mutual friend, Tzviah Idan, had introduced us to each other, at at time all three of us happened to be looking at remaining old Blunt lines (i.e., no Skowronek, who is so ubiquitous as to have his own Wikipedia page) around the world. I was delighted to finally meet her in person. We had identified the 1978 asil stallion Arabesque Azieze (Hansan x Orilla by Oran) in New Zealand (last asil Wadnan al-Khursan stallion in the West, also last asil line to Oran); some asil descendants of the 1950 mare Rozina (Saoud x Ruth II by Bendigo) in South Africa, by the asil Kuhaylan al-Mimrah stallion Gordonville Ziyadan (more on this precious line later, it is still there); the two asil Courthouse Hamdani Simri full sisters Sappho and Sceptre (Bleinheim X Selima by Bahram, more on those twi later as…

What if we had known a few months earlier…

Arabesque Azieze is at the center of the biggest “what if” story I have recently been involved in. Scroll down this website to see a picture of him (I do respect copyrights, sometimes). This Asil stallion was born in Australia in 1978 and was later sold to New Zealand. He was by the Asil stallion Hansan (El Hilal x Hamamaa), a stallion of Egyptian bloodlines. Nothing to write home about.. yet. The real story concerns Azieze’s dam, Orilla, a 1960 chestnut mare. Orilla was by the legendary Oran (Riffal x Astrella), and out of the mare Rabiha, by Rheoboam out of Nuhra. Oran, a Ubayyan Sharraq of the marbat of Ibn ‘Alyan traced to the famed Blunt desert import Queen of Sheba, and was bred by Lady Yule at Hanstead Stud. Oran was the last Asil stallion used at Crabbet Park by Lady Wentworth. Rheoboam was born at Musgrave Clark’s Courthouse Stud from old Blunt bloodlines… wait, there is more: Nuhra was a bay Asil mare (picture below) imported from Bahrain to England in 1938 by the Earl of Athlone, the brother of Queen Mary of England. Nuhra was a Wadhnat Khursan by strain, and her sire was a Kuhaylan…