Yesterday night, my Wisteria CF delivered a tall grey filly by Javera Thadrian at 11.30 pm, at Craver Farms. “Narrow blaze, nothing on her legs. Reddish coat, grey “goggles” around her eyes”, says Jeanne. Both mother and filly are reportedly doing well. I so wish I was there now. Instead, I am in a Washington corporate office drafting memos (and writing about the filly, from a distance). Oh well.
The other day, I was reflecting back on what is already ten years of interest and involvment in asil breeding in the USA. Ellen May and Jeanne Craver had asked me to provide some answers to questions they had drafted about the experiences and memories of second generation Al Khamsa supporters (i.e., people whose parents had been involved in breeding Al Khamsa horses, in my case desert-bred horses from a similar background). And these answers, which you can read in the next Khamsat magazine, got me thinking further: “of all the horses and bloodlines I was fortunate to become acquainted with in the last ten years, how come I ended up with a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare of Davenport bloodlines”? Part of the answer is fate. I did some of my studies at the University of Chicago, four hours away from Craver Farms, where there were still some 100 plus Davenport mares and stallions back in 2000. Tzviah Idan put me in touch with Charles and Jeanne Craver, and an ensuing friendship developed that endures until today. Fate again in 2007, when Anita Enander called me and said: “You need to own an Arabian mare, and I think I know which…
I love this old photo of the stallion *Houran, a Kuhaylan Tamri, imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906. The horse is standing so proudly, his neck beutifully arched, and his gaze fixing a far-reaching point on the horizon. Tood bad *Houran only left one daugher in asil USA breeding (the Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah mare Bint Nimnaarah). *Houran was sired by a Hadban Enzahi stallion of the ‘Anazah tribes, some branches of which were home to many Hadban Enzahi marabit, such as Hadban Mushaytib, the most respected. By the way, have you seen the updated site of the Davenport Conservancy? It has a series of seminal articles by Charles Craver, which I am never tired of re-reading.
This pretty and deserty 17 year old Hamdaniyah mare of Davenport breeding, Artemisia CF (MV Reflection x Artema by Tripoli) “recently completed 70 miles at the El Paso-Las Cruces endurance ride in Texas in fine form and loved every minute of it, and made the list for Top Twenty Limited Distance Endurance Mileage Horses of all time in what is her 12th year in endurance riding” according to her proud owner Linda Sherrill who maintains the Happy Trails Blog. Photo Linda Sherrill.
ADA Intuition (“Poppy”) is the 2005 chestnut daughter of Atticus and Capucine, a straight Davenport Kuhaylah Hafiyah. This is her third ride after a year in pasture after just three months of under saddle work, so she is quite green still, but well behaved through an arena with jumps (and a neighboring goat pen, and 3 braying miniature donkeys, and let’s not forget the flocks of brightly colored bicyclists whipping down the road past the arena!) If you get tired of watching her balance herself in the arena, skip to about 6:20 and watch her stroll across the little stream and head up into the hills… If you want more, here she is on the longe line, a scant hour after getting off the trailer:
Since we were admiring Fragrance, I thought I’d share this one, taken by Anita Enander this summer, of Fragrance CF in her summer coat . Though unfortunately the shot is not perfectly framed, the mare’s style comes through.
Don’t know who took this beautiful, sweet, human-like picture of the Hamdaniyah Simriyah mare Fragrance CF, bred at Craver Farms in Illinios, and owned by Michael Bowling of California, but the photographer was certainly inspired. I just couldn’t help stealing the picture from the Davenport Conservancy website. Fragrance traces to *Galfia, imported to Chicago by the Ottoman Hamidie Society in 1893, but otherwise descends from horses brought from the Syrian desert by Homer Davenport in 1906. To learn about the horses of the Hamidie Society, click here.
Busy at work these days, so little time to write in-depth pieces, yet I itch to write something, which means lots of Photos of the Day! This is Elegance (by Triermain x Enchante CF by Zacharia) owned by Darlene Summers of Maryland. She is Kuhaylah Hayfiyah tracing to the horses imported from Arabia Deserta by Homer Davenport in 1906. Photo Christine Emmert.
Here’s Charles Craver on the very masculine Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion Tybalt (Tripoli x Asara by Kasar) doing a piaffe.. Photo by Judith Franklin, through Jeanne Craver
Since it’s been busy out, another round of horses and rider — this time Charles Craver with horses of his breeding, born in 1957, 1958, and 1983: Aramis: Fairy Queen (dam of the previously featured Atticus): Brass Band CF:
Charles Craver took this picture of my Wisteria yesterday, and sent it to me.
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).
I just got word that two asil mares of the Kuhaylan Hayfi strain, from the horses tracing to the desert-breds imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906, were exported to the United Arab Emirates. Both are now owned by Mohammed Bin Humooda of Al-‘Ain, UAE. They are Affinity CF (Javera Thadrian x Audacity) bred by Craver Farms and Jadah Beshan (Baile La Bamba x Cinnabar CF) bred Randall and Mary Sue Harris. Mr. Bin Humooda already owns a number of asil Saqlawi Jadran horses bred by the Doyle family, as well as an asil Hadban Enzahi stallion bred by the Dirks family who is being used in endurance racing. This exportation is encouraging news for the asil Arabian, and a sign of Arab breeders’ emerging interest in old USA-bred, asil bloodines. May there be more of these. Below is a picture of Audacity, Affinity’s dam, and another of Javera Thadrian, Affinity’s sire, with Nancy Becker on top.
In 1952, Charles Craver acquired the asil Crabbet mare *Ringlet (by Astralis x Rudeyna by Daoud), around the same time two other giants, Dr. Joseph L. Doyle, and Richard Pritzlaff were acquiring the asil mares Gulida (by Gulastra x Valida by Ghawi) and Rabanna (Rasik x Banna by *Nasr), respectively, which they bred to the stallion Ghadaf (Ribal x Gulnare by Rodan). Ghadaf, Gulida, Rabanna and Ringlet, all pictured below, are unique in that they carried the highest concentration of Abbas Pasha (Viceroy of Egypt, ca. 1850, and Arabian-horse-freak-in-chief) bloodlines available in the USA at the time. Gulida and Ringlet were entirely of old Crabbet stock, and so was Rabanna with the addition of the line to *Nasr (Rabdan x Bint Yemama), who of Prince Mohammed Ali Tewfiq’s breeding in Egypt, but out of a sister to Crabbet’s Mesaoud (Aziz x Yemameh). Gulida and Rabanna bred on, Ringlet didn’t. She is now lost to asil breeding. Thank God for what still remains of these glorious old Crabbet bloodlines.
Jeanne Craver sent me this photo a few days ago, in reference to the discussion on this entry.
Here is a seminal article by Charles Craver advocating for need to breed “Combined Source” bloodlines..
This was taken at StarWest Stables, New Berlin, Illinois USA, in 2001 during the Al Khamsa convention (I think; maybe someone else will correct me). The horse is the 1982 Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Javera Thadrian; the rider is Edouard.
Blog contributor RJ Cadranell with his 1980 Davenport stallion, Atticus. I’m guessing Edouard is having a busy few days, so I thought I’d try to collect photos of participants here on horseback. If you have a photo to share, feel free to mail it to ambar@ambararabians.com. I also realized after my initial posting that this is a response to Joksimovic’s recent question: hello ! Dont misunderstand me but everybody talk about horses line ,pedigree,generation ,etc Nobody about riding this daughter of wind, the character of this good horses why ??Its to believe thats nobody riding .Why have or need the bedouin this horses ? And why they are what they are (very good horses) ???? (gazu)ride of long distances or what do you think? Maybe this horse is not for riding?? Thank you Joksimovic, you have an excellent point. This horse is absolutely for riding. It’s always good to be reminded what all this effort and verbiage is actually for. Blog contributor RJ Cadranell with the 1980 Davenport stallion, Atticus. I’m guessing Edouard is having a busy few days, so I thought I’d try to collect photos of participants here on horseback. 🙂 If you have a photo to share,…
From The Training and Management of Horses by J.P.F. Bell, published 1904. The colt should be in possession of a small head, broad between the eyes, clean, open jaws, and a small, tapering muzzle. His eyes should be full, generous, and prominent, showing plenty of fire when the colt is put upon his mettle. His ears should be small, tapering, and inclining towards each other at the tips when erect. His nostrils should be delicate and curved, with broad, expansive cavities, and when distended they should appear almost transparent at the edges. His neck should be long, lean, and planted on a set of oblique shoulders, with good play. He should have a moderately long, straight back, with strong, well-developed, muscular quarters. He should be deep-chested rather than broad, because if he is very broad in the chest he will never be fast, though he may be able to stay. His fore-legs should be well set on, clean, bony, flat, and free from splints and side-bones, while they should not be too long from the knees to the pasterns. The knees should be flat and fairly large, while the pasterns should be moderately long and elastic, to insure easy springing…
He was by Prince Hal x Sirrulya. Photo from Jeanne Craver
I wanted to highlight an interesting conversation on inbreeding taking place in the comments on Javera Chelsea’s photos. I hope this exchange will serve as a teaser: Lyman Doyle wrote: […] Inbreeding is certainly a fascinating and very complex topic. Googling “inbreeding” can turn up a lot of different information. Granted, you can’t believe everything you read on the internet, but some of it appears to be fairly well reasoned. […] I think there are several points of significance: 1. Inbreeding does create some degree of uniformity. The main genetic result of inbreeding is to increase the occurrence of the coupling of like genes. 2. Inbreeding does bring out those genes that are recessive including those that may be harmful to animals that are inbred. 3. Inbreeding is useful in uncovering otherwise harmful or undesirable characteristics and purging these characteristics from the genetic population. 4. Inbreeding is important in the development of animals that are “potent” with certain more favored characteristics that manifest in their offspring. R.J. Cadranell wrote: Lyman, regarding your point #1, inbreeding by itself does not create uniformity. Here is a passage from Michael Bowling’s article “Preservation Breeding and Population Genetics” from 1995: “We all learned long…
Javera Chelsea (by Thane x HB Diandra by Mariner) belongs to Doris Park of Iowa, and she is certainly lucky to have her. This full sister of the grey Javera Thadrian is now at Craver Farms for a full brother-sister mating. Just try to find the slightest defect in this mare’s conformation. I haven’t been able to so far. Photos by Charles Craver.
The desert-bred Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare *Reshan, imported by Homer Davenport to the USA in 1906 has two surviving asil tail females, and we are lucky to have them both. The first is through her grand-daughter Antarah (Antez x Hasiker, by Hamrah x *Reshan), and that line bred on thanks to the efforts of Charles and Jeanne Craver. Several horses regularly featured on this blog, such as Sir, Brimstone, Prince Hal, Pirouette and my own Wisteria are all from this line. These horses and others, known as the “Kuhaylan Haifi Davenports”, now form a cohesive group, exclusively tracing to the horses imported by Homer Davenport from the Syrian desert, and from the horses sent by the Ottoman Hamidie Society from Syria to the Chicago World Fair of 1893. This group has about 100-150 live mares of breeding age in the USA [confirmation, correction anyone], so it’s fairly safe. The other tail female to *Reshan, through another grand-daughter, Medina (Fartak x Hasiker, by Hamrah x *Reshan) is barely surviving today. The line mainly survives through Dihkenna (Gharis x Komet by *Sunshine), a bay mare foaled in 1946. This mare’s pedigree is a perfect illustration of what later came to called “Early American Foundation” Arabian horses, or as the late Billy Sheets…
This video by C. Mingst shows several of the stallions at Craver Farms: Regency (Hamdani), Triermain (K. Haifi), Zacharia (Haifi), Regatta (Hamdani), Brassband (Haifi), Badawi (Hamdani), and a group of mares, some of which are identified. Javera Thadrian is not there. If anyone has a video of this horse that they’d like to share, can they please send it to me and I will publish it here with due credits.
Anita Westfall has asked me to post this photo of Sir (Tripoli x Dharebah) at age 4, which was taken by Miss Ott at Craver Farms in 1962. Charles is in the photo. She wanted to use the photo to illustrate a comment in a comment she recently posted, which I quote below: “My very favorite photo of the perfect foreleg is one taken of Sir as a youngster. Perhaps Jeanne has a copy handy?? Long forearms, broad flat knees, and short cannons with broad, flat bone. Anyway, long legs on Arabians are usually the result of long cannons (combined with ‘normal’ forearms), while those sturdy horses with short legs often have short forearms.”
Check out the new photo galleries of horse pictures at the revamped website of the Davenport Conservancy. One of my favorite is this photo of the magnificent Craver stallion Sir (Tripoli x Dharebah) in old age. How I wished I was around to see him live.
Jeanne Craver just sent me this headshot of my Wisteria CF (by Triermain x HB Wadduda by Mariner), which Charles Craver took a couple days ago at Craver Farms. They made my day. There is something unique about the eyes of every Arabian horse. Sometimes it’s the shape. Or the size. The darkness. The bulge. The sparkle. The white in the eyes. Some horses have all these features. Others only some of them. In Wisteria’s case, it’s the long, long eyelashes that make her look almost human. I’ve always had a soft spot for Arabian mares with long eyelashes. Maybe it’s because I like Arabic poetry. Arabic poetry, mainly that of the pre-Islamic kind, is replete with descriptions of the eyes in general, and of eyelashes in particular. It can be women eyes (often), camels’ eyes (even more often), or horses’ eyes (somewhat less often).
Think of this new “Lost asil tail females” series as an obituary section in a newspaper.. I know there is no point in grieving over what is lost, but it’s a good reminder of how lucky we are to have what we still have. The series starts with *Nedjme, just because “she was given the position of the first registration in the stud book of the Arabian Horse Club of America, […] an indication of the regard in which she was held by Arabian horse breeders in this country of her day” (Craver and Craver, Horses of the White City). *Nedjme was one of the horses the Ottoman Hamidie Society exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World Fair. She is registered as a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz by a Saqlawi Jadran. However, evidence from a letter J.R. Dolbony (who was involved with the Hamidie Society, perhaps as an performer in the Ottoman exhibition) to Homer Davenport, mentions that her dam was of the Sa’dat al-Tuqan strain, from the Wuld Ali Bedouins and her sire of the Nkhayshi strain, from the Hssinah tribe, which is certainly more interesting. Whatever the case, *Nedjme was the pick of the Hamidie Society horses, and fetched the highest price when the…
My father took this photo at Craver Farms in 2002. I remember really liking this mare, but can’t recall her name or breeding. Would this be Una CF?
Clue: bred at Craver Farms.. Photo taken by Majestic Lineage (nice nickname!) Mare’s strain is Ma’naghiyah Hudrujiyah of Ibn Sbayyil, or Ma’naghiyah Sbayliyah.
Walladah CF is my Wisteria’s daughter by the stallion Javera Thadrian. She is now with Anita Enander in California. Walladah CF was named after a tenth century (A.D.) Andalusian princess, Walladah Bint al-Mustakfi, who was famous for her independent mind and her strong personality.
I feel every breeder of Asil horses should read this piece, re-read it, and read it once again … then act upon it.
Wilfrid Blunt thought seriously about the breeding program at the Crabbet Stud. Some of his thoughts are preserved in his stud memoranda and also his remarks prepared for delivering to the crowds at the Crabbet auction sales. The Wentworth Bequest includes comments dating from 1904 discussing the wisdom of developing a separate breeding program at Crabbet using horses not tracing to Mesaoud. Mr. Blunt posited that those horses could be used as the Crabbet Stud’s own outcross, should one be required in another 50 years. Mesaoud was the most successful stallion the Blunts ever used. They had sold him to Russia just the year before, in June of 1903. Mesaoud’s 12 seasons at Crabbet resulted in more than 100 foals, with the last arriving in 1904. After Mesaoud’s departure, it’s no surprise that Mr. Blunt was wondering whether it was possible to have too much Mesaoud blood. Of the 94 horses listed in the 1904 Crabbet catalogue, only 22 did not have Mesaoud in their pedigrees, and only two of those were male: Nejran and Rijm. Nejran’s 1904 non-Mesaoud colt out of Bint Helwa died. It was a grey colt, so it was unlikely that the Blunts would have used…
My Wisteria is in foal to Javera Thadrian! Due date: late August. I am keeping my fingers crossed for a filly. I even have a name ready! Wisteria, which is at Craver Farms, already has two foals by Thadrian, a five year old stallion, Tantris CF, and a yearling filly, Walladah CF. Wisteria and a few other mares of the “Core Haifi” groups she belongs to, are often referred to as a “four generation pure-in-the-strain Kuhaylah Hayfyiah”, which they are of course. I like to refer to Wisteria as an Asil Kuhaylat al-Hayf tracing to the marbat of Ibn Hubayqan of the Fad’aan. It’s a question of personal preference, really. The latter description reflects my Arab heritage, and my desire to keep emphasizing the Bedouin origin of these horses. If Charles Craver were a Bedouin – God forbid, for it would be fair game to raid his farm and take some horses – then Wisteria and her relatives would be called Kuhaylat Craver or Kuhaylah Craveriyah. I wonder how that would fly with today’s Bedouins…
It is a great honor for me to introduce my third guest blogger: Charles C. Craver III. Charles is to Asil Arabian horse breeding what Franklin D. Roosevelet is to American history: someone who assumes stewardship of omething on the verge of collapse, dedicates a lifetime to restoring it to its former glory, and hands it over to the next generation when the job is done. Charles is a second father and a friend. I am thrilled he has agreed to share his thoughts and about breeding Asil Arabians on this weblog, drawing on 50-plus years of experience and knowledge at the helm of Craver Farms.