A blog on desert arabian horses, past, present and future
فرس سبوق من عتاق خيل سوريا ولبنان أصيلة مثبوتة النسب لم يدخل عليها دم هجين أبوها “موج الاثير” من أبطال سباق بيروت فترة 1955-1960 ملك هنري فرعون صقلاوي نجم الصبح من خيل المرازيق من شمر لونه اشقر ابن المرزقاني الادهم أمها النواقية “بنت غزوان” من خيل دباح أغا الدندشي بتل كلخ سوريا وهم أصحاب المربط … Read more
Another daughter of Mach’al, this time a Ma’naqiyah named Cha’lah, also from an old strain of the Dandashi lords of Tal Kalakh. Sire of dam: al-Jazzar, a Kuhaylan Nawwaq; sire of granddam: Ghazwan, a Kuhaylan al-Kharas; pictured with a foal by a partbred stallion. Photographed by my father somewhere in Western Syria, most likely in … Read more
Mukarram al-Dandashi, grandson of Abd al-Karim Osman al-Dandashi, one of most prominent leaders of the Dandashi clan of Tell Kalakh — the breeders of the best horses in Syria and Lebanon historically — sent a number of historical photos of his family on horses, which I will publish in his name. A whole book could be … Read more
Since the subject entry below was the Dandashi horse breeding clan of Tall-Kalakh, Syria, here is a 1958 YouTube video of Dandashi family members celebrating the union of Syria and Egypt into one single state with horse fantasias and other equestrian games with swords and spears. Note the pretty grey horse from 2.20 to 2.40 PS … Read more
My father took these two photos of the grey Lebanese stallion Malek in the mid 1980s, at the farm of Husayn Nasir in Rayak, Lebanon. Malek (Achchal x Bint Ghazwane by Ghazwane) was the last stallion of Lebanese breeding that did not trace to the infamous Iraqi-born part-bred Arabian racehorses thath flooded the Beirut racetrack in … Read more
I took this photo of the venerable Malakah in 1990, at the stables of Syrian breeder Salih Khaddam al-Sruji, south of Damascus. She was more than 30 years of age, which explain why her croup and legs look the way they do. Malakah was bred by the Mudarris family, an old Alepine – ie, from … Read more
In the entry below, I wrote about how I liked arabian mares that have long eyelashes, which magnifies the human-like expression many of these mares have anyway. Below is a picture of of such mare. Bint Mawj al-Athir was an asil (heck, she is the mother of all asil) Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq (that’s the right spelling, other spellings include Nowag, … Read more
A previous post gave me the occasion to mention Zanoubia, which is something I have been looking forward to for some time now. Zanoubia was my first mare. Rather she was the first mare from my father’s horses in Lebanon that I considered mine. She did not make it in my recent top ten of the best Asil mares ever bred; … Read more