At the old farm of Basil Jadaan near Damascus. Note the short back, the strong coupling, the arched neck, and the huge eye. The overall balance. Stare at him: he is a concentrate of Arabness.
This morning Carrie Slayton announced to me the birth of a filly out of her grand old broodmare RL Zahra Assahra (Portent x Antezzah by Grand Pass). She is to be named Zalfa, with the suffix Al Arab. Zalfa means “the one who draws near” in Arabic. That’s because she came from so far away, and just about everything about her was far fetched. I am so excited about her. Notice the low set eye, the deep girth, the far-extending withers, the short back and the croup typical of this dam line. I obtained her elderly dam from the late Marilyn McHallam, at her farm dispersal, and had her brought from Canada to California. First to Northern California, where she was bred to Michael Bowling’s Latitude but did not take. Then to Carrie Slayton’s in Southern California, who first boarded her for me, then asked me if she could have her, and if I would take a filly from her. Carrie bred her to Porte CF (Portico x Recherche), for three close crosses to the grand Portia, and other crosses further back. A colt would have remained Carrie’s, and Carrie will get, if she wants, the first filly from this filly.…
I keep marveling at this horse, and how close to the desert bred Arabians the Hadban Enzahi stallion Wahid CW (Wahid CW x RL Zahra Assahara) looks like, 112 years after the importation of his ancestors from North Arabia to the USA. Photo by Hannah Logan
I spent part of the weekend at Hazaim’s house and small farm in North Carolina, and got to see his five Davenports, four Kuhaylan Haifis and a Hadba Enzahi. The best part was a trail ride around the subdivision, him on Gilad Ibn Dubloon and me on Una CF. Below are two photos of his 2010 Hadba Enzahi mare, Zubaida Assahara (RL Thunder Cloud x RL Angel Girl by Letarnard), with 4 lines to *Hadba. She was in many ways my favorite, despite being the smallest of the lot. A war mare, built like a tank, with a broad chest, a deep girth and a broad, round rib cage, exuding stamina and power, with a pleasing and dry head, a big eye and prominent eye socket, a dry bony face, an elegant arched throat, hair fine like silk, a shiny copper coat, overall not without style, and so reminiscent of the small and valiant desert horses of my childhood in Syria.
From the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — that bottomless treasure — page 546: “and we mated her a second time to the Hadban horse of Saffuq al Jarba, and he is of the horses of al Jaless of al Kawakibah” Elsewhere in the Manuscript it is recorded that the stud/marbat of Hadban Enzahi of the al-Kawakibah section of the Ruwalah belonged to Nahi al-Mushayteeb of al-Kawakibah, and that it was an old stud. Al-Mushayteeb obtained them from al-Nazahi of the ancient Bedouin tribe of al-Fudul. That Hadban stallion in the testimony was the great-grandfather of a horse that was three years old in the early 1850s. This means that in the 1830s or early 1840s at the very least, there was already a branch of the Hadban strain of the Kawakibah with the Jarba leaders of the Shammar, and that one of the horses of this Shammar branch of that Hadban strain was used as a stallion. Saffuq al-Jarba, nicknamed “al-muhazzam”, meaning “Saffuq of the belt” because he was so warlike that he reportedly never left his military gear, died in 1843. This is very consistent with the testimony of the Jarba leaders of the Shammar in the mid 1980s about their prized Hadban strain…
How I love this young Davenport filly of the Hadban Enzahi strain, born a couple months ago at Jeannie Lieb’s from her rescue mare RL Bilquis (DDA Rasan x RL Boomerette by DDA Ihsan) and sired by RL Thunder Cloud (DDA Tyred CF x DDA Hadba by Letarnad), with so many crosses to the original import mare Hadba. Here she is with her dam RL Bilquis, aka “Penny” who is a small mare, but still looks gorgeous in Jeannie’s good care..
Another piece of good news from preservation breeder Jeannie Lieb yesterday, with new hope for the Davenport *Hadba rare and endangered tail female. “RL Thunder Cloud x RL Bilquis delivered a beautiful chestnut filly with a perfect blaze, 3 white anklets and 1 white sock, last night around 11:00pm. Mother and daughter are doing great and this little gal is a firecracker!” *Hadba was the war mare of ‘Ajil ibn Zaydan al-Jarba and was taken by the Ottomans when this Shammar rebel Bedouin leader was killed. She was later resold and ended up with Homer Davenport who imported her to the USA in 1906. This is the same tail female line as the racing legend Kontiki.
Marie Arthur shared this photo of RL Boomerette (DDA Ihsan x DDA Hadba by Letarnad), a 2000 mare of the Hadban strain from Davenport bloodlines.
This is how of the rescued Davenport Hadban Enzahi mares, RL Bilquis (DDA Rasan x RL Boomerette) looks like when in the knowledgeable, caring and responsible hands of someone like Jeannie Lieb. This mare, 6 months pregnant, was a pack of bones when Jeannie rescued her, and it was not certain she would survive.
Recently, I wrote here about the little-known group of horses from the Hadban strain tracing to the desert-bred mare *Hadba, imported by Homer Davenport from Arabia in 1906. The hujjah (Arabic authentication certificate) of that mare is available, and I did a new translation of it, which appeared in the reference book Al Khamsa Arabians III (2008). I am reproducing an updated, revised version of this translation here: We, who put our names and seals below, based on our honor, say that the bay mare whose has a stocking on her left hind leg and a star on her face, that her dam is a Hadbah to be mated and her sire is Shuwayman Sabbah, and the sire of her filly is Ma’naqi Sbayli; Abd al-Sakam Azraq took this mare from Hajj Ismail the Shaykh of Sfireh, and Hajj Ismail took her from ‘Ajil ibn Zaydan the Shaykh of Shammar, and for the sake of clarity, we have put our names and seals [below]. Written by: Abdessalam Azraq [seal] From the people of [the town of] Sfireh: Muhammad Nur [or Nadar or Thawr, unclear] [finger print] Ahmad al-Muhammad [seal] Mustapha al-Bdeiwi [seal] Hajj Ahmad al-Abdallah from the tribe of al-Fardun [seal] Ahmad Sarraj [seal] I swear by God…
Few people outside the group of North American Davenport breeders are aware of the existence of a fourth tail female of asil Arabians entirely tracing to the 1906 importation of 27 desert-bred horses from North Arabia. The Kuhaylan Haifis, the Kuhaylan Krush, and the horses tracing to Schilla are well known, but the Hadbans not so much. Homer Davenport imported the mare *Hadba, bred by the Shammar, to the USA in 1906, and bred her daughter Killah, in 1911. Her grand-daughter Anlah by Antez was bred at Kellogg Farms in California, while Anlah’s daughter Ehwat Ansarlah was bred by W.R. Hearst’s stud in 1948, also in California. Ehwat Ansarlah was part of the Second Foundation group of Davenport horses, and produced a daughter, Trisarlah by Tripoli. The line still goes on, but so thinly that it is hanging by a thread. There are still a few mares of breeding age, but they are not being bred, and the entire group risk falling off the radar screen and disappearing entirely in a few years. This is why the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse thought to place the 1995 grey mare RL Zahra Assahara (Portent x Antezzah by Grand Pass out of Letarlah, by…
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.