Photos of Moira Walker’s rising three-year-old colt Landrace Belisarius (Jamr Al Arab x Jadah Belloftheball, by Invictus Al Krush) having fun in the snow. Belisarius is a Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz from the Nufoud mare line. While his pedigree is predominantly Davenport, he has Doyle blood from his sire’s dam Jadiba, as well as a line to the Reverend Francis Furse Vidal’s Garaveen (Kismet x Kushdil), and through Garaveen to Roger Upton’s imports Yataghan and Haidee. His dam goes back to the mare Tarrla, a daughter of Henry Babson’s stallion Tarff, so bringing in another Sa’udi-bred mare, Turfa, to complement Nufoud. Belisarius also traces to five horses who each have only a handful of living Al Khamsa descendants. These are the three Hamidie Society imports Mannaky, Galfia and Pride, the Davenport import El Bulad, and Nejdran, the last-mentioned a chestnut Saqlawi Ubayri bought in Beirut by Captain W. I. Gaisford, who imported him to England, where he apparently used Nejdran as a polo pony, before selling him to a Harvard student, who imported him to the U.S..
[One of t]The first mention of the Musinn (Muson, Mosenn, etc) strain occurs in W.S. Rzewuski’s book, “Sur les chevaux orientaux et provenants [sic] des races orientales”. The manuscript at the Polish National Library in Warsaw was published in 2003 with the title “Impressions d’Orient et d’Arabie”: Le fameux el-Mesenneh el-Wehabi, acheté à Abd el-Aziz, prince des Wehabis… vient de mourir à Kuzmindans mon haras. Il m’a laissé six poulains et trois pouliches avec mes juments du désert, et a sailli en1822 mes quatorze juments Nejdiehs Kocheilans, qui sont toutes pleines. In English: “The famous el-Mesenneh el-Wehabi, purchased from Abd el-Aziz, prince of the Wehabis… has just died at Kuzmin in my stud farm. He left me six colts and three fillies with my desert mares, and in1822 he covered my fourteen Nejdiehs Kocheilans mares, all of which are now in foal. Abd al-Aziz (1720–1803) was the second ruler of the House of Saud, and the son of its founder. The House of Saud was famously associated with the strain of Kuhaylan al-Musinn, or Musannan for a long time, which gives credence to Rzewuski’s account. Rzewuski went horse-shopping in Arabia between 1817 and 1819, which provides the earliest dating for…
في عام 1992 زارت سوريا مجموعة من المربّيين الألمان والفرنسيين وجالت على مرابط ومزارع الخيل العربية الأصيلة في محافظات حلب والرقّة ودير الزور مدّة شهر كامل وأخذت صورًا لهذه الخيل وأهلها باتت اليوم شواهد نادرة على هذه الفترة الذي تزامنت مع بدايات تسجيل الخيل السورية في المنظمات العالمية وبعد عودتهم إلى بلادهم أصدر الرحّالة الألمان كتابًا صغيرًا عنوانه “Desert Legacy: In Search of Syria’s Arabian Horses” نشروا فيه بعض الصور ودوّنوا فيه انطبعاتهم عن الخيل والبلاد ومعالمها أنصف كتابهم الخيل السوريّة وسلّط الضوء على أصالتها ومواصفاتها وقدراتها البدنية وطباعها الحميدة بعيدًا عن أجواء بطولات الجمال (الشُو) وسائر البدع المستوردة من الغرب من صورهم هذه الصورة للفرس “فلاة” رسنها كحيلة الواطي من مربط حاكم الحصيني الغشم من شيوخ الخرصة من شمّر وكانت ملكًا لابنه علي الحاكم الذي باعها على رضوان شبارق أبو ابراهيم من مربيّ حلب أبوها المعنقي الحدرجي حصان ابن عفيتان من الهضبة من شمّر لونه أدهموأبو أمها كحيلان الواطي من مربطهاوفلاة هي أم الفحل عامر حاكم وام الفرس شيمة ام فلاح الغشم الصورة مأخوذة في مزرعة أبو ابراهيم شبارق قرب حلب تصوير الصديق يَنس سَنِّك أحد الرحالة الألمان المشاركين بالرحلة ومؤلف الكتاب المذكوروراؤها مهر أزرق أبوه الحمداني الأعور
حدّثنا عبدالله المتعب الجليدان من الهضبه من شمّر قرية بوثة الطقش في الجزيزة السورية عام 2005 قال جدّه الخامس محمد الجليدان زار شريف مكّة والشريف أهداه فرس كحيلة العجوز من خيله وهذا الحدث من أكثر من مئتين سنة صار الرسن معروف على اسمهم كحايل ابن جليدان وإلّا هي من كحايل العجوز هو عبدالله ابن حمّاد ابن متعب ابن عضيب ابن محمد الجليدان جيرانهم العفيتان في بوثة الطقش أيضًا من الهضبة هم أصحاب مربط المَعْنَقيات الحدرجيات عند شمّر هناك ستة او سبعة خيول لابن عمه شعلان العبد العزيز الجليدان كلهن مسجلات —– أفاد عبد العزيز بن بردان بن متعب الجليدان: كان عند والدي بردان بالخمسينيات والستينيات حصان أشقر كحيلان من خيلنا كانت تشبي شمر خيلها منه وقبل الحصان الأشقر كان لدينا حصان أشعل ———– حدثنا رضوان شبارق أبو إبراهيم من كبار مربيي الخيل في سوريا عن عبد القادر الحمّيمي أحد قدام تجار الخيل بحلب قال: سأل الحميمي بردان بن جليدان من شيوخ الهضبه من شمر وصاحب مربط كحايل ابن جليدان : لماذا كانت خيلكم القديمة أكبر حجمًا وأكثر خشانةً من خيلكم الحديثة؟ فأجاب بردان بن جليدان بلهجة بدوية كان يتلذذ الحميمي بتقليدها: هادينك بنات البل” بمعنى أن الخيل القديمة ربيت على لبن الإبل فكبرت وخشنت” القصة من أكثر من خمسين سنة…
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 أبوها “غزوان” كحيلان الخرس من خيل ال الجندي بحمص ابن “كروش حلبا” الملقب “بابا كروش” لدى الاتراك جدتها النواقية “بنت كروان” أيضًا من خيل دباح أغا الدندشي أبوها “كروان” الملقب بالعظيم معنقي من خيل الحاج عجم ابن “غزوان” “بنت موج الأثير” هي ام “نواقية عكار” من خيل الوالد وغيرها من أبطال سباق بيروت أيام العز و”بنت موج الأثير” كان لها أخت من الام ابوها “السبيلي” معنقي سبيلي ابن “كحيلان الاعمى” واولاد “بنت موج الأثير” فازوا بعدة سباقات أما اولاد “بنت السبيلي” فما ركضوا الصورة من عام 1977 تصوير الوالد العميد سليم الدحداح أطال الله بعمره الفرس مسنه
كحيلة الخِدلي أو الِخدلية .. يعدّها العوارف من أصايل الخيل العراب هي أساسًا كحيلة عجوز مربَطها الى عشيرة الخِديلات من الخرصة من الفدعان من عنزة فعرفت باسمها (ولست أدري من أين درجت على هذه العشيرة قبل ذلك) وكانت كل قبائل البدو تشبّي كحيلان الخِدلي على خيلها وخير دليل على ذلك ذِكر كتاب “أصول الخيل” (1850م) لفحل من رسن الخدليّات كحصان شبوّة عند الأمير سعود آل سعود أمير الدرعيّة عاصمة الدولة السعودية الاولى وذِكره لفحل خدلي آخر كحصان شبوّة عند قبيلة مطير ولفحل ثالث عند عشيرة الطومان من شمّر في نفس الحقبة الزمنية (1830-1845 م) وانتقلت الخِدليّات من عشيرة الخِديلات إلى ابن منيحة وأبو صفرة (المصدر كتاب علي البرازي 1972) وابن عجلان (المصدر كتاب جورج تابت 1937) وكلّهم من الفدعان وإلى حسين الراشد شيخ عشيرة البو خميس الملتحقة بالفدعان وعرف هذا الفرع بخِدليّات الراشد على اسمه أو خِدليّات الشحّاط كما درج الرسن إلى عضيب الوكّاع من قبيلة السبعة من عنزة وتبارك عنده ومنه انتقل الى العقيدات من عشائر وادي الفرات الزبيدية التي احتفظت به الى فترة التسعينيات من القرن الماضي وربط غيرهم من شيوخ عشائر وادي الفرات كحايل الخدلي ونذكر منهم ال مشلب (الهويدي) من شيوخ العفادلة وآل الملحم (المسلط) شيوخ الجبور وغيرهم كما ربطه مربّيي حماه وحمص والشام وأعيانها ومنهم…
يعتبر رسن كحيلة الممرح أو الممرحية أحد أقدم وأعتق أرسان الخيل العربية على الإطلاق فأفاد سلطان ابن سويط شيخ الظفير في كتاب “أصول الخيل” (المعروف بمخطوط عباس باشا والصادر حوالي عام 1850 م) أن شياعة الكحيلة الممرحية لعشيرة آل مغيرة النجديّة (وهي من فروع قبيلة بني لام الطائية) وتحديدًا لعجل بن حليثم المغيري وأنّها تردّ الى كحايل العجوز وتفيدنا التواريخ النجدية القديمة أن عجل بن حليثم من آل غدفاء من آل مغيرة أسّس إمارة شبه مستقلة في عالية نجد مركزها بلدة الشَعراء (القريبة من مدينة الدوادمي) بين أواخر القرن التاسع وبدايات القرن العاشر هجري وتشير هذه التواريخ ولا سيما تاريخ ابن فهد وكتاب “غاية المرام بأخبار سلطنة البلد الحرام” للمؤرخ المكّي عز الدين الهاشمي القرشي إلى سلسلة معارك جرت بين عجل بن حليثم من جهة والشريف بركات الثاني شريف مكة (1473-1525م) والشريف محمد الحارث حاكم نجد من جهة ثانية في عامي 901-900 هجري (1496-1495 ميلادي) ويذكر أعيان البدو في كتاب “أصول الخيل” أن الكحيلة درجت من عجل بن حليثم إلى قبيلة قحطان قلاعة ومن قحطان إلى المَريوم الظفيري (وهو من آل سويط) قلاعة وعرفت عنده بكحيلة المَريوم ثم درجت من المَريوم الظفيري إلى الِممرح من الموينع من البيايعة من السبَعَة من عنزة وعرفت بكحيلة المِمرح على اسمه وتباركت عند الموينع…
أم عرقوب ما عليها عدروب” مَثَل كان يردّده أهل حماه سوريا في الزمن القديم والمعني به أن رسن كحيلة أم عرقوب لا شكّ فيه ولا يُطعن به رافقت والدي أطال الله بعمره في إحدى زياراته لمدينة حماه في أواخر الثمانينيات لرؤية الفحل العربي الأصيل طاهر رسنه كحيلان أبو عرقوب لونه أشقر محمّص لصاحبه الحَصّان نور الدين الأورفلي والتقطت بضعة صور له منها هذه الصورة مع صاحبه ومن الذكريات الطريفة التي أحتفظ بها إلى اليوم قيام هذا الحصان بالتبويل عند الطلب فوضع صاحبه مبوَلة من حديد تحته ماسكًا بعنانه وقال له “بلً” فبال الحصان وكان بين الحصان وصاحبه علاقة وطيدة فيُقال أن لمّا مات الحصان حزن الأورفلي عليه حزنًا شديدًا ومات أسًى بعد بضعة أشهر [انتبه لتصحيح هذه المعلومة في التعليقات] واليكم تسلسل نسب طاهر من جهة الأب كمثلٍ على تجذّر أنساب الخيل السورية في عمق التاريخ: أبوه كحيلان الخدلي لونه أحمر من خيل الفدعان كانت أمه عند الدكتور اسكندر قسّيس المربي الحلبي الذائع الصيت وكان هذا الحصان يشبّي في حماه أيام زمان وهو غير الخدلي ابن موج الاثير المسمّى “أملي” الذي كان يشبّي عند طنّوس في حلب (شبى 1960-1970) أبو أبوه كحيلان الحيفي من خيل الشيخ مقحم ابن مهيد شيخ الفدعان كان في مربط الدكتور اسكندر قسّيس في حلب ما…
صورة أنشرها لأول مرة للفرس هلة كحيلة خلاوية وهي مواليد 1983 تعتبر هذه الفرس من أعتق خيل سوريا وأفضلها تراكيبًا هلة فرس الشيخ محمد الفرحان المحمد العبد الرحمن الطائي وآلت منه الى المرحوم مصطفى الجابري (أبو إحسان) كبير مربيي حلب وتباركت عند أبو إحسان ثم باعها على أحمد الفهيم من دولة الإمارات حوالي عام 1994 أبوها كحيلان النواق حصان عيادة الماضي الشمري ابن كروش جهيم امه فرس عيادة الماضي النواقية بنت الصقلاوي المرزقاني أبو كتف وهي ترد لنواقيات الشيخ علي الدويش الجربا من شمر أمها الخلاوية فرس الشيخ سعد المشل الجربا من خلاويات الجغايفة بالعراق والشيخ سعد المشل يكون عم الشيخ أحمد علي المشل (أبو نايف) صاحب قصص هذه الخيل أبو أمها الحمداني السمري ولا أدري هو من أي حمدانيات أبو أم أمها كروش جهيم المطخان الصورة من تصويري عام 1991 في مزرعة أبو إحسان خارج حلب :وأفاد الشيخ أحمد علي المشل الجربا أبو نايف بالآتي هله كانت ملك لابي رحمه الله وأما أمها كانت لعمي سعد رحمه الله وأعطاها لابي كونهم كانو بالمال واحد وجأت أم هله خلف لفرس عمي سعد رحمه الله تعالى بعد نفوق فرسه العرموشة والتي إشتراها من الراشد من قبيلة طيء بمبلغ وقدره ( 1200 ليرة سورية) وكان ذلك بخمسينات القرن الماضي الفرس هله كحيلة خلاوية…
MD Turfairan (“Turf”) left for a new home yesterday. Turf was Jessie Heinrick’s gift to me, in return for my gifting her Wadd Al Arab. I regret that Turf did not have any opportunities at stud in my ownership. He would have nicked especially well with the *Nufoud mares. Despite his short height, he has quality, lots of style, in addition to the old desert type. His new owner will train him under saddle, and will be looking for mares for him. He is not at his best in the video below, likely because his teeth need floating. Video by Lyman Doyle last week.
Jeanne Craver shared these really nice and new-to-me (except the bottom one) photos of the mare Dharebah (Dhareb x Antarah by Antez), the cornerstone mare of the 50+ years old Craver Frams breeding program. Please stare at these photos as closely as you can, and try to replicate her features in your breeding programs, whatever lineages you breed.
The 1919 broodmare Nusara (Abu Zeyd x Noam), a Kuhaylah Da’janiyah, bred by W.R. Brown then sold to W.K. Kellogg, is a very present in pedigrees of Crabbet horses from the Doyle family. I had not seen a photo of her before.
Lyman sent me this photo of Jellaby Maroof M30 from one of the later Bahraini studbooks. My kind of Arabian stallion. Maroof is the maternal brother of Jellaby Radad, who is the sire of my Hamdaany Darak and Lyman’s Hamdaany Daneer. Daneer is coming to the USA.
Landrace Belisarius, Jamr’s only son so far, is slowly unfolding into a great stallion prospect for his proud owners Moira Walker and Jeff Vorwald. I cannot stop staring and squinting at his pictures, trying to figure out which parts of him are after his sire, and which ones after his dam. Of course it keeps changing, and he has a long way to go before reaching maturity. The other Jamr offspring is Belisarius’ full sister Bassma Al Arab. Below, for comparison, is his not-so-distant damline relative *Sunshine (O.A. x *Nufoud). They share more than the bay color and the blaze. For further comparison between the three is a closer relative, the 1991 “red bay” stallion Salil Ibn Iliad (Iliad x LD Rubic), photos by breeder and owner Lesley Detweiler. The last photo shows a lot of the elastic-like quality of that family. Or it’s the influence of the Craver Davenport stallion Ibn Alamein, another bay who is Salil’s grandsire and a strong presence in Belisarius’s pedigree.
Eugene Geyser of the Nabilah Arabian Stud has recently acquired the Rosina tail female mare Kamarie Bint Yosreia and her daughter Kamarie Marikah, bred by Mel Mutafis. He writes: “We are so grateful and pleased to add these lines to our preservation breeding program. These bloodlines add to our existing Nabilah lines with Nabilah and Baraka dam lines both imported from Egypt during 1945.” In the video below the dark bay is Kamarie Bint Yosreia, and the red bay Marikah. Video courtesy of Eugene Geyser. Rosina was bred by H. V. Musgrave Clark of the Courthouse Stud, and was a product of Blunt Crabbet ancestry combined with two of Musgrave Clark’s desertbred stallions, Nimr and Atesh. Her descendants in southern Africa are the remaining source of both these stallions in asil horses, as well as the Crabbet mares Safarjal (dam of the stallion Sainfoin, who has a racing record in addition to being the sire of Bahram, the 1954 British Supreme Male Champion) and Belka. A 1950 brochure for the Crabbet Arabian Stud recounts Belka’s accomplishments (p. 31): “By the same sire as Champion Nureddin and ‘Crabbet,’ won the English 250 miles race carrying 13 1/2 stone, in 1921, outdistancing…
I am very proud to announce the acquisition of the black roan stallion Kuheilaan Umm Zorayr Zyad D23. Zyad was bred by the late Danah Al Khalifah in 2001. He belongs to the extremely rare strain of Kuhaylan Wuld Umm Surayyir that is now unique to the Kindgom of Bahrain. Originally the “house strain” of the Bedouin clan of Ibn Hathleen, leaders of the Ajman Bedouin tribe of East Arabia, it passed to their neighbors the rulers of Bahrain around the turn of the XXth century. The Abbas Pasha Manuscript (APM), compiled around 1850, lists at least three stallions from this strain as herd sires, including one acquired by famed Najd ruler Faisal Ibn Turki Al Saud (below my rendering of the strain genealogy based on the APM entry for this strain). In Central and East Arabia in the XIXth century, the mares from this strain were collectively known as the “Duhm” — the black ones — and individual stallions as the “Kuhaylan named Dahman” (no relation to the better known Dahman strain), because of their consistently dark color. The foundation mare from that strain in Volume I of the Amiri Studbook of Bahrain was also black, and so were…
The strain of the Kuhaylan al-Khdili (alt. spellings Hedili, Khadali, Khadli) is not well known outside Arabia. It is however one of the most esteemed and revered strains of Arabian horses. Connoisseurs speak of its authenticity (asalah) with awe and respect. Few horses of that strain made it to the West. One such horse is Safita, a red bay desert-bred who according to the French Studbook Volume 21 was by a sire “de race Koheilan en Naouak” and a dam “de race Koheilan El Kedilih”. Safita was imported by the French General Detroyat from Syria to Algeria in 1934. Writes Robert Mauvy who knew him well and loved him: Safita, bai cerise. Cheval à très grandes lignes dont une encolure exceptionnelle. Sa tête était fine et légère, sculptée, avec des oreilles pointées… à l’excès. L’une d’elles endommagée par un coup de sabre- sa gorge arquée était d’une rare netteté; si le corps était excellent, l’arrière main était d’une puissance exceptionnelle; ses postérieurs, de ce fait, très distants l’un de l’autre, et ses jarrets droits, longs et larges -actions éblouissantes crins tissus d’une grande finesse. Kuhaylan al-Khdili is a branch of the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz, owned by the Khdilat clan of the…
I am featuring Thalia CF (Javera Thadrian x Bint Dharebah by Monsoon) on social media. She was one of the best I have owned. She was in my ownership between late 2015 and mid 2017. Sadly, she came in my life at the ripe age of 24 years old, after having had two foals for her previous owner. I was not able to get any foals out of her, but I will always remember her as a true illustration of the real Arabian horse.
One of the Western travelers to write about Arabian horse strains was the Swiss Johann Ludwig Burkhardt. His Notes on the Bedouins and Wahábys: Collected During His Travels in the East were only published in 1831, but were based on information collected in the Hijaz between 1814 and 1815. Burkhardt died in Cairo in 1817. His book featured this anecdote: “The favourite mare of Saoud, the Wahaby chief, which he constantly rode on his expeditions, and whose name, Keraye, became famous all over Arabia, brought forth a horse of uncommon beauty and xceellence. The mare, however, not being of the khomse, Saoud would not permit his people to use thatfine horse as a stallion; and not knowing what to do with it, as Bedouins never ride horses, he sent it as a present to the Sherif. The mare, Keraye, had been purchased by Saoud from a Bedouin ofthe Kahtan Arabs for fifteen hundred dollars.” This account ties the strain of Kuhaylan al-Kray, a branch of the Krush strain that was present with the ‘Ajman Bedouins at the time of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript (ca. 1850), to the Qahtan Bedouins from a very early date. It corroborates the information which ‘Ubayd al-Hafi al-‘Utaybi…
Balia (top) was an asil daughter of Kuhaylan Zaid, bred in 1936 at Babolna in Hungary. Bona (bottom), bred in 1937 was another daughter of his, from the same damline of Bent El Arab. Both later went to Poland.
I am really liking how the new little filly is shaping up. She is beautiful, three circle, and solidly built. Too early too tell if she features some of the damline’s characteristic legginess and dryness, which I like. What is certain is that Monologue fixed the dam’s short and droopy croup, at least in part, and brought more width between the eyes, and a larger and lower-set eye. The shoulder-girth complex is still there (thanks to her maternal grandsire Wadd), and so is the short back. I decided to use Monologue a lot more. He was bred to Wadha two weeks ago. Jamr was bred to Miracle on the same day. Photos from Monica Respet’s visit to the horses last weekend.
Jeanne Craver tells me that she “love[s] “the head shape, and the low set eye, nicely cut ears, very close coupling, love[s] the angles of the shoulder and hip”.
This morning Barakah delivered a strong, healthy filly by Monologue CF. Mother and baby are doing well. I feel so blessed, and I pray things continue to go well. The vet is coming this afternoon for an IgG blood test and plasma transfusion. This filly is special because she is the first third-generation foal from my breeding, after her dam Barakah Al Arab (b. 2016) and her maternal grandsire Wadd Al Arab (b. 2011). Wadd was the son of my first mare in the USA, Wisteria CF. She is also the outcome of a sustained effort to preserve the rare female line to *Nufoud, Albert Harris’ imported desert-bred mare. This effort is one of the many bright spots in the preservation campaign Al Khamsa launched in 2010, around the AK Preservation Task Force. This filly is the the third one I have bred from that strain in eight years. I also retain her dam and her dam’s half-sister. *Nufoud was named after the Great Nafud sand desert of Central Arabia, so it’s only fitting that her eighth-generation descendant in the female line be named Badiah. Badiah in Arabic means both “nomads” as a collective (a synonym for bedu, the Bedouin,…
The striking1985 chestnut Kuhaylan al-Ajuz stallion Samir (Sibawaih x Chajaret Eddour by Esmet Ali) was the other chief sire at the government stud of Sidi Thabet, together with Dynamite III. I saw him at Sidi Thabet in 2005. He reminded me of Regency CF at the time. Photo from the social media account of the Tunisian national federation of horse breeders.
This iconic photo of the 1967 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Monsoon (Tripoli x Ceres), taken by Anita Westfall, was republished on Facebook recently, and received many “likes” and nostalgic recollections. The late Charles Craver holding the bridle.
The other day Moira Walker pointed me to the book “A trip to Baghdad: With an Appendix on the Arab Horse” written in 1908 by an Indian senior official, Nawab Hamid Yar Jung. He traveled with his father, Colonel Nawab Afsur-ul-Mulk, and another man, Mahboob Ali Beg, to Baghdad in March 1907, and its vicinity, in search for Arabian horses. The following is the account of his purchase of a chestnut stallion, Faleh: “My father had seen almost all the horses in Baghdad and had a great desire to purchase a chestnutof the Nejd breed; but the owner of the horse, who was a wealthy Arab, absolutely refused to part withit, saying: “You can take any horse you like from this herd, but I cannot allow any of the SaglaviJadrania breed to go out of the land, which breed is especially brought up in our clan, and the rest ofthe Arabs have not got this kind.” When my father saw that nothing could persuade the Arab to give up the horse, he could do no better than ask Huzrut Syed Mahamood Effendi (son of Huzrut Nakeeb-ul-Ashraf), who is the religious Preceptor of all the Arab tribes and is held in…
A rarely seen photo of the Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz stallion Ibn Fadl (*Fadl x *Turfa), chief sire at the Babson Farm. Photo through Jeanne Craver. It’s worth noting that, of the *Fadl sons, he was the only one the Babson Farm deemed worth naming after his sire (a bit like Ibn Morafic at Gleannloch). Do you see a dished face?
I had published this beautiful photo of the 1994 Syrian Kuhaylan Khallawi stallion Al Sabik (*Ta’an x Hallah) some ten years ago. Recently Arnault Decroix shared with me another photo of the same handsome horse taken a few moments before or after the first one. This was truly a special horse.
Colin Pearson and Kees Mol’s “The Arabian Horse Families of Egypt” has this story, at once beautiful and sad, about the relationship of the Sharif of Mecca (and King of the Hijaz from 1916-1924) Hussein ibn Ali, head of the Hashemite royal family with one of his mares, Zahra. The story is buried in an endnote on page 149: On his abdication in 1924, [King Hussein of Hijaz] went to live in Cyprus and took with him two mares and two stallions. Sir Ronald Storrs, the then British High Commissioner of Cyprus, relates how Zahra “the gentlest and most graceful, would step delicately up the flight of many stairs from the garden and walk without shyness to the Salamlik, to be greeted by cries of “Ahlan”, “Ma Sha Allah”, “Allahu Akbar”, or “Qurribi, ya bint ammi” (“Draw nigh, oh daughter of my paternal uncle”). The king would call her “Qurrat al-Ain” — “cooling of the eyelids” — and offer her dates which she would eat slowly, never failing to eject the stones onto a plate.” But tragedy followed. A groom who had been dismissed took his revenge upon the horses and fatally maimed two of them, including Zahra. King Hussein…
Barakah, who will be eight next year, is turning into a solid mare. She is increasingly looking like her dam, with a deeper girth and the shorter back that her sire Wadd contributed. She is seven months in foal to Monologue CF. Monologue, by the way, is now at a semen collection and freezing facility. Darlene Summers and I are hoping for enough frozen semen to cover ten mares.
This is another video of Rhoufi, the 20 year old stallion I imported to France this past August. I got him from Skander Karoui of Tunisia. Skander, the rider in the video, had found him and bought him from an Italian man, who had obtained him from an equestrian club near Tunis. The horse had gone from one club to the other since the age of three. Rhoufi was one of the last horses bred by Gisela Bergmann. She and her husband were old-time breeders of asil Tunisian lines of the stout, sturdy, endurance type. Their stud in Ghardimaou, on the Tunisian desert border with Algeria, was a destination for European purist breeders looking for the real Arabian horse, a bit like Helga Tahawi’s farm in the Egyptian delta. I will eventually dedicate a separate article to Tunisian asil horses in general and the horses of the Bergmanns in particular. For now, I just want to talk about the reason that led me to acquire him. It has mostly to do with my home country of Lebanon. Rhoufi’s strain is Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz, one of the original Arabian horse strains, and my personal favorite. Rhoufi traces in the dam line to…
الفحل كحيلان العجوز الازرق من خيلي الاسم الغوفي العمر ٢٠ سنة المنشأ تونس يعود اصله الى كحيلة العجوز فرس خليل بك الاسعد من ال علي الصغير زعماء جبل عامل وقاعدتهم بلدة الطيبة في جنوب لبنان اليوم والمعروف عن ال علي الصغير انهم احفاد محمد ابن هزاع السالمي الوائلي احد اعيان عشيرة السوالمة من عنزة اتى من بادية نجد الى جبل عامل في عهد دولة المماليك وساد احفاده على جبل عامل وهناك صلة قرابة بين خليل بك الاسعد ال علي الصغير وبين أعيان قبيلة عنزة عامة والسوالمة والرولا خاصة اصحاب اهم مرابط كحائل العجوز مثل كحيلة الروضان وكحيلة عبهول وكحيلة المعبهل والكحيلة التامرية وغيرها
Above, a famous drawing by French nineteenth century artist Victor Adam. Below, the Kuhaylan Ajuz stallion Rhoufi, my pride and joy, and the lone surviving treasure of the 150 year old Tunisian asil breeding program, bred by Gisela Bergmann in 2003 and photographed in 2023 by Arnault Decroix at his farm in Normandy.
حديث ابراهيم الدواس السعدي من ال سعدي عوارف شمر أجراه إدوار الدحداح وحازم الوعر عام 2006 :عن كحيلة الشريف هم اصحاب رسن كحيلة الشريف جابوا الرسن معهم من نجد من أكثر من 150 سنة الحين عندهم فرسين واحدة بنت صقلاوي السبيه والثانية أمها بنت صقلاوي أحمد الدهام الاثنين عشار من صقر سوريا حصان حمداني كحيلة الشريف هي نفسها كحيلة العاجوز سمعنا عن أجدادنا أن العاجوز يعني الاختيار وأن الشريف هو العاجوز وخيلنا اسمها كحيلات العاجوز الشريف من دور أهلنا و بعدين أسقطت كلمة الشريف وبقي اسمها كحيلات العاجوز :عن منيس السعدي منيس ودواس إخوان منيس كان يحب الخيل وكان عنده دهمه وحمدانية وكروش من زمان :عن ابو كتف حصان منيس السعدي ابو كتف أحمر محجل له صرة أي سيالة صغيرة ذيله طويلة كانوا يشبونه عندما ابراهيم الدواس كان عمره عشر سنين :عن الحصان الصقلاوي حصان عباد الدادان عباد الدادان من عبيد دهام الهادي حصانه الصقلاوي يكون ابو حصان ابراهيم الدواس السعدي كحيلان الشريف ابو فرس مدحي السحيان العبية الام كانوا مربعين قرب عباد الدادان فشبوا كحيلة الشريف من حصانه الشبوة تمت عام 1972 جابت حصان أدهم عاش ستة سنين شبا مدحي العبية منه عام 1975-1976 الدادان الآن في تل عنتر عن ُحميد بن مَدحي السحيان يسكن قرية خويتلة من خرصة…
An image of this document appears on page 79 of Peter Upton’s The Arab Horse (The Crowood Press, 1989). It is inconspicuously labeled as “Fig. 132. Facsimile of an Arab letter to Sir Gilbert Clayton“. Here is my translation, based off the image above, with my comments between the brackets: In the name of God, the Merciful the Compassionate [printed letterhead] The Hijazi and Najdi Kingdom and its dependencies [printed letterhead]The Diwan of His Majesty the King [printed letterhead] Number 87320 Dhul Qi’dah Year 1345 [printed year, date equivalent to Saturday May 21, 1927] From Abd al-‘Aziz son of ‘Abd al-Rahman of the House of Faysal [i.e., Faysal ibn Turki] to his Excellency the Sir Clayton:After greetings and compliments, we present Your Excellency with the horses, a male horse and a mare. As to the male horse, he is the Saqlawi of the most authentic [asaayil, plural of asil] horses of Najd; his sire is an ‘Ubayyan; the mare is Krush; her sire is a Kuhaylan.However, quite regrettably I saw today that their looks were not nice looks; the reason for this is the length of the journey, because they’ve been in the wilderness [al-barriyah, literally, “the bush”] for a…
On July 27 — my birthday — Wadha foaled a chestnut filly, sired through artificial insemination by the Bahraini stallion of Jenny Lees, Shuwaiman Al Rais (photo below). Further news about this loooong-awaited filly will be shared once she is out of the woods (i.e., the U Penn vet hospital in New Bolton, PA), so no photos just yet. In keeping with the W line back to her granddam Wisteria CF and her great-granddam HB Wadduda, I named her Wujra — which in Arabic means “the one fed or medicated by mouth”. She will pull through.
This new-to-me photo of the Syrian Kuhaylan Mimrah stallion Basil (Mahrous x Halah), of the breeding of the late Mustapha al-Jabri was taken at the Damascus Government Stud . It recently appeared on one of the many Facebook pages now focusing on Syrian Arabians, one hosted by “Alhorane”. I remember being struck by this horse the first time I saw him in 1990. He oozed Arabness.
Yet another one of my smartphone favorites is this photo of a Syrian Kuhaylat Ibn Mizher mare of the horses of Shaykh Hashim al-Jarba. Her name is al-Tayou’, and she is 13 years old. The strain is an offshoot of Kuhaylan Krush. She is a granddaughter of the black Saqlawi Marzaqani stallion Barazan I like so much.
Another horse photo I had favorited on my smartsphone is this head shot of a Bahraini stallion of the Musannan strain at Jenny Lees in the UK. I forget his name now.
My black stallion Mushahar Bex recently foaled a beautiful black colt out of one of the mares of Sha’laan Ibn Jlaidan of the Shammar. This colt is going to be a stallion in the future, in my opinion.
I am so taken with Belle’s new colt by Jamr, born a couple months ago at the farm of their new owner Moira Walker. Moira named him Belisarius. He is a throwback to the USA Arabians of a hundred years ago, those you find in black and white photographs of horse magazines and books. At that time, Arabians were good all around horses, not overly specialized in a single discipline, whether halter, endurance or racing.
I have not looked at my “Aldahdah Index” in a while. It is a compendium of standardized entries on older Middle Eastern Arabian horses, mostly Syrian and Lebanese, in the style of the Raswan Index. I will publish it one day. I looked up the entry of the Khdili stallion of Abbud Ali al-Amud, who has recently been the subject of discussion on social media (Facebook and WhatsApp groups). I had written this about him back then: AL-KHDILI OF ABOUD ALI AL-AMOUD: an Asil desert-bred stallion; later owned by the Armenian horsedealer Apo in Aleppo. Strain: Kuhaylan Khdili, of the marbat owned by ‘Abbud ‘Ali al-‘Amud, a Bedouin from the Aqaydat tribe; al-‘Amud got his horses from the marbat of ‘Udayb al-Waqqa’ of the Saba’ah tribe. Comments: He was a small horse of such classic Arab type, with such an extreme head, that people in Aleppo were reluctant to use him because they found him to be ‘pretty like a mare’. He is closely related to the beautiful mare Leelas, a Kuhaylah Khdiliyah bred by ‘Abbud ‘Ali Al-‘Amud, and which is a daughter of the Ma’naqi al-Shwaiti al-Najrissi of the Aqaydat tribe. That was what I had about him some…
I finally dug up these two screenshots from a video of the Davenport stallion Invictus Al Krush, which the late Carol Lyons had given to Randall Harris. He is the sire of Jadah BelloftheBall and the grandsire of Barakah Al Arab and Bassmah Al Arab. Belle has his big, long head.
Very happy to announce my acquisition, a few months ago, of this handsome and truly desert-bred jet black Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion [click link for the pedigree] hailing straight from the Shammar Bedouins. Hopefully, he will make his way to the US at some point in the future. He is currently standing at the stud of Shaykh Hashim Al Jarba [Abu Hmud] in N.E. Syria, where he has been put to good use over the past three years. He’s had some ten foals this year only. His offspring, among them the two fillies below, are very promising,
Below is a copy of an advert for *Munifan, from volume 5 of Here’s Who In Horses of the Pacific Coast, an annual publication compiled by Betty Jellinek. Published in 1949, volume 5 covered the horse shows of the previous year.
The account of the visit of Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk of the Egyptian RAS to Prince Saud Ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi (or Jluwi), Governor of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia in 1936 can also be used to shed some light on the desert-bred stallion *Munifan. The same reasoning used in the recent blog entry about *Al Hamdaniah also applies to *Munifan. *Munifan was also born in 1940, four years after Mabrouk’s visit. He was gifted to George O’Brien by Ibn Jalawi, and imported in 1947 to the USA by O’Brien. His Saudi export document indicates that he was by an ‘Ubayyan out of a Kuhaylah. His sire could be any of the five Ubayyan horses Dr. Mabrouk saw on his visit two Ibn Jalawi: a 7 year old bay stallion, an 11 year old dark bay stallion, a 7 year old chestnut stallion himself sired by a chestnut ‘Ubayyan stallion, and two bay colts, both sired by a bay ‘Ubayyan, likely the first one on this list, who appears to have been the head sire. Dr Mabrouk’s list of the mares he saw at Ibn Jalawi includes several mares of strains typically classified as branches of the generic Kuhaylan strain.…
Below is a photo of Sahiby Bint Baraka, the daughter of Barakah and Tuwaisan, as an adult mare. Wollie Bollie is an affectionate nickname, meaning “ball of wool”. Sahiby Bint Baraka had four registered foals, two daughters and two sons. It is through her second daughter, Sahiby Noura, that the asil Kuhaylan al-Mimrah line survives in southern Africa today. Her first daughter, Sahiby Danah, was by the half-Egyptian stallion Robdon Zingari (Zahir x Yasimet), and produced four colts. Through them, Sahiby Danah’s blood can be found in the pedigrees of endurance horses, such as Arkab Nazeer, Deo-Gratias Nazira, and Silvretta Brio. Her first son, Sahiby Asham, by Ahir (Morafic x Deenaa), did not breed on, while her second son, Sahiby Tuwaisan, died just short of his first birthday.
Today, my Barakah was bred to Monologue CF. I love this young mare of mine, and I am looking forward to the outcome of that cross. In general, I find that this particular branch of the *Nufoud damline is a diamond in the rough. It has plenty of desert type, but some defects too. Barakah’s dam Belle is the most deserty mare I own, but the girth lacks some depth, the back is a tad long, the forehead a little narrow and the barrel — the rib cage — is not round enough for my taste. But she has plenty of bone, long ears, a proud carriage and the croup and tail set are just the way they should be. The addition of Wadd — Barakah’s sire — fixed the girth, the longish back and the ribcage, all structural features that I have found hard to fix in one generation, but it messed up the croup. Barakah inherited her sire’s short droopey croup and short-ish hip, although when moving like in the pictures below, this does not show. So I am hoping Monologue will now fix the croup with his long, straight hip like in the photo, without affecting the…
Dahjani Al Arab, a Kuhaylan Da’jani born in 2008, is one of four authentic, desert-bred Syrian stallions in France. The other three are Mahboub Halep, a grey Shuwayman Sabbah; Nimr Shabareq, a chestnut Ma’naqi Sbayli, and Dahess Hasska, a chestnut Kuhaylan Nawwaq. Photo of Dahjani taken earlier this month by owner Arnault Decroix in Normandy. I love the arched throatlatch and the small pricked ears on him.
اقول ويلفظها البعض التخيرة بالتاء
.وأضيف الكحيلة الشكيلية هي وكحيلة العشيّر رسن واحد
Wadhah is now 11, and looks truly magnificent. She is in foal to Monologue CF, and due in mid-May for her first foal. She really looks like the Thadrian daughter that she is. She has fully transitioned from the zarqa (darker, blue-grey) to the safra (light grey, almost white, with yellowish mane and tail) shade of grey. That’s when you wish you had brushed her before the photoshoot.
Below is a photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Marouf/Maroof, photographed in 2008 at the Pure Syrian show. Picture purchased from In The Focus.
I just miss beautiful photos of Davenport mares and stallions, so I went digging among the old ones. I am particularly fond of chestnuts with blazes, long pricked ears, broad foreheads, protruding eye sockets and beautiful soulful eyes like Decibel CF.
I was pleased to see how my 2016 mare Barakah Al Arab (Wadd Al Arab x Jadah BellOfTheBall) had developed over the past two and a half years. I left her a gangly two year old, and she has filled up since. She certainly has some more growing to do. Wadd improved the shoulder angle and the length of the shoulder, added much needed depth of girth and breadth of ribcage; he left the head pretty much the same as her mother’s, except for adding more distance between the eyes, the ears are as long and prickled as her mother’s. On the other hand, Belle’s beautiful level croup and highly set tail are gone; instead Barakah inherited Wadd’s slightly sloping croup and the short hip which is a legacy his dam Wisteria. When going you don’t notice it as much. I did not pay as much attention to her feet as I should have. Overall, Barakah is an improvement over Belle, without having lost her “desert” look. By the way, I feel breeders needs to be as openly candid about their horses as they can, if they want to improve on them in the long term, especially if they do…
The dry, arid climate and terrain of the South Western USA are much closer to that of the steppes of Arabia than the wetter climate and more lush pastures of, say, the mid-Atlantic region or the plains of the Midwest. I have observed that these drier conditions are resulting in Arabian horses that look much closer to the horses raised in Syria and Arabia, and to those raised in Namibia and the drier parts of South Africa. Drier skin, stronger, more solid bone, more visible tendons, and something different in the way the eyes shine that I cannot describe. This observation is a central tenet of the writings of French master breeder Robert Mauvy, based on his empirical observations. I would like to read any scientific papers on the climate and terrain impact on horse phenotypes, if anyone knows of any. The mare below, Roxana Star (Personic LF x Jauhar Al Khala by Sportin Life), a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah of Davenport bloodlines born in 2005, illustrates this observation. She is in the Southwestern USA, with Christine Emmert. Photos by Christine.
This account recorded in early 2021. It reads like a testimony of the Abbas Pasha Manuscript. My translation: I, Hammad Jaddu’ al-Jaz’ah, of the tribe of Tai, clan of al-Jawwalah, I am the owner of the strain of Saqlawi Dari, the horses of Jaddu’ al-Jaz’ah, in the township of Abu Hujairah, district of al-Qahtaniyah, province of al-Qamishli, governorate of al-Hasakah: Concerning the marbat of Da’jani Kashir, the horses of Khidr al-Ahmad al-Husayn al-Juburi, they came [to Syria] at the end of 1958 or the beginning of 1959. It was the father of Khidr who came [to Syria]; his name was Ahmad al-Ali al-Juburi (of the Jubur); he was the direct son of the daughter of Ahmad al-Taha; his maternal uncle was Ahmad al-Taha. The man came from Iraq, with blood on his hands [Edouard’s note: he had killed two men there]; That’s why he crossed into Syria. There were two mares with him, a red one (bay) and a light grey one, both of the Da’jani Kashir strain, which was the marbat of his maternal uncle Ahmad al-Taha. He settled in Syria, from the beginning of 1959 until his death. To this day, his son Khidr al-Ahmad al-Juburi is…
فرس شقراء كحيلة الخدلية يعود مربطها الى عضيب الوقاع السبيعي ابوها الصقلاوي الجدراني من خيل دريعي الاحدب من عشيرة شمر ابو امها المعنقي السبيلي حصان الشويطي من خيل النجرس من عشيرة العقيدات
This year I will be using for the first time frozen semen from one of the Syrian stallions now in France. I chose Arnault Decroix’s Dahjani Al Arab (same prefix as my horses, by chance). He is a Kuhaylan Da’jaani from the old Syrian desert bloodlines I have known and loved for three decades (sheesh!). He traces directly to the Kuhaylan Da’jaani marbat of Ahmad al-Taha, the Shaykh of the large Juhaysh tribe in Northern Iraq. This is the same breeder as El Nasser’s, the Kuhaylan Da’jani which Egypt’s Royal Agricultural Society (RAS) used in the 1940s. These bloodlines are quite prized for racing in Syria today. Just look at the striking similarity between El Nasser and Dahjani Al Arab, 80 years apart.