It is that time of the year in the USA, where the weather is nice, the grass green, and the cameras out. Kim Davis, who has a talent for taking good photos, recently took these of the 2011 bay Krushan stallion Inaam Al Krush (Monologue CF x HH Noura Krush). At ten years old, he is in his prime. Monologue has another Krush offspring of Davenport lines on the way, from Laura Fitz’s mare HH Karisma Krush.
Another set of old photos I just scanned today features the Syrian desert bred mare Ghallaieh at the farm of Radwan Shabareq north of Aleppo, near the town of ‘Azaz. She was old and lame (you can see the broken front leg) and rather plain in the head, but what a grand and powerful mare she was. I took the first photo in 1998. My father took the second photo in 1996, and you can see a youthful me (the hair!) holding her halter. She was a bay Kuhaylat al-Krush from the breeding of Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal Basha al-Jarba, from the leading family of the Shammar. Mashal was the son of the famous Faris al-Jarba. The strain reached this family of the Jarba Shammar Sheykhs from their maternal uncles the Sheikh of the Tai Farhan al-Abd al-Rahman sometime in the 1950s or even 1960s. From here, there are two stories. One story is that the Sheykhs of the Tai obtained it from the Shammar who had it since the time of ‘Amsheh and Ibn Rashid (see next blog entry on the black mare). Another story is that Tai got the strain from the Fadaan. Ghallaieh was the daughter of a…
This past weekend Kate MacLachlan visited Saruk Arabians in the Western Cape, and took photos of the Kuhaylat al-Mimrah Pauline and Pienaar Du Plessis are keeping there, MH Egyptian XTC. She is 22 and as is often the case with these outstanding mares, a notoriously difficult producer.
She is looking glorious at age 21. How time flies. She was a young mare when I saw her at Carol Lyons in 2002. Her origin is so well authenticated, and so is her filly’s by the Doyle stallion Chatham. It does not get more mazbut than that. Photo by Lyman Doyle.
Jeanne Craver gratified me today with two pictures of my own Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Mayassah Al Arab (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David). Thank you Jeanne! She is now six years old, and a liver chestnut like her sire. Debbie Mackie boards her for me. She looks good and it seems Debbie has been spoiling her. I like horses built like tanks, and I like Arab horses that look like horses, not dolls. I wish Clarion CF had ten or twenty foals, not two. She is one of two remaining Al Khamsa mares to carry the blood of the three Al Khamsa foundation horses Kesia I, Kesia II and Mameluke. The other mare is Karin Floyd’s Samirahs Adlayah.
RJ Cadranell and Jeanne Craver shared this photo of the Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare Belldonna CHF (Audobon x LD Rubic), which RJ took at Randall Harris’. She is the dam of my Jadah BelloftheBall, bred by Randall. This line is very close to the desert, through *Nufoud, a mare in the stables of King ‘Abd al-‘Aziz Aal Saud. Here is another photo of Belladonna CHF, and a link to an earlier entry featuring her.
The photo below, shared with the kind permission of Janien Strauss, is of the Kuhaylan al-Mimrah stallion, Sidi Egyptian Nile (Thee Cyclone x Sahiby Juleemah), whose half-siblings have been featured on the blog before. The story of the Kuhaylan al-Mimrah strain in South Africa is already known to most readers of the blog, but here is a quick recap: in the 1940s, Claude Orpen imported three stallions and two mares to South Africa from Egypt. One of these mares was the three-year-old Barakah (Ibn Manial x Gamalat). In South Africa, she produced two foals by her fellow import, the stallion Zahir (Ibn Fayda x Zahra), a colt, Gordonville Ziyadan, and a filly, Gordonville Zahara. Unfortunately, Zahara died young, and Barakah’s next foals were not asil. The Kuhaylan al-Mimrah strain would have died out in asil form, had it not been for the intervention of Dr Valerie Noli-Marais, who acquired the aged Barakah, and the gift of the Bahraini stallion Tuwaisan, by Sheikh Isa bin Sulman Al-Khalifa. Barakah’s last foal, born when the mare was twenty-seven, was, miraculously, a daughter, Sahiby Bint Baraka. Sahiby Bint Baraka had four registered foals, but only one of her two fillies was asil, Sahiby Noura,…
KUHAYLAN AL-WATI OF DIYAB AL-SBEIH: a gray (born black, he later turned dark gray) asil desert-bred stallion; born c. 1977 (certainly after 1975 and before 1980); bred by Fawaz Ibn Ghishm, who is a lesser shaykh of a clan of the Northern Shammar; Strain: Kuhaylan al-Wati of the marbat of Hakim al-Ghishm of the Shammar; one of the sons of Hakem ibn Hsayni ibn Ghishm once told us that the father of their father got this strain from the Anazeh tribe. The Ghishm also mentioned they only bred their horses to each other, and that breeding to an outside horse was an exception. Sire: a desert bred Kuhaylan al-Wati bred by Fawaz ibn Hakem al-Ghishm of the Shammar tribe; Dam: a desert-bred Kuhayla al-Wati also bred by Fawaz ibn Ghishm; Comments: Fawaz gifted the horse, who was between one and a half and three years old to his inlaws al-Sbeih. A sister of Fawaz had married Mohammad, the eldest son of Diyab al-Sbeih. Diyab was a Mukhtar of the Shammar, a non Shaykh notable; Muhammad ibn Diyab al-Sbeih died in the uprising of the Muslim Brotherhood in the beginning of the 1980s). There is some disagreement between the four Ghishm…
Christine Emmert is a great photographer of horses. She took this photo of Bonnie Duecker’s Davenport gelding Mai Raisuli (Indie Star x Pretty Fancy by Lysander). You see the resemblance with Anita Westfall’s iconic photo of Lysander (below): the ears, the jaws, the forehead.
Severine Vesco and Amelie Blackwell, wearing their treasure hunter hats, found this gem of a mare somewhere in rural Southern France. Lannilis, the mare, is a 20 year old Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, of Tunisian, Algerian, and old, pure French bloodlines. She had a career as a trail riding horse, and is now being used to produce endurance Arabians and Araloosas. This mare traces to one of the lesser known Algerian (Tiaret) tail females, that of the mare Mzeirib, a 1891 desert-bred Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah from the Shammar. The French imported Mzeirib to Algeria in 1898. The line went to the state stud of Tunisia at some point in the 1920s, then to private hands in France in the 1970s. In France it bred on with crosses to pure Arabian stallions of old Tunisian lines, including some of Robert Mauvy’s breeding. It is the same female line as that of the Tunisian stallion Omran that went to that zoo in Germany. The short back, the deep girth, the high withers, the long hip on this mare are somehow reminiscent of early Crabbet Blunt horses.
This spring my 24 year old mare Nuri Al Krush will be bred to Jamr Al Arab for a linebred foal to the great Hanad. Nuri brings the lines of the Hanad sons Tripoli and Mainad, and Jamr adds Sanad, Ibn Hanad and Ameer Ali. The photo was taken at her breeder and owner Trish Stockhecke in Ontario, Canada.
The information on this rare strain found only in the Kingdom of Bahrain, primarily comes from the seminal 1971 article of Judi Forbis in Arabian Horse World, later republished in her book Authentic Arabian Bloodstock. Judi visited Bahrain in March 1970, and recorded the following information about the strain, in three different parts of that article. The first reference provides background on the strain: Kuhaylah Al Adiati is another strain rarely heard of before, but deriving from the Kuhaylah family. She came from Saudi Arabia and was presented to Sheikh Hamad when he was a prince, together with a letter of presentation from the offering Sheikh of Al Ajman: “I send to you this mare which fulfills Al Adiat”. That is, to him she embodied all the swift and desirable attributes understood in the beautiful El Adiat, Sura 100 of the Koran [A translation of Verse 100 of the Qur’an follows]. What greater or more meaningful gift could he possibly have bestowed? When Sheikh Hamad saw her race and found her to be exceedingly swift, he happily declared: “Truly She is of Al Adiat.” The second reference occurs during a visit to the stud of Sakhir: “Sakhir, the abandoned palace…
Kate McLachlan and I were recently exchanging about the treasure trove of Arabian horse related documents stored at the Qatar Digital Library. She has located, among other findings, a translation of the hujjah of the Bahrain import to Poland Kuhailan Afas, in the hand of Carl Raswan, as well as a translation of his full pedigree. Kuhailan Afas was a major stallion in twentieth century Arabian horse breeding. Click to read they are easily legible. There is also a typewritten Arabic hujjah, which Kate also found, and an extended typewritten pedigree in Arabic, both obviously based on a handwritten Arabic hujjah. These Arabic typewritten versions of the hujjah and pedigree are a bit odd, because they give the horse the strain of its sire (Kuhailan Wathnan) in addition to other glaring inconsistencies. Probably typos. “I declare I, o ‘Abd al-‘Aziz al-Abd al-Razzaq al-Sani’, the servant of Shaykh Hamad ibn ‘Isa Aal Khalifa, that I sold the horse known as Kuhaylan al-Wathnan to His Excellency the Mister Bogdan Zietarski and I produced this [piece of] paper for him, about the lineage of the horse to clarify its origin; he is of a young age; born on the 25th of Sha’ban the…
Kees Mol offered me this photo of the mare Faras (‘mare’ in Arabic), and in turn I donated it to the Arabian Horse Archives, on the website of which a copy can now be found. Faras was a 1927 desert bred Kuhaylat al-Krush, gifted by Abd al-Aziz ibn Saud, King of Saudi Arabia to her HRH Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone and the Earl of Athlone during their visit to Arabia and Bahrain in 1938. She was from the most precious and sougth after strain of Central Arabia. Peter Upton’s book “the Arab Horse” has a copy of her hujjah, written in Ibn Saud’s hand. She also appears to have been a producer of horses famed for their speed and endurance. Despite all these credentials, I am not sure she would be accepted in a halter show for Arabians today (or even thirty years ago). Most people familiar with Arabian horses in the West, and increasingly, in the East too, would not believe her to be an Arabian: where is the dish, the two-level profile? Where is the bird-like eye, popping out of its socket? the croup flatter than a counter top? the swan-like arched neck? the meaty face? the…
Laszlo Kiraly sent me this head shot of the Babolna mare 25 Amurath Sahib, from the last asil female line from Babolna. The photo was never published before Laszlo’s recent article in the Khamsat magazine about the asil lines of Babolna.
This morning I woke up to a message from Jeanne Craver to the Davenport Owners list serve on Google Groups that Triermain CF had died the night before. Her message, titled “Another end to another era”, was: I went to feed about 30 minutes ago, and Triermain was gone. It looks like he strolled out to the water tank and was heading back to the shed and just dropped. No sign of struggle. He ate his breakfast with his usual gusto, and had seemed well. I am glad he went so quickly. Jeanne The passing of the last senior stallion at Craver Farms indeed marks the end of an era. Triermain was my personal favorite, after his sire Thadrian. He will forever have a special place in my heart. He was just perfect. First photo by Anita Westfall. Second photo from the Craver Farms collection. Of his several sons and successors, Aurene CF (below, photo by owner Hannah Logan) is, in my opinion, the new king. Long live the king! In homage to Triermain, a quote from the poem of Walter Scott “the Bridal of Triermain” after which Charles Craver named him, because only him was worthy of Plantagenet daughters:…
… poetically, as Pienaar Du Plessis put it to me. I am soo excited.. a 25 year old (yes!) dream of mine has come true, five generations later.. UPDATE: Less cryptically, Pienaar Du Plessis gave me the opportunity to realize a 25 year old dream of acquiring an asil mare from the Egyptian Kuhaylan Mimreh line. We had been looking for a mare from this line but without show blood, and he found this 21 year old grey beauty, which his family had owned years and years ago, MH Egyptian XTC, a couple hours down the road from his farm in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. She had been the owner’s daughter’s riding horse, and his daughter had gone to college. The mare is a problem breeder and has never had a foal. She is now at Pienaar’s Saruk’s Stud, with Mlolshaan Mutab, her future husband (top photo). The idea is to do embryo transfer at a clinic in George in the Western Cape. She carries eight diverse lines to Morafic (3x through Ibn Moniet El Nefous, 2x through Ahir, 1x through Shaker El Masri in the tail male, 1x through Inas, 1x through The Egyptian Prince) and otherwise plenty…
A new mare has joined my preservation herd of old American Arabian bloodlines. In what is by now a long-standing Edouard practice, she is 23 years old.. She is a Kuhaylat al-Krush tracing back to *Werdi. Her name is Nuri Al Krush. She was bred by Trish Stockhecke of Ontario, Canada, from the Krush stallion Janub Al Krush out of the Krush mare Mystalla. She carries some of the very last lines to the desert-bred imports *Haleb and *Azra in Al Khamsa. She has produced two outstanding colts before, one for Trish, gelded, and another for Kim Davis in Illinois. This latter one, dead in a freak accident, was the colt of the century in my opinion (photo below). I also owned her two half-sisters, and still own a daughter from one of these sisters, Mayassa. She will be bred to my Jamr al-Arab, to line-breed to Hanad (Tripoli, Sanad, Mainad, Ibn Hanad, Ameer Ali), but also he will complete her physically, with his short back, stronger coupling, and long hip. I am grateful to Laura Fitz for letting me have her.
In 1971, Judi Forbis took this beautiful and timeless photo of a Kuhaylah Jallabiyah mare in Bahrain, the daughter of an old speckled Jallabi stallion. The photo was published in Arabian Horse World, in Judi’s series of articles “Pearls of Great Price”. The croup is short as in many Bahraini horses, but otherwise, what a mare, what look. She oozes Arabness. When will be go back to breeding horses like this, instead of the china dolls and ‘living art’ of today? And, this is by far my favorite color in Arabians.
A fantastic account and a funny story of a botched ghazu, from Rehan Ud Din Baber’s Facebook page, that treasure trove. “On occasions which a resident in the country and one on good terms with the Sheikhs can alone take advantage of, the most valuable horses and mares are sometimes picked up, in almost peculiar manner. A friend of mine secured a splendid Keheilen er Rodan mare of remarkable beauty, symmetry and speed, for £ 270, under the following circumstances which would supply materials for a sensational novel. This mare belonged to Faissal Ibn Shalan Sheik of the Roala tribe who had refused enormous offers for her. Five men of the Mowali on plunder intent, turned out on the picked mares of the tribe to steal camels from the Roala. They drove off some the first night, and, emboldened by their success, returned to poach again. The Roala were in waiting and attacked these freebooters. The Mowali, considering discretion the better part of valour, beat a hasty retreat, trusting to the speed of their mares. In the hot pursuit fifty Roalas were left behind, but two, better mounted than their comrades, continued it for ten hours. The Mowalis escaped with…
Those Lysander grand-daughters look like they came straight out of Arabia. So special. So stylish. They age well, too. It also helps that this one, Wotans Windancer (Wotan x Danceuse CF by Lysander) is a Wotan daughter. Note the fine mane and muzzle. I love the straight profile.
This is Nawakiat ‘Akkar, a Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah, and yet another Achhal daughter, born in 1976. She was the most valuable mare my father owned, and had established a dynasty of (part-bred) race winners of her own. She was a gift from Henri Pharaon at three years old, and was sold in 1992 to Henri’s cousin, Pierre Pharaon, along with Zenobia and a third mare (part-bred). This was when my father was transitioning to “purebred Arab” horses of international lines, which he then felt were equally “asil”, and had just acquired two mares of predominantly Crabbet lines from Jordan, Ziba (Dancing Magic x Shazla) and Shela (El Batal x Siva).
“Belle” (photo below) is one of just four Al Khamsa mares from the female line of *Nufoud, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from the stud of King of ‘Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud of Saudi Arabia, imported to the USA in 1931. When *Nufoud was born around 1925, Saudi Arabia was still known as the “Kingdom of Najd and the Hijaz”. Peter Upton, in the tables at the end of the book “Royal Heritage: The Story of Jordan’s Arab Horses”, mentions that *Nufoud was from originally from the stud of the Hashemite King of Hijaz, ‘Ali ibn al-Hussain, whose short-lived kingdom was overtaken by the Saudis in late 1925. I don’t know the source of Upton’s information, but it is certainly likely, since the Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz strain was bred by the Hashemites in the Hijaz. A mare from this strain accompanied King ‘Abdallah (King ‘Ali’s brother) on the armed march northwards from Hijaz to Syria, during the Arab Revolt of 1916-17, and founded a line that still exists at the Royal Stud of Jordan. The Saudis maintained a stud near Ta’if, in the Hijaz, which Dr. Ahmed Mabrouk of the Egypt RAS visited in 1936. This stud may well have included horses taken…
The two K. Haifi mares Provance CF 2001 (Triermain CF x Anjou CF by Plantagenet x Bint Dharebah), right, and Confetti CF 2000 (Triermain CF x Domina CF by Plantagenet x Bint Dharebah), left, on a hot day last Saturday, at Hazaim Alwair.
The photos Hannah Logan posted on her Facebook page made my day this morning. Hannah is a new breeder who acquired several horses from Marilyn McHallam’s herd in British Columbia, and they seem to be thriving. I was particularly pleased to see this nice photo of the 2004 Kuhaylan Haifi Davenport stallion Aurene CF (Triermain CF x Aureole CF by Fair Sir) after all these years; I had seen him at Craver Farms as a two year old in 2006 — I had mentioned the possibility of exporting a Davenport stallion to Syria, and Charles Craver suggested Aurene. Charles thought highly of him. I saw Aurene again at Pamela Klein’s in Southern Virginia in 2010 (I think) and liked him even better. In 2012, Pamela drove Aurene up to Pennsylvania for breeding to one of my older mares, Bint al-Barra. She took, but then absorbed the pregnancy. Five things amateurs of the old type of Arabian horses would like in this photo of Aurene: first, the long forelocks, a sign of asalah — authenticity, and a favorite feature of the Prophet Muhammad; second, the prominent facial bones between the eyes and the muzzle that make the face look so dry, another sign of asalah; third,…
Wadd left to Oregon last week. He will live with Jessica Heinrick in the High Desert, not far from the Malheur wildlife refuge, and he will be ridden regularly. I retain breeding rights. Jessie has been sending me casual photos of him on the way, and should be picking him up today. It’s sad to see him go, but he leaves behind a promising filly, Barakah (from a rare Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz line from Najd), and he covered Thalia (a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah like him) right before leaving. I also keep his precious sister Wadha, which I also bred. The filly, a year old in June, inherits his strong, straight short back and his extra deep girth (first picture), both improvements over her dam. She also has his big eye, his long, highly set neck (second picture), and his silk-like skin.
Sheykh Tahawi Saeed Mejalli al-Tahawi who is in his nineties was interviewed recently by Yehia Abdel-Satar Eliwa al-Tahawi. The old man, who is the memory of the Tahawi clan of Egypt, told him that the original Kuhayla Khallawiyah mare had come to Shaman Ghumah al-Tahawi from the Mawali Bedouins. I had hypothesized this connection of the Futna line to the Mawali tribe some seven years ago on this blog, here. It is now confirmed. This makes the Egyptian Kuhaylan Khallawi strain of Bint Futna one of the most prestigious strains of Northern Arabia, that of Khallawiat al-Nesswan [“of the women”, not sure why they are called this way]. A branch of the Mawali leading family, the Aal al-‘Aabed, who had settled in Damascus, and provided Syria with its first president, Muhammad ‘Ali al-‘Aabed, owned a Khallawi line that survived in Asil form until the late 1990s, in both Lebanon and Syria. I owned the last such mare in old age. These were quite the race horses. When Ottoman Sultan ‘Abd al-Hamid was on his way from Istanbul to Mecca on pilgrimage, he was hosted by the leader of the Mawali Bedouins near Hama, in central Syria, and presented with a Khallawia mare. In Syria,…
In his 1936 book “Rihlah ila Bilad al-‘Arab” about his journey to Arabia in search for Arabian horses, Dr. Ahmad Mabrouk of the Royal Agricultural Society of Egypt mentioned two mares of the Kuhaylan al-Kray strain in the stud of Prince Saud ibn ‘Abdallah Ibn Jalawi, governor of the Eastern region of the then newly established Kingdom of Saudi Arabia [translation mine]: “Krush al-Kray, golden chestnut, no white on the face, pretty head, nice legs but short neck, five years old, her dam the bay Kray, and her sire the bay ‘Ubayyan.” “Bay Kray, white on the hind legs, pretty, eight years old, not to be mated.” This seems to suggest that the strain of Kuhaylan al-Kray (or Karay), was actually an offshoot of the more famous strain of Kuhaylan al-Krush, but was not to be mated for some reason. As I came back from Bahrain where I saw representatives of this rare strain, I dug a bit deeper and found the following in the ‘Abbas Pasha Manuscript, in the section on Kuhaylat ibn Jarshan, the Jallabiyah: “and we [several elders from the ‘Ajman testifying] mated her to Kuhaylan al-Karay, the horse of Ibn ‘Ulbah of Aal Mu’yid of Al ‘Ajman” This reference constitutes…
Jackson Hensley sent this photo of his stunning Monologue CF son, Inaam Al Krush. I had seen him a few months ago, and liked him, but he looks even better in this photo. Reminds me of that iconic photo of Kuhailan Haifi O.A. That Monologue CF, I should have bred all my mares to him.
Wadd, who is now five years old, is maturing into a handsome, masculine stallion in the line of the Kuhaylan Hayfi sires of Craver Farms. He is more reminiscent of his grandsire Javera Thadrian than he is of his sire Triermain CF. Large eyes, broad forehead, prickled ears, bony face, arched neck, curved throat, short back, deep girth, broad chest, sloped shoulder, silky hair, fine skin, solid tendons, short cannon bones, high tail carriage, and good movement. I would have preferred a deeper jowl, a longer hip and a straighter croup, but I can live with that, because when moving the slightly droopy quarter does not show. His daughter has both his many qualities and his few shortcomings.
This is my 2013 Kuhaylat al-Krush filly, Mayassah Al Arab (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David). Three years old this summer. I am very proud of this filly I bred for several reasons. She embodies my preservation efforts. The antiquity of her bloodlines is an obvious reason: for instance, Abu Zeyd (Mesaoud x Rose Diamond), b. 1904, is just five generations away. For comparison, he is thirteen generations away in a stallion like Marwan Al Shaqab. The extreme rarity of her lines, too: the stallions Gharis (Abu Zeyd x Guemura by Segario), Fartak (*El Bulad x *Farha), Abu Selim (*Azra x Domow), Tabab (*Deyr x Domow), Royal Amber (Ribal x Babe Azab), and Oriental (Letan x Adouba), were all popular stallions in early Arabian breeding in America, with thousands of descendants in general list Arabians, and she is very much the last Al Khamsa horse that traces to them — and pretty closely too. The effort I went through to make that breeding happen is a third reason. I leased, then acquired her dam and her dam’s sister from Trish Stockhecke in Canada. They were 19 and 20 years old, and had never been bred before. The older…
I scanned this archive photo of a famous event among Syrian horse breeders, the Latakia race of 1993, which I attended with my father. Arabians from all over the country and neighboring ones flocked to this national event, the first of its kind on such a scale. This is a photo of the finish line of the eighth and last race, over a distance of 2000 meters. Mokhtar, Basil Jadaan’s black desert-bred Kuhaylah al-Krush, (now in France and turning 30 next year) won the race, with minimal training. Khalid, Mustafa al-Jabri’s Saqlawi Jadran (Mahrous x Khalidah) came a close second. The biggest surprise was the third place (not showing in the first picture, but to the right in the second one) of Hakaya, the black desert-bred Shuwaymah Sabbah of the Sheykh of the Bedouin tribe of Tai. She was 15 years old, heavily in foal, ridden bareback, without formal training, by a bulky Tai Bedouin (the others were ridden by professional jockeys), and without a bit… only a Bedouin halter. Let me write this again to let it sink in: a 15 years old mare, heavily in foal, ridden bareback, without formal training, by a bulky Bedouin, and without a bit coming third in…
I was unpacking today and I found my negatives’ scanner in a box I had not opened in years. I also came across some old negatives from the days of our travels to Syria, my father and I, to see desert Arabian horses, so I scanned them. These times did not feel particularly blessed back then, just normal days off from high school or university. If only I knew how fleeting these moments were.. During one of these trips in the mid to late 1990s, veteran Alepine horse merchant Abdel Qadir Hammami took Radwan Shabareq, my father and I on a drive a couple hours outside Aleppo — now a lawless area infested with ISIS thugs — to see three mares that had just arrived from the desert. This was our chance to see something new and different from the stud farms of our breeder friends. Hammami had brought the three mares for an Alepine man, the owner of an ice cream store who did not know much about horses, but Hammami — then in his nineties — knew what he was getting him. It did not take long for the old man to admit that he had the mares smuggled from the other side of the…
and an eternal favorite of mine, among Davenport stallions. What class, what style, what carriage, what prancing.. Pedigree here.
This is Jadah BelloftheBall (aka “Belle”, and I am going to change this name with the registry). The background is an eyesore, but she otherwise looks good. She is a 2002 Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz, tracing to *Nufoud, a mare from the stables of Ibn Saud. Her sire is Invictus Al Krush and her dam is one of my favorite Arabian mares, Belladonna CHF, by Audobon out of LD Rubic, another favorite.
So yesterday and today I went up to Pennsylvania to see my horses, and Jeannie Lieb met me there. I learned a lot from Jeannie about proper nutrition and hoof care, and I took hundreds of photos of my horses — with the iPhone unfortunately. Still, many are not that bad. Here are a couple of Wadha. Click on them to enlarge them. Wadha, born in 2010, is by Javera Thadrian out of Wisteria CF, by Triermain CF. They are three of my four favorite Davenport Kuhaylan Hayfis. Wadha is now being trained with the lounge; she has learned to lead, trot and canter, and just had a saddle put on her.
Jeanne Craver just shared this photo of the 2003 Kuhaylan Hayfi Davenport stallion Twickenham (Regency CF x Kiddleywink CF by Regency CF), who is still at Craver Farms. I have always loved that little stallion.
Jose Manuel from Spain sent me these photos of his amazing 1999 Syrian stallion Najm Yarob (Fawaz x Karboujah by Saad x Roudeinah by Mashuj x Jamrah by Awaad x Doumah), a Kuhaylan Krush that is a close relative to the black Mokhtar (Awaad x Doumah). Look at this black skin, this muzzle, and this croup! This photo of a survivor and the evocation of the names of the horses above, all of which I have seen, known and liked in my teenage, send shivers through my spine.
Yet another Hayfiyah, and another Presto CF daughter (it’s never too late) out of Ala Athena Hafiah (Riposte CF x Femina by Ibn Alamein), one of my favorite mares of this strain. She is pretty and looks a lot like her dam.
This Kuhaylat al-Krush filly of Davenport lines is the second ray of the hope this strain, also born this month at Kim Davis’. She is by HH Tantalus Krush out of HH Nadira Krush.
This wonderful, very promising black Kuhaylat al-Krush filly was born this month at Kim Davis’ in Illinois, out of HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush LD by Sportin Life). After the devastating tragedy that befell the group of Krush mares in Texas, she is one of two rays of hope for the next generation of this precious (and ever) strain.
Last week I saw “Belle” for the first time. Jadah BelloftheBall (I so don’t like that name and I want to change it) is Jeannie Lieb’s gift to me in 2013. I liked the mare, she sent all the right vibes to me. Looking at her, you’d easily forget you are in the woods of Pennsylvania, and you would feel transported in time and space to Arabia in the early twentieth century (one of my favorite time and space combinations, but I don’t think I would have survived more than a few days there and then). She is a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz tracing in tail female to *Nufoud of King Abd al-Aziz Aal Saud, sent to Albert Harris in 1932. She is only five generations removed from the desert (from both *Nufoud and *Turfa), and she looks like she came straight out of there. The mare is not without defects, I would have especially liked to see a deeper girth and a longer croup, but I don’t mind her just the way she is; I appreciate the big bone, the short and thick cannons, the large hocks and hooves, the high wither, the highly set tail, and above everything else, that overall look…
A photo of the Davenport foundation mare Portia (Tripoli x Dhalana) I had not seen before.
I am in the USA for a few days, for the first time in two years. I am here for work reasons, but you can imagine I took advantage of the weekend to go see my horses. So Saturday, Darlene Summers and Jenny Krieg drove up with me to Pennsylvania to see the 7 (well, 6.5) I have there, and had a wonderful time talking horse on the way. As usual, my camera died on me half-way through the visit, and I have to rely on my friends’ photos. Here is a photo of my Wadd, which Darlene too. He will be 4 years old this September. He is a slow grower, and Charles Craver told me today that the inbred ones are even slower growers than the others. He had just rolled in the mud, and still had a lot of his winter coat. I still think highly of him, and hopefully he will keep improving and taking more after his sire, the glorious Triermain CF (whom I also saw today — what a privilege).
Basil Jadaan recently postly this beautiful photo of Mokhtar, the desert bred Kuhaylan al-Krush stallion from Syria, which Basil owned for several years before sending him to France.
Jackson Hensley sent my this recent photo of his 2002 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion (Davenport lines) Pulcher Ibn Reshan (Triermain CF x Aniq el Bedu by Iliad). There is something of the look of a wild desert animal in his eyes, that same look you see in old photos of desert birds, gazelles and young camels.
I don’t know if this stallion of excellent lines is still alive or not, but a reader asked about him. He was bred by Radwan Shabareq in Aleppo, and given to the late Mustafa al-Jabri who used him at stud. I knew him as a newborn, as a colt and as a stallion. His mother bellonged to an old Bedouin, ‘Aboud al-‘Ali al-‘Amoud of al-Uqaydat, who was extremely attached to her, and held her in the highest esteem. He refused to part with her at any cost, despite many offers. He refused to breed her, because he did not think that any stallion he knew was worthy of her in purity or othewise. Yusuf al-Rumaihi, the late Qatari consul in Syria (we are in the mid-1980s), a collector of desert-bred horses and an avid learner and fine connoisseur of desert lines, wanted her at any price, but the old Bedouin would not sell. The mare was getting up in age. He did agree to lease her, and the mare went to Damascus where she was bred to the Egyptian stallion Okaz (Wahag x Nazeemah). She foaled a filly which the Qatari consul retained. After this, the old Bedouin nagged so much…
Yesterday, I spent some time reading the story of al-Kuhaylah al-Harqah in the Abbas Pascha Manuscript (not the English version of Forbis and Sherif, but rather the large excerpts in Hamad al-Jassir’s Usul al-Khayl al-Arabiyyah al-Hadithah). The story of al-Harqah is remarkable for its simplicity (it’s not hard to follow), its conciseness (relative to other strains’ long-winded accounts in the Manuscript), its consistency (most witnesses interviewed relate the same story) and its comprehensiveness (from the originating Kuhaylat ‘Ajuz down to the mares that went to Abbas Pasha). For all these reasons it could serve as a case study of how strains changed hands and moved from tribe to tribe in Bedouin Arabia. The story is also remarkable as an account of how strains names are formed, an account of several Bedouin customs and traditions, and it can also be used to reconstruct a rough chronology. I would like to document all this at some point. Here’s a summary of how the strain got its name: A Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare was part of the ransom the Shammar (then all in the Jabal Shammar) asked the captured Sharif of Mecca to pay in return for his freedom; a descendant of this mare (still a Kuhaylat al-Ajuz with…
Now that I have read the Abbas Pasha Manuscript — the equivalent of the Bible for Arabian horses — from cover to cover a fair number of times, I have learned that all Kuhaylan ‘Ajuz horses originate from two wellsprings: the Sharif of Mecca in the Hijaz, and the major tribe of Qahtan, and more specifically the Qahtan sub-tribe of ‘Abidah in Wadi Tathlith (SW Saudi Arabia). I don’t know yet what the connections between these two sources are. The story of al-Harqah (originally a Kuhaylat ‘Ajuz) is illustrative of the horses that came out of the Sharif of Mecca.
In my opinion, this is one of the best up and coming Davenport stallions. He is almost perfect, and very reminiscent of 1960s Davenport stallions. He is by Dubloon CF out of Genuine Tes LD by Tesio CF.
A Kuhaylan Al Krush of Davenport breeding. In real life, did he look as good and as deserty as in this picture and others? Who is his best offspring today? What powerful shoulder he had and what short back! where do you find this today? Bred by Charles Craver.
In an earlier thread, Ahmad al-Tamimi share pictures of his wonderful, and very well built, asil Bahraini Kuhaylan Aafess stallion in Hail, Saudi Arabia. An antique horse for sure, of which he can be proud.
Images from arabianmagazineonline.com, by way of URL photo link
The magnificent HH Tantalus Krush, a 2009 Arabian stallion of the Kuhaylan Krush strain, Davenport lines, out of Quantum LD x Kashmir Krush LD. Thanks to owner Kim Davis for sharing this beautiful video of a superior stallion, true heir to his sire.
The Kuhaylat al-Krush Nuri Al Krush (Janub Al Krush x Mystalla by SL Jacob) has just foaled a most wonderful colt by Quantum LD (Mandarin x Leafs Ivey by Wotan) for Kim Davis. The dam is a concentrate of rare lines from old American breeding with lines to Mainad (Hanad x Charmain by Abu-Selim), Royal Amber (Ribal x Babe Azab), Oriental (Letan x Adouba) and Kapiti in the tail female (Harara x Tamarinsk). I can’t get enough of looking at the pictures of this colt Kim sent to a few of us, and I think he is the strongest, most handsome, best built and most promising young fellow I have seen this year. He is certainly stallion material for any CMK or any old American breeding program, and even think he can improve the breed overall. In any case, he is testimony to what you can get by preserving some of these really old and rare lines. Click on the photos to enlarge them. Congratulations Kim! By the way, his dam Nuri had foaled another most special horse at Trish Stockhecke in Canada some years ago. His sire was a quasi Al Khamsa stallion with lots of lines to Hallany…
The 27 year old Kuhaylah Hayfiyah Jauhar El Khala (Sporting Life x HB Tiffany by Thane) seems to get more and more and more beautiful with age. Photo by owner Christine Emmert. Click on the photo to enlarge it.
The Tahawi preservation breeders have the last (with her dam) asil Kuhaylat al-Kharass filly, by a Straight Egyptian stallion from US lines and out of the desert mare. I have not seen her yet, but from the photos Yasser took, she seems quite something. There was only one horse from that strain, an aged stallion, in the Syrian Studbook and he died a while ago. There was an old mare from the same strain in the Lebanese studbook, but she died too. The strain is originally from the Sba’ah ‘Anazah, where it was much prized and sought after especially for racing. It is well represented in the sire and dam lines of many of the Hearst imports. It was also the strain of Proximo/Jadaan, the personal mount of the head of the Fad’aan Jadaan Ibn Mhayd, seen by the Blunts in their second desert journey in 1881 (Lady Anne spelled the strain as Kuhaylan Akhras) and bought by them in India where he had been sold for racing. Proximo failed to produce anything at Crabbet (not very fertile), and was eventually sold to Poland yet at some point it was considered likely that the Crabbet foundation mare Nefisa was his…