While perusing old handwritten notes I found this bit of information, from a conversation with Radwan Shabareq: “Dr Iskander Qassis had four Krush mares which he got from Abu Husayn Khattab (the premier horse merchant and expert in Syria in the 1950s) who in turn got them from his father who had in turn obtained them from Mijhim ibn Mhayd. They were from the Krush of Al-Sane’, which was the best Krush marbat of the Fad’aan (woul ne3m).”
Triermain CF (Javera Thadrian x Demetria by Lysander), born in 1988 is arguably the premier Davenport stallion alive today. He is the regal son of his regal sire, the unforgetable Javera Thadrian. Photo by Anita Westfall (who else?). Another in a long line of Kuhaylan Hayfi horses right out of the stud of the “Queen of Elfland”..
Bushra, the Ju’aythniyah mare of Tahawi lines of Yasser Ghanem Barakat produced this nice colt by an Egyptian stallion last week. The foal looks more like his dam than his sire, and that’s a good thing. Note the big black eyes and the long ears on this superior war mare of pure Tahawi lines.
I am excited to announce that the Kuhaylat al-Ajuz Jadah BelloftheBall a.ka. “Belle” (Invictus Al Krush x Belladonna CHF by Audobon x LD Rubic by Plantagenet) has joined the Al-Dahdah herd. She is a gift from my friend Jeannie Lieb, who delivered her from Boston to Pennsylvania yesterday! I have been wanting a mare from the line of LD Rubic for 12 years now, ever since a came to the USA, and now I have one, so it’s a dream come true. This morning I found this email in my archives. It is from the late Carol Lyons and is dated Dec. 22, 2001: “{…] You asked about Rubic and Belladona. […] Who would I breed these mares to if I had the opportunity? I would try to breed Rubic to Triermain. There is a story here about why Charles gave this horse the name of Triermain’. It comes from a poem which tells the vertues of a man named Triermain and that he is worthy of the daughter of Plantagenet. Rubic is a Plantagenet daughter so the choice is obvious. I believe that Charles is a ‘master breeder’ and Triermain has been used on a number of Plantagenet daughters and granddaughters…
Anyone knows what the origin of this picture on allbreedpedigree.com is? It is supposed to represent the 1984 chestnut UAE stallion Turefi Dahman (Dahman Al Asfar 1975 x Turefiya Safra OA 1974), yet the horse in grey. The sire on the pedigree is UAE bred from Saudi lines, and the dam (persumably from the strain of Kuhaylan Turayfi) is presented as a desert bred. [Update: Photo by Rick Van Lent, Jr]
This is my translation of the hujjah of Mumtazah, the maternal and paternal grand-dam of the Kuhaylan Krush stallion Mokhtar, who is now in France with Chantal Chekroun and is already 27 years old. I am happy to see the number of his descendants increase every year. “I the undersigned ‘Iyadah al-Talab al-Khalaf, known as al-Qartah from the Faddaghah tribe of the Shammar al-Zawr, who now lives in the village of al-Taif, which is in the district of Tall Hamis in the province of al-Qamishli, I testify by God Most High, a testimony free from all self-interest, that the grey flea-bitten mare that is eighteen years old is Krush al-Bayda; she [i.e., her line] came to us directly from the Shaykh of the Shaykhs of the Shammar, Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin, approximately twenty years ago; her sire is Krush from the same marbat; and so are the sire of her dam, and the sire of her sire; her paternal uncles are from her maternal uncles [i.e., her sire and dam are closely related and so are their sires and dams] and no outside horse was introduced among them [i.e., the line was only bred to stallions from the same line]. And…
In Lady Anne Blunt’s Journals and Correspondence, the nice journal entry on February 20th, 1887 on the visit to Saud al-Tahawi, the reference to: “Fourthly, a Kehileh Taytanyeh [?] fleabitten” is of course to a Kehileh Jaytanieh. The strain of K. Taytanyeh does not exist, while K. Jaytanyeh (or J’aitniyah) is well known. The J at the beginning of a sentence in a handwritten letter can easily be taken for a T, and the editors were not sure of the transcription hence the question mark after it. This is indeed the strain of several mares at Sh. Sulayman Abd al-Hamid Eliwa al-Tahawi, including Bombolla and her daughters, a strain he got from his father Abd al-Hamid, who in turn must have received it from other Tahawi. Also, the reference to “a Kehilet el Tamoryeh (bred here), chestnut, very like Damask Rose and said to be of Roala origin, dam of all the young stock except one” is to a mare of the Kuhaylan Tamri strain that was obtained by Saud al-Tahawi from Nasir al-Mi’jil (aka Ibn Maajil), and whose line is very meticulously recorded in the herd book of his son Abdallah Saoud al-Tahawi, which was transcribed and uploaded online…
Yesterday Kim Davis and her daughter Taylor sent me this lovely shot of little Mayyassah (Clarion CF x Cinnabar Myst by ASF David), who was born last week. I love the broad forehead, the low eye placement, and the delicate muzzle. All three are recognized Davenport features which the infusion of more Davenport blood brings into a line. I also love the long ears!
HH Spartan Krush (HH Solstice Krush x HH Nadirah Krush), the young colt at Kim Davis’ in Capron, Illinois, is simply magnificent.
My kind of mare. By Sportin Life out of Sarra Al Krushah by Asar Al Krush. Davenport lines. She reminds of Qadheefah, a bay Ubayyah Suhayliyah from the stud of Mustapha Jabri outside Aleppo. Note the high withers, the deep girth, the hocks well let out, and the long ears. As long as there are still mares like that 100 years after Davenport’s importation from Syria to the USA, then there is hope for this breed.
Jeanne Craver sent me this photo of the black Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion Jadah Sharuuq (Lifes Capade LD x Belladonna CHF by Audobon), a Sharp (no Blunt/Crabbet blood) stallion bred by Randall and Mary Sue Harris of Peoria, IL, from lines from Carol Lyons. This rare and precious stallion is just five generations removed from the 1925 desert bred Saudi mare *Nufoud, in the dam line. He combines in my opinion, the best of American asil Arabian bloodlines: the Davenports, the Saudi Arabian imports of Albert Harris, the blood of *Turfa up close, and the Egyptian lines of H.H. Prince Mohammed Ali (*Fadl and *HH … Hamida). Jeanne had already sent me a photo of his beautiful dam Belladonna CHF — click here.
Bonnie Brown Duecker posted this photo on Facebook of her lovely 28 year old Kuhaylah Hayfiyah mare Pretty Special CF (Lysander x Pretty Fancy by Ionian), one of the last Lysander daughters. Photo by Ch. Emmert.
These two photos of Ribal (Berk x Rijma by Rijm) I had not seen before.
There was a meeting of Davenport and CMK folks and their horses in California last week. Many horses were shown, and many photos were taken. See some of the photos by Carol Mingst, here. Here is one of my favorite Davenport mare Pirouette CF, by Carol Mingst, and another of her daughter, ADA Sareeah (by Dubloon CF), by Christine Emmert. Both are excellent photographers, au naturel.
… a Kuhaylan Hayfi grandson of Portia. This was taken yesterday (22 Sep 2012) at the New Albion Stud in Davis CA. (Also recently confirmed by a repro vet: Porte’s semen should ship well.)
Also from the DAHC website, this gorgeous photo of Portia (Tripoli x Dhalana by Salan), a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah bred by Charles Craver, and the founder of a dynasty of her own at Craver Farms. I have met a couple of mares in Syria at the stud of Basil Jadaan in the early 1990s that bear a striking resemblance to her. There was in particular an old Kuhaylat Ibn Mizhir mare at Basil’s and a Saqlawiyat Ibn ‘Amud whose heads look almost exactly like Portia’s.
A photo of the Kuhaylan Hayfi Davenport stallion Anchorage (Ibn Alamein x Alaska by Tripoli) bred by Charles Craver. From the DAHC website
Christine Emmert just shared with me this beautiful photo she recently took of the Davenport Kuhaylah Hayifyah mare Wotan’s Winnie (Wotan x Danseuse CF by Lysander) during the Ed Skinner Memorial Trail ride. Thanks Christine!
Someone from the EAO contacted me and asked me (nicely) to remove these two posts. I have a good relation with EAO management that’s based on mutual trust, so I have agreed. We will be taking that discussion off-line and starting a constructive dialogue on the future role the EAO sees for these Bahraini stallions. I will keep readers posted on how this dialogue evolves. Comments will stay because they are the readers’.
This is Bint Delingat (Delingat x Bint Ammoura), one of the non-registered Tahawi mares that are currently being considered for registration by the EAO in a registry separate from the “Straight Egyptians”. She belongs to Yahia Abd al-Sattar al-Tahawi, who otherwise owns and breeds a lot of registered Arabian mares of Tahawi backgrounds, tracing in tail female to the three mares of Hamdan Stables. I took this photo in Geziret Saoud in Egypt last month. Bint Delingat is a Kuhaylah Tamriyah, and the very last of her strain. Oh, what an mazbut and precious strain Kuhaylan Tamri is! I especially like her long ears, and her overall type, which is reminiscent of some horses from Syria.
Someone from the EAO contacted me and asked me (nicely) to remove these two posts. I have a good relation with EAO management that’s based on mutual trust, so I have agreed. We will be taking that discussion off-line and starting a constructive dialogue on the future role the EAO sees for these Bahraini stallions. I will keep readers posted on how this dialogue evolves. Comments will stay because they are the readers’.
I like this 2001 picture of the Davenport stallion Telemachus CF (Odysseus x Recherche by Prince Hal). This is the real thing. Everything else, where you detect an inch of artificial features or characteristics, is fake.
As I was telling you in an earlier entry, last Friday I spent a most delightful day as a guest of Yehia Abd al-Attar al-Tahawi in Geziret Saoud in the Sharqiyah province of Egypt, along with Mohamed Osman al-Tahawi and Yasser Ghanim al-Tahawi and a number of others. I took tons of pictures with my i-phone, but I am having trouble downloading them on the laptop, so that will have to wait a bit. However, I did take some pictures with Mohamed’s camera when my phone’s battery was dead, including the following ones of a wonderful speckled Kuhaylah Khallawiyah mare. She is not registered, and she is one of the few remnants of their old tribal horses, 11 mares and one stallion in total. Her name is Bint Rammah, and she was born in 2003. Her dam is by the tribal Tahawi stallion Marhaba and her grand-dam by the “Straight Egyptian” Tahawi stallion Marshall (Amlam x Bint Fulla), who is her only link to registered Egyptian horses. According to the oral histories I heard during my visit, the Kuhaylan Khallawi strain of the Tahawi clan traces to an original mare brought from the Syria desert by one of the Tahawi shaykhs. From there she spread among various members of the Tahawi clan, including to Sh. Abd…
Today I am crossing my fingers that Pirouette CF, shown below with her 2012 gray filly ADA Sareeah (by Dubloon CF) will check in foal to the late Palisades CF. Another of Sareeah:
Abu al-Tayyeb is another one of these early Government Stud stallions in Syria, as was Sultan. That photo was also taken in 1958. He was reportedly a son of Krush Halba, the Kuhaylan Krush stallion from Lebanon that was sold to Turkey where he became a founding sire for the Turkish Arabian horse program. His dam was a Kuhaylat al-Krush from the Hama area in central Syria, and tracing to the Anazah Bedouins. His line is likely to be related to that of the Davenport imported mare *Werdi.
I just spoke to an old friend from Syria today. The economic situation is some parts of the country is so dire, cost of fodder has been multiplied by six, so much that people have been selling their asil mares and stallions to slaughterhouses in Iraq. I learned for instance that the young Kuhaylan al-Wati stallion from Shammar I had my eyes set on (below) was sold by the pound for meat. So sad, yet children are dying by the scores in both Syria and Iraq, so I will not shed a tear over a horse.
I had never heard of this branch of Kuhaylan until Radwan Shabareq told me about a number of Kuhaylat al-Beed (plural of al-Abyad, femine al-Baida) at the stud of Dr. Iskandar Qassis in Aleppo in the 1960s. I don’t know from which Bedouin tribe they came from.
Yasser Ghanim Barakat sent me this recent photo of the asil Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq Tahawi mare Felha (El Kharass x San’aa), aged 25. Felha was bred by Shaikh Soliman Eliwa al-Tahawi and is now owned by his grandson Hossam Abdullah Soliman. An ongoing campaign is currently taking place to get her and 11 other Tahawi mares accepted by the EAO and mtDNA testing was done to compare this line with that of another Tahawi Kuhaylat al-Nawwaq mare, *Malouma, as well with the existing K. al-Nawwaq lines in Syria and Lebanon.
Also from Kim Davi’s Krush program comes the mare HH Karisma Krush (Othello LD x Kashmir Krush by Sportin Life), bred by Carol Lyons in 2005… … the 2001 mare HH Sonata Krush (Preseus KF x Sarra Al Krushah by Asar Al Krush) … and the 2009 daughter HH Serafina Krush, by Quantum LD as well as the 2009 stallion HH Tantalus Krush (Quantum LD x Kashmir Krush by Sportin Life) and finally, the new colt’s sister, the 2010 filly Sabella Al Krush (Pulcher Ibn Reshan x HH Nadira Krush), who is also very promising Many of Kim’s horses also trace to Jackson Hensley’s old-established Kuhaylan Krush program.. and some of the exchanges between the two programs are pretty recent.
Kim Davis shared with me these photos of very promising young Kuhaylan al-Krush colt from her “marbat”. He is now about a month old is by her stallion HH Solstice Krush (Brass Band x Sarra Al Krushah) and the mare HH Nadira Krush (RC Janub Krush x Naufali Al Krush).
Also from Teymur comes this photo of the 1981 Turkish Arabian mare Almimruhiye.16 of the precious Kuhaylan al-Mimrah marbat of the Shaqfah family in Hama, Syria. The hujjah of her ancestress in the tail female, the original Almumruhiye is on the WAHO website, under “General Interest” then under “Turkish Stud Book Report”, and is reproduced below. She was purchased in the Syrian city of Hama in 1936 at the age of 5. Allah Almighty said in his precious book Q’uran ‘The love of passion that comes from women and children has attracted mankind, as well as accumulated gold and silver treasures, pedigreed horses, livestock and crops.’ The Asil Horses are blessed and valued for that Allah Almighty mentioned them many times in his precious book. The Republic of Turkey purchased from Hama by the help of Ali Saif Aldeem from the people of Hama some Asil Horses. Among them is the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh, her family tree is shown above. We witness that her fourth grandmother the bay is the mare of Hilal Bin Adnan from the Sbaah (Anezeh) and her father is Ma’anagi Sbeli. At Anezeh, she gave birth to the chestnut Kehaileh Mimrehieh whose father is the Ma’anagi Sbeli,…
Kurus, known in Turkey as Baba Kurus and in Lebanon as Krush Halba, was born in the Syrian desert in 1921, first became the foundation stallion of the racing-oriented Lebanese Arabian horse breeding program and was then exported to Turkey where he also founded the Turkish Arabian horse breeding program. Here a photo of a daughter of his, courtesy of Teymur from Turkey. She is SÜBEYHI.4., Grey 1936, Mare, Strain: MANEKIYE SÜBEYHI. Sire: KURUSH.1921 OA (Baba Kuru?) , Grey. Dam: SÜBEYHI.2.1929, Grey.
Today Wisteria CF left the care of Craver Frams in the trailer of her proud new owner Kathy Busch. Along with her rode Enchante CF (Zachary x Velveteen by Sir). I am sad to see Wisteria go but I am very happy that Kathy is the one who has her now, because Kathy keeps her horses for a long time and takes great care of them. Wisteria leaves behind a colt and a filly, and I could not wish for more. I am also forever grateful to Charles and Jeanne Craver for having kept her at their place, after selling her to me, and having taken such good care of her over the past five years. The day before, Javera Chelsea (Thane x HB Diandra by Mariner) and Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir) left Craver Farms to go to Tom and Jess Maiyer in Galion, Ohio, for embryo transfer.
A minute of walk at the end of a nice workout. He’s a work in progress, of course, but I’m enjoying the steady improvement.
I have mentioned the 1982 “war mare” LD Rubic (Plantagenet x Tarrla by Tarff) a number of times on this blog. She is the kind of mare I wish I had owned or bred. She is a great-grand-daughter of the desert bred mare *Nufoud, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz from the Saud royal studs. *Nufoud was imported to the USA by Albert Harris in 1932 through Amin Rihani. At that time, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was still the Sultanate of Najd and Hijaz. She is also a great-grand-daughter of another Saudi royal mare, *Turfa. LD Rubic was bred by the late Carol Lyons out of the last Al Khamsa mare of that strain, Tarrla. Carol saved that line and many others from extinction. Rubic left two sons and five daughters: of the sons, Salil Ibn Iliad produced a number of asil mares here and there. He is getting older. The other son AB Razeel, is younger but has not had progeny as far as I know. The five daughters of the LD Rubic are: MSF Rubie, Bint Rubic CHF, MSF Shamis, AB Dafiinah, and Belladonna CHF. MSF Rubie is a problem breeder, and has not had a foal in a long…
My friend Jenny Krieg has suggested the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Port Angeles CF (Portico x Aureole CF) as a horse I might want to consider breeding from in the spring. He is a brother of Porte CF from his sire, and a brother of Aurene CF from his dam. Here is a photo, gleaned off the website of his owner Randall Abler, at Eden Arabian Farms in Georgia.
Many of you have been writing to or hearing about Yasser al-Tahawi who is one of the main persons behind the recent revelations about the original horses of the Tahawi tribe. Well here’s a picture of him, riding bareback on his Kuhaylah Ju’athiniyah mare Bushra.
I think I may have already written that this mare was one of my favorite living asil mares, on pedigree, on photo, and in real life (I saw her at Carol Lyons in 2003 or was it 2004? I don’t remember): En Pointe CF is a war mare the likes of which seldom exist today. An ‘atiq (antique, ancient in Arabic) mare of the ancient desert type, reminiscent in her style and class of the Old Blunt mares of the Rodania tail female like Risala and Rissla. Her dam Pirouette CF is my all time favorite living Davenport mare, and her sire Triermain CF is my favorite living Davenport stallion. Her double grandsire Javera Thadrian is simply my all time favorite asil Arabian stallion in the West (but you knew that already). By the way, I do believe that linebreeding to Javera Thadrian does produce outstanding horses. En Pointe CF is one example; Tantris CF is another, and my own Wadha (Javera Thadrian x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF, by Javera Thadrian) and Wadd (Triermain CF x Wisteria CF by Triermain CF) are not bad at all, either. Not sure who owns her today, but she is lucky.
I really like this small photo of the Kuhaylan Haifi stallion Fair Sair (Sir x Lady Fair by Tripoli), whom I saw at Alice Martin’s in 2005. I find him very reminiscent of his grandson Aurene CF (Triermain CF x Aureole by Fair Sir), who is at Pamela Klein’s.
Teymur sent this picture of the other foundation sire of the Turkish Arabian breeding program, the 1928 bay stallion Sa’d (Kuheylan Cietni x Kuheyletul Sade Tukan), also known as Baba Saad, a Kuhaylan Sa’dan al-Tuqan, by a Kuhaylan Ju’aytni. He was Turkey’s most famous racehorse.
Marie Arthur sent these photos of the nice Kuhaylat al-Krush mare IV Shtika Al Krush (CL Hi Ned x Tika Al Krush by Krushan Al Krush), who Hi Ned’s only Krush daughter. If you scroll down you will see a photo of this impressive stallion.
The Abbas Pasha Manuscript [1993, edited by J. Forbis and G. Sherif], which is essentially the transcription by Abbas Pasha’s envoys of Bedouins’ testimonies about their horses, is the foremost primary source on the Bedouin-bred Arabian horse available today. Its hundreds of testimonies is the precious remnant of an oral culture, now long gone. No wonder modern Saudi families and clans who have nothing to do with horses anymore are relying on it as a bargaining chip to ask for favors from the Saudi royal family, or to ascertain their social status (things along the lines of: “Your Highness, my ancestor gave your ancestor a precious mare, they were close, it is written in the horse book, so now I need… from you in return”). However great the legacy of Judith Forbis as a breeder of Arabian horses of the show type has been, her most enduring legacy, IMO, is to have made this book available to Western audiences. Page after page, the information in the Manuscript debunks many Western misconceptions about Bedouin horse breeding. Really, the only thing missing from the book is an index of the individual horses, strains and Bedouins mentioned. Check out this quote, page 439 [notes between brackets are mine]: “The Sheikhs of Subayah [actually, Subay’, a Bedouin tribe…
Speaking of jewels (Confetti CF is on the left, Provance CF on the right): Edouard, take this out if you want — but their owner, Mary Ann Brewer, has decided to stop breeding, and is offering these two Kuhaylat, and Tokens Ceelen (a straight Davenport mare, tail female to Schilla) on a free lease to interested Davenport breeders. Contact her for details — she’s in Texas.
One of the few asil Tahawi mares left in Egypt is this old Kuhaylah Nawwaqiyah owned by Helga al-Tahawi, the wife of the late Shaykh Soliman al-Tahawi. She is one of those which the Board of Directors of Al Khamsa recently recognized as tribal “horses of interest”. I think the photo is from Bernd Radtke, but it might directly from the Tahawis. A collective effort on three continents is under way to get these 15 or so remaining Tahawi horses recognized by the EAO in Egypt, and as a result, by WAHO.
Recently uploaded on the website of the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website is this photo of the beautiful 1975 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Irade (Ibn Alamein x Iras), bred at Craver Farms.
Raed Yaken, who lives in London but is originally from Aleppo, Syria, sent me these pictures of his asil mare Zohoor (“Flowers”), a Kuhaylah Hayfiyah bred by Alaa al-Din al-Jabri. Zuhur is by Mahrous (of Mustafa al-Jabri, his nephew) out of the small bay mare Durra whose photo was one of the first ones posted on this blog in 2008. Some time ago I also posted photos of Zohoor I saw both mares at Alaa al-Din Jabri’s back in 1991, and I also saw Durra’s dam Freihat; I remember all three of them very well. They are from the most asil, authenticated marbat of K. Hayfi in Syria, that of Wawi al-Kharfan of the Fad’aan. Theirs is one of the best marabit in Syria, and it is now with the Yakan family. His name is mistakenly spelled “Wadi” (which is not a man’s name, but means ‘valley’ in Arabic) in the Syrian Studbook and the error was picked up by others since. No one seems to remember who that Wawi al-Kharfan was, but he seems to have been one of the men of the Fad’aan Bedouin leaders Muqhim (Mijhim) al-Mayahd close circle. There is a lingering story, which I was…
Jeanne Craver has sent a number of precious photos of the Kuhaylat al-Krush mare Asara (Kasar x Badia by Jadaan) to be uploaded on the Davenport Arabian Horse Conservancy website. Asara is one of the Second Foundation Davenport mare, whose is the tail female of a number of favorites featured on this blog, such as the Krush stallions Janub Al Krush, CL Hi-Ned, and Indie Star. Below are are some of these photos, which you can click on to enlarge. What a mare.
This mare, Al-Shumuss, was at the stud of Mustafa al-Jabri in Aleppo in the 1990s, and her dam was at Radwan Shabareq’s. She was a Kuhaylat al-Krush, by a Hamdani Simri who was himself by the black Saqlawi Marzaqani stallion of al-Anoud, Princess of Tai; the mare’s dam was by the same black Saqlawi Marzaqani. The line came from the Shammar, from Rakan al-Nuri al-Mashal al-Jarba, but before that it was his maternal uncles the Tai chiefs; and while most everyone among the horse breeders in Syria thought this line traced back to the Krush al-Baida marbat of Mayzar ‘Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba of the Shammar (it is even registered as Krush al-Baida in the Syrian studbook) which ultimately goes back to the Mutayr Bedouins, it turned out, following questioning of the elders and leaders of the Tai Bedouins in the late 1990s that this Krush marbat actually came from the Fad’aan Bedouins of the ‘Anazah. There are two distinct lines of Kuhaylan Krush in North Arabia: one going back to the Fad’aan ‘Anazah (like Krush Halba below, like the Davenport import *Werdi, like the mare in this picture), and another line, known as Krush al-Baida (the white Krush) going back…