This filly is the best news of the foaling season in the US so far. A young Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah (yay!), by a Doyle (100% old Blunt) stallion out of a mare with seven crosses to Julep (Gulastra x *Aziza). She is the result of the first cross of a stallion from the Julep-Gulastra-Astraled tail male to Mesaoud to a mare from the Ghadaf-Ribal-Seyal tail male to Mesaoud ever, and the first cross between two different tail males to Mesaoud in at least 90 years. Think of it, the Doyle horses were never bred to the Julep horses. I like this filly, and I like her dam SS Lady Guenevere too, especially that purple chestnut color. The tail female is from Jane Ott, back to Haidee, imported by Major Roger Upton from Arabia, from the Gmassah Bedouins of Sulayman ibn Mirshid to be precise. That’s the wellspring of Ma’naqi Sbayli. The famous *Haleb was from there, too.
Also from Facebook — and I gave up on trying to compete with it here, lol — comes this gorgeous photo which Edna Ehret posted of the asil 1984 Ma’naqi Sbaili stallion Dakhala Bashiq (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), the full brother of my 1985 Dakhala Sahra, both bred by Jeanne Craver. Two failed embryo transfer attempts on Sahra so far, third is the charm, please wish me luck. Mrs. Ehret sold him to a person whose name she does not remember.
The 26 year old chestnut Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir) just joined the group of old broodmares whose lines I am trying to preserve. She was bred by Jeanne Craver in 1985, and then went to Charles’ cousin Crista Couch, and then to Kathryn Busch, who sold her to me. I was about 10 or 12 the first time I came upon a horse of that line. That was before the internet, and before DVDs too. I was going through the Asil Club’s publication Asil Araber II, when, buried in a sea of Egyptian pedigrees, I found the photo of Erika Schiele’s stallion El Beshir (Faaris x Sirrulla by Sirecho), bred by Mrs Ott. The photo was in black and white and it showed a dapple grey horse, and I was taken by the horse as much as by its unusual strain (recorded as Ma’naqi Hadraji, but it’s actually Sbayli) and pedigree. There was also that famous photo of the Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Lysander at Craver Farms, and I wondered about that unusual (ie, non SE) pedigree too.. She is by Plantagenet, and according to Charles, “more like Plantagenet than Plantagenet himself”. Her dam was…
Robin Weeks is spoiling me with photos of horses she owned, which happen to be horses I like a lot, and I am on a roll. Here’s a couple of pictures of the Ma’naqiyah Sbayliyah mare Soiree (Sir x Sirrulya by Julyan) in old age. She was bred by Jeanne Craver, and later owned by Robin Weeks. A favorite mare of mine, as you can tell from the several blog entries about this family. By now I think it’s time I shared with you the news that I am working with Kathy Busch of Kansas City, MO, on leasing a 25 year old chestnut daughter of Soiree which she owns. Her name is Dakhala Sahra (Plantagenet x Soiree by Sir), she was also bred by Jeanne Craver, and she is all I am thinking about these days. She’s been treated at the vet clinic recently for a minor uterus infection, and she’ll be ready to be bred over the next couple weeks via artificial insemination. I am still looking for the right stallion for her, with ‘right’ in this case including ‘ready to collect from and ship’ in addition to the other meaning it has for me. By the way,…
Robin Weeks sent me more of these, all tracing to the Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd mare Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), one of the main progenitors of the *Urfah tail female in asil breeding in the USA. All photos by Sugar Hill Farms, courtesy of Robin Weeks. Below is Dahriefa, still: The young grey one below is Sugar Hill Sassy (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), by a Sirecho son out of a mare by another Sirecho son. This is Dahmira (Joramir x Dahriefa by Dahrecho), a full sister of the above and this is Dahmira’s daughter SH Hamira (Abay-Hami x Dahmira by Joramir), with her grand-dam Dahriefa in the background.. The last photo features SH Hamira on the left and her grand-dam Dahriefa, on the right. She looks so special even in old age, and strongly reminds me of the some of the old desert bred mares at Basil Jadaan’s in Damascus.
Jeanne Craver just sent me these other pictures of Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), a Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd whose tail female goes back to *Urfa.
Robin Weeks sent me this photo of Dahriefa (Dahrecho x Zariefa by Zarlan), a 1975 Saglawiat al-‘Abd and one of the few sources left to the Davenport import *Urfah in tail female, bred by Mrs. John Ekern Ott and her daughter Jane Ott, and the holder of one of my favorite asil pedigrees. One of the collateral implications of the mtDNA-based findings that the Davenport horses descending from the mare Schilla do not trace back to *Urfah in tail female (but rather do the Hamdaniyah mare Galfia), is that the remaining number of tail-female descendants of *Urfah left has automatically gone down to a couple dozen horses at best. The only remaining line to *Urfah — one of the foundation mares of American Arabian breeding — is through her 1931 great-grand-daughter Ferka (Ferdilan x Poka by *Hamrah), Tripoli’s maternal half-sister. Dahriefa one of the main progenitors of this line, which Pam Baker in South Carolina and Monica Respet of Pennsylvania are among the few breeders perpetuating. I am currently involved in an Al-Khamsa effort to identify and map out critically endangered asil lines in the USA. Mapping the tail female lines horses to both *Urfah and *Waddudah (both Saqlawiyat al-‘Abd by strain) is actually on top of…
He was by Prince Hal x Sirrulya. Photo from Jeanne Craver
I am pleased to introduce my first guest blogger: Robert J. Cadranell II (RJ) is a friend, a dedicated breeder of Arabian horses of Davenport bloodlines, and one of the foremost Arab horse researchers of our generation. RJ was, together with Michael Bowling, the co-editor of the Arabian Visions magazine, during the nineties, and is currently leading the effort behind the Davenport Conservancy. RJ will be blogging about the history of Arabian horses in the West, and one couldn’t think of a better person to do so.