Much of Arabian horse breeding program in the West follows patterns based on the exclusion or inclusion of specific horses or groups of horses: within the Babson Egyptians, for example you have the non-*Maaroufa, which is a sub-group that excludes lines to this mare. The Babson Egyptians are themselves an artificial sub-group of Egyptians Arabians, tracing in all lines from the horses imported by Henry Babson. Here’s what I mean by artificial: had Mr. Babson imported another mare than *Bint Bint Sabbah, the descendants of this other mare would have been labeled as Babson Egyptians, and the otherwise eligible descendants of *Bint Bint Sabbah would not. Within the Davenports Arabians, you have the non-Fasal, all without lines to this mare, even though the ancestors of Fasal (*Hamrah x Amran by *Deyr *Wadduda), are present in the pedigree of all non-Fasal Davenports. These groups and sub-groups have their own logic, and are usually meant to preserve different phenotypes. The Sharp breeding program is one of those rare artificial Western-created breeding groups that I think are worth breeding in isolation and preserving, when the bigger picture of Arabian horse breeding is taken into consideration. The Sharps are basically Al Khamsa Arabian horses…
The Blunt Hamdani Simri stallion Sotamm (Astraled x Selma II) is in every single Egyptian pedigree by now. He is of course the sire of Nazeer‘s maternal grandsire Kazmeen (Sotamm x Kasima). He is also in the n0n-Nazeer’s New Egyptians through El Sareei (Shahloul x Zareefa by Kazmeen), Sid Abouhom (El Deree x Leila out of Bint Sabah by Kazmeen) and Sheikh El Arab (Mansour x Bint Sabah by Kazmeen). He is also in all the Babson Egyptians, either through Bint Serra (Sotamm x Serra), or *Bint Bint Sabbah (Baiyad x Bint Sabah by Kazmeen). This means all Egyptian horses (the Straight Egyptians, but also the horses with Doyle and Rabanna blood, obviously) alive today have a measure of Blunt blood. This makes the few remaining asil Arabian horses without Blunt blood, which the late Carol Lyons identified as a separate group and called the “Sharps” through a clever play on words) all the more worthwhile.
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…
Not a straight Davenport this time, but too good to keep to myself: the 1987 Kuhaylan Hayfi stallion Audition LD (Audobon x Leafs Echo). This is one of Carol Lyons’ “Sharps” (no Blunt breeding). I know very little about him, other than his location (Illinois—these images look like StarWest to me), his pedigree, that he’s been shown in training level Dressage, his registered progeny (none, alas) and that he’s well-loved. Maybe Jeanne or Alice Martin knows him and can fill us in a bit more.
*Samirah is a Hamdaniyah Simriyah from the stud of the House of Saud in Najd, which was imported to the USA by Albert Harris in 1921. She has a very thin line that was the focus of a number of courageous, almost desperate preservation efforts over the last fourty years. The result is that the tail female line still goes on, albeit barely. A first line tracing back to *Samirah through her daughter Koweyt was discussed earlier, here. The second line to *Samirah is through her other daughter Kerasun, by the desert-bred stallion *Sunshine. *Sunshine was also from the Saud studs, and was imported in utero to USA in 1931 by Albert Harris, along with his dam *Nufoud, *Samirah, and two other mares. Kerasun in turn had two daughters, both bred by Albert Harris: Kaleta (by Alcazar) and Karamia (by Kulun, a Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz stallion from really old bloodlines tracing to *Nedjme). Through Kaleta runs a very thin line high in desert bred blood straight from Najd and the Syrian desert, with the arrows indicating a mother-to-daughter link: Kaleta –> her daughter Faleta (by Ibn Fadl, another Kuhaylan al-‘Ajuz and a son of the desert, his dam being *Turfa) –> Faleta’s…
This is one of my all-time favorite Asil Arabian mares. LD Rubic (Plantagenet x Tarrla) is unique for several reasons: 1) she is a great-grand-daughter of the mare *Nufoud, a Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz mare from Abd al-Aziz Ibn Saud born in 1925 and imported to the USA in 1931 by Albert W. Harris. You cannot get any closer to the source, and what a source! A Kuhaylah from Ibn Saud! Too bad we don’t know which Kuhaylat al-‘Ajuz that is. 2) She is a daughter of the fabulous stallion Plantagenet, an Asil Kuhaylan al-Hayf of the line imported to the USA by Homer Davenport in 1906. I am a big fan of the Plantagenet progeny, of which Palisades CF is another representative. Below is a picture of Plantagenet. 3) She doesn’t have any lines to the horses imported to the UK by Lady Anne and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt. Blunt horses are in the pedigrees of most Arabian horses worldwide. The late Carol Lyons called these horses “Sharp”, by opposition to “Blunt”. 4) Her line was saved from extinction by a person I have enormous respect and admiration for: the late Carol Lyons. Carol had acquired Tarrla (Tarff x Kaluga by Alcazar), Rubic’s dam, in 1979. She was the…