The original scan of this photo has cut off the name of the horse, but it’s fairly legible even so, and the following page is able to identify this horse as Osman III: As you can see, he was sired by Aslan and out of the mare Ablulu (Aslan x Hazam), born Oct. 27th 1890. The article this photo was found in dated to 1902 at the very earliest, making this horse 12 years or younger at the time of it being taken. Osman III was owned by Nathan Miers Cox. Interestingly enough, in this same series of articles, Aslan is said to have been imported in 1871, and the same paragraph indicates that he was around 29 years old in 1896 – putting his date of birth at around 1867. Both of these dates are different than the previous information listed for Aslan, but the proximity suggests that we may be on the right track with those dates.
Shared by Miguel – this is Gomussa (or Gomuza), the son of Naomi and Kouch*, born in England in 1884. * Spencer Borden appears to have attributed Gomussa’s sire as the bay stallion Kars, which I find myself curious about, now – Naomi was red, and Kouch was grey, but Gomussa is bay. Kouch was probably heterozygous grey, but I have no idea what his base color was – black or bay**, if he is in truth the sire of Gomussa. I can’t find any discussion on this, though – anyone want to spitball? ** Interestingly enough, Kate and I were speculating a little bit ago that perhaps one of the reasons that black was seen so infrequently in the desert was not that it was necessarily ‘rare’, but because because black was generally not bred for, those born with black pigment were winners of the genetic lottery in that they had both a recessive ‘aa’ agouti expression AND at least one copy of grey. After all, all horses are born with either black or red as their base extension, with the agouti controlling whether a horse is black, or bay – with most non-grey horses presenting phenotypically as red…
Amurat II is by Aslan, and out of the German Weil mare Hazam, a full sibling to the mare Ablulu. It looks like this is a male horse. In ‘El Stud Book del Valparaiso Sporting Club’ (1895) a list of registered Arabian horses reveals that there is a registered horse, also by Aslan and out of Hazam, named AMURATH. What is unclear at this time is if Amurat II is in fact the son of Amurath, or if Amurat II is a typo, with the ‘II’ having been switched in the stead of the ‘H’. Hopefully more will be revealed when the full studbook is accessed.
This is MAHABA, the full sister of the mare I posted yesterday (Aslan x Ramdy). She has a quality about her – she could gladly grace my stable anytime, I think.
Arneb is yet another offspring of the stallion Aslan, and is also the foal of the other earliest German Weil mare that found her way to Chile, Ramdy. Ramdy was born in 1867, her dam also carrying the name Ramdy and her sire being the bay 1851 stallion Tajar (Amurath x Geyran III). Again, we see the foundation elements of Bairactar, Sady III & Hamdany I, Geyran I, and Bournu & Kabron I. This horse’s name, I believe, means ‘hare.’ It was unclear to me whether or not this horse was a mare or stallion, but I believe Arneb is a mare. In ‘El Stud Book del Valparaiso Sporting Club’ (1895) a list of registered Arabian horses contains this gem on pg 85:
This is RASCHID (the “b” is a typo), a grey stallion born in 1894 by Gomuza (Gomussa, Kouch x Naomi) and Kothaf (Aslan x Ablulu). Ablulu was also by Aslan, and her dam was the mare Hazam, one of the original imports from the German Weil along with Aslan and Ramdy (also spelled Randy). All of these horses are very interesting – it can be noted that the Early American Arabian supermare Naomi is felt in Chile through an element that precedes any Huntington or Borden influence, and is one of the stallion Kouch’s very few registered Arabian offspring. Aslan appears to be a desertbred stallion, but Raschid’s tail female line to Hazam contains several generations of Weil breeding, including three crosses to the Or. Ar. stallion Bairactar and three crosses to the Sady III and Or. Ar. Hamdany I mareline. We also see the asil elements of the stallion Bournu, the stallion Dzelaby, and the mare Geyran I. You can view a copy of the pedigree here.
I am posting this on behalf of Miguel, who is quite knowledgeable of the history of the Arabian horse breed in Chile, where he tells me that he believes the Chilean registry is the oldest of all those in South America. The Chilean registry includes Peru, and is said to have begun in in 1872, the details of which you will find below.
Earlier I shared a photo of the Chilean Tahawi stallion, PB Muahjid. I am now sharing a photo of the other Neveen foal in Chile that Miguel Acuña Álvarez has in his program, PB Mushka, who is tail female to the Hamdan Tahawi mare, Folla. This is her with her 1997 grey filly, Nueva Ortigosa Ghezira, by the Chilean National Champion stallion HS Kisra.
Miguel Acuña Álvarez has shared this photo of his foundation stallion, PB MUAHJID [pedigree] by the Ansata-sired Nasani and out of the imported Hamdan Stables mare Neveen, with whom he was with in-utero during her importation to Chile. Neveen’s dam was the 1963 Bint Folla II, and her dam was the Tahawi mare and Hamdan Stables foundation mare, Folla. In the United States this is a rather rare line, as Bint Folla II is only felt through the mare Neveen, and Neveen had but one daughter to carry her line forth, the 1990 grey mare Amira Neveen, by the ubiquitous TheEgyptianPrince. Amira Neveen had several offspring: two stallions, 1996 Amir Farid and the 2010 Amer El Khalid LDV; and four mares, Sulayah LDV, Morocco LDV, X Quisite LDV, and Perla LDV, all bred by La Dulce Vida Arabians / Martha Suarez and born respectively in 2002, 2003, 2006, and 2008. So far, it appears that the only one of these 6 offspring to breed forward is Sulayah LVD, who foaled the mare Amira Jewel LDV in 2008, meaning that it’s been a decade since this line last saw a foal on the ground. There’s still time, but this is definitely…
I have been thinking a lot about the early South American Arabians, imported before things went sideways. I know a few years back some folks here were looking into potential old asil lines for the horses, and I think it was concluded that non are extent today save for the horses that descend from the mare *AIRE – which is tragic. Nevertheless, I have been able to find photos of some of these old horses, and while it does little in the way of preservation efforts, I think it would serve as a bittersweet reminder of what we have lost, and what we strive to preserve. AJMAN (Feysul x Ajramieh), when he was still at Crabbet Park