The first French private Arabian horse breeder : Count of Tocqueville

In the French “Journal des Haras” much is said about the French Government missions to purchase Arabian stallions (and sometimes a couple of mares) during the 19th century. Although private initiatives may have occurred before, the first and oldest record I have found so far is the breeding program of Count of Tocqueville, with a strong emphasis on purebred Arabian breeding.

The Count of Tocqueville was then owning the castle of Gueures in Normandy (photo above). Besides being involved in his earlier years in Arabian horse breeding, he also held in Gueures, the first racing events that would lead to the famous Dieppe City’s Racing Events in Normandy.

The Count owned also talented Thoroughbred horses but he is likely one of the very first horsemen of his area to purposely create a separate breeding program focused on Arabian horses. By the late 1820’s he had managed to secure a group of Arabian mares and stallions. He thought of them as a “superior quality” compared to the oriental ancestors of the English Thoroughbreds and possessed “authentic titles” certifying their origins (probably some hujjaj which are left to be found!). Let me introduce them to you, translating their review in a 1828 issue of the Journal:

– Ghandoura (recorded under the name Candour in the French Stud Book) : her name meaning “well built”, a white grey mare, born in 1816, size 1m54, a star and one sock, bought by the Austro-Hungarian Consul to Aleppo (M. Picciotto – see the post about Durrha for more details), sent to France and here owned by the Reverend Way, from whom the Count bought her.

– Warda : her name meaning “rose”, a bay mare, born in 1819/1820, size 1m54, a blaze and two socks, bred by the Count of Wartensleiben in Austria from whom the Count bought her, by a Saklawi stallion and out of Warda, a Saklawiyah mare. (Note : this mare is often mistaken with the 1821 Warda imported for the French National Studs by Baron of Coetdihuel in 1833 from Baron Von Fecthig’s Stud and the dam of Furette. This is NOT the same mare, there were two different “Warda” in France around the same time. Von Fechtig’s Warda was also recorded as being from a Saklawiyah strain but so far I have found no proof of them being sisters out of the same original mare, the 1810 “Warda”).

– Dursie : her named meaning “sold beauty”, a flea-bitten grey mare, born in 1820, also bought by the Reverend Way at her arrival in Europe, from whom Count of Tocqueville bought her. She was imported in foal to desertbred stallion called “Antar”, and subsequently foaled a purebred filly called Mademoiselle Belle-Jambe at the Gueures’Stud.

– Sbe-Hat (recorded under the name Sbahat in the FSB) : her name meaning “shinning star”, a flea-bitten grey mare, size 1m46, bought in the desert by some noble Polish men in 1816 when she was two years old and sold in Vienna to the Prince of Lichteinstein. The Count of Wartensleiben bought her and took her to Paris, where she was purchased by the Count of Tocqueville. Described as small but very well built, muscular, vigorous and fast mare.

– Nazifée (recorded under the name Gentille in the FSB, which actually is the meaning of her Arabic name): a cherry bay roan mare, size 1m50, taken to Paris in 1819 by the Greek dealer Glioccho and bought by H.R.H. the Dauphin. She was also imported in foal and at the Meudon Stud of the Duke of Orleans subsequently foaled a filly called Leila. The sire of this filly is here described as Raz El Fedawe (implying that this stallion part of the horses purchased by Van Hoorick in Marseilles in 1819; who imported it is not known; it might actually have been imported by Glioccho as well). Leila turned out to become one of the foundation mare for the Duke of Escars, famous in the racing circles.

– Badawie: her name meaning “Bedouin”, a brown mare, size 1m54, small white star, born in 1820 (erroneously recorded in 1815 in the FSB) in Austria at the Count of Wartensleiben, by Scheck-Kaelan, an Arabian stallion owned by Napeolon Bonaparte, out of a daughter of Count of Wartensleiben’s Arabian stallion Selim and an original Nedjdi mare.

– Kadra: a grey mare, size 1m56, taken back from Asia by an agent M. de la Rochefoucauld and M. de Clermont-Tonnerre (Note: this expedition occured only a couple of years before 1828 and was led by M. Barbery) for M. of Rotschild. Described as having lots of bone and being very muscular. (Note: Kadra is not listed in the first FSB)

– Nissa: a white grey mare, size 1m49, with a blood-mark on her right ear, from the mares band purchased by the King of Wurtemberg. Presented to some gentlemen of the Stuttgard’s Court, she was sold to M. de Beaurepaire, a captain of the Hunters Regiment who took her to France. (Note: Nissa is not listed in the first FSB)

– Shaklawie Amdam: nammed after his strain, a liver chestnut stallion, size 1m52, a desert-bred born circa 1815. He was the favorite gazelle hunting horse of the late Pasha of Mossul. Outlawed by the Turks, he would fly away to Aleppo, being forced to run away, he left his magnificent stallion to M. de Lesseps, then French Consul. De Lesseps sent the stallion to the Duke of Luxembourg, but having suffered from his travel to Europe Shaklawie Amdam was not to please the Duke who sold him away.

– Anazeth: nammed after the famous Anazeh tribe who bred him, a brown stallion, size 1m49, a desertbred from a Nedjdi strain owned by the Anazeh, taken back from Constantinople by the Duke of Riviere (French Consul in Constantinople from 1821 to 1825). Described as not very tall but very harmonious.

-Selim: reportedly from an Arabian sire and dam, his sire being the Arabian stallion Selim of Count of Wartensleiben. He is however listed among the “blood stallions” of Count of Tocqueville but along his Anglo and Thoroughbred stallions. For some yet obscure reason, he is not listed with Shaklawie Amdam and Anazeth, these two presented as genuine Arabian stallions.