The little-known Davenport Habdans
Few people outside the group of North American Davenport breeders are aware of the existence of a fourth tail female of asil Arabians entirely tracing to the 1906 importation of 27 desert-bred horses from North Arabia. The Kuhaylan Haifis, the Kuhaylan Krush, and the horses tracing to Schilla are well known, but the Hadbans not so much.
Homer Davenport imported the mare *Hadba, bred by the Shammar, to the USA in 1906, and bred her daughter Killah, in 1911. Her grand-daughter Anlah by Antez was bred at Kellogg Farms in California, while Anlah’s daughter Ehwat Ansarlah was bred by W.R. Hearst’s stud in 1948, also in California.
Ehwat Ansarlah was part of the Second Foundation group of Davenport horses, and produced a daughter, Trisarlah by Tripoli. The line still goes on, but so thinly that it is hanging by a thread. There are still a few mares of breeding age, but they are not being bred, and the entire group risk falling off the radar screen and disappearing entirely in a few years.
This is why the Institute for the Desert Arabian Horse thought to place the 1995 grey mare RL Zahra Assahara (Portent x Antezzah by Grand Pass out of Letarlah, by El Alamein out of Trisarlah), bred by Jerald and Debra Dirks, in its preservation program for endangered asil lines, and leased the mare (photo below) to Marilyn McHallam in Canada, where her line will be preserved. Photo of Zahra and her nice filly by (I think) Palisades CF (Plantagenet x Bint Ralf by Ralf), courtesy of Anita Enander.
The filly in the photo is the 2006 model, Ghazal AR, by DDA Rasan (Letarnad x Cinnabar CF, by Portent out of Antezzeh), taken when Ghazal was about 4 months and they were still in California. (Letarnad is Hadban).
Zahra had a 2008 filly by Palisades (Aleefah AR) who is with me in California (sorry – no pics, although Michael described her as “a Palisades filly”). I think she is a nice blend of her parents.
Zahra was then bred by one of Pamela Klein’s stallions (well, she was bred to two different ones and I’m not sure if the foal has yet been DNA’d to verify which stallion settled the mare) before going up, with Ghazal, to Marilyn McHallam’s. That breeding resulted in a colt in 2010 for Marilyn McHallam, who is so enthusiastically supporting the Hadban recovery project. So Marilyn has 3 Hadbans in Canada at this time.
Anita
Thanks for the update. What are the other Hadban mares in production?
There is probably only one that we can count on: R L Boomerette with the Plutos. Here are some details:
There are basically two groups of mares. One group traces through the Trisarlah daughter Waddarlah, then to Bint Oberon, then to two daughters who bred on: DDA Hadba and DDA Shalaana. Bint Oberon’s third daughter, ACDS Bonne Jour, has had no foals.
DDA Hadba (no longer producing) has one daughter, R L Boomerette. R L Boomerette has one daughter (location unknown), and Boomerette is now with with new Davenport breeders Gene and Chris Pluto. There is hope there.
DDA Shalaana has two daughters, but they are in non-breeding homes. I am not certain of Shalaana’s status, but I believe she is deceased.
The other branch is where you find the mare and filly from the picture: through the other Trisarlah daughter, Letarlah, and through her to two daughters, Antezzah and Jamila Wahid (descent through a third daughter, who was exported to Jordon, is presumed lost to the group).
The daughters of Jamila Wahid may well be lost to the group as they are with an elderly breeder, and the future for those horses is quite uncertain (in my opinion).
Several of Antezzah’s offspring also went abroad and are presumed lost to the group. One daughter, RL Kadbat Abril is, I believe, in a non-breeding home. The only producing daughter is RL Zahra Assahara shown in your picture and whose progeny I described above.
So as of now there is RL Zahra Assahara and her two daughters and RL Boomerette that are in breeding homes. A number of the others were exported. Most of the remaining mares were with Roger and Louise Armstrong or the other elderly breeder. When Armstrongs retired, the horses were generally placed in non-breeding homes. We were fortunate to be able to get Zahra into the Institute’s breeding program and to get two fillies right away. Also, Marie Arthur took Boomerette and then was able to move her on to the Plutos. We hope the Plutos are successful. I can only hope that the other daughters of Jamila Wahid will be recovered for breeding.
By the way, Zahra, Aleefah, Jamila Walid and one of her daughters, are non-Asara; Boomerette and Ghazal and two of the Jamila Wahid daughters have Asara. Schilla has not been bred into this group yet. So there is still some variety available in this group from which to build.
There are some other horses with *Hadba through the middle of the pedigrees, but not very many.
Anita
And a true tragedy, as there was such a good start in getting that group really going back in the 90s….
An interesting preservation angle would be to breed prodigy from both Trian and Trisarlah, which I think Marie Arthur has been done a bit. Trian’s only living descendants are through his daughter Rosebud LBU, and I have one of her daughters, Divine Little Rose. I’m not in a position for another horse, but maybe there’s an opportunity knocking here?
I think that would be very interesting indeed, Darlene — perhaps in time someone can get your Rose and Marilyn’s Hadban colt together.
The other item of interest we were pursuing with breeding Palisades CF to Zahra was crossing the two sources of *Hadba available in the Davenports. (Assuming you accept the “Halloul and Petra swapped pedigree” theory, that makes Ralf tail-female to *Hadba via Meleky; also making the Ralf descendants the only remaining source of *Haleb in the straight Davenports.)
An update on RL Zahra Assahara’s 2010 Core Hadban colt, Wahid CW. His sire was confirmed by DNA as Tribute CF. Zahra foaled another Core Hadban colt on May 30, 2012, name pending, by Zodiac LD.
Just wanted to state that RL Boomerette _is_ a core Hadban with _no_ Asara in her. Also the Schillan line has been crossed into the Hadbans when Dawn Patrol was crossed with Antezzah for the filly DDA Shami Suwair. she was bred to DDA Kazz for the colt Remember The Dawn. He is with the Pluto’s. Boomerette also has had a filly with the Pluto’s that is a core Hadban.d
Marie is correct. I erred in saying Boomerette has Asara. Happy to note that she has a filly from 2006 RL Bilquis by DDA Rasan, which adds Asara.