Three pictures of Dahess, the Ubayyan Suhayli stallion from Syria

This afternoon I scanned some photos from a trip to Syria my father and I took in 1995 (almost 30 years ago, yikes!). I am more aware than ever about the need to put old analog records in digital format and online.

Starting with Dahess, the handsome Ubayyan Suhayli stallion my father had just traded for a filly from the breeding of Radwan Shabareq. Dahess was a personal favorite of mine. Funny how some horses are just horses, while others touch your soul. This was the last time I was to see him, as he met an untimely death in a freak accident a few months later. To me, he will always remain the epitome of the desert Arabian horse, the real deal.

His origins were flawless. His sire Awaad was a Kuhaylan Krush al-Baida from the strain of Mayzar Abd al-Muhsin al-Jarba, a strain that goes back to Ibn Rashid and the Mutayr Bedouins; his dam al-Jazi was sired by the grey Ubayyan Suhayli of ‘Atnan al-Shazi, a Faddagha Shammar Bedouin who had obtained the line from the Sahlan/Suhayli owners of the strain; I recall being told that this horse was sold to the UAE in the early 1980s before studbook registration; his maternal grand-dam was sired by another grey Ubayyan Suhayli, the horse of Abd al-Aziz al-Maslat, the leader of the Jubur; and his maternal great-granddam was sired by the same horse, a foundation stallion of desert-bred Syrian breeding. Dahess came from blue blood through and through.