Twelve Davenports Sharps of Christmas: Audition LD
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.
Haven’t been on here for a while, have enjoyed reading all the new posts.I love the look of this stallion and the picture of the girl on Rababe is lovely.
When I last read a post on here a few weeks ago, someone commented that a horse exemplified why the kuhaylan strain is so named ( the khol eye cosmetic theory). I meant to ask, but never found time what Edouard and the other knowledgable Arabic speakers make of Lady Blunt’s contention ( I believe that Lady Wentworth is expounding her mother’s views at this point) that ‘kehilan Ajuz’ means simply thoroughbred, old purebred, and dismises the ‘old woman’ story as ridiculous.
She contends that ALL Arabs are Kehilan and that other strains are just lines that have accquired a strain name from a certain mare or tribe, so essentially a Seglawi is a Seglawi Kehilan.(page 29 The Authentic Arabian Horse &c).
Lady Blunt further condemns many of post Islamic ‘fictions ‘ regarding strain names and ‘Al Khamsa’ later in the book but can’t discuss it now as I have been distracted.. will post soon!
I wish you and all your horses health and happiness in the new year!
Hi Lisa,
Welcome back and happy new year to you too. All these statements by LAB are correct, IMO, and Lady Anne, as the foremost western authority on Arabian horses is essentially correct in 99% of the time. The old woman story is a legend and a ridiculous one. I will expand on this later.
Thanks Edouard, I look forward to your further comments.
All pictures were taken at SW as a three and four year old. The pretty lady in one picture is a former student who loves Audition at her beautiful place a few mile west of SW. Anne has loved him a long time. He has a muscled upright neck and high ponderous movement.
Sorry Edouard….
Does it then follow that as is so often heard ‘typical kehilet’ eg Rodania, makes no sense ?
Sorry, I have got a horrible feeling that I am being really thick here, but since reading Lady Blunt’s comments years ago I can’t reconcile the concept that Kehilan means nothing other than ‘thoroughbred, old, pureblood’, ie Arab of no particular strain (which makes sense to me) with the idea that kehilan is a certain stamp of horse … strong, substantial, ‘masculine’ etc ??
Thanks!
Lisa
Alice, I like the pictures, particularly his head in the second, but I see what you mean in the first he looks slightly ‘Iberian’.
well Lisa, to put it bluntly (no pun intended), Anne Blunt was right, and all the others who say that Kuhaylan is a certain stamp of horse, strong, substantial, masculine, etc. are wrong and they just do not get it, in my opinion.. There is no strain that has the monopoly of a certain type of horses. Strains are just names for horses, like we humans have family names. Does being from a certain family name (e.g, Smith, Johnson, etc) mean you have to be of a certain type (short or tall, blonde or dark haired, black or white)? No. And the same goes for horses. The Western mind is obsessed with fitting Arabian horse strain in tidy, neat little categories, and wants to see type and conformation where there are only names and folklore.
Thanks, Alice, for filling us in. He’s a good-looking boy, and he and Anne look very soft and happy together.
Thanks Edouard, that makes perfect sense to me !
Obviously I suppose certain strains bred by a certain tribe/stud are likely over time to come to be of a certain stamp but this would be just due to selection and in no way fixed in stone. Hazaim al Wair at the AHS meeting on strains implied that to him, the importance of strain was that he knew the character of the breeder/tribe and thus could have confidence in the horse’s quality and purity. Again this would apply to certain strains I suppose, though not widely dispersed, disparate strains whose origins are lost in the mists of time??
Finally, and I am sorry to be a pain , but purely from the point of view of language what is the root of the word Kehilan please?
Is it an Arabic word meaning old or original , is it anything to do with khol(!) or is it simply a derivative of Kheil as in horse?
Thanks again for your help!
Lisa you cannot have expressed it better than you did here.
Hazaim is 100% right, and we share the same vision. It’s no coincidence, we come from the same place, and learned from the same people.