Unidentified mare at Sidi Thabet, Tunisia
I had been reading about the Tunisian government stud of Sidi Thabet in Robert Mauvy’s writings since my teenage years. I happened to be in Tunisia for work and did not want to miss the opportunity to go there and visit, so I took half a day off, bought a Kodak camera for 10 bucks and took the bus to Sidi Thabet in the rural outskirts of the capital Tunis.
The stud manager was not there, only a couple grooms who showed me around. I took photos of all the stallions, except for the French ‘pseudo-Arabians’ who were very becoming increasingly popular in Tunisia and are all over the pedigrees now, and photos of the broodmares in the paddocks, but I did not take notes, and I am unable to identify any of the mares now. If the Tunisian readers could help with that, it would be great.
The photo below is of one of these Tunisian mares. This dark chestnut old mare was so refined, so regal. Back then, she reminded of Moniet El Nefous and her daughters Mona and Mabrouka in the famous photo with Dr. Marsafi which Judith Forbis took at the EAO in Egypt in the 1960s. Some of that likeness shows here.
Yes, she is indeed lovely. Love the refinement and the muzzle in particular. Hope we can shine some light on her identity.
hi i think i have seen this mare last year at sidi thabet i noticed her because she was typicly with all caracteristic of arabian pure so i asked about her a man working there and he said that she is straight egyptian and that she was sired with the egyptian stallion safir el badia a sidi thabet and that she had a one year felly i went to see that felly and she was majistous typicty pure arabian so next time ill be there i will ask about information and pedigree and send it here
mille mercis makram
Interesting. If this mare is by Safir Albadeia, he has no Moniet in his pedigree. He is sired by the EAO bred Wahag (Anter x Kamar) and out of the Albadeia mare Noosa (Ibn Maisa x Saaida) a tail female Rodania stallion. Looking up his get in Datasource, I find he was exported young to Tunisia so it appears all his get are from Tunisian bred mares. If this mare above is El Waha, she would have been 18 years old when you saw her Edouard. Her dam is a daughter of Esmet Ali mentioned previously in your blog. He is famous of course and is also a twice descendant of of the 1918 bay Tahawi bred stallion Nasr (Ghatwan x a Saqlawiyah Shaifiyah). I noticed that many of the mares bred to Safir Albadeia trace to Esmet Ali.
Makram, please let us know if you find out this mare’s name and her dam’s pedigree. Thanks.