Bits & Pieces

B its and P ieces

Ibn Fadl (*Fadl x *Turfa) at the Babson Farm c1952, photo by Charles Craver. A foundation stallion in Blue Star and BabsonTurfa breeding. Mudlarks

Jeannie Lieb: It is a well known fact that grey Davenports have a “must roll in the mud” gene. They love to decorate themselves!

Dr. Charlotte Newell: It's broader than Davenports.

There is a mud-seeking gene that is on the same chromosome as the gene for greying in horses. It is expressed more fully as the greying progresses, and reaches its zenith in the older "white" horse.

A prime example of this was Prince Hal at Upland.

Pam McArthur, who was leasing him, would come out and spend an insane amount of time cleaning him up, then go for a ride, during which Hal would pull his "I'm an old man, I need to go into the center of the ring and just stand" routine.

Pam would get off him, brush out the minimal saddle mark, and turn Hal back out, where he would put his nose to the ground like a bloodhound, searching intently until he found the muddiest possible spot, at which point he would drop and roll exuberantly until he was coated as though he were an adobe dwelling. [Ed.: We suppose that it would be possible to fill a Khamsat with remarks from all of our readers on this topic!

*Aire, photo from Jeździec i Hodowca, No.14, 1935, courtesy of Kate McLachlan. “Brazylja, Haras Er Rasul: pani Wanda Medeiros Marques de Echenique i jej ulubiona klacz AIRE, rody Seclawieh Jedranieh, ur. w Haras Er Rasul, nabyta przez p. J.M. Dickinson’s do stada Travelers Rest Farm, w Stanach Zjednoczonych.”

John & Bonnie Snyder: We have been owning and raising horses for a long time and when buying feed it only seems fair to bring our pet in, too. Most of the time we have the full grown ones and shy away because you've heard of the 'bull in a china shop!'

This weekend we went to Texas to pick up our latest treasure (Kamil Sahanad Saha, a 2021 chestnut colt, 100% Davenport with Sahanad). On the way back home, I decided to stop at the TSC where we order most of our grain. Couldn't leave 'Star' out in the trailer by himself so I clipped on a lead and we went shopping for food.

No problems — I think he could smell the grain all the way in the store. We politely waited for an older couple to exit the magic doors and then casually walked to the Equine section. The area employee helped us with our selection. We saw many people along the way. None of them knew us. But we kept our Al Khamsa Arabian manners very professional. Paid for our purchase and calmly walked back to the trailer and jumped in.

Not bad for a five month old colt just weaned and from off the farm for the first time. Thank you very much Maria Wallis for all of your hard work and dedication.

Bint El Bahreyn (two photos) and Azz at Sheykh Obeyd, and, could it possibly be, Bint Roga Al Zarka?

Several photos that Michael Bowling took of photographs in the possession of Lady Anne Lytton recently bobbed to the surface and a miniconference broke out on email as to who might be pictured. The top photo is not clear enough of the grey mares to make any sort of identification, but the bay mare has recognizable markings. The second photo is more clear of all three. It was taken at a different time, and so the grey mares may not be the same as in the first photo. In both, the markings on the bay are clear enough to match with the one known photograph of Bint El Bahreyn. Lady Anne Blunt describes Bint El Bahreyn as having great style. In the second photo, the grey mare on the right, held by Lady Anne, has been identified elsewhere as Azz (Bint Bint Azz). The mare in the middle was a conundrum, but R.J. Cadranell researched the dates. Bint El Bahreyn was purchased at the end of December, 1907, and Azz was sent to England in 1910. There were only a few white mares at Sheykh Obeyd at the same time as Bint El Bahreyn: Fasiha, *Ghazala, Azz, Bint Roda (Bint Roga Al Zarka) and Yashmak. The middle mare did not look like the existing photos of Fasiha, *Ghazala or Yashmak, and the triangular head is certainly reminiscent of the female line descending from Bint Roga Al Zarka, the female line that includes Moniet El Nefous. So? What do you think? If this is ‘Bint Roda’, she was purchased in April, 1909, which would make her somewhere between age 13 and 15. Lady Anne Blunt wrote of her: fine, splendid, white and fleabitten with black hooves.

Jenny Lees, Pearl Island Arabians: How Hamdaany Sanafee became the cover star of L’anne’e Hippique 2021, a book produced annually with the FEI results of the previous year. It covers FEI results for show jumping, dressage, endurance, carriage driving, etc.

During early 2020, a renowned UK horse photographer, Bob Langrish MBE, came to my stud farm in Herefordshire to take photographs of the horses. One of the horses I asked him to photograph was the asil Bahraini stallion, Hamdaany Sanafee, belonging to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa of Bahrain. Hamdaany Sanafee was selected to come to England to cover The Royal Stud of Bahrain mares that are kept here at my stud.

When we set Hamdaany free in his paddock he gave the display of athleticism that he always gives and at one point was vertical without a hoof on the ground. I am attaching three of the photographs taken that day.

Bob Langrish is known world-wide for his photography and one of his friends is Inge Van der Net, Editor of Hippique Anni’le. When she saw the photos of Hamdany Sanafee she was overwhelmed and contacted Bob to ask who the horse was. She assumed it was a ‘warm blood’. Bob told her he was an Arabian, she said, ‘no way! This horse is beautiful and so athletic. He is nothing like the Arabians I have seen. I like this horse!’ This is when Bob suggested she contact me to get the history of the horse ... and she did ... straight away.

I explained the difference between the asil Arabian and the show Arabian horses. I didn’t have to say much about the show Arabian as Inge already had an opinion on those, but she was fascinated to learn about the asil horses. She asked if she could use one of the photos as the cover for the Olympic issue of the book she was preparing. She said, as Dr. Matthias Oster did in a recent Zoom meeting, that many warmbloods, dressage horses, show jumpers, etc., had Arab blood back in their pedigrees. When she saw Sanafee she could see where it came from ... the desert. Inge then asked me to write 900 words on the horses of Bahrain which I prepared and once it was approved from Bahrain I sent it to Inge.

As the article included a photograph of HM The Queen’s Bahraini stallion, Tuwaisan, (also taken by Bob Langrish) I forwarded a copy of the book to Her Majesty and I received a very appreciative letter back. HRH The Prince of Wales also received a copy. I know he is an admirer of the asil desert Arabian as his Egyptian stallion Goudah (Gadallah x Ramiah) lived here with us for 12 years and he would often visit to admire him. I have two lovely mares by Goudah out of two of my asil Bahraini mares, a Shuwaimeh and a Kray.

Hamdaany Sanafee (BAH), photos by Bob Langrish MBE. Sanafee is a 2005 stallion by Jellaby Nejib (BAH) and out of Hamdanieh Alyatima Roudah (BAH). Nejib is part of the recent group of pedigrees from Bahrain which are now part of the Al Khamsa online database. Roudah did not happen to be part of the group proposed previously, however.