Daughters of the Desert

7/30/2019 Daughters of the Desert

1/6

eauty, brains and talent sum up the Arabian mare. Volumes of tributes, poet-ry and praise have been showered on this unique horse for centuries. Legendand lore depict the enormous value placed on these mares in Biblical timesand ancient Arabian nomadic society, and life in those times shaped the char-

acter, spirit and appearance of todays Arabian mare.To Ishmael, the son of Abraham, God gave the gift of a wild Arabian mare. The

angel Gabriel said to Ishmael: This noble creature of the dark skin and painted eyesis the gift of the Living God to serve you as a companion in the wilderness and rewardyou. This wild mare produced a son from which celebrated Arabian horses are saidto descend.

The 7th century poet Yazid sang her praises: And in truth she has ever been tome a precious possession, born and brought up in our tents: of all possessions thatwhich has been born and bred with ones people is the most precious. And I will keepher as my own so long as there is a presser for the olive, and so long as a man, bare-foot or shod, wanders on the face of the earth.

She is said to have been given by Allah the gift of an intelligent spirit, of psychicpowers.

Prophet Mohammed received the Arabian horse with the words, Blessed be ye,O Daughter of the Wind. He said never to utter curse remarks on the subject ofthe camel or the wind: the former is a boon to man, the latter an emanation from thesoul of Allah.

The FiveThe breed is said to descend from five taproot foundation mares called Al-

Khamsa or The Five. Some wrote that all were owned by King Solomon around1600 B.C. Many other versions read that the mares belonged to the ProphetMohammed. Early Western travelers to the extended Arabian Peninsula (today much

of the Middle East) frequently reported that the term Al Khamsa was used to des-ignate the best or favorite breeds (strains or families) of the unique and ancientbreed of horses of the native Bedouin.

In one variation of the story of Al Khamsa, it is said that a tribe of Bedouin,after a long journey in the desert, released their mares to run to a watering hole toquench their thirst. As a test of their loyalty, their masters called back the maresbefore they reached the water. Five returned faithfully without drinking. Thesebecame the five original favorite mares of the Bedouin, and each was given a strainname which would carry on with its descendants.

The five basic Arabian horse families, known as Al Khamsa, include Kehilan,Seglawi, Abeyan, Hamdani and Hadban. In other lists, Muniqi and Dahman replaceAbeyan and Hamdani. Lady Wentworth of the Crabbet Stud pointed out in her booktheAuthentic Arabian Horse that the so-called five tap-roots are never the same five.

All strain names are taken through the tail female line. Spelling may vary. For

example, Kehilan may appear as Kuhaylan or Koheilan. Seglawi may appear as Sak-

60 NOVEMBER 2004 EQUESTRIAN

BY PATTI SCHOFLER

B

Daughtersof the Desert


2/6EQUESTRIAN NOVEMBER 2004 61

Suzanne/www.suzannesphoto.

com


3/6

lawi. Muniqi may be Maneghi. In addi-tion, there are masculine and feminineversions of the strain names.

The importance of these strainsand how they are used has been arguedover the years. Lady Wentworth dis-agreed with writer and chronicler of theEgyptian Arabian, Carl Raswan, who,

after living many years in the desert,attributed certain physical characteris-tics to each strain.

He believed that Kehilans werecharacteristically heavily muscled, widechested with a masculine appearance,bold and powerful. Their heads wereshort with broad foreheads and greatwidth in the jowls. The most commoncolors were gray and chestnut.

Seglawi were known for refine-ment, grace and feminine elegance.This strain was more likely fast asopposed to enduring. Seglawi horses

are fine boned with longer faces andnecks than the Kehilan. The most com-mon color is bay.

The Muniqi strain is described ashaving a racier build, with a more devel-oped forehand and lighter hindquarter.They were taller, coarser and faster witha look similar to the Thoroughbred.

The Abeyan strain is very similar tothe Seglawi, refined, often with a longerback than a typical Arabian. They weresmall horses, commonly gray with morewhite markings than other strains.

Hamdani horses were often consid-ered plain, with an athletic, if somewhatmasculine, large boned build. Their

heads were more often straight in pro-file, lacking an extreme forehead. Com-mon colors were gray and bay.

The Hadban strain was a smallerversion of the Hamdani, and said tohave an extremely gentle disposition.

The Bedouin DaysThis unique relationship between

the mare and her people is most fitting-ly expressed in the painting The ArabTent by Sir Edwin Landseer (1802-1873), which depicts a stunning grayArabian mare and her bay foal laying atpeace in a desert tent. In the picture, the

animals lay in among thefamily trappings and pose asif a member of that familywas painting their portrait.

Much is legend, muchis lore and much is practi-cality. The mares of thedesert were the horsestaken into battle. Breedingstock could be bought andsold, but for the most part,

the war mares were price-less. They changed handsonly as the most privilegedgift. Daughters of the warmares were usually acquiredonly by theft or in trade forcolossal riches.

Was it because, unlikestallions, they did not trum-pet their arrival at a camp orbattle and thus the riderscould arrive unnoticed?

Certainly, by todaysview, it was a cruel life: the

ill mare, after giving birth,might be left to die in the

desert. There was no veterinary hospi-tal, and the tribe survival was based ontravel. Those who could not move wereleft behind. Their life was about lack offood and pitiful weather. Certainly thislife meant survival of the fittest.

The Bedouin could shackle theirhorses, but they could not stable them.A fierce sand storm might mean a marewould wander off, losing her way. So,often the mare was brought into thetent.

Shelter in the family tent is said tobe the reason for the Arabian marescharacter: gentle and affectionate,allowing children to sleep by her feet. Itwas the mares who were trustworthy.

This is perhaps why their closeness tohumans is legendary.When a mare changed hands,

whether by theft or gift, the Bedouincode of honor meant the new ownerreceived strain, pedigree and breedinginformation, and the new owner wascommitted to honor her and breed onlyto asil (pure) stallions. Only in this waycould the Bedouins be assured that suc-ceeding generations of mares and theiroffspring would be the real thing.

Because of the high value placed onfemale horses, the early Arabs traced the

ancestry of their horses through thedams line, and a horses ancestry was

KarenKasper

MaryH

aggard

Above: This painting depicts the fivefoundation mares of the Arabian

breed known as Al Khamsa.Below: Only mares were used by the

Bedouins for raids or in war, andcolts were often sold before they

could cause problem in the camp.Very few stallions were kept.

62 NOVEMBER 2004 EQUESTRIAN



given the greatest esteem based on theaccomplishments of female ancestors.Stories of courage and glory could befound in the female line of nearly everyArabian horse.

The Influential MareIn Arabian horse breeding today,

you will hear the argument that themost significant part of the pedigree isthe tail female line (also called the damor family line), reflective of the Bedouinreverence for the mare. The tail femaleline descends through the dam, her dam(the granddam), etc., to the taprootmare, which is always a desertbred mare.The sire of the horses dam is called hisor her broodmare sire or maternalgrandsire.

So in the eyes of many, the femaletail line must be strong because it is theanchor of the pedigree. I think when

you have breeder folklore you should

pay attention to it, says Carole Steppe,breeder and owner of Daydream Arabi-ans in Santa Ynez, CA. The more youcan build any horses pedigree with greatmares, the more consistently she willproduce and the better herproduce. Every time youhave a proven producer in

the pedigree, the more youtighten up on great mares,and the fewer random mares,you are hedging your bet.

Paula Hitzler has man-aged the horse teaching andresearch center at MichiganState University for 15 years. Theschools herd has around 100 purebredArabians and the breeding program pro-duces 15 to 25 foals each year.

Hitzler too places intense emphasison genetics. When making breedingdecisions, she asks, Does this mare look

like her pedigree? How many lines of

horses are in the pedigree? Is she a purestrain? For instance, I consider if I havea Kehilan-bred mare, do I need to pret-ty her up. The Kehilan strain is verycorrect and athletic, but not always real

pretty. I might breed to aSeglawi type for morepretty. Its important to

focus on strong geneticpools in which the marecan draw from to producea foal you can count on.

Physical characteris-tics that distinguish theArabian mare in the world

of horses often derive from her ancientorigins. Today, the mare is judged inhalter/breeding classes on type.

One element of type is a broad,bulging forehead, believed to store theblessings from Allah. Therefore, thegreater the jibbah, the greater the

blessings carried by the horse. An arch-ing neck with a high crest and refinedthroatlatch, the mitbah, was a sign ofcourage, while an arched tail showedpride and presence. These traits, as wellas big, expressive eyes, were highlyregarded and have been selectively bredfor centuries.

There is nothing prettier than amare with Arab characteristics, saysBrian Murch, an R Arabian judge andtrainer at Strawberry Banks Farm inEast Aurora, NY. I want femininity,breed type, depth and substance of thebody. I want her to be correct struc-turally. I look for a long, arched neckand a short topline. When she moves,she is athletic. Even if she is for breed-ing, she must be a good mover. And Iwant her to look like a mare and like anArabian. Prett iness, refinement andpresencethats what I want to see in amare.

Elegance and presence, says KayPatterson Sharpnack of Sisters, OR,who began breeding Arabian horses in1956. These qualities are bred into

them. If mares have it, they stand thatway in the pasture. She also looks forgood conformation and beauty.

We want a mare to consistentlyproduce the quality that she has or moremore beauty, elegance, style, bettermotion. As a breeder, the mares willmake or break you. Be known for yourmares, she emphasizes.

We might like a daughter betterthan her mom and sell mom, says Hit-zler. If she is not moving us along, wesell her.

Sharpnack, Steppe and Hitzler are

not hesitant to buy older mares forbreeding, and, in fact, treasure these

Mary

Haggard

It was part of theBedouin code of

honor to provide thenew owner with

strain and breedinginformation, even formares taken in raids

or wars.


5/664 NOVEMBER 2004 EQUESTRIAN

horses who have proven themselves andwho can bring valued bloodlines closerto their stock.

Dont get the wrong idea, though.Arabian mares are not to stay homebarefoot and pregnant. In some breedsyou hear a strong preference for riding

geldings, then stallions and lastly mares.A breeder might bemoan the birth of afilly believing that she would be harderto sell or train as a riding horse. Not sothis breed. There is no gender prejudicewhen it comes to riding, driving andcompeting Arabian mares.

Murch, who specializes in trainingEnglish and driving horses, contendsthat training mares is no different thantraining geldings or stallions. In ourbreed, some of the greatest performancehorses with huge hearts are mares, hesays. And nothing is prettier than anArabian mare. Couple presence, refine-ment and beauty with talent and athleti-cism, they are truly extraordinary.

My entire show string is three-and four-year-old mares, Hitzler says.They are all champion or reservechampion junior Western horses thatkids show. Occasionally we have a mareproblem, but that horse is more theexception than the rule. Think aboutthe old, great mares bred by theLaCroix family [well-respected Arabianbreeders]. They were great halter hors-

es and great performance horses.The element that probably hasmost distinguished the Arabian mare inthe world of horses is her character.The reason Arabians have such lovingdispositions is because [of] countlessgenerations of living with nomadic peo-ple and traveling, and depending onpeople and having people love themand be dependent on them, saysSteppe.

Sharpnack agrees. I think gooddisposition is bred into the Arabian.Bad disposition is acquired by handling.

Arabs have lovely temperaments, shecontinues.

The GreatsWho are some of the great mares of

all time? Here is a small sampling.*Wadduda 30 (1899-1939): Is

there a mare that more fits legend thanthis war horse whose name meanslove/affection? In 1906, *Wadduda

was seven years-old and the favorite war

mare of the Bedouin Supreme Ruler,Sheik Hasem Bey. Political cartoonistHomer Davenport, who worked for theHearst newspapers, sailed to the Arabi-an Penninsula. He had received throughPresident Theodore Roosevelt a specialpermit from the Ottoman Empires sul-tan to import horses from the desert.

Davenport described meeting*Wadduda in Aleppo: She was gallopeddown a stony street, she came tearing

down toward us all afire, and the bound-

CourtesyArabianHorseWorld/JohnnyJohnston

Left: Frank McCoy withBint Sahara and five of her ninedaughters: Sahara Rose, Sahara

Dawn, Sahara Queen, Sahara Starand Sahara Lady.

Below: TW Forteyna was thefoundation mare for Black HawkArabians in California, and whenshe was alive, she was the leading

living producer of champions.

Coutesy

ArabianHorseWorld/JeffLittle



ing tassels around her knees looked likesilk skirts. Such action over such rollingrocks? Her tail was high and her eyesfairly sparkled!

*Wadduda bore on her neck lancescars and on her pastern the mark froma bullet she carried in her leg on an80-mile run. She was said to have raced

from Iskanderoon to Aleppo, 106 milesin 11 hours in pursuit of an enemycaravan.

Because of a blunder in diplomacy,Davenport had the good fortune to, infact, honor the Bedouin and was in turngiven as a gift the famed war mare.*Wadduda sailed to the U.S. in 1906,destined to become a foundation marein American breeding.

Bint Sahara (1942-1972): Hername means Daughter of the Desertbut this mare was clearly an all-Ameri-can girl. In her 23 years of producing,

she gave birth to 18 purebred Arabians,11 of whom were champions, nine ofthemselves siring or producing champi-ons. This gray beauty was born in 1942,and yet in 2003 she ranked fourth high-est in the number of purebred champi-ons produced. Well-conformed with aclassic Arabian head, she became syn-onymous with the McCoy breedingprogram, and to look at her offspringwho looked like stamped copies of BintSahara, it is clear how strong this femaleline truly was.

Perhaps most famous was her son,Fadjur, twice U.S. Reserve NationalChampion Stallion and four-time Top

Ten National winner. Healso sired 118 championsand 12 national winners.Her daughter Fersaraalso produced champi-ons, including the stal-lions The Real McCoyand Ferzon.

Mainly of Crabbetbreeding with a smatter-ing of Davenport, BintSahara was bought bypioneer breeders Frankand Helen McCoy in1942 when Arabians inAmerica where ratherrare, and she lived inSouthern California withthe McCoys until herdeath at 30 years old.

Susecion (1965-1993): Susie to her

friends Susecion is theonly Arabian Hall ofFame mare to producetwo double nationalchampion mares. One mare offspringwas both Canadian and U.S. nationalhalter and performance champion. Ason, Le Fire, sired a national championmare. Purchased as a yearling for a mere$2,500 by first-time Arabian owners andbreeders Dr. Fred and FlorenceRagland this gray mare went on to pro-duce 13 offspring seven of whom werechampions. Her most famous was thestallion Le Fire, who sired Canadianand U.S. national winners in halter,dressage, hunter pleasure and reining.

*Sanacht (1960-1986): Shouldyou see the name Amurath starting anArabian horses name, likely that horseis related to *Sanacht, the gray mareimported from the Marbach Stud inGermany. She was emblematic of goodbreeding choices, with very correct con-formation, and yet cost her Americanpurchasers a mere $750. Quite a bargaineven in 1962, the two-year-old filly went

on to produce 12 champions out of 15foals. Marian Carpenter describes her inthe bookArabian Legends, *Sanacht wasespecially well-known for her excep-tional body and straight legs. Hertopline was smooth and strong, withexcellent tail carriage and good withersand shoulders. When crossed with moreexotically pretty stallions, she pro-duced incredible, high-quality foals...Her owners, Sandi and Paul Loeber,described her as having a great mindwith nearly human-like qualities: kind,sweet and intelligent. Her offspring

would be described as thinking horseswith wonderful temperaments. The

mare herself went on to win several hal-ter championships.

TW Fortenya (1974-2001):Thismare was a great producer producingmore great producers. Fourteen of her16 sons and daughters are champions,six have national wins. She is one ofonly two Arabian mares to have pro-duced two national champion full sis-ters. Over nine grandsons and grand-daughters have national wins. Sixdaughters have champion offspring.Interestingly, her offspring have com-peted in endurance, hunter pleasure,Western, halter, racing, reining andworking cow.

What was she like, this mare thatproduced foals for 21 years? Besidesthe amazing fact that she wore her firstpair of shoes at age 25, she was knownfor her balanced and correct structure;strong and correct legs; a long, fineneck; and a big, bold, correct trot. And

on top of it, this bay mare was stunning,with large expressive eyes, a strongsense of self worth, intellect, curiosityand presence.

The list would mean nothing with-out mention of Balalajka, Saki, AutumnFire, *Rifala, Moska, Amber, Carinosa,Gayfaba, *Roda and many more greatmares known either for their own or theiroffsprings beauty, brains and talent.

Patti Schofler is a freelance writer and graduate ofthe USDF L Program. Living in Petaluma, CA,she also serves as development coordinator for a non-

profit agency. She may be reached via e-mail [email protected].

Above, right: The famed war mareWadduda has been written about inbooks and depicted in artwork suchas this illustration from artist Judy

Frazier Derwin.Below: Breyer Horses created modelsof the famous Arabian mare Susecion

and her 1975 foal Le Fire.

Cou

rt

esy

El

an

Pr

ess/Ju

dy

F

raz

ie

r

Der

win

Daughters of the Desert

Documents

Transcript of Daughters of the Desert