| The Barb AND
JENNET HORSE
So-called Barbs, Lybian or North African, also often called Sahara horses. They are pure Arabian though not bred in the strains. Picture taken by Carl Raswan on the Lybian Desert July 29, 1914.  |
|
Reading Raswan |
| The Barb AND
JENNET HORSE
So-called Barbs, Lybian or North African, also often called Sahara horses. They are pure Arabian though not bred in the strains. Picture taken by Carl Raswan on the Lybian Desert July 29, 1914. |
| TRAVELERS AND HISTORIANS
during the crusades and medieval times called the Bedouin tribes and their
horses of Palestine, Syria, Arabia and northern Africa the Barbaric tribes
or the Barbaries. Later the word Berber or Barb was exclusively used for
the people and horses of the Barbary Coast and desert and mountain regions
of northern Africa.
THE ANCESTORS of the north African Berbers left northern Arabia when the Persians invaded Mesopotamia, Syria and Phoenicia about 1000 B.C., migrating to Egypt first and spreading over northern Africa. The northern Arabian Bedouins settled in Libia, the Sahara and the Atlas mountains an deserts. The were later joined by their relatives, the Himyarite tribes of southern Arabia (Yemen, Asir) and Hejaz. THESE TRIBES were not the aristocrats of Nejd (central Arabia) who had never intermarried with their slaves or conquered people as had the Berbers. The Berber horses were not exactly purebred. Prior to the Berber invasions there had been no horses in north Africa. We know this from ancient Egyptian records which describe in detail raids into the Libian desert, 3500 B.C. to 1000 B.C. The Egyptians however had horses acquired from Arabia and Syria which they first used to draw chariots and later to ride. THE BERBERS arrival in north Africa preceded advanced civilization in Europe and as the Greek and Roman culture spread to that country, the Europeans adopted much of their horse lore, particularly taking to horse races and horse festivals. ATHENS AND Rome imported horses from the Barbary coast. Ancient coins of Carthage bear witness to the Arabian type of north African Barb horse, 360 B.C. Arelian, the Roman, said Numidian and Mauretanian horses were small, not beautiful, but unusually fast and strong: so well trained they could be handled without reins or bit by a slight touch of a branch (crop). Their headstall had nothing attached to it except the lead rope. His description fits exactly the methods used by the Bedouins today. They control their mares with only a headstall and a gentle touch of their hand or a light wand. By comparison, the modern Barb horse of Algiers, Tunis and Morocco is controlled with whip, spur, bit and rather poorly constructed saddles. ONE HUNDRED and nine years ago Hensoe Von Grabere, Swedish consul in Morocco, wrote that the Moroccans preferred the orange and saffron colored horses (Palominos) to any other and that those who could not afford to own one dyed their white or cream colored horses with henna. I can verify this and say that to this day in north Africa and Egypt I have seen many Arabs paint their horses at rider-festivals with their favorite color -- saffon. THE MODERN Barb horse is mixed with cold blooded European horses which came to north Africa with the Romans and later the Vandals, 428 A.D. He also carries blood of the Kmura, small mountain pony. To these were added blood of the Nejd cavalry which joined the Moslem host during the invasion of Spain and north Africa in the seventh century. |
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THE FINEST types of modern Barb horses can
be found in Morocco. They are descendants from Barb mares which the ?Sultans
have bred with new infusions of pure Arabian blood acquired from Egypt
and Hejaz. In fact, the only Árabian pedigrees of ancient historical
value which I have seen I did not discover in Arabia but in Morocco. These
genealogical papers had been kept for centuries and proved that Arabian
(Moorish) and Turkish rulers of North Africa improved their breed of Barbaries
continually with new infusions of new Arabian blood from desert Arabia,
Hejaz, Yemen, Hadramount, Egypt and Syria. Many of these pedigrees concerned
Arabians of the Saqlawiyat strain which to this day are the favorite mounts
of the Sultans and Princes. Such records can be seen in the libraries of
Marakesh, Fez, Tunis and in the Sultna's palaces. I noted early pedigrees
were written in kufic style, indicating that they were of the twelfth century
or earlier and may have been written in Arabia itself at the time when
some of the horses were brought over to Africa.
THE FRENCH in Tunis and Morocco produce Spahi cavalry horses with imported Arabian stallions (mostly from Syria) and Barb mares calling the off-spring Arabo-Barbs. AN ALMOST pure type of Arabian horse is kept in north Africa among certain Bedouin tribes in the Egyptian and Lybian deserts. The Wuld Ali tribe whose relatives still migrate to Arabia and Syria owned many. The Bedouins of North Africa average at least one horse to each tent, while in Arabia the Ruala of 7000 tents possess only 1200 horses. The last time I visited them they owned only 700 horses. |
| THE WULD ALI and other tribes
of aristocratic descent came originally to Africa from inner Arabia during
the 13th and 14th centuries when prolonged droughts forced them to leave
their home land. I have seen many fine Arabian horses among these African
tribes, though none were bred pure-in-the-strain as in Arabia proper. These
Sahara Arabs, so called by some writers, were pure Arabian horses not mixed
with Barb or other blood. A photo of some which I took in th the Libian
desert in 1914 appears in connection. Hunting antelopes and ostriches with
north African Bedouins I found their Sahara horses just as enduring as
those in Arabia. I found the same thing true of the Barb in Morocco, but
I proved to myself that the Barbs of the coastal districts of Algiers and
Tunis are inferior.
EVIDENTLY THE Barb horse before the invasions of Romans and Vandals was a small, relatively fast animal, 13 to 14:2 hands tall with a rather plain but intelligent head. The roman noses and sheep heads often found in modern Barb horses must have been brought by Roman and Vandal horses. The Vandals stayed 106 years, from 428 to 534. To this cross-bred Berber horse of the 6th century, Arabian blood was added producing the various types of Barb horses found today. I found the more refined types in the interior and the coarser types along the coast among the village people. The best were in the Atlas mountains and the Sahara desert among the nomad tribes. |
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WE ARE unable to prove a fixed type or predominant
strain of Barb horse. The Barb more than any other horse changed its type
with the times and its human masters. What the Barb horse resembles today,
photos here reproduced will disclose. Old paintings give us an idea of
the Barb horse during other historical eras.
SO CALLED Barb horses credited with contributing to the foundation of the Thoroughbred were mostly Arabians and not Barbs at all. This has been proven by investigations of stud books, import papers, pedigrees and other documents in England. The following "Barbs" were definitely proven to have been Arabians: King Charles II Royal Mares, Helmsley Turk (Morocco Barb), Burton's Natural Barb, Layton's Grey Barb (Shaftesbury Turk), Masey's Black Barb mare, Hutton's Grey Barb mare, Wilkenson's Barb mare, Queen Anne's Moonah (Muniki) Barb mare, St. Victor's Barb, Fenwick's Barb, Curwen's Grey Barb and a host of others. Even the famous Godolphin Barb was an Arabian. Sham or Scham, his original name, points to his native place. Sham means Damascus and in a wider sense the Syrian desert. We even know from historical records the Godolphin strain name; Jilfan, directly related to the Muniqi racing strain which produced the Darley Arabian. |
| THE BARB cannot be mentioned without a glance
at the Jennet which most people claim was an offspring of the north African
horse.
WHEN THE Phoenicians (1000 to 800 B.C.) sailed the Mediterranean and both shores of the "Island of the Arabs," the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea, trading in gold, myrrh, incense wood and fine wool of Arabia, they penetrated into the inner deserts. They purchased a few young stallions which were transported for trade to the Barbaries of north Africa and even taken to Spain. Dealing in horses was a lucrative enterprise for them and some were even traded in England. Later Emperor Severus, born in north Africa, knew the Bedouin countries. When he came to England in the 2nd century he ordered races to be held on the green turf of Yorkshire and records show Arabian horses were used. WHEN MOHAMMED'S voice aroused the Bedouin tribes of the wilderness of Arabia, they rode victoriously on Ishmael's steeds from the Ganges of Hind, the iron gates of Vienna, the snow-capped mountains of Morocco and the hot plains of the Caspian. Bedouins soon became masters of the world and their horses fed the green pastures of Europe. THE MOORISH sultans of Granada and the princes of the desert with their entourage of guards and troops were mounted on Arabian horses of the choicest blood. Loyally they kept the breeding of their animals pure and preserved their blood lines in Andalusian stud farms, adding from time to time new importations from their distant homelands in Arabia. The nomadic nations of the Barbary coast also submitted ot the conquest of the Moslem Arabs and their warrior clans were presented with stallions from the Sultan's own stables. Special body guards were mounted on imported horses to escort royalty. These were called the Jennetat, because they were mounted on horses of the Jinah't Tayr strain of the Kuhaylan, which translated means: "wings of the bird" in reference to their powerful shoulders. THE YOUNG Barbary princes were not only accomplished riders but masters of training and gaiting their handsome steeds. Taking advantage of their horse's natural endowment of strong, pliable shoulders and light-footedness, the young knights developed the famous ambling gait of the Arabian which to this day has survived in the Peruvian horse, descendant of the Jinah't Tayr as well as in the Lippizaner of the old Spanish Riding School of Vienna. This special unit of intrepid horsemen excelled by their heroism and loyalty, any other Moslem or foreign cavalry in Spain. They were allowed to keep their stallion colts and send them as stud horses to their relatives and retainers in north Africa who mated the Jinah't with their Barb mares thus producing what was later called in Spain the celebrated Jennet horse and the special style of riding which is still called "a la Ginneta" (riding with knees drawn up to the shoulder of the horse with a very short stirrup). FOR CENTURIES the Jennets of Spain were considered the most beautiful, fastest and perfect horses in Europe. After the Moslems left Spain (1492) the Jennets and Barbs were bred to the royal horses of the kings and princes of Holy Europe. In Sicily and Naples these crosses became known as the "Genetti de Regno"-- a cross of the Arabo-Barb with a heavy cart horse -- the military type of 15th to 18th century of Europe. AFTER THE Moslem wars, Spain had a super abundance of light riding horses taken from the Arabs. The discovery of the new continent across the sea resulted in many of the smaller horses being sent to the New World. Many of the Jinah't Tayr steeds reached America. |
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Davenports: Articles of History Arabian Visions' |
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