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Reading Raswan |
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| BREEDERS OF ARABIAN
horses in Europe and America must face the fact that practically every
Arabian horse they own is of mixed-strain breeding.
WITH THE help of our studbook-records and importation papers we can draw a complete picture of the various strains which make up the composition of any registered Arabian horse and thus pronounce it as belonging to a certain category -- or not. |
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AN ARABIAN horse of mixed strains belongs either
to an "undescript"(undistinguished) type, or it represents
more or less that particular strain whose blood lines are overwhelmingly
present in its pedigree (not necessarily the strain by which the horse
has been registered in the studbooks, as the dam only transmits the strain
name by which her offsprings are registered).
MOST HORSE breeders have the good intention to produce a distinctive type (one of certain conformation and characteristics) when they mate their brood mares to selected sires. The owner of a Thoroughbred stud farm (for example) would not think of breeding his mares to anything but Thoroughbred sires. The Arab fancier faces a different problem: his animals are not of one fixed type, but they come in various types (strains), ranging from Arabians that resemble (tall) hunters and (rangy,racy) Thoroughbreds to (extremely strong, muscular)Stock horses and Morgans, as well as to (stylish) show horses of the American Saddle breed. |
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SUCH WIDE degrees of unlikeness of types indicate
that these various Arabian strains have assumed differences in their length,
width, height, weight and bone circumference. It follows that symmetry
and balance are influenced too by these differences in physical construction
when opposite types have been mated together, and thus the general physical
outline of an Arabian horse changes and reveals to our eyes a mixed composition
of the two distinguishing (but opposite) features which make up the most
notable difference among the various Arabian strains: the rounded or the
angular outline (profile) of body and head.
IT WILL be remembered that Kuhaylan and Saqlawi (and their related strains) have rounded (curved) outlines, but the Muniqi (and its related strains) have angular and longer outlines. |
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THOROUGHBRED MEN, interested in race horses,
don't care for high set tails and crescent shaped "parade" necks,
but the American Saddlebred horse is required to posses "style"
and the "fancy" features which I have just mentioned. The Quarter
horse serves a different purpose than the two previously mentioned breeds.
Without its unusual long and powerful muscles (particularly in its thigh,
stifle, gaskin, etc.) the Quarter horses would not be considered a true
representative of its breed. Thus in turn each type of horses in this country
and anywhere else has been identified by certain distinctive (anatomical)
"point," which are the "hallmarks" of their breed.
ARABIAN HORSES (if bred pure or reasonably pure within a certain strain) may be picked for the same or similar characteristics which one recognizes so easily in other breeds of light saddle and harness horses. It only remains a question which particular type one desires to raise. Once this is established the owner of the stud farm or his manager should "chart" the pedigrees of the available brood mares and stallions so as to gain an intelligent view of their genealogical trees. Each pedigree than becomes a composite picture of those bloodlines (strains) which can be traced as far back as their original desert ancestors. THESE STRANGE and foreign sounding strain names confuse most breeders. I suggest therefore, when making out pedigrees, to underline with blue color any horses of the Kuhaylan (or related strains). Blue thus designates the old, original "blue" blood of Arabia, strong and masculine. RED COLOR goes for any offspring of the Saqlawi (and related strains). Red stands for striking beauty, show, elegance and refinement. BROWN (CHESTNUT) fits any Arabian of the Muniqi (and related strains). Chestnut color reminds one of Thoroughbred horses, their speed, their long, angular lines. IT WILL amaze anyone what a clear picture such a color chart presents to the eyes. At one glance the various blood lines (strains) which make u the pedigree of an Arabian horse are visible as a distinctive pattern. In fact, this pattern is the picture of the animal itself. HERE IS an example which even works out in a black and white pattern: LET US take Selima (one of the "key" Arabian horses, see the photo page 9, Jan.-Feb. 1943 issue). CONSIDER FIRST: what confusing array of strange (to most breeders, meaningless) words, names of horses and their strains: |
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AT ONE glance one can see that Selima is overwhelmingly of the Saqlawi (Beauty) type, and not of the Hamdaniyah (which are of the Kuhaylat - strength type, by which she has been registered, because the dam gives the strain designation and not the stallion). SELIMA HAS only one-eighth of the blood by which she has been registered (Hamdani, in this case marked K) and Selima has only one "dash"(one-eighth) of Muniqi, which should make her a little longer in the back and neck. Selima's overwhelming Saqlawi blood marks her as a graceful (not stout) refined animal, but not at all what she should be if she was a pure-bred Hamdaniyah: masculine, and muscular, short-coupled and broad. FOR OTHER striking examples see Ronek's and Farana's pedigrees and photos in this issue. AT ONCE it is apparent that a distinguished type can only be produced by breeding Arabian horses of the same or related strains together. THERE ARE twenty Arabian strains, and they are related as follows:
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