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SIRE LINE–KUHAILAN AFAS DB A PEARL ISLAND TREASURE b y B e t t y F in ke THE RAREST FOUNDATION LINES IN THE ARABIAN BREED ARE THOSE FROM BAHRAIN: ONLY TWO DAM LINES AND ONE SIRE LINE HAVE THEIR ORIGIN IN THE ISLAND FAMOUS FOR ITS PEARLS AND ITS HORSES. THE ONE AND ONLY BAHRAINI SIRE LINE, THAT OF KUHAILAN AFAS DB, WAS ESTABLISHED IN POLAND IN THE 1930S.
T
he 19th century was the time when European breeders first discovered the Arabian and its superior qualities. It was the age in which kings, princes, and other noblemen founded stud farms, sending their agents to travel to Arabia to buy foundation horses or, as in the case of the Blunts, traveling there to find those horses themselves. As a result, most of the sire lines and mare families we know today date back to that time, the earliest – those of Weil and Poland – dating back to the 1810s and the younger ones – those of Crabbet Park – to the 1870s/80s. Following the turn of the century, the era of travel and importation came to an end when cars began to replace horses as a means of transport and the horse lost its significance in Arabia. But there are a few exceptions to that rule. Just as Poland can claim the oldest dam lines, it can also claim
the youngest sire lines, and in each case, they are among the most influential in the world. In 1930, a Polish prince sent another expedition to Arabia to look for horses, the last of its kind: Prince Roman Sanguszko, owner of the old Polish Gumniska Stud and member of a family already famous for its Arabian horses. He sent his stud manager, Bogdan Zietarski, who was accounted one of the leading experts of his day, along with the German Arabian expert Carl Raswan, who had lived with the Bedouins and was familiar with the desert and its tribes. The two men traveled throughout the Arabian countries, visiting the Royal Agricultural Society Stud and the farm of Prince Mohammed Ali in Egypt, several Bedouin tribes in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the Nejd, and the royal stud of Two views of Kuhailan Afas DB: as a yearling when he was purchased (left), and as a mature horse (right).
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