The SAQLAWI horses have more stars, blazes, stockings and snips than other strains of Arabians. The valued flaxen mane and tail also appears in this strain more often, especially in the substrains, ABAYYAN and DAHMAN. A preponderance of light chestnut (sorrel) horses appears in this and related strains, while the KUHAYLAT and related strains follow the chestnut and liver-colored chestnuts. This is a very important point for modern western color breeders to study, for many are using sorrel Arabian stallions for color-breeding. An investigation of horses used by the most advanced Palomino breeders discloses the highest percentage of Arabians used for producing Palominos are of the ABAYYAT or SAQLAWIYAT strains. Most of these horses came from animals imported by Homer Davenport in 1907. This is little understood and I believe will eventually have a definite bearing on the production of palominos throughout the country as Palomino breeders come to understand the Arabian strains better. Palomino breeders are very fortunate the desired color is most apt to be produced by the SAQLAWI strain, since it is noted for outstanding beauty. The combination of such a beautiful color with the Arabian strain most noted for beauty and refinement cannot help but result in better conformed and more useful animals.

It is a habit of Bedouins to sit and admire a SAQLAWI horse for hours, purely to gratify their love for beauty in horses. When I first went to Arabia I was impressed by the exclamations that Arabs would make when a SAQLAWI horse passed by. For a long time I could not understand what they were doing, until it finally dawned on me the SAQLAWI strain was valued for something else than as a riding animal. It is hard for practical-minded Americans and Europeans to appreciate a horse can occupy the position of art and artistic creation in the minds of the Bedouins. Many times all over Arabia I have heard men ask the rider of a SAQLAWI horse to stop and allow them to admire and discuss the horse's beauty. Often these horses are taken to the council of men for observation, where for hours they are merely admired and wondered at.

It is a fact that SAQLAWI horses have commanded the highest prices paid in Arabia, Egypt (Abbas Pasha, Ali Pasha Sherif), England and America (Ibn Mahruss, Ghazala, Harb, Ibn Nura, Daoud, Berk). This includes KUHAYLAN horses which are rich in SAQLAWI blood, like Rasim, Nasra, Rissla, Kibla and also KUHAYLAN horses in which SAQLAWI blood predominated, like Abu Zeyd.

The Bedouins of Arabia have no horse shows for the purpose of admiring the beauty of horses and no judging contests. They do not have fantasias like the North African Arabs. Their display of horses for pleasure is part of their daily lives and is done while on the march during daily migrations. No day passes without moving camp, for there are no wells in the highlands of Arabia and the tribes follow the rain pools.

Arabia is as large as the western United States beyond the Mississippi. The pastures of the camel breeding Ruala tribe alone extend over a territory 700 miles long and 400 miles wide. The tribe travels south in winter until reaching the Nufod, Red Sand Desert, on the edges of which the camels and mares foal by early spring. After foaling the tribe turns north until it reaches the Sheperd Hills of Syria. They travel a zig-zag course east and west all the time, following the rain pools, and I estimate the entire yearly distance covered would be between 3,000 and 4,000 miles. Scouts are always on the watch at night, spotting sheet lightning, which indicates where the rain is falling and water can be found with green pasture.

One can imagine what a strenuous life the foals lead under these conditions. It is indeed the survival of the fittest, particularly in years of drought when summer rains fail and forced marches to the Euphrates River are necessary, sometimes 700 miles away. I have seen 2,000 camels and up to 200 horses die in a single day during a drought, not to mention hundreds of people

Camel's milk is fed to horses because there is rarely enough pasture. A camel can pick up the slight growth of grass that a horse cannot graze and can also subsist on herbs a horse will not eat. Strange enough, the camel breeders raise the best horses in spite of this lack of horse fodder. About five or seven camels furnish enough milk to sustain one mare and foal. A camel gives no more milk than a goat, about two or three quarts per day during the best seasons. It requires about eight quarts to keep a horse alive. This lack of bulk and green feed may account for the smaller size of Arab horses, but perhaps it also accounts for concentrated qualities.

Beauty, grace and refinement are not in contrast to soundness, stamina and endurance. Beauty simply replaces ugliness, grace takes the place of clumsiness and refinement--coarseness. Beauty can be an indication of great physical power. The SAQLAWI strain represents this type of beauty because their beauty is a result of matched proportions. Their extreme grace and light frame allow them to travel with the least amount of effort over long periods of time and any sort of footing. They have very firm, elastic gaits with natural high head and tail carriage never requiring artificial aids to make them perform

The heads are longer and slightly narrower than the KUHAYLAN but more bulging between the eyes, consequently giving them as much brain capacity. This fact was proven by measurements of skulls in Hungary, Poland and Germany, where exhaustive research was done by the respective governments in experiments conducted for cavalry horses and their production.

The eyes, like all classic types, are very large and expressive, set low in the face. They have fine nostrils and fine, silk-like skin which is black. The neck is longer than the KUHAYLAN in proportion always and the back and pasterns slightly longer. The whole top-line is straight and underline longer. Golden sorrels, chestnut and light dappled greys and very red bays are the predominant colors. Few browns are found. Average height is 14:2.

Related strains are 'ABAYYAN ('UBAYYAN is correct but rarely used in English). Their distinctive marks are their slightly swayed saddle back, extreme tail carriage, deep chests, long forearms and very straight hind legs (racing legs). They are small horses, rarely over 14 hands if pure. Studying the top lines will disclose the 'ABAYYAN is not actually sway-backed. Their withers extend far into the back and the loins are curved upward toward the hip bone. They have a way of elevating their immense shoulders over the barrel which deceives the eye. Their heads are always carried high, like the picture horses artists portray. They have made good polo horses up until the Great War, prior to which height was limited to 14:2, because they were found to be most sure-footed and quick to turn. They were probably the only horses that could go four chuckers and carry any weight. I personally belonged to a polo club in Cairo, playing through the intensely hot summers on these 'ABAYYAN horses.

Another related strain is the DAHMAN, a very classic type. They have small and most beautiful heads with a very pronounced concave profile, large eyes and small thorn-like ears. Even the stallions have very feminine appearance differing from the rugged outlines of the KUHAYLAN. Their hind legs are placed well under them. They are mostly greys. They are a larger strain, often going to 14:3.

The RISHAN are a very small SAQLAWI type like the 'ABAYYAN, very fine boned, very elegant with perfect heads. Super-refined are the TUWAYSAN, very small but classic and the most incest bred I found among the Arabs. They are the most beautiful horses I have ever seen, like a deer, or rather gazelle, but they are very scarce. There are none in America. Other strains not found in America are the MILWAH and the MU'WAJJ.

A practical example of how the beauty of the SAQLAWI has been used to create other breeds can be found by studying American Saddle Horse pedigrees. Mr. Keene Richards of Georgetown, Kentucky, personally acquired in Arabia and brought to America just before the Civil War, five Arabian horses of the SAQLAWI strain. There are records of Keene Richards horses throughout the southern states. The Denmark Saddle Horse Stud Book of America and the records of the Jockey Club of New Orleans bear witness to these facts.

Massaoud, an Arabian imported by Keene Richards bred to a thoroughbred mare, sired Transylvania, the mare who produced the great race horse Limestone. Massoud was a SAQLAWI.

Zilcaadie, supposed to have been a SAQLAWIYAH and to whom trace many Tennessee Walking horses, produced a daughter who was bred to Vermont Morgan, 14:3. The foal born from this union grew into a very large stallion called Golddust, 16 hands, weighing nearly 1300 pounds. Randolph Huntington declared he was the most positive sire for beauty and trotting speed of his time. Here is evidence of the value of SAQLAWI blood prepotent in beauty, endurance and spectacular gaits. The old-time trotting races were much longer than ours, requiring more endurance, which reflects credit to the enduring qualities of the SAQLAWI. From personal experience I can vouch for their endurance.

In 1931 I rode Khalfa, a pure-in-the-stain SAQLAWIYAH mare from south-east of Wadi Sirhan in company with sixty-eight men riding camels to the Shepherd Hills of Syria--a distance of 800 miles by desert routes and "detours" to avoid enemy raiders. We were leading eight other horses which I had acquired near the Persian Gulf from Bedouins. I purchased these horses to export to Poland and Hungary. After reaching the camps of my friends, the Ruala in Syria, they organized a raiding party against Sheykh BERJAS IBN HEDEYB of the Saba. Khalfa was still in top condition after covering the 800-mile ride, so I decided to take her on the marauding expedition.

After roaming around the desert for five days, we fell in with the enemies and captured thirty camels and four horses towards noon. It was unusual to take booty away in daylight, the usual procedure being to wait until just before nighfall so as to escape into the darkness. In consequence, reinforcements of the enemy were able to ambush us and we had to make a hasty retreat. Within a few minutes we lost not only our prizes but our own camels. Our riders had to leap from the race camels to the backs of our mares and try to escape as best we could. Luckily, the enemy were not on camels but horseback and we scattered all over the desert, each man for himself. For half an hour only a troop of our riders managed to keep up with Khalfa. During the following six hours some of the enemy kept within my sight. Until darkness the following two hours I was alone. The mare could still amble and walk at a good pace but she had been galloped incessantly for hours and could not be extended further.

The direction of our flight had been south of the Shepherd Hills and I reached a dry river bed with a rain pool, where I watered the mare without dismounting while I drank some sour milk from my goatskin bag. We rode on all through the night, keeping our direction south-westerly by the stars, but allowing the mare's instinct to guide me more than my own.

At sunrise we approached a Ruala camp. I had ridden her exactly eighteen hours without dismounting. My friends milked some camels and the mare and I drank thankfully. Within two hours I was again riding Khalfa. She was strong enough to be galloped occasionally for the following seven hours until we reached the camp of Prince Sattam, whose son, Aurans, had originally stolen the mare for me from Sheykh Berjas, whom we had failed to raid the second time.

The greatest feat of endurance known in the Near EAst in our time, which is documented beyond dispute, was performed by a pure-in-the-strain bred SAQLAWIYAH mare of the Mutayr tribe of eastern Arabia. This remarkable ride made by Anjeyma was told to me by Colonel Dickson, British Political Resident of Kuwayt, nine months and ten days after the event. It was during a raid conducted by Aziz, son of Faisal Ibn Dauwish of the Mutayr tribe, on account of a blood feud against the governor of Ibn Sa'ud, the king of Arabia.

Aziz set out with 418 men but was given away by a spy before he reached his objective 450 miles distant. On retreating, he found the water hold of Umm Ruthumma, where the enemy knew he must water his horse and camels, already occupied by the governor's camel riders. A desperate fight ensued in which Aziz almost won the upper hand but unexpectedly another camel corps of the governor arrived and he knew he and his men were doomed.

Aziz, feeling he should report their fate, ordered his scribe, a trusted slave, to take his best race camel, and tied to the cinch Anjeyma, a bay mare, whose owner had been killed. The mare was not chosen for her endurance, but merely because her owner's wife had braided a strand of her hair into her forelock, a superstition. Every last drop of water was placed in is goatskin bag.

For two days and nights the scribe was pursued by fifteen camel riders before he outdistanced them. He hoped to reach the well of El-Safa, but approaching the depression found it occupied by the enemy who had guessed his destination but failed to notice him as he came up. He rode off, hoping to find another water hole some seventy miles away. Unfortunately, he stumbled into 200 other camel rides, who shot his camel and pursued him the balance of the day and the third night, but as morning came only three riders had kept up the pace. he headed for a favorable spot to hide his horse and ambush these enemies. He was shot in the elbow and neck during the fight but played dead as they approached. At the last moment, as they came up to finish him off, he threw up his repeating Mauser rifle and with five shots managed to kill his followers. During the fight the dead men's camels had gone out of reach and in fact the scribe's wounds had weakened him so much he could not carry his own rifle. He tied his arm over his head to stop the flow of blood and crawled to Anjeyma, who allowed him to mount and they headed for Kuwayt, where the tribe lay, camped.

It was about 60 miles to go. At dawn of the fifth day he saw the outline of the town on the horizon as the morning star paled away. After this star he named the mare and led her the last 12 miles to Colonel Dickson's residence, asking for protection. As the gate was opened, the mare sensed she was safe and broke down in the courtyard, not regaining her feet for nine months. She put up a gallant fight for her life and with the good care of Colonel Dickson and his family, aided by the scribe, she recovered.

I estimate Anjeyma covered more than 300 miles without water or food, as an air line between Umm Ruthumma and Kuwayt is 230 miles. I have ridden over the same route twice on raids and I consider it one of the toughest parts of Arabia to ride. Anjeyma was 85 hours on the move in the midst of July heat. She was eventually restored to Aziz' father, who still is a prisoner today in the hands of Ibn Sa'ad. Even though a man is a prisoner, the King will allow him to own property in Arabia. When I saw ANJEYMA the day she gained her feet, I thought she was truly a very beautiful SAQLAWIYAH mare. I took the manager of Prince Sanguszko, owner of the famous Polish Stud Farm of Gumniska, to Kuwayt to buy the mare. He offered up to 2000 Turkish gold pounds ($8,000) for her and waited five weeks for an answer from Ibn Dauwish, but could not buy her.

One of the best qualities of Arabian horses is their endurance, which makes them valuable for the breeding of calvary horses. Endurance horses have mostly been produced from the KUHAYLAN, SAQLAWI and their related strains. The two strains greatly resemble each other. As for endurance, I do not see any difference. Unless a purist breeder, bound by tradition of pure strain breeding, there is no disadvantage in crossing the KUHAYLAN and SAQLAWI strains, matching beauty with strength, the two best qualities of Arabian horses. I have found some of the best breeders in Arabia and Egypt doing this very thing, preferring it to the fanatic system of the purists. Ali Pasha Sherif, to whom some of the best double-registered horses in England and America owe their breeding, preferred to infuse KUHAYLAN into SAQLAWI blood every two or three generations, as records of pedigrees prove. This crossing of blood produces the most useful Arabian horses for all practical purposes and pleases almost any user except the man who desires a horse of racing type.

In America we are very fortunate most of our horses were bred predominantly from KUHAYLAN and SAQLAWI strains and that the Arabian Stud Books have kept such a careful record of strain descent. This record of Arabian pedigrees in America gives our more serious breeders an opportunity, by selective breeding, to produce better horses. If we had no record of Arabian strains, intelligent breeding would be very difficult.

If Arabian breeders will investigate the pedigrees of outstanding horses in this country, they will find they carry about an equal proportion of SAQLAWI and KUHAYLAN blood. Whether it was done purposely or accidentally, it proves the American breeder has still an eye for a good horse and has not been far wrong in his deductions.

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