ARABIANS - THE MOST PROMINENT STRAINS

ARABIANS - THE MOST PROMINENT STRAINS

The Bedouin placed enormous emphasis on purity of blood. Many tribes owned only one main strain. The five basic families are known as “Al Khamsa”, and when bred pure they have developed identifiable characteristics.

The Kehilan strain: known for depth of chest, masculine power and size (up to 15 hands). Short heads with broad forehead, great width in jowels. Mostly grey and chestnut.

The Seglawi strain: more refined with fine bones, long faces and necks, creating a more feminine look. Fast, but lacking the endurance of other strains. Typical height 14.2 hands. Predominantly grey.

Abeyan: Like the Seglawi, they were refined and had longer backs than the typical Arabian. They were small, grey, and with more white markings than other strains.

Hamdani: Considered plain, but athletic and masculine, large bone structure. Profile straight, lacking extreme Jibbah (bulging foreheads). Up to 15.2 hands high. Often gray and bay.

Habdan: Smaller version of Hamdani. Mascular frame. Average height 14.3 hands. Mostly bay or brown with little white.

These strains were later named after the countries of origin.

All purebred Arabian Horses trace back to their desert origins. The Crabbet Arabian Stud of Mr. and Lady Ann Blunt, and later by their daughter, Judith Blunt Lytton (well known as Lady Wentworth) did much to promote the Arabian horse globally. The Blunts selected their stock from purebred desert stock. Under Lady Wentworth’s management Crabbet Stud had its strongest season. Her prominent sire, Skowronek, sired three of the most famous sires  in the history of the breed: Raseyn, Raffles and Naseem.

Lady Wentworth strongly influenced the CMK Arabians. A CMK Arabian must meet three criteria:

Must be 75% descended from CMK sources

Have a tail sire line to a CMK source

Have a dam tail line to a CMK established in North America by 1950.

The CMK sources include:

Crabbet breeding, horses imported by Kellogg and Brown, Davenport Arabians, and special cases (Draper’s Spanish Arabians).

Desert horses’s pedigrees can be traced back to original desert tribes. Homer Davenport’s Arabians are considered the largest group of desert bred horses existing today. Desert Arabians must not be confused with Egyptian Arabians, which are popular as present day show horses.

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