By Anita Enander

This article first appeared in the May/​June 2006 issue of Al Majlis (v. 3 no. 3) for the 100^th Anniver­sary of the Daven­port impor­ta­tion. The author extends her thanks to R.J Cadranell, Michael Bowling, Jeanne Craver, and other Daven­port experts who have recently been explaining this termi­nology to newer Daven­port breeders; any errors are the author’s own. Copy­right the Insti­tute for the Desert Arabian Horse. All rights reserved.

This is the 100-​​year anniver­sary of Homer Davenport’s trip to the desert and subse­quent impor­ta­tion. Cele­bra­tions are planned in Silverton, Oregon (Aug. 4–6, 2006, see www.davenportdays.com) and in Illi­nois in September. The Silverton cele­bra­tion will include a re-​​creation of the journey to the desert, using contem­po­rary Daven­ports as stand-​​ins for the orig­inal imports. For our readers who will attend these cele­bra­tions or just wish to under­stand Daven­port nomen­cla­ture, we offer a brief expla­na­tion of the termi­nology that Daven­port breeders have devel­oped and use when discussing their horses. This list is not compre­hen­sive, but will at least de-​​mystify some of the terminology.

SECOND FOUNDATION

In the second half of the 20^th Century, a concerted effort was made to find horses descending entirely from the orig­inal 27 imports and to breed them on as a closed group. The horses collected are referred to as the “Second Foun­da­tion.” Their iden­ti­ties are essen­tial to under­standing the short hand now used by Daven­port breeders to describe their stock. The second foun­da­tion mares were Dhalana, Dharanah, Dharebah, Dhanad, Saranah, Tara, Asara, Ehwat-​​Ansarlah, Antan, and Maedae. Second foun­da­tion stal­lions were Tripoli, El Alamein, Dharantez, Nahas, Kamil Ibn Salan, and Ralf.

CORE GROUPS

Several core groups were devel­oped from the second foun­da­tion animals; breeding of these core groups continues today to ensure genetic diver­sity in the herd. The groups are iden­ti­fied by the tail-​​female strain or by the key second foun­da­tion horse. Contem­po­rary breeders usually refer to their horses as being from one of the core groups, and, if applic­able, then adding any other elements.

Core Haifi

Of the second foun­da­tion horses, six mares (Dhalana, Dharanah, Dharebah, Dhanad, Saranah, and Tara) and two of the stal­lions (El Alamein and Dharantez) were of the Kuhaylan Haifi strain and were bred to create this group. The Saqlawi stal­lion Tripoli was also bred into this group. Descen­dents of these horses, without the addi­tion of other second foun­da­tion horses, are consid­ered Core Haifi. Not all descen­dents contain Tripoli, and it is customary to distin­guish the sub-​​group Core Haifi without Tripoli (for Egyptian breeders, think about the subgroups that focus on non-​​Nazeer as an analog). There are about 180 Core Haifi horses alive today (2006).

Core Kurush

The Kurush are tail female to the the second foun­da­tion Kuhaylan Kurush mare Asara (tracing to the import *Werdi), added to the Core Haifi. If the horse is tail-​​female to Asara/*Werdi, it is consid­ered Core Kurush. If it contains Asara and Core Haifi, but is not tail-​​female through Asara, it is not part of this group, but is consid­ered Haifi plus Asara (see below). There are about 65 Core Kurush horses alive today.

Core Schilla

The second foun­da­tion mares Maedae and Antan, both daugh­ters of Schilla, were bred to the stal­lions of the Core Haifi group and Tripoli. The second foun­da­tion stal­lion Kamil Ibn Salan (who was tail-​​female to Schilla) was added in later gener­a­tions. This forms the Schilla group; contem­po­rary breeders distin­guish among horses of this group that include/​exclude Kamil Ibn Salan. There are about 150 Core Schilla horses alive today.

Core Hadban

This group devel­oped by combining the second foun­da­tion mare Ehwat-​​Ansarlah (tracing to the import *Hadba) with Tripoli and stal­lions of the Core Haifi group. A sepa­rate but related group includes the second foun­da­tion stal­lion Nahas, who was also tail-​​female to *Hadba. Some breeders refer to any horse that contains *Hadba in the pedi­gree through either the second foun­da­tion mare Ehwat-​​Ansarlah or the stal­lion Nahas as being Hadban. Sepa­rate sub-​​groups are retained that have tail-​​female to Ehwat-​​Ansarlah, or exclude Nahas, or include other Daven­port elements (such as Asara or Schilla). There are about 20 tail-​​female Hadbans and about 30 more with Ehwah– Ansarlah and/​or Nahas else­where in the middle of the pedigree.

Bint Ralf Group

This leaves Ralf as the only second foun­da­tion horse iden­ti­fied in the 1950s that is not included above. He has descen­dents only through his daughter Bint Ralf, and there is a devel­oping effort to preserve this very small group of fewer than 10 horses that has Ralf some­where in the pedigree.

CORE GROUP PLUS

As breeders cross horses from the different groups, they refer to the primary core group and specify which other element has been added to the pedi­gree, usually refer­ring to the added second foun­da­tion horse. Thus, Core Haifi plus Asara, Hadban plus Schilla, etc. There are about 200 living Daven­ports that combine elements from two or more core groups.

UPDATING DESCRIPTIONS & ADDING GROUPS

Recent research has caused Daven­port breeders to amend the way they describe some of the horses. For example, mito­chon­drial DNA research suggests that Schilla was actu­ally a daughter of Freda (a mare descended from three Hamidie horses: *Obeyran, *Mannaky, and *Galfia) rather than Saleefy (daughter of *Urfah). One conse­quence of this research is that Daven­port breeders now indi­cate if a horse has Schilla in the pedi­gree, acknowl­edging that these Daven­port horses may include blood of horses that came to the U.S. in the Hamidie impor­ta­tion and were subse­quently bred by Peter Bradley, the primary financier of Davenport’s trip. A related effect is that the mare Sahanad, who was previ­ously described as Daven­port + Hamidie, has been included in Daven­port breeding circles, and horses with Sahanad plus other second foun­da­tion breeding are now cate­go­rized in their own breeding group of about 10 horses.

It has also been postu­lated by researcher Carol Muldur (Arabian Horse World, September 1976, p. 69) that two 1924 foals by *Hamrah (bay stal­lion), out of *Meleky (a bay) and Sheria (a gray), were switched when regis­tered. The listed foal of *Meleky is Petra (gray), while the listed foal of Sheria is Halloul (a bay). The regis­tra­tions were not completed by the breeder, but by a later owner when both mares were seven years old. Current under­standing of coat-​​color genetics holds that it is not possible to produce a grey (Petra) from two bay parents (*Hamrah and *Meleky). A plau­sible expla­na­tion is that the regis­tra­tions were switched. This hypoth­esis cannot be proven using avail­able parental veri­fi­ca­tion tools.

With the concern for preserving genetic diver­sity, Daven­port breeders are iden­ti­fying other small groups of distinc­tive pedi­grees. For example, there is an effort to preserve Core Haifi horses that do not contain the horse Fasal. There are also horses that do not contain the mare Dharebah that may comprise a small group. Egyptian breeders are familiar with and often talk about sources of horses and breeding tradi­tions such as Sheykh Obeyd, Heir­loom, Babson, Prit­zlaff; if you want to commu­ni­cate with Daven­port breeders, it helps to know the second foun­da­tion horses them­selves so you can “speak Davenport”!