Banu Sanhadja Arabs

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Banu Sanhadja Breeding focus on Syrian Arabians

Horse of the desert

The Bedouin lives by tradition. His own genealogy and that of his horse is handed down from father to son and is one of the few topics conversation during the hours devoted by Europeans to reading and writing. Pure breeding has become incorporated as one of his laws of existence and joined with his pride of race, clannishness, poetry of soul, fatalism, and independence, has enabled him for many centuries not only to keep intact but to improve by consistent, intelligent selection and favorable environment a specialized breed of horses, useful and enduring, proponent and improving, and superior to all other breeds in the world to which they have been introduced.

From the book "Horse of the Desert" by W.R. Brown, New York, 1929

In Search of Syria's Arabian Horses

If you are interested to know more about Syrian Arabian horses you can get the book " Desert Legacy " In Search of Syria's Arabian Horses" by Jens Sannek, Bernd Loewenherz. A German/English edition, published 1997, 52 pages in English of total 160pp, 152 color photos and 9 black & white photos.

Banu Sanhadja Breeding focus on Syrian Arabians

Syrian horses

Syria is the best place in the whole world to purchase true Arabian blood horses. Pure Arabian horse is a horse registered in any of the purebred Arabian registries of the world, or a Bedouin bred or desert bred, the desert being that of Arabia or of Syria. The Arabian horses entered in the Syrian Stud Book are asil Syrian Arabian Horses of pure blood and noble origin. However, there are a lot of other horses in Syria who are asil, which means pure in Arabic, but not entered in the Syrian Stud book due to different reasons. Many breeders, mainly Bedouin breeders do not see a reason to register their horses. They say: "We know and Allah knows that our mares and stallions are of pure blood and noble origin. Why should we need to pay money to register them in order to get a paper stating this well known fact."

Why are they call Bani Sham Syrian Arabians

Who is Bani Sham Syrian Arabians? The Children of Syria They are the horses of greater Syria more specifically, they are those horses which traces in all lines of their pedigree to Arabian horses whose recorded origin lies exculusively within the greater Syria of the 18th, 19th, and 20th, centuries; they are Known Asil Arabians horses known by Bedouin tribes and Arabian Horse expert and Historians in Syria; and have known Rasan (strain and Substrains' which Arabian horses must meet these rigorous criteria. they are also those Arabian horses which trace exclusively to those horses registered by the Arabian Horse registry of America as having been imported from greater Syria by Homer davenport in 1906; the horses registered by the Arabian Horse registry of North America which were impoted from greater Syria by the Hamidie-Hippodrome Society in 1893, provided that a complete Rasan is known for each horse. the straight-Syrian foundation horses listed in the Syrian Arab Horse Stud book Vol.1 These are the horses that comprise bani Sham, that deserve that supreme honor of being called "Straight Syrian", and that reprsent the epitome of purity in the Arabian breed.

What is Bani Sham Arabians

DEFINITION: Bani Sham Arabian horses are descended entirely from the historic Davenport Desert Arabian Stud. The group consists of individuals descending from horses imported by Homer Davenport in 1906 to the U. S. from Syria Arabia, and, in some instances, in possible combination with pedigree elements from the Hamidie Society importation of 1893 to the U. S. from Arabia. The Bani Sham horses were written about, ridden, publicized, shown, raced, and bred to almost every other kind of Arabian that came to this country. They seemed to do fine regardless of what was asked of them. They had a unique capability as a bloodline: they endured Everything else that came to this country this is a breeding history of 85 years duration here in America now: a long, long time.

The Bani Sham horses has a special gift for many people who have had experience with various kinds of Arabians they will observe that Bani Sham are different; still requiring of horsemanship, but easier to handle, most of them exceptionally intelligent, These bloodlines have persisted since 1906, while retaining the essential factors of identity which they had from the beginning. This is so to point that, if we could have a conference with some of the old-time founding breeders of Arabians in America, they would still recognize what is call Bani Sham Arabians they are the same kind of horses today as there ancestor are today when they first came here from the desert: nice moderate-sized, athletic horses that are friendly and look like and are the real thing. they still show family characteristics that come from the old horses: *Haleb's balance, *Reshan's coat, *Abeyah's jibbah, *Hamrah's coupling, *Muson's vitality, a certain inner spark that may have come from *Wadduda, if it did not also come from all the others.

These are characteristics that the desert bred breeders today have prized enough to keep these bloodlines going. In all the generations of horses since 1906, there have no doubt been many times when desert breeders went to considerable trouble to maintain matings between Bani Sham horses, although it has nearly always been an easy option to instead do attractive out cross matings. Sometimes survival has been by a thin thread of devotion, but it has held and the horses are still with us as a blessing for the present, and as an example of continuity in the breeding of Bani Sham Arabian horses in America.