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Randolph Huntington's pure Arab breeding program came about as a secondary project, in connection with his attempts to produce an American trotting breed--this story is gone into in the *LEOPARD and *LINDEN TREE historical review in this issue, in some detail. *LEOPARD was the origin and the inspiration for the purebred section of the Huntington stud--if he had not come along, Huntington would never have gotten a start in Arabs, and so *LEOPARD is essential to the story in that light. From a breeding standpoint Huntington did not make as much use of *LEOPARD, however, as he might have. Huntington was the first American Arabian breeder, which I suppose makes it inevitable that he was the first American Arabian breeder to be a proponent of intense inbreeding; this notion has been part of the breed's history here from its beginnings. What made things awkward from *LEOPARD's point of view was that Huntington became captivated by the notion of the "Maneghi racing strain" and the desirability of inbreeding this type. Even though not inbred, *NAOMI was a very prepotent broodmare; her outcrossed offspring *NAZLI and ANAZEH resembled each other rather strongly, and ANAZEH looked even more like *NAZLI's son *NIMR (because both stallions were better looking than the mare). Bred to her grandson *NIMR, *NAOMI produced KHALED, another good-looking horse, though less attractive about the head than his sire. NAAMAN (Anazeh x *Nazli) It would appear that the Pennsylvanian Herman Hoopes bought the full siblings, NAARAH 256 and the handsome NAAMAN 116, around 1900, and presumably from Huntington. His breeding program, based on this pair and cooperating with Huntington's Maneghi project (since he bred to *Nimr in 1903 and Khaled in 1904), continued at least until 1911 and the production of NIMNAARAH 129, the only animal of this branch to leave descent and a "sure enough" inbred Maneghi; rather than try to explain the interactions here I refer the reader to her pedigree.
NIMNAARAH, fortunately for the sanity of pedigree readers, passed into the hands of Hamilton Carhartt of South Carolina, who bred four outcross foals (at least that many--note that only fillies are registered, suggesting the possibility of colts which may have dropped out of sight) from her by the desertbred *HOURAN, a Kehilan Tamri imported by Davenport. The next step is uncertain, but it appear that two NIMNAARAH daughter, HAARANMIN 451 and BINT NIMNAARAH 452, went to Traveler's Rest with General J.M.Dickinson for a brief stay, during which BINT NIMNAARAH was bred to Dickinson's ANTEZ. At any rate in 1932 both foaled fillies for John A. George of Indiana--BINT NIMNAARAH produced the ANTEZ daughter YDRISSA 947, and HARAANMIN produced the RIBAL daughter OURIDA 946, RIBAL being the George herd sire at that time. The George program does not seem to have existed very long; the last foals for which he is listed as breeder came in 1935. HAARANMIN produced two more fillies and a colt for the program before leaving for Texas, where she produced in the Walter Gillis breeding group. This program got off to a good start and went along for several generations but seems to have left descent among modern registered stock in only a few collateral lines. The George-bred HAARANMINs were luckier, and indeed count some of the breed's most influential horses among their number. Her son YOHANAH 1174 is quickly dismissed as he has no registered get; daughter MINA 1097 went to New York and produce three sons, two of which were used for breeding. HAARANMIN's second daughter BERLE 1021 by RIBAL, and thus full sister to OURIDA, produce a total of 14 foals in Indiana, Maryland and Pennsylvania by a variety of sires. Donald Shutz of North Manchester, In, recalls BERLE as "one of the taller mares" of her time and of good type, comparable to her sister OURIDA. I am most familiar with the members of this family which entered the "Double R" program, including my favorite of the lot, the splendid mare AMYR DOREEN 26232. This branch carried the *LEOPARD descent to England and Australia, for BAZZA 7306 (Zab x Berris) was exported to England's Briery Close Arabian Stud by Major and Mrs. T.W.I. Hedley, where she produced the filly BAZZAMA by AL-MARAH RADAMES. BAZZAMA is a highly-regarded matron for the Hedleys, and BAZZA's son SNOW KING by the former head sire at Briery Close, named GENERAL GRANT oddly enough, is in Australia. After YDRISSA, BINT NIMNAARAH produced IRMA 1022, blood sister to OURIDA and BERLE but rather less lucky in the stud; she produced three foals, including BAREK 1482 whose name one used to hear once in a while, but this line did not breed on any further. BINT NIMNAARAH's last registered foal, BINT NARMA 1094, did a bit better; her first foal was SHARIK 1784, the noted "high school" horse exhibited by Ward Wells of Oregon. BINT NARMA also produced three redoubled-*LEOPARD-line foals by ALLA AMARWARD 1140; two of these bred on, one being dam of, among others, the superb ABU FARWA daughter ALLA FARWA 13333 and the "ultimate show gelding" RIBAL DEYR 14400. The gelding is not doing much to carry on the *LEOPARD descent genetically (except of course to promote his collateral relatives), but he is quite a horse.
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