One of the reasons many Arabian breeders are fascinated by strain
breeding theory is that it provides a logical approach to the
understanding of Arabian horse pedigrees. It reduces them to
simple terms from which evaluations and predictions can be made.
For some people the evaluations and predictions are useful.
For others they are not. In either case, they are arrived at
by a process of reason.
Strain breeding didn't start out as a logical exercise. Until
the 1920's, almost everyone who wrote about the Arabian horse
in Arabia observed that the Bedouin horse breeding tribes had
different families of horses which they called strains. Such
observations, which extend at least until 1970, occur in the
works of Burkhardt, Guarmani, Upton, the
Blunts, Skene,
Tweedy,
Davenport, Raswan, Brown,
Zientarski, H.R.P. Dickson, Forbis, and others.
These people all had first-hand experience observing the Arabian
horse in its native environment. They described the overall
breed as divided into strains, and they obviously seemed to
think that the strain names described different types of horses.
Few such observers thought of the subject of Arabian strains
as a subject of logical analysis. To them, it was simply a fact
that the Arabian breed was divided into different breeding groups
which were identified by strain names.
However, as Arabian horse breeding has become established outside
of Arabia, mostly in Egypt, England, the Americas, and Europe,
there has been a tendency for breeders to lose sight of basic
Bedouin concepts of breeding. One of the first such concepts
to be lost was that of strain breeding. It was not well understood
outside of Arabia at best. A worse reason for ignoring it was
that a number of breeders who set the tone for writing on the
subject of Arabian horse breeding came to the conclusion that,
after generations of ignoring strain considerations and other
standards of Bedouin breeding, Arabian strain concepts no longer
fit Arabian horses.
This position has too often been both right and wrong. Wrong
because some of these people did not understand Arabian strains
well enough to know when they were active in a pedigree and
when they were not. They didn't even understand what they were
rejecting. Right because it is indeed true that Arabian breeding
has arrived at a point where there are many registered Arabian
horses which are so far removed in type and pedigree from the
Arabian horse of Arabia that Bedouin standards no longer apply
to them, including strain standards. For such horses, it is
not reasonable to think in terms of strain breeding.
By the 1920's, most writers on the subject of Arabian breeding
were thinking mainly about "breeding the best to the best"
and trying to produce good cavalry horses. About that time a
young German immigrant to this country, Carl Raswan (born Carl
Schmidt), began a lifelong career as a horseman and writer in
which he presented a theory as to how Arabian strains could
be used to produce certain types of Arabian horses.
Raswan repeatedly made the point that he had not invented his
version of strain breeding. As evidence, he referenced written
testimony of Bedouin breeders of historic record -- italics--
Western Horseman: "Pure Strains of Arabians," (pages
42-44) as well as his own contacts with Bedouin breeders in
Arabia, where he had traveled extensively, and his study of
Arabian breeding outside of Arabia. Thus, his contribution to
strain breeding theory was presented as a matter of restatement,
systematization, and interpretation.
Raswan had no monopoly on strain-breeding theory. Other people
have had their own ideas on the subject and conducted excellent
breeding programs based upon them. Polish breeding, for instance,
is said to place importance on strain-breeding principles, and
Raswan maintained that, by his criteria, Lady Wentworth was,
in effect, a closet strain breeder, a proposition which she
articulately denied.
American breeders have used strain breeding of one form or another
from the time of our very first American breeder,
Randolph Huntington. Other Americans
who strain bred were Homer Davenport,
Peter Bradley, Alice Payne,
John Doyle, Jane and Carl Asmis, numerous breeders associated
with Al Khamsa-type horses,
and a multitude of people who deliberately or not, followed
concepts of type and pedigree which amount to strain breeding.
The concepts of strain breeding have been widely observed in
the United States. They are not unusual, esoteric, or extreme.
But sometimes they are not recognized.
Raswan's version of strain breeding was unusual in that it was
comprehensive for Arabian breeding. It was not universally accepted
in the Arabian horse community. It offended some people, perhaps
because it did not treat their horses well. Others did not follow
its logic, and some simple didn't agree with it.
Raswan himself was a persuasive personality and a convincing
writer, but his work lost some public credibility because his
lifestyle was unconventional, and because from time to time
he made statements about Arabian horse breeding which he perhaps
understood but appeared to be contradictory to some people.
Also, he had the disadvantage of publishing over a period of
forty some years. During that time there were changes of position,
sometimes based on normal thought development, and sometimes
on new information such as constantly turns up concerning Arabian
horses. It is very difficult matter for an author to be completely
consistent over such a long period of time.
Over the years, a number of critics have rejected Raswan strain
theory because they disagreed with his stand in favor of purist
breeding. The two were not the same at all and, in fact, the
strain theory provides a means of correcting what Raswan felt
to be mistakes in purist breeding so that they no longer have
practical effect.
In spite of criticism, Raswan's concept of strain breeding received
wide distribution among Arabian breeders, with some finding
it convincing and others being less attracted to it. In recent
times, a resurgence of interest seems to be in process. Perhaps
this results from the increasing tendency at our Arabian horse
shows and in pictures in our national magazines, for the Arabian
horse as registered to look less and less like what people recognize
as a real Arabian horse. Strain-breeding theory is perceived
as offering a program for returning to a recognizable type of
Arabian horse.
There are several basic propositions upon which Raswan's theories
of strain breeding are based. These have been described numerous
places and will be listed here with only brief explanations.
Readers who desire more detail are referred first of all to
Raswan's own written work, of which perhaps the most convenient
instance is The Raswan Index. A survey of the subject was included
in "Kissing the Frog Prince," by the present writer in
Arabian Visions, May and June issues of 1989.
Proposition 1: The horses bred by the
Bedouins of Arabia could be classified as belonging to three
major strain groups:
1) the Kuhaylan group: "Strength-type: masculine,
muscular, wide across back, croup, chest, neck, forehead, and
broad across forearm and gaskins. Even the mares are muscular-masculine;
2) the Saqlawi group, tending to have high neck and
tail carriage: "Beauty-type: feminine, elegant, fine boned,
extremely handsome. The Parade and Show Type. Even the stallions
are extremely beautiful-feminine,"
3) the Mu'niqi group, "the Angular-Race-type: with
long lines (long back, long neck, long legs, and long, narrow
head), also taller than the 'Classic'-type-Arabian and also
coarser (often ugly in appearance and in temperament)."
(Strain descriptions from The Arab and His Horse, page
28.)
Each breeding group has other distinctive details as well, concerning
which, the reader is referred to Raswan's work. There was at
least one possible exception to the classification of Arabian
strains into three breeding groups, and that concerned the Hadban
strain. In personal conversation, Raswan said this strain was
neither Saqlawi, Kuhaylan, or My'niqi, but that horses of this
strain crossed best with those of Kuhaylan bloodlines. However,
in his Western Horseman article "The Head of the Arabian,"
and in the table of strains published by the same magazine in
the article "Undistinguished Types of Arabian Horses,"
he gives the Hadban and Kuhaylan strains as related, as he does
in The Arab and His Horse, page 28, and elsewhere.
It ought to be kept in mind that by classifying the multitude
of Arabian strains into three major breeding groups, Raswan
was not indicating that individual strains within each breeding
didn't have their own characteristics. On the contrary, he obviously
felt that the separate strains within the larger breeding groups
had distinctive features. These are described in detail in the
section titled "Arabian Strains" in The Raswan Index.
Proposition 2: Bred within their own
divisions of the three breeding groups, Arabian horses tend
to produce according to their groups. Thus Seqlawi bred to a
Saqlawi, tends to produce a Saqlawi. A Kuhaylan bred to a Kuhaylan,
tends to produce a Kuhaylan. A Mu'niqi bred to a Mu'niqi tends
to produce a Mu'niqi.
Proposition 3: The Kuhaylan and Saqlawi
strains are related, and when individuals of these strains are
bred to each other, harmonious, attractive individuals result
which may lack the extreme features of either parent strain,
but are recognizable of "Classic" Arabian type.
Proposition 4: The Mu'niqi strain is
fundamentally unrelated to the Kuhaylan and Saqlawi strains.
When individuals of it or other unrelated bloodlines are crossed
with Kuhaylan and Saqlawi bloodlines, "classic" Arabian type
deteriorates. It was Raswan's theory that the lack of type in
many Arabian horses of his time as a writer (roughly 1925 to
1966), was the result of unsuccessful crosses between the Mu'niqi
and the Kuhaylan and Saqlawi breeding groups.
The propositions given here as the basics of Raswan strain theory
provide an interesting tool for analyzing the Arabian horse
as a breed. By themselves, however, they are not very useful
in guiding actual Arabian breeders in production of Arabian
horses according to predictable patterns. They are simply too
general to have much specific application: it is fine to know
that there are different major families of Arabian horses, but
that does not tell how to plan flesh-and-blood matings between
horses.
Corollaries of Strain Breeding, Part II, will
follow in the April 1991 Classic Arabian Issue.
Raswan, C.R., The Arab and His Horse,
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 55-11083.
Raswan, C.R., The Raswan Index.
Published in several editions. References here are given by
topic rather than page number as a convenience to readers.
Raswan, C.R., A Collection of Articles
by Carl Raswan, a private republication by Alice L. Payne and
her son Robert of articles by Carl Raswan originally appearing
in Western Horseman magazine.
Raswan, C.R., "Key" to Arabian Pedigrees.
Originally copyrighted in 1956, this document was later incorporated
into The Raswan Index.
