A Personal Narrative on My Journey
through the Middle East

Thursday morning reconvened attendees to the final business session of the WAHO conference. Some delegates from various nations took the opportunity to give their feelings on the impending possible AHRA suspension issue and it was clear that such an occurrence was not desired and a resolution to this issue was hoped for by all concerned. The concluding business was for each individual delegation to rise and offer its thanks to His Highness Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the Emirates Arabian Horse Society for its extraordinary hospitality in hosting a very enjoyable conference. Final executive committee business was announced by Jay Stream who also introduced the newest appointee as consultant to the executive committee, Basil Jadaan from Syria. Basil Jadaan was attending the WAHO conference along with a delegation of a number of familiar faces who were helpful to me from my travels in Syria, some formally representing that country and some attending privately for interest and curiosity.

Thursday evening saw the final banquet held in the Majlis room at the Inter-Continental. This was festive occasion, with a very talented contemporary band playing modern music for the dance oriented. It had occurred to me that I am probably a better “ad lib” dancer when invited join the traditional Bedouin dancers than attempting modern disco so I decided it was actually safer to sit this one out even though no swords were involved. A fine cuisine was enjoyed and final thank yous and acknowledgments were given to the hosts for another wonderful conference.

The remaining 3 days, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were for post conference presentations of horses and area events of interest to the many who had traveled so far to visit the Arabian Gulf area.

Beginning on Friday, the whole day was devoted to a visit to the island of Bahrain hosted by His Highness Shaikh Hamad bin Eisa Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain and Supreme Commander of Bahrain Armed Forces. Guests were flown over to Bahrain on 3 chartered airliners in the finest decor and finest Arabic food. This was a day that I had been waiting for with great anticipation as I had read much about the Bahrain horses before and had established a good correspondence with Danah Al Khalifa while working on the production of the Saluqi Coursing book.

Upon landing we were put aboard a large caravan of supercruiser airconditioned busses and given a tour of the new causeway that was built to join Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. We did not drive the full length to Saudi Arabia which would have taken some time and many miles but got to see enough of it to appreciate this spectacular engineering wonder. Then it was off to see the horses.

A special presentation of select horses from the Amiri Arabian Stud of Bahrain was given. 23 mares/fillies and 7 stallions/colts were presented in a beautiful sunny afternoon Bahrain setting at the Safriya horse facility fit for a king. Each guest had a booklet with the extended pedigree as each horse was quietly presented individually. The horses were all of old strains and in keeping with the balanced, good looking, good mannered, classic Bedouin type Arabians, these were a delight to see. Although these horses are not in the Al Khamsa roster, we have some from Bahrain that are, so this was the first presentation of horses from one of our Ancestral Elements, Khalifa. Here too special attention was given to the strains of the horses. The horses were presented one at a time and all had extraordinary good temperament and manners. For the interest of our readers and since ”Khalifa” is an Ancestral Element, I photographed almost every horse in the presentation and feature some of them here for your viewing.

Some of the Horses presented from the Amiri Arabian Stud in Bahrain:
 

Jellabieh 846 a 1990 grey mare (Musannaan 334 x Jellabieh Bint Alsadiya 166).	Dhahma 821 a 1989 grey mare (Kuheilaan Aafas 416 x Dhahma Bint Dhahma 671).	Hamdanieh 931 a 1993 bay mare (Jellaby Nejib 404 x Hamdanieh 761).
Jellabieh 972 a 1995 grey mare (Musannaan 805 x Jellabieh 418).	Kuheilat Aafas 851 a 1990 grey mare (Hamdaany 754 x Kuheilat Aafas 170).	Kuheilaan Umm Zorayr 407 a 1983 bay stallion (Dhahmaan Alrafah 592 x Kuheilat Umm Zorayr 186).
Musannaan 334 a 1981 grey stallion (Jellaby 672 x Musannah 32).	Ma’anaghieh 981 a 1995 bay mare (Shuwaimaan 800 x Ma’anaghieh 774).	Kuheilat Aladiyat 936 a 1994 chestnut mare (Jellaby Nejib 404 x Kuheilat Aladiyat Fifi 809).
Musannah 746 a 1985 grey mare (Jellaby 672 x Musannah 638 out of Musannah 32).	Shawafah 869 a 1991 grey mare (Musannaan 334 x Shawafah 768).	Shuwaimaan 800 a 1988 grey stallion (Kuheilaan Aafas 416 x Shuwaimeh 48).

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