In 1964, Hodie Maxwell contacted Carl Raswan. Hodie and her husband Pres, had moved to Colorado from Texas and owned Arabian horses. Hodie had been studying the Arabian Horse, purchasing books about the breed and learning of their Bedouin roots. She was enchanted by the rich desert history of the horses. The more she read, the more she realized that she wanted to dedicate her breeding program to breeding and raising authentic Bedouin-bred Arabian horses. Carl Raswan had devoted his life to the Arabian horse breed and had more experience, a majority of which came from living among the Bedouin tribes. Carl Raswan suggested to Hodie that she contact Mrs. Jane Ott, which she promptly did. After months of conversations with Mrs. Ott, Pres and Hodie Maxwell purchased the stallion, Ibn Sirecho, in 1964. He was three years old. Pres and Hodie also purchased the mare, Fanistar, a Fanifeh daughter, out of the *Turfa granddaughter, Blue Star, whom they bred to Sirecho, producing the mare Sifana, who with Ibn Sirecho, would become an important foundation of the Maxwell breeding program and eventually lead them towards creating a program of Blue Star breeding, focusing on horses of the Hamdaniyah strain. While the Maxwell's mission was to breed authentic Bedouin horses; they did show Ibn Sirecho in English Pleasure classes and he did well but he was a breeding stallion first. His greatest success in the show ring would come later, with his sons and daughter.
Ibn Sirecho (Sirecho x Turfara) |
Anchor Hill Serfa (Ibn Sirecho x Serida) |
Gail Hoff-Carmona, at the urging of Mrs. Jane Ott, purchased two Ibn Sirecho horses from the Maxwells. The double Sirecho mare Samoohah (Ibn Sirecho x Sifana) and the stallion El Hamdani Bey (Ibn Sirecho x Fanistar) became part of Gail's breeding program at Princeton Arabians, both in her small Blue Star breeding program and also combined with her straight Babson Egyptian horses. Gail said
"...these horses are among the very best when you consider disposition. They tend to be very easy to train and quick to learn."
Ibn Sirecho (Sirecho x Turfara) |
PS Many thanks to my friend, Diana Johnson of Bint Al Bahr Arabians, who helped me find so many photos of Ibn Sirecho. I am so grateful for her friendship. Also, I need to publicly thank and credit Ms. Karen Stalmann, whose Khamsat article, THE MAXWELL CONTRIBUTION helped me quite a bit in trying to understand the influence of Ibn Sirecho. Also, Ms. Kris Searle wrote an article titled THE MAKING OF A WESTERN HORSE which I also need to credit, as I learned about her horses like Jezail, Al Hajal and Le Encore.
I loved this article, both the story and the article on IBN SIRECHO, whom I technically owned at the time of his death. Since I did not ever really get him, I acquired LE ENCORE from the Searles and picked him up at Scottsdale in 1987, after he went Top Ten Open Stock Horse. He was my friend, companion, and personal horse until his death at 27 years of age. In that 20 years, he produced multiple BLUE STAR produce, from mares of the same source pedigree. which populate my farm, today. His last two produce, coming three year old colts, were born in August/September after LE ENCORE passed away in October of the previous fall.
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