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On a return visit to Tayra's village outside
Kalar about 6 months later we were taken to see a litter of 6 puppies only 4 weeks old. Their dam was a grizzle called Ziwa,
which means 'silver' in Kurdish. The sire was a powerfully built red and white particolour called Qais. The puppies were
two cream bitches, a silver grizzle dog and a bitch and a red and white particlour dog and a similar bitch. The
owner said we were welcome to take our pick and, although we had doubts about their survival away from their dam at so early
an age, some friends took the silver grizzle bitch and I took one of the cream bitches. For the first 2-3 days, my friends
fed them on babies' powdered milk from a bottle but, just as the breeder predicted, they were soon lapping milk on their
own. At 6 weeks they started eating minced meat and then made rapid progress.
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| Ziwa at one year old |
But it was not all plain sailing with Ziwa. Tayra
was not at all happy to have this small fluffy thing brought into her life and from the beginning would never leave Ziwa alone
for a moment. As soon as the puppy moved, Tayra would pounce on her. Once when Ziwa was about 3-4 months old she ran into
a glass door in an attempt to get away from Tayra and banged her head so hard that a large lump appeared. Whether this was
what affected her later in life is difficult to say but the fact remains that she gradually grew into a nervous hound. Even
her appearance changed and her ears, which had been normally pendant, became turned back.
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| Ziwa's turned back ears |
We tried finding a new home for her with friends but
Ziwa only pined and was even more unhappy. So when we were transferred to Muscat, Ziwa came too. However she then began to
suffer repeated skin infections, something like eczema, and the vet said in the end there was nothing more that he could do
for her. He thought the problem was psychological. So we had to put her down.
Sami of Samarra
While we were still living in Baghdad we often visited the ruins of the former Abbasid capital at Samarra.
One day while running Tayra and Ziwa through the site I came across some Saluqis belonging to a war veteran living near the
Tigris. Hatim became a friend and over the years we had some good times on his farm with his pack of hounds and his Arabians.
His family had bred smooth Saluqis for generations and even as recently as the 1950s used to hunt gazelle with them on the
plains around Samarra. On one of my visits his smooth grizzle bitch had had a month before a litter of five puppies by two
different sires - a feathered brindle grizzle and a feathered white. I was interested in acquiring a dog as a potential mate
for my two bitches. I liked the look of the two silver grizzles but they were both bitches and, in any case, all the
pups were already promised to others.
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| Sami's dam |
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| One of Sami's sires |
Some months later I returned to Samarra to see the pups
again but found they had all gone to their new homes. The two white dogs had gone to a nearby farm so I drove over to see
them. They had grown into robust little hounds with the freedom to roam on the farm and were well fed on cow's milk. One
struck me as particulalrly well-made and I asked the new owner whether he would be prepared to part with him. After a long
discussion he agreed to do so but on condition that I gave him Ziwa in exchange. I said I would think it over and would meanwhile
borrow the dog to see how he was at home.
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| Sami and his siblings |
So I brought home Sami of Samarra, as we called him,
while we considered what to do. He settled down very quickly and got on well with Tayra, but Ziwa took a dislike to him (perhaps
she sensed her future was linked to him?). Sami made a good impression and promised well in the weeks he stayed with
us. He would undoubtedly have made a good mate for Tayra, but in the end we could not reconcile ourselves to a swap and sadly
we had to return Sami. It was quite touching when we arrived at the farm to see the farmer's son pick up Sami and give
him a hug, obviously overjoyed to have his puppy back.
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| Sami reunited with his owner |
Negma Jaidan Al Murra
Without Ziwa, Tayra seemed lonely, so we
decided to find her a companion. We searched high and low in Oman, which was once noted for a distinctive type of Saluqi.
According to the Hon. Florence Amherst in 'Oriental Greyhounds', the Omani Saluqi had 'not much feathering
on ears and tail'. I questioned the Bedouin in the Wahaiba Sands, the Jiddat al-Harasis, the Empty Quarter and the Buraimi
oasis, but the answer was always the same. The older men remembered hunting with Saluqis in their youth but, following the
introduction of the ban on all forms of hunting in 1976, they had been obliged to dispose of their hounds. Some added that
in any case game had become very scarce and fresh meat was available more easily from shops. Some Bedouin of the Al bu Shamis
tribe near Buraimi and the Duru' in the Wadi Aswad, who were famed hunters in the not so distant past, recalled wistfully
the good old days when virtually every tent had a Saluqi and they would ride out on their camels with their hounds and their
Saker falcons to hunt gazelle and hare in the desert. They were able to show me only one old male grizzle and a black
and white puppy, which they said were used only as guard dogs. Later on I found two more, a lightly feathered cream dog and his
smooth sister, which were apparently only house pets.
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| Old Omani Saluqi |
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| Omani puppy |
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| Saluqi in the Sharqiya |
So it was clear I would have to look elsewhere. One
day we were visiting an oasis of the Al Murra tribe on the northern edge of the Empty Quater in Saudi Arabia, where I had
seen some fine Saluqis on a previous visit. The Al Murra tribe are renowned in the whole region as breeders of camels and
hunters with Saluqis and falcons and they range across a huge swathe of territory from the Gulf to the border with Yemen.
The population of the oasis constantly fluctuates as the nomads come and go. On this occasion there were only two puppies
there. The Headman took us round and peeping under the flap of one of the tents was an endearing face of a feathered gold
and white bitch about 8 months old, but the owner was not there. We were then shown a slightly younger feathered red bitch, but
the owner was also away and his wife could not discuss the matter. We went back to the first puppy to find the owner, an ex-policeman
who had coincidentally worked for my daughter's godfather in Qatar, was back and after some haggling he agreed to swap
Najma (Star) for my binoculars. He gave me the details of her parents, who were good hunters, and maintained
that her siblings had been sold to the Ruler of Abu Dhabi for a large sum and he was letting me have her only because of my
connection with his former much-respected boss! We subsequently registered her with the Bahrain Kennel Club, where, as they already had other Najmas, they
entered her as 'Negma Jaidan Al Murra', by which name I later registered her with the Kennel Club in Britain.
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| Najma and her breeder at Anbak |
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| Najma in the desert in Oman |
Najma proved to be an exceptional hound from the very
beginning. At that stage of her life she had never walked on a leash before and had never been in a car, yet she adapted to
both without any hesitation. We drove her home to Muscat and she made the transition from Bedouin tent in the desert to ambassadorial
residence by the sea as if she was born to this life style. More importantly she stood up to Tayra and there was never any
trouble between them. She was amazingly obedient and walked at my side without any command and had the most equable temperament.
She was good-natured with small children and was never fazed by unexpected noises, though she was a good watchdog. At
the same time she was a ruthless hunter and brought to coursing an intensity of concentration that was sometimes almost frightening
to behold. She was only 24" x 24" but was robustly built with a very broad chest. She excelled at working the
hare at close quarters, when her small size seemed to help her turn quickly.
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| Cream Cracker |
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| Najma and her puppies |
Najma in England
Najma was already past her best by the time she and Tayra came to England and had passed 6 months
in quarantine, but from time to time she showed much younger hounds how to catch a hare quickly and efficiently. As she grew
older she found it easier to catch foxes and once, to my amazement, she also dealt with a badger before I could intervene. When she was seven, I decided to try to have a litter from
her. A friend had bred some years before an exceptionally good litter of coursing hounds, albeit from a brother/sister
mating, which the Arabs would not normally encourage. So Najma went off to Cream Cracker and the deed was done. Two months
later she produced seven puppies: 2 grizzles - a dog and a bitch; a red bitch; a cream bitch and 3 cream dogs, each with some
red markings on the head. Cream Cracker was smooth, with a hint of feathering in the tail and the puppies turned out to be
4 smooths and 3 feathereds. I named them after the 7 days of the week in Arabic and kept the cream bitch - Thalooth
Al-Thalaatha (The Three Graces of Tuesday). Najma
proved to be an excellent mother and passed on to all her offspring the same qualities of gentleness as a companion and ruthlessness
as a hunter. She lived on until she was 11 when increasing lameness as a result of an old coursing injury meant that we had
to put her down.
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| Najma in single slips |
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| Najma in double slips |
Thalooth Al-Thalaatha
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| Sally with some of her coursing trophies |
I knew I could keep only one bitch from Najma's
litter of seven and it was a difficult choice. As they began to develop and to show individuality I felt the choice lay between
the feathered cream and the grizzle smooth. I chose the cream but as it turned out both of them were to go on and win in successive
seasons the highest accolade of the Saluki or Gazelle Hound Club: the Victor Henderson Memorial Trophy for the Saluki
winning the most courses in a season. But my experience of coursing in Britain Tayra as a smooth and Najma as a feathered
led me to believe that the feathered hound withstood better the rigours of our climate, so I kept Thalooth Al-Thalaatha
(aka 'Sally') and had no cause to regret it.
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| Sally as a puppy |
Although
I showed Sally a few times and she made it to Crufts twice, first in 1998, when she won a Very Highly Commended in Special
Puppy Bitch and again in 2000, it was on the coursing field that she made her mark. She won her first course as a year-old
puppy in Norfolk on 7 February 1998. In the following season she won nearly every event of the Coursing Section
of the Saluki or Gazelle Hound Club for which she was entered: 29 September 1998 - winner of the 8-dog Beaufort Stake in Gloucestershire 13-14 November 1998 - winner (from her sister) of the 20-dog
Moray Trophy in Scotland 28 November 1998
- winner (from her brother) of the 8-dog Michael Lyne Trophy in Wiltshire 16 January 1999 - winner of the 16-dog Yorkshire Wolds Trophy in Wiltshire 6 February 1999 - runner-up in the 16-dog Cleve Cup in Norfolk She then cut her foot badly but had already accumulated enough
points to win the Victor Henderson Memorial Trophy She
also won the Bait Shahin Trophy.
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| Sally with her brother Thani, semi-final of the Cleve Cup, 6/2/99 |
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| Sally with her sister Molly, Borders Trophy, 24/11/00 |
In the last season (1999-2000) before the suspension
of the Coursing Section of the SGHC and the formation of the new Saluki Coursing Club, Sally was not as successful, though
she still finished third in the points table behind her sister, Rabbaa Jarbou and her brother, Thani Al-Ithnain of Chayim: 19-20 November 1999 - runner-up to her brother in the 24-dog Moray
Trophy in Scotland 12 February 2000 - joint
winner of the Beverley Cup 16-dog stake in Wiltshire 26
February - runner-up to her brother in the 16-dog Kerrison Trophy in Gloucestershire
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| Thani leading Sally in the heather |
In the first season of the new Saluki Coursing Club
she was still in the top flight of coursing Salukis: 4
November 2000 - semi-finalist in an 8-dog stake in Norfolk 24-25 November - quarter-finalist in the 22-dog Border Stake in Scotland 13 January 2001 - winner of the 16-dog Holkham Hall Bitch Stake 10 February 2001- runner-up (to her brother Sabti Al-Sabt) in the West Wilts Stake
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| Molly leading Sally |
Perhaps her greatest challenge and success came at Greyhound
2000, a celebration of Greyhound coursing held in Norfolk on 10-14 December 2000. Enthusiasts from all over Britain and many
other countries gathered in their hundreds to see a parade of the participants, a pedigree Greyhound show and Greyhound racing,
while the preliminary courses were run of a 128-dog coursing stake for the Millennium Cup, the biggest event of its kind since
1887. On the last day in order to give the Greyhounds a break between the final rounds, the organisers had invited the Coursing
Section of the SGHC to put forward their top Salukis to compete in an exhibition 4-dog stake. The Coursing Section Committee
accepted the invitation and decided to run the top four Salukis from the 1999-2000 season: 1. Rabbaa Jarbou (Negma Jaidan Al Murra x Cream Cracker) (aka Molly) owned by Mrs Joanne Sagar 2. Thani Al-Ithnain of Chayim ( Negma Jaidan Al Murra x Cream Cracker)
owned by Mrs Lynn Ingram 3. Thalooth
Al-Thalaatha (Negma Jaidan Al Murra x Cream Cracker) owned by me 4. Salamara Girl (Kenine Tarazed x Kenine Tanoda) (aka Sandy) owned by Mr Ian Charlton Although the Coursing Section was suspended by the time the event
happened, the invitations had already gone to the above owners and they decided to take part. The Whippet and Deerhound Clubs
were similarly invited and took part.
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| Sally in slips with Molly, semi final of the Millannium Cup |
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| Sally leading Molly, Millennium Cup |
It was a beautiful day and the coursing ground
was in perfect condition, with a good supply of hares, driven in towards the Slipper by beaters. By the time it came to the
Salukis' turn the sun was already going down. Sally and her sister Molly went into slips and Paul Sagar and I knew from
previous encounters that it would be a hard contest between them. A hare came through, the Slipper gave it a long start before
slipping them in perfect unison and away they went up the sloping field. Sally soon opened up a gap which she turned into
a three-length lead as they went in a straight tail chase about three-quarters of the way up the field. As Sally closed on
the hare it bent left and Molly came in, but Sally took the lead again and put in another bend or two before the hare escaped
into some rough grass. It was Sally's course. Her
brother Thani then took on Sandy and kept the lead before they lost the hare in the far corner of the field. So he went into
the final with Sally. After a long wait
with the sun almost disappearing, Sally and Thani went into slips. A hare came through and it was almost a repetition of Sally's
previous course, as she took the lead and opened up a gap of a couple of lengths before the hare made its first turn. She
kept ahead as they forced the hare to make a few more turns before Sally pulled it down right in front of the commentator's
box and the huge crowd of spectators. She had won, but the contest with her brother was not over! As we went forward to collect
the hounds, another hare came racing down the field and the pair gave chase. To the delight of the crowd they put on in front
of them a great exhibition of Saluki coursing as they worked the hare this way and that. The hare was edging all the while
towards a hedge but though it went through the hounds did not let up. They went through and across another big field and were
lost from sight until they reappeared with Thani carrying the hare. It was an amazing show of speed, skill and endurance.
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| Receiving the Millennium Cup for the Champion Coursing Saluki |
By the following season Sally was beginning to show her age and although
she was still winning courses, some younger hounds were now starting to come to the fore, with a crop of Najma's grandchildren
among them.
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| Walking up in Portugal, autumn 2007 |
Despite the hunting ban imposed on coursing in 2003, Sally was still competing
in 2007 at the age of 10 when she ran in the SCC's annual series of coursing meetings in Portugal and Spain, but the following
year she began to show signs of illness. Cancer of the spleen was diagnosed and in July 2008 we had to bid farewell
to this most remarkable and most lovable of hounds.
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| The gang of three,: Najma, Sally and Filfil |
Skidaw Filfil Al-Hamra
We never meant to have Filly at all. We were visiting
the Lake District and went to stay with some coursing friends, Ian and Susi Charlton, whose bitch, Salamara Girl (Kenine Tarazed
x Kenine Tanoda), had a litter of six month-old puppies by Thani Al-Ithnain, brother of my Sally. Two of the puppies
were not yet spoken for, we weakened and chose a feisty little bitch, which we called 'Red Pepper' or Filfil Al-Hamra
in Arabic.
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| Salamara Girl and puppies |
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| Filly at 3 months |
I took collection of her at a coursing meeting when
she was three months old and to my amazement she walked with us the whole morning in the field. As I soon discovered, she
was a dynamo of energy and quite a handful to control. Our twice daily walks with Najma and Sally often developed into mini
courses as they sorted out the wild life and not a few canines! When full grown she was quite small ( 24 1/2" -
61 cm) and light (36 lbs - 18 kg) and was sometimes knocked over by the heavier hounds, but what she lacked in size she more
than made up for in determination. When coursing she would stop at nothing.
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| Filly and her sister Fizz in the Puppy Stake, 16/2/02 |
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| Filly & her brother Shiraz in the final of the Puppy Stake, 16/2/02 |
It was typical of her that on the day before she was
due to run in the annual SCC Puppy Stake in February 2002 she flew over a barbed wire fence in pursuit of a hare and slit
open the skin on her chest. The vet put in 6 stitches and I thought that was that. But the vet thought she could run the next
day and she did, losing only in the final against her big brother Shiraz.
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| Filly and Sally in the Scottish heather |
The next month up in Scotland she won her first trophy but
it was the following season 2002-3 when she really triumphed and was awarded the SCC's Knightellington Jacket
for the Saluki winning the most courses: 12 November
2002 - winner of the 8-dog Nelson Stake in Norfolk 14-15
February 2003 - Winner of the 12-dog Valentine's Stake in Wiltshire 21 February 2003 - Winner of an 8-dog stake in Gloucestershire 22 February 2003 - winner of an 8-dog stake in Gloucestershire
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| Filly & Dakhilak Shalm in Wiltshire |
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| Filly & Shim El Howa in final of an 8-dog stake, 22/2/02 |
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| Filly in the Knightellington Jacket 2002-03 |
Filly was also successful at lure coursing and in June
2003 she achieved the then rare distinction for a Saluki to be named a Lure Courser of Merit by the British Sighthound Field
Association for scoring over 200 points and going Best of Breed more than three times.
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| Filly lure coursing |
As younger Salukis began to make their mark and the
SCC grew in size, Filly had fewer runs and less success in the 2003-4 season: 12 October 2003 - runner-up in the 8-dog Wash Stake 19 November 2003 - Runner-up in the 8-dog Bus Stop Stake Then she had a bad leg injury and I needed some surgery too, so we were both out of the field for
a while. In the next season, the last before the ban on hunting with dogs came into effect, she was again hit by leg
injuries and managed only: 18/12/2004 -
finalist in an 8-dog Christmas Stake 8/1/2005
- Runner-up in the 8-dog New Year Stake Then
injury struck again but she ran officially for the last time before the ban on 17 February 2005, winning her course in
an unfinished 32-dog stake.
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| Filly and her rabbit |
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| Filly cooling off after a hot morning's coursing |
After the hunting ban with dogs came into effect, the
Saluki Coursing Club, of which I was then Chairman, decided to change its name to the Saluki Conservation Club, as our focus
moved to maintaining our Salukis' fitness and hunting qualities within the framework permitted by the law until such time
as the law, which was shown to be largely unworkable, was repealed. Although the law effectively ended competitive coursing
on live game, it did allow the use of two dogs at a time to drive game to guns or to falcons and we were able to use our Salukis
in this role. Salukis could also continue as before to be exercised in the pursuit of the artificial lure or on the race
track. However there was nothing to prevent us running our Salukis competitively abroad and we established an annual two-week
series of meetings on some of the large and beautifully appointed hunting estates in Portugal and Spain. In the ideal conditions
of the largely flat terrain of these huge estates our Salukis were able to exercise their full potential, while their
owners could additionally enjoy many of the cultural and gastronomic delights of the region.
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| Walking up in Portugal in 2003 with Shiraz v. Galgo (with a debutant Galgo behind) |
She enjoyed her retirement to the
full and defended our garden against the depredations of the local foxes and squirrels right until the end. Soon after her
1oth birthday she stopped eating because of a large tumour in her stomach and we had to have her put down to spare her the
pain.
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