What is a "Blue list" Arabian?

These are the descendants of asil Arabian horses recorded in the Blue Arabian Horse Catalog or "Blue list”. This catalog was compiled by Miss Jane Llewellyn Ott, with the assistance of Carl Raswan, who sought to document horses she believed to represent the original desert-bred stock of the Bedouin tribes of Arabia.

Ansata Abbas Pasha

In 1952, Jane Ott began compiling a list of Arabian horses believed to descend directly from desert-bred stock. This work was later continued by Al Khamsa, an organization dedicated to preserving traditional bloodlines. The Blue List aimed to identify asil Arabians—horses whose ancestry could be reliably traced to Bedouin breeding or to breeders known for strict standards of purity. Over time, Al Khamsa in the United States and the Asil Club in Europe expanded this work by including additional horses that met their criteria, even if they were not in the original Blue Catalog.

Within Straight Egyptian Arabian horses, several bloodlines are not considered Blue List, highlighting the difference between generally accepted asil horses and those meeting stricter Blue List standards.

One of the best-known examples are the Bisharat horses, acquired after the disbandment of the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force in 1948 and later sold to the Inshass Stud of King Farouk. The issue is the lack of documented breeding at the Frontier Force station in Acre. If asil, these horses were likely brought by Bedouin soldiers, but no clear records confirm their breeders or direct Bedouin origin.

Through stallions such as Badr and Bandong, they appear in the pedigrees of horses like Hanan, Ali Valentino, and Orashan, as well as in the “New Egyptians” in Marbach through Bilal I. Today, largely due to Hanan, it is increasingly difficult to find Straight Egyptian Arabians without Bisharat blood.

You can read their detailed history in the following articles: "On the bisharat horses and the Transjordan frontier force" and "On the trail of the Bisharat Horses: the Government Stock Farm, Acre, and the Trans-Jordan Frontier Force"

Another widely spread non-Blue List line is that of Nasralla. Although his asil status has since been clarified, he remained controversial for many years. His influence is especially widespread through his great-granddaughter Bahila, dam of horses such as The Minstril and Coaltown, and further through The Vision, dam of the Ariely stallions Al Lahab and Al Ayal.

Another line lacking full documentation is that of Bint Kareema, bred at Kafr Ibrash Farm by Queen Mother Nazli and sired by the Blunt stallion Rasheed. Little is known about her dam Kareema, except that she was reportedly by a Dahman out of an Obeya mare. This line spread widely in Europe through Hania of the Kauber Platte stud, in the United States through Ibn Farhan, and in Egypt through El Badr (Adl x Daab).

Lack of documentation does not necessarily mean these horses are not asil. It is unlikely that a trader at the time would have presented unverified horses to the Egyptian royal family. However, the Blue List maintains particularly strict standards, requiring clear and traceable documentation to desert-bred Bedouin horses, which continues to set it apart as a selective reference in Arabian horse breeding.