Arabian beauties: Dozens of Syria's war horses plod way to recovery

DAMASCUS - A shadow of her former self after years of war, 11-year-old Arabian mare Karen stands quietly as a Syrian veterinarian gently pushes a syringe into her pale gray neck.

"Karen used to be the beauty queen of all horses," said the vet, Ahmad Sharida.

But inside her stable near Damascus today, her hips jut out viciously from her overgrown speckled coat.

Weak and withdrawn, Karen is unable to even whinny.

After almost eight years of war, she is one of dozens of Arabian horses from all over Syria recovering from the physical and psychological trauma of the fighting.

Prized for their beauty, endurance and speed, Arabian purebreds are one of the oldest horse breeds in the world.

In Syria, Bedouins have bred them in the north of the country for centuries, seeking to maintain the purity of the local bloodlines.

Before the conflict, Sharida had proudly watched Karen grow from a long-legged foal into a graceful equine beauty.

"I know her very well. I was the one who brought her out of her mother's belly," said the vet, a stethoscope hanging around his neck.

But he lost sight of Karen after she was stolen from her stable in Eastern Ghouta in 2012, the same year rebels overran the region northeast of Damascus.

The area suffered five years of bombardment, as well as food and medicine shortages under a crippling siege, before the government forces took it back last year.

Sharida had long fled his home region but returned to search for missing Arabian horses and immediately recognized Karen when he found her in October.

"I was so shocked," said the 51-year-old vet.

"She was all skin and bones, and could barely stand up."

Like all other horses he found, she was frail and sick after years of being surrounded by fighting and lacking food and medical attention.

Syria's war has led to the death of 360,000 people and displaced millions since it started in 2011. And it has taken a toll on the country's equine population too.

"Horses have greatly suffered, just like us all," said Mohammed Ghaith al-Shaib, head of the state's Arabian Horse Office.

"They've also been displaced, kidnapped and killed."

Of the 8,500 horses that Syria registered with the World Arabian Horse Organization, or WAHO, in 2011, it has lost 3,000 in the war, he said.

But the conflict in Syria has turned around in recent years, and after a series of victories against rebels and extremists, the Syrian government is now in control of almost two-thirds of the country.

Since 2014, WAHO has recognized 2,400 new Syrian foals as Arabian, after samples from their manes were sent off for DNA testing in Germany, Shaib said.

Agence France-Presse