*GOMUSA
#31: in the 1909 edition
of the Arabian Horse Club studbook, his birth date is indicated as 1903,
color is given as "brown," and parentage is given as by a "Seglawi
Jedran out of Kehilan Heifi." It is also indicated that his certificate
was sealed by "Hassan Tassen Pasha and Akmut Haffez."
The birth date and parentage information is retained in Vol. I (1912)
through Vol. IV (1937) of the Arabian Horse Club studbooks,
although the color changes from brown to chestnut in Vol. I. The Raswan
Index indicates the same date of birth, color, and strain information
concerning his parents, adding additional detail that the dam was "a
Kuhaylah-Hayfiyah of Ibn Matra of the RASALIN- QUMUSA-(SABA'
tribe)." (22) (Raswan frequently gives more
extensive strain information on Davenport's imported horses than is available
in other sources. Where he got it is not known. Sometimes it is not in
agreement with the importation documentation secured by Davenport in the
desert and/or other sources.)
The
Davenport catalogs of 1906 and 1909-1910
differ from the AHCA studbooks and Raswan in the spelling of the horse's
name which is given with a double 's' so that it appears "GOMUSSA"
rather than *GOMUSA as registered. Birthdate given
in the catalogs is a year later - 1904. Color in the
catalogs is given as bay. Strain of dam, and therefore the horse's strain,
is given as "Maneghieh Sbeyel." (23) In
Davenport's book on the importation, *GOMUSA is described
as a two-year-old and as a "Maneghi Sbeyel," which would have
agreed with his catalogs. (24)
The
contadiction of sources boils down to the question of whether *GOMUSA
was born in 1903 or 1904, whether
he was a Mu'niqi-Sbaili or a Kuhaylan-Haifi, and whether he was bay or
chestnut.
Unfortunately,
the original pedigree information concerning *GOMUSA
obtained in Arabia does not seem to have been preserved, which is true
for several other of the Davenport imports. One of the horses purchased
by Davenport was a three-year-old Kuhaylan-Haifi stallion obtained from
Hassan Tassen Pasha, described as a bay "without a white hair on
him." (25) In the copies
of importation certificates which do survive there is one for a "red-brown"
three-year-old hrose of Kuhaylan-Haifi strain sired by a Saqlawi and whose
certificate bears the seals of Hassan Tassen Pasha and Akmet Haffez. This
much would agree with the 1909 volume of the Arabian
Horse Club studbook. Recent translation of the document indicates that
the horse had a white star on the face and a grey mark on a left leg. That
would not agree with the description of the horse from Hassan Tassen Pasha
as lacking white markings, given in Davenport's book, but it might be stretched
to fit the markings as given in the 1909 studbook,
which were left fore foot and white snip. The documentation for this horse
is not an original. It is a photocopy. On its lower margin is written,
"This colt died the day before we reached the sea coast at Escanderoon.
He was a beauty solid bay without white. The doctors only remedy
was to have the colt led passed the Grave Yard. His remedy failed."
In
the Blue Catalog, the possibility is mentioned that the importation document
of the dead colt was erroneously used in preparing the *GOMUSA
entry in the first issue of the Arabian Horse Club studbook. (26)
Whether this actually happened or not is a question that will probably
never be answered but it points up the fact that 1906
was a long time ago. There are a number of contradictions between studbook
entries and other sources of information about various horses which might
have been correctable at the time, or at least understood, and which are
now simply beyond resolution. That is too bad, but anyone who has tried
to figure out personal events of several years ago can see how it can be.
*GOMUSA
as an indivdual was described with enthusiasm by Davenport.
- "He
stands slightly over 15 hands high without shoes on, is one of the
most remarkable built horses any one ever saw, regardless of breed; his
back is much shorter than ordinary short-backed horses." (27)
In his book, he says, "He was the most powerfully made horse, I
think, it has even been my pleasure to see. His remarkable hips and shoulders
were a sight. There was not a flaw in him ... one of his eye-balls was
white. In this country such a thing would be disliked in a horse, but in
the desert it is commoly found." (28)
-
The
reference to the white eyeball has been taken by some writers to mean that
*GOMUSA had a glass eye. That may have been so, but
other explanations are also possible. The horse may have merely had a clouded
eye. That can happen as a result of injury or infection. Another possible
explanation is that the sclera or "white" of one eye was larger
in proportion to the iris than in the other eye. This happens from time
to time with Arabian horses and would be more likely to fit Davenport's
comment that the characteristic is frequently found in the desert than
would the hypothesis of a glass eye, which does not occur frequently in
Arabians. The truth is that we do not know what Davenport meant by "eyeball."
Years
ago, Elizabeth Paynter, a Davenport breeder
interested in the *GOMUSA line, contacted Carl Raswan
in regard to whether *GOMUSA had a glass eye or not.
His reply to her was in the negative.
In
current Arabians, *GOMUSA is represented through two
daughters, SAAIDA #66 and KILLAH
#103. Both were out of *HADBA#43,
and their descendants are widely scattered through the Arabian breed in
America. Among horses tading to him are several bred by Heritage Hills
from LA DONNA, including HERITAGE
BEAU and HERITAGE ADONIS.
In Davenport breeding, he is represented through lines tracing to EHWAT-ANSARLAH.
*AZRA
#32, grey stallion foaled 1903.
"Sire a Kehilan-Al-Krush; Dam, a Seglawi-Obeyran." (29)
This was apparently the horse described in My Quest of the Arabian Horse
which Davenport brought contrary to the advice of Akmet Haffez, who thought
the price was too high. Davenport commented in the book that before the
trip was over, he realized that the horse was the poorest one in the group
acquired. (30) *AZRA has remained
under a cloud because of this comment. Whether it was still warranted as
he grew older would be interesting to know as so many Arabians improve
with age. He had time for the ripening process. His last foal was sired
in 1927, when he was 24 years of age.
*AZRA
produced six foals. It happened that they were out of DAHURA
#90 and DOMOW #267, two
mares which were of great influence in the breed through progeny by various
stallions. Their combiations with *AZRA bred on as
did their other foals. Some of *AZRA's best-known
descendants came through lines established by CHARMAIN #860,
COURIER #2465, and ARDITH
#1101.
*DEYR
#33, chestnut stallion born 1904. His registration
in Volume IV of the Arabian Horse Club studbooks indicates "Sire,
a Kehilan-Ajuz; Dam, An Abeyan-Sherrak." In his Index,
Raswan concurs with the registry version, with added particulars. (31)
No importation documentation appears to have been preserved for a horse
of this strain background.
Davenport
writes of his purchase of *DEYR, who was a two-year-old
at the time, that
- "this little fellow was so full of life that they had to
show him with all four feet hobbled, but he understood the hobbles so well
that in his pacing motion he managed to make much play." (32)
In
General Dickinson's discussion of *DEYR it is said
that,
- "he was a horse of intense vitality and was considered by
the late Peter Bradley as the best 'Davenort' stallion. Though HALEB
has contributed greatly through the success of his daughters, there can
be little doubt that the DEYR male line has been the
premier line from any Arab stallion imported to the United States directly
from Arabia." (33)
In
his lifetime, *DEYR produced 18 foals, 17 of them
under ownership of Peter Bradley's Hingham Stock Farm. Like *HAMRAH,
in his stud career he had the benefit of the Hingham mares, and from these
his production made him, next to *HAMRAH, the most
successful of the Davenport imported stallions. An analysis of 80 pedigrees
chosen randomly from the registrations in the AHR studbook Vol. XXX (1976),
showed 66 tracing to *DEYR and in over half of those
he appeared more than once.
*DEYR
was noted as a sire of breeding stallions. His son, HARARA
#122 (out of *Haffia #45) sired eighteen foals,
a substantial number for the time, but is chiefly remembered as the sire
of ANTEZ #448, who was an extremely
important sire in this country beginning in 1928.
A sire line is still in existence today for *DEYR
through his grandson, ANTEZ. Of *DEYR's
own sons, the best known was HANAD. He is represented
in current breeding through sire lines tracing to several of his sons,
including IBN HANAD (through
Tsali and other Sunny Acres breeding), HANRAH (though
Ibn Hanrah in the Donoghue breeding program) and TRIPOLI,
used extensively in 100% Davenport production. Both HANAD
and ANTEZ were successful in the production of mares
of equal merit to their sons.
Like
his sons, *DEYR was a successful sire of mares. His
daughter, AMRAN (out of *Wadduda #30)
is probably the most famous of his female production. She was the dam of
JADAAN (by *Abbeian #111), Valentino's
mount in some movie scenes, and FASAL (by *Hamrah
#28), considered by Raswan to be the best of the early
Kellogg mares and dam of CARAVAN, FASALINA,
KASAR, SALAN, and others.
*MOWARDA
#34, grey stallion, foaled 1904. Vol. IV of
the AHC studbook indicates "Sire, an Abeyan-Sherrak; Dam a Kehilan-Ajuz."
He left no foals, which may have been a great loss for American Arabian
breeding as his dam was a famous mare among the 'Anazeh, who would not
permit either her or any of her female line to be sold. She was referred
to in Davenport's book:
- "When I asked if she was 'Chubby,'
the Bedouin smiled, and almost laughed, when he said 'Kehilan Ajuz,' which
is equivalent to saying, 'Rather, she's the dam of all that is chubby.'
She was a piture, though she had no jibbah, or bulging forehead. On the
contrary her forehead was as flat as a board, but her eyes were far apart
and set in peculiar Japanese slant. They were turned up at the outer corners
like those of a chorus-girl with a 1907 make-up. There
was the same stately dignity about her that WADDUDA had;
she looked like a fine lady of quality in the presence of a lot of cooks
at an employment agency." (34)
*KUSOF
#34, bay stallion foaled 1904, Arabian Horse
Club studbook Vol. IV indicate both sire and dam of the "Maneghi-Hedruj"
strain. However, the Davenport catalog of 1909-1910
gives his sire as a Jilfan Stam El Bulad. The importation documentation
simply indicates that he was of the Mu'niqi family. He was purchased at
the same time as *DEYR and *EL BULAD.
*KUSOF
is represented in Arabian breeding through one daughter, SAMIT
#153 (out of *Haffia #45). Out of a lifetime
production of eleven foals, her line is traced today through four: SUFFARA,
SURA, ZIKI and FADIL.
The family spread rapidly through the early studbooks, and by the third
generation of removal, *KUSOF had 19 descendents.
In the fourth generation, the number was up to 43. Present-day *KUSOF
lines are mainly represented in early California breeding in combination
with FARANA (for instance, the mare MAILAT
#1487), through the use of the mare LA PLATITA
#2831, and through the Jimmie Wrench mare, MAHBUBA
#732. There is also a line preserved today through SAHANAD,
a mare of nearly 100% Davenport breeding (one line gong to the Hamidie
stallion, *OBEYRAN), and her foals by Davenport and
Egyptian stallions.
*EUPHRATES
#36, chestnut stallion, foaled 1905. He was
a full brother to *HAMRAH #28, by a Hamdani-Simri
stallion and out of *URFAH #40, a Saqlawiyah-Jidraniyah.
At the time of purchase, *EUPHRATES was only a yearling.
At that age, Davenport described him as even finer than his brother *HAMRAH."
(35) In his catalog of 1909-1910,
representing a later assessment, Davenport describes *EUPHRATES
as "possibly a more beautiful horse than HAMRAH
though not so large but of about the same perfect model and same perfect
dispositon." (36)
*EUPHRATES
had a much more limited opportunity at stud than did his brother, porducing
only four foals. Of these, JERREDE #84 (registered
as out of *Nejdme #1) is of special interest in Arabian
breeding both because it furnished an opportunity for the continuation
of the *NEJDME line and because JERREDE
himself was - as would be expected from his breeding - an extremely
attractive horse that had caught the eye of W.R.Brown. Brown wanted his
Arabians to have registration with the Jockey Club as well as the Arabain
Horse Club. mainly because of personal considerations of some previous
years, the Davenport horses were not so registered, which caused JERREDE,
the son of a Davenport stallion, not to be so registered. Brown went to
considerable trouble to remove obstacles for jockey Club registration of
*EUPHRATES and ended up with the deserted registration
of JERREDE. The effort had taken a considerabloe amount
of time, and by then Brown seemed to no longer have need for JERREDE
in his breeding program, most likely because he had slanted his
breeding efforts towards more recently imported lines. (For more on the
Jockey Club registration of JERREDE, see "At
the Beginning," Arabian Horse News, May, 1974.)
JERREDE
was involved, incidentally, with one of those interesting ventures in Arabian
breeding which was not carried futher in that he was the sire of D'JEMELI
#180, who was out of NAZLET #161,
a Huntington-bred Mu'niqiyah mare. In an effort to reconstruct the Mu'niqi
strain, D'JEMELI's daughter MATIH
#469 (by Sargon) was bred to NASIN
(Sinbad/Nazami) twice, producing foals in which the Mu'niqi strain predominated.
The studbooks indicate Mr. Howard Ray as the breeder. This is, no doubt,
the same Howard Ray mentioned by Raswan as in Arabia in 1927
in search of pure-in-strain Mu'niqi breeding stock. Raswan is generally
credited with guidance in the Ray breeding program. Unfortunately, it was
another instance of a promising start towards saving a particular type
of Arabian which was not continued, and at present the breeding it represented
has blended in with other bloodlines.
The
major bloodline through which *EUPHRATES enters into
modern breeding is through SLIPPER, out of his daughter,
SABOT. SLIPPER was used extensively
at the Selby Stud, and her female line is found in many horses today. An
example would be AARFATE #13395, a well-known breeding
stallion of several years back.
*ANTAR
#37, bay stallion born 1906, by a Saqlawi-Jidran
out of a Kuhaylah-Haifiyah. He appears as a foal on the importation document
of his dam, *RESHAN #38. According to the Davenport
catalog of 1909, his sire was sold to the Italian
government for 900 pounds Turkish (about $3600), (37)
at that time a high price, which would, for instance, buy a fine home in
America and who knows how many average Bedouins such a sum would have supported
in luxury for a year?
Little
has come into the literature about *ANTAR. His last
registered foal was sired in the season of 1912, the
year of Davenport's death. He is not represented in current pedigrees.
*MOHARRA
#47, chestnut stallion, foaled 1907, thus imported
in utero. According to the 1909-1910
Davenport catalog, his sire was the same Saqlawi stallion which sired *ANTAR
#37. His dam is given in the same catalog and in the 1909
Arabian Horse Club studbook as *ABEYAH # 39. Interestingly,
her name is omitted in his entry Vol. I, copyright 1913,
and succeeding volumes nor is he given in the progeny listings for *ABEYAH
contained in these volumes. He had no registered get.
*ABBEIAN
#111 grey stallion reported as foaled in 1889
by Arabian Horse Club studbooks beginning with Vol. I (1913).
In Vol. I his strain is given as "Abbeyan Dahra." By Vol. III
(1927), the strain is changed to "Abeyan-Dahwah,"
and in Vol. IV it is "Abeyan-Dahwak." Vol I does not indicate
his importer, but by Vol. III it is given as Homer Davenport, 1906.
In Vol. III his markings are given as "none."
There
is a long-time question among students of Arabain horse breedings as to
whether this is the same horse as a grey stallion named "Abbeian"
and later referred to as "Abeya" or "Abeyan" which
was imported by the Hamidie Society for the Chicago World's Fair of 1893.
In either case, by long-term usuage. *ABBEIAN #111 as
registered is considered a Davenport bloodline.
The
Hamidie Society horse is listed in the Jan. 4, 1894, auction catalog of
Tattersall's of Chicago, Limited, as follows: "Abbeian,
Grey Stallion 14 3/4 hands, foaled 1888; white nose;
bred Abeyan-Dahra." The Hamidie Society Abbeian apparently found
his way into the stable of Peter Bradley of Hingham, Massachusetts, and
thence to the ownership of Homer Davenport, who referred to him in his
catalog titled "The Worlds Fair Arabians" of 1906-1907
under the name "Abeya." "bred 1888."
The term "bred" is often used by Davenport to indicate "foaled."
Probably that is the meaning intended.
*ABBEIAN
is registered out of sequence with the other original Davenports, but then,
so is *MASOUD #64. Three horses known to have been
in the desert importation of 1906 were not registered
at all, so he may have been one for which registration had been delayed
for some reason. No importation document exists for *ABBEIAN.
That is also true for a number of other horses in the importation. No strain
is given for the sire of *ABBEIAN, which is also true
for a number of the other horses for which there is importation documentation,
including some of the most highly regarded. Frequently such horses are
registered as having sire and dam of identical strain, which is possible
correct.
The
case has been made, most recently by Gladys Brown Edwards, that *ABBEIAN
#111 and the Hamidie Society horse were the same animal, but that
is not a comfortable case. If *ABBEIAN #111 was a
Hamidie Society horse, the Arabian Horse Club could just as well have registered
him accordingly. Carl Raswan in entries 31 and 32
of his Index lists *ABBEIAN and the Hamidie Society
horse as different individuals, distinguishing between birth dates, importers,
strain names, and calling attention to the "white nose" of the
Hamidie Society horse. Raswan had personal contact with the Bradley breeding
establishment in arranging the purchase of JADAAN #196,
a son of *ABBEIAN, and he subsequently had opportunities
to know JADAAN well, caring for him, writing for publication
about him, and even doubling for Rudolf Valentino as his rider in the movies.
Raswan's friends and foes alike would agree that the man was fascinated
almost to obsession with the pedigrees of Arabian horses. It would have
been completely out of character for him to have had close contact with
JADAAN, both in purchase and as a horseman, without
informing himself as to the obvious pedigree data concerning the horse's
sire, *ABBEIAN #111, and at that early point in Arabian
breeding in America, the data should not have been difficult to obtain.
The
Blue Arabian Horse Catalog of Jane Llewellyn Ott enters *ABBEIAN
as being imported by Davenport. Carol Woodbridge Mulder in Volumes I and
II of Imported Foundation Stock of North American Arabian Horses treats
the subject rather extensively, concluding that there were two horses.
She accounts for the non-sequential registration of *ABBEIAN
and his absence from Davenport's farm catalog on the grounds that he might
have been a gift horse received on the trip by one of Davenport's companions
on the expedition. (38) The same explanation could
also account for the absence of an important document for him.
The
Douthit index cards for Davenport horses were probably authoritative for
what was known on the subject through approximately 1950.
They treat *ABBEIAN #111 as imported by Davenport.
*ABBEIAN
#111 had six foals. He is best known for his son JADAAN,
who fell out of favor with some of those recording history of Kellogg breeding,
but nevertheless sired twenty-one foals - a production which has had a
good influence on Arabian breeding. Among *ABBEIAN's
daughters, SHERIA #110 is widely distributed in the
breed through her daughters SHERLET and POKA,
who produced AATIKA and TRIPOLI.
The POKA line was a very fruitful one and perhaps
best known because it was POKA's daughter AATIKA
#590, which bred to *SAOUD #697, produced RASASAH
#1141, who ws the outcross basis upon which much of the Alice Payne
inbreeding with *RAFFLES was done. That may seem pretty
far removed from POKA and of course, still futher
from *ABBEIAN, but tiny elements in a pedigree make
vital diference in an in-breeding program. Mrs. Payne felt that the contribution
of POKA to her success was substantial and that it
worked the best of the foundation lines which she had tried, including
the most likely of the premier Arabian lines than available in the United
States.
*ABBEIAN's
son ASHMAR #156 (out of Satwan #100)
produced KOKHLESON (out of the *Hamrah-Farha mare,
Kokhle), through which the *ABBEIAN line also continues
at present. FRANKOKHLA #1646 was a daughter of KOKHLESON.
She and her sister KOKHLANZA #2638 were foundation
mares at Manion Canyon. FRANKOKHLA was especially
known as the dam of RUFFLES, one of the most stricking
of the *RAFFLES sons, and RADIANT,
dam of RADIO. There is a special "Arab"
quality about the KOKHLESON line that often catches
the eye. It is very evident in various lines of descent as in the above-named
horses, in SKYLINE KOKHLETA #7617,
a direct daughter of KOKHLESON still producing, and
in IBN T'CHAKA, out of a mare
inbred to KOKHLESON, IBN T'CHAKA
made quite an impression at the 1980 Nationals,
performing the airs above the ground to the rhythm of his own drummer.
Discussion
of the KOKHLESON line should end with mention of the
work of Reba Troxell and Esther Oliver in preserving one branch of it.
Miss Troxell bought her first Arabian horse from W.R.Brown in 1926.
For years, she and Mrs Oliver had a small place in urban Burlington, New
Jersey. They managed to keep horses in a truly backyard situation since
that was all the room they had. Because of the necessity for urban sanitation,
the horses were housebroken. They acquired the aged mare, HALLOUL,
of all Davenport breeding, and bred her to KOKHLESON,
a son of their mare, KOKHLE, producing two foals.
One of these, RALF #3448, was then bred to the Davenport
mare, ALASKA, which they had acquired for that purpose.
Of the resulting foals, one continues the *ABBEIAN
sire line today. One, FASHA #28774, was a Legion of
Merit winning gelding, and one is a brood mare in active production of
completely Davenport progeny. A son of their stallion Ralf out of a different
mare was El IBTIDA #11247, East
Coast Champion Stallion.
The
contributions of backyard breeders to the preservation of the Arabian breed
is often overlooked. They can be very significant. In this case, lines
of breeding were preserved which were rare and obviously worthwhile.
An
equally important contribution of these backyard breeders was the friendly
personal leadership of the two ladies in the Arabian horse community developing
in the East, beginning during the 1950s. Those were
the good old days when an Arabian horse meeting was an adventure, any Arabian
owner was an old friend, and a horse show was place where you enjoyed the
other fellow's horse about as much as your own.
ARTHUR
MOORE'S MU'NIQI: grey
stallion whose importation document showed him to be in his sixth year,
of the Mu'niqi-Hadruj family, sired by an "Abayyan-Sharrak. This was
apparently a gift horse to Arthur Moore, possible the one described as
a five-year-old "Maneghi Hedruj." (39) The
same horse is apparently referred to in Davenport's letter to his family
written in Naples en route home as belonging to Arthur Moore, who wanted
Davenport to sell it for him. In Arthur Moore's scrapbook for the trip,
there is a captioned photograph of the horse being loaded aboard ship,
so there is no question that the animal was a part of the importation.
(40)
ARTHUR
MORRE'S MU'NIQI was not registered
and, of course, has no progeny in the AHC studbooks. He does not appear
in the Davenport catalogs of the importation known to the writer.
SIMR:
chestnut stallion whose importation documentation shows him to have been
a two-year-old in 1906. His dam is given as a "Hamdaniah
El-Semary" and his sire a "Kehelan El-Aguj." He is listed
as a chestnut Hamdani-Simri colt foaled 1903 in the
Davenport Desert Arabian Stud catalog of 1906. This
particular catalog is restricted in its entries to the bloodlines imported
in 1906.
The
documentation for SIMRI's importation is a photograph
of an original document. On the lower margin of the photograph is written
in Davenport's hand, "SIMRI Chestnut since
gelded." The word "Simri" is crossed out by a different
writing instrument and the word "Deyr" written by it. The correction
was probably done in error. The pedigree does not agree in strain with
that of *DEYR as that horse is registered. *DEYR
and "SIMRI" were both specifically
listed in the same catalog, so clearly there were two horses having the
names "DEYR" and "SIMRI."
Finally *DEYR was not dignified by the same operation
which elimated SIMRI as a prospective sire, as *DEYR
was siring foals as late as 1921.
SIMRI
was not registered and has no registered progeny.
Although
much more is known about the Davenport importation than is known about
any other major group of imported animals with which the writer is familar,
obviously much is not known. The Davenport book is Fascinating and full
of good, solid information, but it simply cannot be used as a complete
guide to the importation. Other documentation does not fill all the gaps.
One
good question is "How many horses were imported?" The book, My
Quest of the Arabian Horse, gives 27 as the number in several places,
and Davenport's letter in route home gives the same figure. Other sources
give lesser numbers, and only 24 were registered, exclusive of in-utero
imports. There is no good reason to doubt that the figure of 27 is correct.
The importation contained mares of record, leaving a balance of 17. Of
the stallions, 14 (including *ABBEIAN #111) were registered.
There were two unregistered imports, SIMRI and ARTHUR'S
GREY, with import documents, leaving one horse
lacking to complete the total of twenty-seven. This must have been the
gift horse to Jack Thompson mentioned in Davenport's book (41)
and in his letter dated 9/16/06 from Naples, Italy.
Mrs
Carol Mulder indicates that of the horses in the Davenport importation,
three unregistered stallions were returned to the desert "because
of trachoma eye infections." (42) Upon query,
she does not recall the source of this information, which is not at all
to say that there was no source. Nevertheless, the information is difficult
to fit in with the record of what is actually known to have been imported
to the United States and retained here. one might also ask whether such
horses would have been worth the expense and trouble of return to the Middle
East.
The
total number of horses registered by the Arabian Horse Club as imported
from Arabia in 1906 by Homer Davenport is 25. This includes *MOHARRA,
who was imported in utero, but it does not include the other in-utero registrations,
which were SALEEFY #70, MELEKY #63,
and SEBHA #59. If the early registraions of the Arabian
Horse Registry are ever revised, from the point of view of technical accuracy,
the names of these three mares should be preceded by asterisks, indicating
that they were imported.
Compared
with information available concerning other horses exported from "Arabia
Deserta," the sources of information about the Davenport 1906
imports are plentiful, even lavish. This is so much the case that it is
almost embarassing because, as would be expected with any complex event
of 75 years ago, not all of them are in complete agreement. The differences
involve little points which seldom have any bearing on Arabian breeding
today. Nevertheless, it is tempting to try to figure them out, as has been
done in this article and its companion piece, "There is Nothing
Like A Dame," Arabian Horse Journal, January, 1981
issue.
The
major source of information about the Davenport importation in his book,
My Quest of Arabian Horse. This is one of the most entertaining
of all Arabian horse books and would be good reading simply as a travel
book. It gives a straight-forward account of his trip to the desert with
many particulars about individual horses. There are some references to
horses concerning pedigree and acquisition which are impossible to correlate
exactly with the horses known to have been imported. Most likely, this
is because the book is not a complete, continuous story. It was first published
in 1909, but major portions of it appear to have been
written very shortly after the expedition itself and published in serial
form in the Woman's Home Companion. These chapters have the advantage of
telling the story while events were still fresh in Davenport's mind, but
perhaps some inconsistencies and incomplete accounts might have been corrected
if the work had been done later. Perhaps imperfections of this sort did
not bother Davenport too much. He was an artist and journalist by profession,
and the impact of immediate news was of primary concern to him. He was
not one to let trifling details impede the flow of a good story.
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III
Articles of History
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