The way of a horse's going is the truth of him.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Arabians Come to America

With the advent of technology and other evolving social issues, the use of the horse became less critical to the Bedouins.  Combined with the great horse plague, the result was a vast reduction of the number of purebred Arabian horses.  Fortunately there were passionate Pashas and others who collected through whatever means, the best of the desert bred horses.  Think about the timing for a minute.  Great collections of fine Arabians came at a time when the horse was declining dramatically in the desert.  The Blunt's came along at the right time to gather and preserve some of the best.  And the first American breeders were of great vision and made America the largest source of precious bloodlines.  The passion and dedication of all these people was no doubt the reason Arabian horses did not go extinct and are thriving today.  

And today's breeders? It was perhaps best put by HRH Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz when he said,  “The horse is no longer a necessity in our day-to-day life yet, as we look toward a promising future, we also understand the importance of honoring our past. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is proud to preserve our long tradition of breeding the finest horses in the world.”  I would say there are many breeders in America with the same respect and passion that are producing equally fine horses.

Following is a brief summation of the original imports of Arabian horses to America.

Year Importer Horses / Comments
1725 Nathan Harrison Stallion, outcrossed, no purebred offspring.
1853 A. Keene Richard Also 1856, but all horses succumbed to the Civil War.
1877 Gen. Ulysses S. Grant Leopard, Lindentree
1888 Randolph Huntington 2 mares from England
1893 World's Fair in Chicago Nedjme (AHR #1), Obeyran (AHR #2)
1898 Spencer Borden Imported between 1898 and 1911
1906 Homer Davenport 27 horses from directly from the desert
1908 Arabian Horse Club of Amer. 75 horses registered (became the AHR)
1918-32 W. R. Brown 20 horses from England, 6 from France and 7 from Egypt
1926,7 Kellog Ranch 17 horses from the Crabbet Stud
1927,30 Albert Harris 2 mares from England in 1927, 5 from Hejaz and Nejd in 1930/1931
1928,33 Roger Selby 20 horses from the Crabbet Stud
1932 Henry B. Babson 2 stallions, 5 mares from Egypt
1934 Joseph Draper 5 horses from Spain
1934-7 J. M. Dickinson 1mare from Egypt, 1 from Brazil, 7 from Poland for Traveler's Rest.
1968-76 Imports to the Serenity Farms Quarantine  Horses imported by Doug Marshall, Serenity Farms, Ansata Arabian Stud, James Kline, Martin Loeber, and James Dowd

Since these early imports, there has been great growth in the numbers of Arabian horses in America.  The history of the Arabian horse is very well documented in many excellent sources.  If you look at the Library page on this site, you will see several books that I have found to be particularly valuable in the study of the history of Arabian and Egyptian horses.

This site is dedicated to Egyptian Arabian horses because they captured my imagination and resparked the passion that I had let wane in the cold force of politics and cliques and the stress of competition with and losing to horses I thought far from the Arabian standard.  Now I don't worry about showing or competing, but have my horses for my own sake and theirs.  My sympathies go out to all those people who would like to be able to compete but suffer because they hold fast to their own standards and ideals.  My only consolation to them is -- don't sell out your dreams for a bit of ribbon or a few transient dollars.  If you believe in your horses and yourself, hold firm and take your joy from knowing you are doing something that will endure in truth and beauty beyond the show ring and today's trends.  You have the power to preserve, and maintain something beyond accolades and into the future -- for posterity, and for the horses.  Nothing else matters.

 

 

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