The Arabian In The North American Civilization Equation

Arabian Horse Times Feature

The Arabian In The North American Civilization Equation

by Linda White

T

housands of years before time was measured in what we now refer to as Annos Domini, it apparently occurred to Neolithic Man that those swift, four-legged creatures he saw dashing around might be good for something besides a meal. The city of Megiddo, or Armageddon, as it is referred to in the New Testament, has been around since the pre-pottery Neolithic period; roughly 7,000 B.C. Excavation of Megiddo’s 26 layers of settlement began in 1903. Built one on top of the other, the succeeding layers reflected the civilizations that came and went in the continuing, metaphorical battle between good and evil. In 1928, University of Chicago archaeologists digging at the ancient trade center site unearthed nearly an acre of horse stalls and stone mangers, not to mention dozens of hitching posts with holes bored through for halter ropes. Of course, horses were part of the earliest civilization equation.

Equus caballus and his close relatives disappeared from the North American continent more than a millennium before Megiddo was even a glint in Neolithic Man’s eye, and it wasn’t until the 15th Century A.D., that European explorers began to sail smack into North America’s easternmost coast on their westward journeys in pursuit of their various dreams. Many brought bloodstock from home, gradually reintroducing horses to this continent.

Remnants of these Spanish Arabian and Andalusian horses, Irish Hobbies, English 362

Galloways, Cleveland Bays from Yorkshire, Norfolk Trotters, French, Swiss and German saddle horses, blended with future imports, would be the basis for all but one of the light breeds, as we know them today. Even the Dutch and the Swedes contributed to the gene pool by bringing sturdy, stylish black Friesians and Norwegian duns. There was no ready market for the heavier English and central European draft breeds, however, because colonists needed to feed something that could double as a saddle horse, when not clearing land or pulling out stumps.

Which light breed is the exception to those serendipitous blends? You know the answer, even as you ask the question. Arabian horses are the world’s oldest pure breed, domesticated more than 5,000 years ago on the plains above the Syrian Desert. Thoroughbreds evolved in England from domestic mares crossed on Arabians: most notably those three immortal, cornerstone sires authors Marguerite Henry, Walter Farley and others introduced us to as children: the Darley Arabian, the Byerly Turk, and later, the Godolphin Arabian, King of The Wind. In the United States, the Thoroughbred Stud Book, first published in 1873, remained open until the 1940s. This means that the worldwide Thoroughbred gene pool does not consist, nor has it ever, of 100 percent pure anything except equine blood, albeit from very carefully selected individuals.

Early records indicate that the first racehorses imported to the colonies were probably English and Flemish, arriving in New York as early as 1625, but nothing is known of their bloodlines. Racing came into fashion on Long Island around 1665, and “purebred” Thoroughbreds, beginning with stallion Bulle Rock, a Darley Arabian son, began to arrive in 1730. Between 1760 and 1860, 56 known pure Arabian Horse Times • August 2004

The Arabian In The North American Civilization Equation Arabians were imported and used to improve warm-blooded stock descended from colonial imports. According to a 1772 diary by J.F.D. Smyth, an early chronicler of saddle horse breeding in the Mid-Atlantic colonies, “the stock is from Old Cade, by Godolphin Arabian, old Crab, Bulle Rock, old Partner, by Jiggs, by Byerly Turk and out of a purebred Arabian daughter of Curwen’s Bay Barb; Regulus and Barbaham, both by Godolphin Arabian; descendants of Devonshire “Flying” Childers, by Darley Arabian; the Cumberland Arabian, the Cullen Arabian, and a horse from Arabia named Bellsize.”

John’s Island Stud, in Virginia, stood four Godolphin Arabian sons. Belair Stud, in Maryland, stood the stallion Ogle’s Spark, by the Darley Arabian, Imp. Jolly Roger, a Godolphin Arabian grandson, and Driver, a good son of Tasker’s Othello, son of Eclipse. Both Eclipse and Herod, two common tail-female Thoroughbred ancestors, traced intensely to the Byerly Turk and the Darley Arabian, respectively, and figure prominently in the pedigree of Denmark F.S., the American Saddlebred breed’s original foundation sire. In fact, Denmark F.S. (Imp. Hedgeford x Betsey Harrison, by Aratus), a brown horse foaled in 1839, is very closely linebred to Herod, Eclipse, Regulus, Imp. Dreadnought, Jolly Roger, Driver and Old Cade on both sides of his pedigree.

Many early saddle horses were the result of crossing English Thoroughbreds on a breed, now extinct, called the Canadian or Narragansett pacer. This smaller, mild-tempered, ambling-gaited breed was developed in eastern Canada from a closed gene pool of purebred Arabian and Arabian/Andalusian horses imported by the French in 1608. The Darley Arabian’s famous racing son, Devonshire “Flying” Childers, foaled in 1715, sired Blaze, whose son, Sampson, became the greatgrandsire of another heavyweight: Imp. Messenger, a foal of 1780. A son of Mambrino, Messenger, imported to North America in 1788, combined the blood of all three Oriental (Arabian or Barb) foundation sires, and became an important Standardbred,

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as well as Thoroughbred, founding father. His influential North American stud career took place in New York, New Jersey and the Philadelphia area. To his everlasting credit, Imp. Messenger, who died at age 28 in 1808, servicing as many as 126 mares per season, is described by equine historian John Hervey as “a sure foal-getter.”

Blaze, the Darley Arabian’s grandson, also sired the stallion Shales, or Old Shales, a foal of 1755 and progenitor of the Norfolk Trotter breed, now extinct but important direct ancestors of the modern Hackney and several other breeds. Old Shales’ great-grandson, Pretender, sired the stallion Bellfounder, a foal of 1797 who sired, at age 19, a second Bellfounder. This second Bellfounder, imported to Massachusetts in 1822, sired “the Charles Kent Mare,” dam of the immortal athlete and foundation sire Hambletonian 10. Breeder William Rysdyk’s great stallion was a triple Imp. Messenger descendant and topline ancestor of most Standardbreds. Hambletonian 10 is the hero of Marguerite Henry’s wonderful children’s book, Born To Trot (right there on the shelf, beside King of the Wind.).

Another important blood source to several light breeds is the Morgan horse. This breed descended from a single stallion. Justin Morgan, founder of the Morgan breed, was foaled in 1789. “Figure”, as he was called until his breeder’s death, was a small, compact, dark bay stallion with no white. While recent research shows that he may well have been descended, close-up, from heavier, “coachier” Norfolk Trotter ancestors, with some possible Welsh Cob mixed in, his tabulated pedigree, taken from Battel’s Morgan Horse Registry, complied in 1894, shows him to be intensely linebred to the Godolphin Arabian, Darley Arabian and Byerly Turk, with crosses to lesserknown Arabians such as D’Arcy’s White Turk, the Layton Barb Mare, the Pulleine Arabian, the Oglethorpe Arabian, the Helmsley Turk, Leedes’ Arabian and several others.

Dr. George H. Conn’s excellent book, The Arabian Horse In America, an invaluable and generally accurate source of early American Arabian bloodstock information, lists the mare Grant’s Millie, 363

The Arabian In The North American Civilization Equation a daughter of the Belair Stud’s stallion Ogle’s Spark, as the dam of True Briton, sire of Justin Morgan. Dr. Conn adds, “Students who have made an exhaustive study of the Morgan horse have found that Justin Morgan was an inbred Arabian. His pedigree shows this to be an established fact.”

Irrespective of his actual pedigree, Justin Morgan occupies a unique place in history for his amazing prepotency. Selective breeding of Justin Morgan’s descendants has perpetuated the 950-lb. stallion’s phenotype, athleticism and temperament for more than 200 years. His most influential sons were Sherman Morgan, Bulrush Morgan, and Woodbury Morgan, and grandson, Black Hawk,

by Sherman Morgan.

Justin Morgan’s sons, daughters and grandget were also successfully crossed on Thoroughbred, Canadian and Narragansett pacer stock to create the influential ancestors found in most modern Saddlebred pedigrees.

Benjamin’s Whirlwind, foaled in 1877, was sired by a grandson of Vermont Black Hawk,

by Sherman Morgan.

His dam, Arabian Maid, was by Vermont Morgan,

by Sherman Morgan, and out of a daughter of the imported Arabian stallion Zilcaadi. Of this mating, pioneer Arabian breeder Randolph Huntington wrote, “The horse Vermont Morgan was but 14 and three-quarters hands high, and was inbred to Justin Morgan.”

Like vintners, carefully selecting and blending varietal grapes to make fine wines, North 364

American breeders continued to mingle and distill the blood of the finest individuals to develop the various light horse breeds and most desirable breed characteristics. “Desirable,” of course, translates into winning, marketable, trainable, attractive, most capable of performing specific tasks, durable, and easily maintained. Many official registries were formed, dissolved and recreated as centers of economic and social influence shifted from coast to coast, priority to priority, and trend to trend.

In 1833, Volume I of a proposed two-volume general studbook was published in New York. Its author, Patrick N. Edgar, of N.C., had supposedly spent years riding through the colonies, gathering factual information from all available sources, including John Randolph, of John’s Island Stud, and others. This first volume, purported to be an authoritative general studbook, never saw Volume II. Its information and legitimacy was superseded by the American Stud Book, better known as the Jockey Club Stud Book, published by the American Jockey Club beginning in 1873. Horses registered in this stud book’s Volume I included Arabian Arabian Horse Times • August 2004

The Arabian In The North American Civilization Equation horses and mares imported up to 1872. This included Barbs and Spanish horses, all under the heading “Imported Arabs, Barb and Spanish Horses and Mares.” Volume III of the American Stud Book included not only those Thoroughbreds bred in the United States and imported up to 1878, but also the registration of six Arabians and Barbs that had been imported after Volume II was published.

Volume IV, published in 1884 and containing the registries of animals foaled through 1883, was primarily concerned with Thoroughbreds both imported and domestic-bred, but included five Arabian horses imported after the publication of Volume III. Two of these were stallions Leopard and Linden Tree, gifts to President U.S. Grant from the Sultan of Turkey. Neither had any particular influence on Arabian breeding in North America, but their arrival and presentation was widely publicized, drawing widespread public attention to the Arabian breed for perhaps the first time in the United States.

Kentucky Thoroughbred breeder A. Keene Richards had been breeding and importing Arabians since the early 1850s, when he became the first American to travel to the Arabian desert countries to select horses. However, despite their influence on Thoroughbreds, the Richards Arabian stallions’ influence on public perception, and on the purebred Arabian gene pool, was negligible. Several New England Arabian breeders began to experiment with purebred and Half-Arabian crosses, and the breed gradually

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emerged as a popular show and pleasure mount. As their numbers grew, Arabian horse breeders established the Arabian Horse Registry of North America in 1908, which embraced all of those purebred Arabian animals imported to or bred in the United States up until that time. Thus, further Arabian entries in the American Jockey Club Stud Book became superfluous. The American Jockey Club finally discontinued registering Arabians as Thoroughbreds in November 1943, and the Arabian Horse Registry of America continued to flourish, as horse lovers from coast to coast discovered the purebred Arabian and Half-Arabian’s unusual work ethic, intelligence and suitability as a saddle horse in almost every discipline.

Today, despite competition from every variety of sport and leisure activity, riding horses of many breeds, including Arabians, are a solidly anchored, widespread fixture in many segments of American life. Televised ice skating, major league team sports, time-share condominiums, video arcades, auto races and skateboarding parks are hardpressed to compete when it comes to winning the human heart. We humans may no longer be dependent on the horse, our ally in war and peace, for our very survival, but the competitive challenges, skill and personal satisfaction our horses provide enrich our lives beyond measure, beyond description. Our partnership with the Arabian horse, a living creature like no other, is a unique gift for which we should be eternally grateful.

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