Monsoon headshot
Jeanne Craver scanned the photo of Monsoon (Tripoli x Ceres by Aramis) which some readers have mentioned and which I was so eager to see. She wrote: “I have it as a slide and as a page proof from an Arabian Horse World ad we did years ago. I used the ad page, so there creases in the paper. This actually makes his head look more dished than it was. It was really fairly straight in profile, but very dry and classy. Anita Westfall took the photo, another one of her jewels! She also made the halter.”
I don’t know how to put it otherwise, and this is perhaps inappropriate, but he looks … ‘sexy’.
That is most certainly one of the “great” photos that will go down in history indeed. Anita has such a wonderful eye when shooting photos… and that halter is one of the classiest I have seen!
Thank You!
Matthias
He was…. sexy.
He was a lovely lovely horse. 🙂 The existence of the photo itself should be credited to Charles Craver (who was responsible for many of the best of the Davenport photos in one way or another) in that he set the whole thing up. And then was nice enough to agree to allow Monsoon to model the halter. (Frank did the silver work)
Another set of photos from Craver Farms that are among my very favorites were the series of accidental double exposures centering around Charles and Lysander. The double exposures were a total accident and the result of a not to be repeated series of mistakes (that were non-the-less repeated during another visit for a second set of unforgettable photos.
I’ve always thought of such photos as ‘gifts’.
AnitaW (who at one time was offered Monsoon in trade for “Jimmy”. But Jimmy, even if not perfect, WAS perfect. 😀 His sire, by the way, was full brother to Ceres and his dam _the_ Iras. Jimmy also wore that halter… or rather, wore it out.
“Jimmy” was H-Davidjon (Laertes x Iras). Anita got him as a youngster, and kept him all his long life. He, too, was a lovely stallion.
Yes, Jeanne and Edouard, sexy. 🙂
Definitely sexy. No other word would suit it as well.
Love the halter too.
This picture was part of a series of Craver Farms ads in Arabian Horse World back in the 1970s, all extremely attractive head photos like this, and all run as “bleeds” on three sides. The other horses featured included Viola, Ceres, Iras, Lyras, Lady Fair, and Lysander.
can anyone scan them? this is pure vintage!
We did those as a series because we wanted to show that Davenports had beautiful heads. There were some people, who shall be nameless, who denigrated Davenport heads, and it was our way of fighting back.
I have those in the files here, and will scan then in for you, Edouard. I won’t do them all at once, so people get sick of them!