Sunny Acres Darius, 1955 Hamdani Simri stallion
One of the only Davenport horses to stay out of the preservation adventure launched by Charles Craver, Fred Mimmack, Reba Troxell and a handful others in the 1950s and 1960s was the 1955 stallion Sunny Acres Darius (Ibn Hanad x Gamil by Kasar), bred by Margaret Shuey. I never had the chance to ask why this was so. All but three of his offspring were non-asil.
Very nice horse. It chest would be nicer if it was deeper and its cannons, wider.
My 1987 mare Pembrokes Iris is a descendent of this line of breeding and ultimitly what brought me to the straight Davenports. Unfortunately not asil.
WOW, Stunning…what a Stallion…
I love his Body…and Color
Note that his sire Ibn Hanad was a son of his dam, Gamil. Charles and Fred Mimmack did use a sister of Darius (Maedae) and Charles had money down on another sister, Sunny Acres Marianne, but the deal fell through. Darius was used a sire by his breeder Margaret Shuey, and later by Bali Hai Farms. There was another brother, Sunny Acres Ibzan.
Darius only lived to be 17; perhaps with more time he might have gotten woven into the tapestry. He sired some lovely horses.
I think it’s instructive to look at just how many straight Davenports had breeding careers which overlapped with the start of the Craver program–there are more than I expected when I looked into it.
Adounad, Sherad, and some of Kamil ibn Salan’s siblings come to mind, among others.
My recollection of the story on Sunny Acres Marianne is that Charles was in process of purchasing her but she died before she could be brought home. Does that sound right, Jeanne? DataSource says she died in 1970, age 13.
All of these Davenport horses were still living in 1955 or later, but not used after that date in a Davenport breeding program: Dhareb died May 1, 1955; Antarah produced her last foal in 1956, Adounad died in 1957, Mustakim’s last foal was born 1956, Auroura’s last foal was 1955, Taliti was still living in 1956, El Lata produced until 1967, Schada produced until 1969, Ibn Hanad died in August of 1958, Sherad lived at least until the 1960s, Abu Hanad’s last foals were born in 1961, Schiba produced until 1967, Sunny Acres Ibzan was still living in 1963, Sunny Acres Darius lived until 1972, and Sunny Acres Marianne died in 1970.
On Marianne, he sent money, but I thought the owner backed out. It was before my time! Sherad was another Charles tried to get (and a real beauty, too) but he was apparently not a breeder. Charles tried to get Taliti and El Lata, also. I am so glad that Edouard is trying to save something from the Kapiti line now.
Charles did not have unlimited resources for purchasing foundation stock! Sometimes costs were just too much….