Updated Davenport Conservancy photo stream
Check out the new photo galleries of horse pictures at the revamped website of the Davenport Conservancy. One of my favorite is this photo of the magnificent Craver stallion Sir (Tripoli x Dharebah) in old age. How I wished I was around to see him live.
Sir was 30 years old when this was taken. Alice Martin took wonderful care of him from his teens on. He lived to be 35, as did his brother Prince Hal. Every year Alice has a big USET benefit called the Sir Celebration. This year it was last night, and a 28-year-old son of his represented his father by carrying in the flag with a 6 year old girl. Not many remember Sir himself now, but he was always masculine and noble!
The first time I saw Sir, he was already 23 years old, and I thought he was an old horse, partly because he was older than I was. Six years later, had the chance to ride him. On different occasions, I also rode his three full brothers (Prince Hal, Janan Abinoam, and Pericles) and saw both of his full sisters (Lady Grey and Lady Fair). All six of them are featured in the pedigrees of the horses here, which include two Pericles daughters, a Janan Abinoam daughter, a Lady Fair daughter, and more distant descendants of the other three, including a mare that goes in tail female to Lady Grey. The Sir blood comes through Oriole and Fair Sir. Obviously I value all the Tripoli x Dharebah siblings highly, but as a breeding influence, Sir might have been the best member of an outstanding family.
RJ you are so lucky to own horses to close up to these 6 brothers and sisters.
Jeanne, who was the Sir son at Alice’s celebration yesterday? I remember seeing Fair Sir at Alice’s in 2005. Also, isn’t Javera Thadrian increasingly looking like pictures of Sir?
Fair Sir has passed on now. He was by Sir out of his full sister, Lady Fair, and was a terrific, vital horse. He lived to be 30. Yes, Thadrian is showing the Sir through Lysander, but also the influence of the full brother Prince Hal through Mariner, and he is just himself! The Sir son was Star Sir Gwain, an Arabian gelding who is still at work as a lesson horse at StarWest. Alice still has several Al Khamsa daughters of Sir living, and they also still earn their keep.
I first saw Sir in 1976 when he was 18 years old on our first visit to Craver Farms. I took movies of him. As he danced out of the stall he reminded me of the 19th century Ben Marshall painting of the “Wellesley Grey” which we later used on the cover of Khamsat V5N1, that featured tributes to the Craver breeding program.
He was so nicely cleaned up, glowing in the sun with a shiny white pearl-like coat, when Charles took him from his stall to put him out in the paddock to move at liberty. Humorously the first thing Sir did was drop and roll in the dirt. This seemed to be a great relief to him, as if to say he was a horse not an object. Then he put on the most unbelievable display of movement, style and nobility. With lively eyes he put on a performance like no other, moving so freely with elasticity, stopping and turning on points seemingly no bigger than the head of pin, leaping into the air as if he weight nothing, then surging full speed to the other end of the pen, stopping, rotating 180 degrees and surging again. He was not only noble but had the most remarkable body language which told us and all other horses that he was very alive and that he was “SIR”. When he had finished his extraordinary show. He walked casually over to the rail to sniff Sharon and I as if to see if we had the qualifying admission tickets to see his great performance. He was a great athlete but even more a great Arabian.
When I received the gifted book -The Annotated Quest-from Jeanne and Charles Craver years ago I was surprised.On the pictures of the album I saw the real type of the bedouin horses of my dreams.And when I saw the stallion,SIR,I knew,these type of arabian horse can be one of the real partner for my breding concept,for the old Babolna lines. The mother of Wahhabit, who is the father of my stallion,Dahhmany Bagdady is also a Davenport mare ,called Delicate Air,a Koheileh Krush,bred by the Craver Farms. Through Wahhabit can the sireline of Siglavy Bagdady still living.Thank You Jeanne and Charles Craver .Now I can work on the preservation program of the Siglavy Bagdady OA with the asil 60 Adjuze line, and i’ll hope,on one day I can use a good Davenport Stallion ,like SIR.No,not for outcross..Because the origin of these horses are one and the same thing. Yours faithfully,László
Very well said. I completely agree, they are one and the same.
Dear László,
Thank you so much for the kind words! Sir was one of a kind, but the line is still producing wonderful horses, in our opinions.
I agree,Jeanne
László