The following article on the life of the mare *Naomi was tracked down by Kate McLachlan and dug up by myself, and can be read online through the Hathi Trust website courtesy of the New York Public Library [click here.] Written by the Rev. F. Furse Vidal, it was published August 16, 1900 in The Country Gentleman – an American agricultural magazine founded in the 1830s. He writes about his acquisition of the mare, her disposition with children, and of several of the foals that he bred out of her. I am struck by his pointed description of her attitude toward children, and it only further confirms for me what I’ve long thought: Arabian mares and children go together like the moon and the stars.
This unique photo is part of a series of 120 primarily glass slides taken by Joe Buchanan’s father, Robert Earle Buchanan, a professor of Agriculture at Iowa State University, on trips to the Middle East in 1946 and 1949. It is in the Comar Arabians collection of Garth and Joe Buchanan. Now held by Carolyn and Dick Hasbrook, Twinbrook Arabians, Ames, Iowa. It is on the website of the Arabian Horse Archives.
Laszlo Kiraly sent me this head shot of the Babolna mare 25 Amurath Sahib, from the last asil female line from Babolna. The photo was never published before Laszlo’s recent article in the Khamsat magazine about the asil lines of Babolna.
This morning I woke up to a message from Jeanne Craver to the Davenport Owners list serve on Google Groups that Triermain CF had died the night before. Her message, titled “Another end to another era”, was: I went to feed about 30 minutes ago, and Triermain was gone. It looks like he strolled out to the water tank and was heading back to the shed and just dropped. No sign of struggle. He ate his breakfast with his usual gusto, and had seemed well. I am glad he went so quickly. Jeanne The passing of the last senior stallion at Craver Farms indeed marks the end of an era. Triermain was my personal favorite, after his sire Thadrian. He will forever have a special place in my heart. He was just perfect. First photo by Anita Westfall. Second photo from the Craver Farms collection. Of his several sons and successors, Aurene CF (below, photo by owner Hannah Logan) is, in my opinion, the new king. Long live the king! In homage to Triermain, a quote from the poem of Walter Scott “the Bridal of Triermain” after which Charles Craver named him, because only him was worthy of Plantagenet daughters:…
Quite by accident yesterday, I came across the following photograph in the Getty Museum’s collection, of an Arab stallion presented to Napoléon III by the Sultan of Turkey in 1867: The caption reads “Aladin, étalon de pur sang arabe offert par le Sultan Abd-ul-azis à l’empereur Napoleon en 1867”. The occasion of the gift was Abdulaziz’s visit to Europe; Paris was the host city of the World’s Fair that year, and there was a significant Ottoman presence at the fair. Aladin was not the only Arab horse presented by the Sultan to European heads of state in 1867 – he also gave horses to the British royal family, among them Kouch, sire of Gomussa, who was given to the future Edward VII. The Illustrated London News from 16 November that year mentions four of the horses by name and provides an engraving of them to boot: The gift of the Sultan of Turkey, our late guest in London, to his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, consisting of four noble horses of the purest Arabian breed, has been mentioned in this Journal. The Engraving on the preceding page represents these superb animals, which have been placed in the stables of…
Happy New Year everyone. May it be a year of peace, and peace of mind, for all of you. For me, it will be the year when I will launch this blog in Arabic. I am in my hometown, and I miss speaking and writing my language.