A new look at Aldebar(an), son of Dwarka
This was extracted from the Toronto Star Daily, circa August 29, 1929. The horse was identified as Aldebaran, and the markings (and bridle, though that is less conclusive) match up! This would be a photo of a 10 year old stallion, still relatively young and fit. He reminds me here of some of the other early asil horses I’ve seen, actually – Ashgar and Joseph, both from the Crabbet farm, and a younger Ibn Mahruss.
There is also this photo of Aldebaran, also found in the Toronto Star Daily archives, taken in October of 1929–
You can see here the quality of his face, and the ill-fit of the cavesson, which mirrors the usual photo of Aldebar that we see – though, again, that is hardly conclusive, but it may be that the bridle was Aldebaran’s personal bridle, and that is why you can see how rigid the newer/younger leather is, and why the older/more supple leather of the noseband has dropped down his nose.
There are movies of him taken at the Babson Farm, when he was in quite old age. Also movies of his foals there, out of Babson mares. My husband Charles’s first Arabian mare was an *Aldebar (aka Aldebaran in UK) descendant named Arabesque, and she was a fine mare than established a good family. They are now in the CODE RED category, unfortunately!
Oh, gosh, Jeanne, that’s fantastic. I’m assuming those videos are safely in someone’s collection…?
Yes. They are part of the Arabian Horse Trust collection, now at the International Museum of the Horse in Lexington, Kentucky. They are part of the Trust movie/video collection that has been transferred to DVD, and they will soon (as soon as possible) be on the website of the Arabian Horse Archives, as part of a joint venture with IMH.
Oh, man, that is VERY cool! And exciting!