*Haleb in 1906 with ‘Anazah Bedouins
Photo from the Davenport Project on Facebook. This was the benchmark for an Arabian stallion, by the way. Today’s beauty champion winners belong to another race, a distant descendant from the original one. They are post-Arabians, and it is time to recognize this fact.
“They are post-Arabians, and it is time to recognize this fact”
That is a sad fact. Arabiabs are not show dolls and there is a clear difference between some horses.
By show standards this is poor horse. By Beduin standard perfection.
http://img269.imageshack.us/img269/1228/13gazal.jpg
There is another photo from this series and it is Homer Davenport’s 1906 photo of the Bedouin bidding goodbye to Haleb before his journey to the US. It is one of the very first photos on Arabian horse history that I saw in 1970 and it had a huge impact on me and became pivotal in my quest to learn more about the history of the Arabian horse. To me in that photo Haleb was such a clean looking natural animal like animals in the wild–as Davenport said “nothing to excess and everything in its place”. The clean bone and fine skin was apparent even to a novice like myself at that time. Details of expression also caught my eye and last but not least, there is a sentiment in the photo that told me this is a highly prized horse by its creators and it is with lament that he would be soon departing. As for benchmarks and Bedouin standards that is an extraordinary discussion in itself.
The natural look of an animal in the wild…. Joe, that is just what I think, too!
I am enjoying a catch-up evening on this blog.. great photo. We can’t see all the horse but it exemplifies something about the set of tail that I have noted in authentic as opposed to modern show type Arabs..A biomechanically functional pevis and hindlimb with a high tails set, giving an aristocratic and jaunty tail carriage ON TOP of a good strong functional quater, rather than the odd looking table top flat croup now fashionable where the quaters appear designed solely to carry the tail rather than power the horse forward.
I have studied Arabian Horses and worked with them since seven years old. I am interested in any pictures you might know of the desert bred Arabian stallion Haleb. He was imported in 1901 or 1906. I can’t remember which date. If you have information and pictures it would be great or know of any books with his history and pictures. Thank you.
Andrea Hobright