Twelve Davenports of Christmas: Tripoli and Memoir UF

“It’s been a long December, and there’s reason to believe
Maybe this year will be better than the last.”
— Counting Crows, “A Long December”

Saqlawi al-’Abd Tripoli, a cornerstone of the straight Davenports as they exist today (images in the left column), and his Kuhaylan Hayfi grandson Memoir UF, called Rory by those who loved him (images in the right column). Do click through that last shot of Rory, he’s all there and very admirable to boot.

Tripoli is serving as a lesson horse in his under-saddle photo, with Tom Neese up; Rory as a show horse, though I don’t know the rider’s name or the photographer.

Thanks to Aida Schreiber for taking the conformation shots of Rory, and for bringing Rababe CF and Neroli CF to him in his old age, producing his two sons Firewater SF and Damascus SF respectively. (You saw his daughter, ADA Recapitulation, earlier in the series.)

One last thought for the year to come, from the TB Friends (a Thoroughbred rescue) sort-of blog:

Another of my favorite comments from 2010. A family in Davis greeted an older thoroughbred mare from the Wilton feed lot. A young boy, 9 or 10, walked up to the mare and began sniffing her. His mom asked, what are you doing? The young boy replied: I love the new horse smell.

Enjoy your everything-old-is-new-again horse smell—