What the Butler Saw: Or, What Do McDonald’s, Auntie Mame, Class Rings, and Arabian Horses Have in Common?

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

A Story in Three Parts

Part One: Daniel C. Gainey

In 1940, Daniel C. Gainey—chairman, CEO, and guiding force behind Jostens, Inc., the nation’s leading maker of class rings, received an unusual gift from his employees: an Arabian colt named Kaniht (Katar x Niht). 

Kaniht, bred by Albert Harris, scion of the family that established Chicago’s Harris Bank, descended primarily from horses bred by Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt of England’s Crabbet Stud. (You can read more about the Blunts here, here, and here.) Kaniht was also something of a rarity in the U.S., as only about 1,700 Arabians had been registered in this country since the founding in 1908 of the Arabian Horse Registry of America (AHRA; now known as the Arabian Horse Association). When Gainey acquired Kaniht, Harris was the AHRA’s president; many years later, Gainey would hold the same position.

Ferzon and his son Gai Parada. Photo by Sparagowski.

Now smitten with the breed, Gainey soon began acquiring Arabians with the goal of establishing his own breeding program in Owatonna, Minnesota. Unlike Harris, who prized Arabians for their toughness and athleticism, Gainey valued beauty, elegance, and refinement.  Over the decades, as he bred hundreds of Arabians, he created the “Gainey look”—horses with large eyes, “teacup” muzzles, and well-sculpted ears—based on the bloodlines of his herd sire, Ferzon (Ferneyn x Fersara). His program was quite successful in the show ring: three products of his program, Galizon (Azraff x Gay Rose by Ferzon), Gai Parada (Ferzon x Azleta by Azraff), and Gai-Adventure (*Naborr x Gavrelle by Ferzon), were all U.S. National Champion Stallions. Gainey first kept his Arabians exclusively in his home state of Minnesota, but later branched out, with ranches in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Santa Ynez, California.

Gainey Ranch, Santa Ynez.

Part Two: Pat Tanner / Patrick Dennis / Edward(s) Tanner

If you’ve seen the 1958 movie Auntie Mame—which recounts the adventures of Mame Dennis and her nephew Patrick—you may have noticed that it’s based on a book by Patrick Dennis. However, “Patrick Dennis” was actually a pseudonym used by the flamboyant writer and bon vivant Edward Everett Tanner (known to friends and family as Pat).  A 2000 biography of Tanner/Dennis, Uncle Mame, by Eric Myers, makes for fascinating reading about this formerly celebrated, but now nearly forgotten, author who once had three books on the bestseller list simultaneously.

As Myers noted, “People assume that [Auntie Mame] is based on fact—that young Patrick really was raised by a madcap New York aunt—when in reality, he grew up rather conventionally as part of an upper-middle-class family....Once he left those confines, however, he led a life as unusual—and as poignant—as that of any fictional character he could have created. Auntie Mame was only one of Tanner’s sixteen novels. The book made him a millionaire and has earned its place as a perennial pop classic of American fiction.” Unfortunately, “[a]lthough both Tanner and his books were uproariously funny, and he was beloved by those close to him, his life was marked by an underpinning of frustration and melancholy.”

In 1963, at his professional and personal wit’s end, Tanner separated amicably from his wife and acknowledged that he was bisexual. Literary tastes were changing, and his light-comic prose, which had delighted so many readers in the 1950s, was now out of step with the turbulent 1960s. Tanner knew he had to do something else to make money. “He had sworn off writing,” remarked Myers, “but he was about to embark on the sort of escapade that could easily have provided material for five more novels.”

After living in Mexico, and then a stint as a gallery owner, Tanner decided to become a butler. As Myers noted, “He was already intimate with every detail that went into running a fine home; he loved to arrange lavish dinners and parties; he certainly had the grace, elegance, and tact—when he wasn’t sloshed—that were required for the job. Add to this his precise knowledge of cuisine, clothing, and decor, and you have a majordomo worthy of the White House....And best of all, it would be fun. Pat would be living inside one of his own novels, simultaneously observing and interacting with the class of people he had satirized.”

For his new profession, Tanner renamed himself “Edwards Tanner,” which made him sound like a character from one of his books. None of his employers knew that their butler was the creator of Auntie Mame. In early 1976, Tanner, by now an experienced butler, went to work for McDonald’s president Ray Kroc and his wife Joan at their apartment on Chicago’s Lakeshore Drive. In a letter to his son, Tanner drew a portrait of the couple:

“Mr. and Mrs. Ray Kroc … are the dearest people on earth—nouveau riche (20 years of super affluence) and frank to admit it. If anyone has to be burdened with several hundred million dollars, it ought to be the Krocs. Far from being ashamed of their money, they revel in it. They have a place in Florida, a ranch in California, and this posh apartment in Chicago where they occupy the whole twenty-fifth floor and I simply pig it on half of the twenty-sixth, all exquisitely overdecorated and quite good in a terrible way. They revel in their yacht, their jet, their helicopter, their private railway car, their baseball team (the San Diego Padres, who have never been known to win a game), their Cork Foundation (guess what that is spelled backward) to combat alcoholism, their 15 cars (only three of which are Rolls-Royces) and their Arabian horses (neither rides)….Well, I just couldn’t have fallen into a better place or with nicer people.”

Part Three: Ray Kroc

The son of Czech immigrants, Ray Kroc grew up near Chicago. He served as a Red Cross ambulance driver during World War I and then worked at a variety of low-wage jobs. (Although Kroc never knew this, Tanner also had been an ambulance driver—for the American Field Service, during World War II.) Kroc’s New York Times obituary called him a “former piano player and salesman of paper cups and milkshake machines.” He was in his mid-fifties when he opened his first McDonald’s franchise, and in 1961, he bought out the original owners, Maurice and Richard McDonald. By 1965, when McDonald’s stock was initially publicly traded, Kroc’s shares were worth $33 million. Not long after that, Kroc and his then wife Jane (who had been John Wayne’s secretary) purchased more than 200 acres in the Santa Ynez Valley, about 35 miles northwest of Santa Barbara, California, for $600,000 and named it the “J & R Double Arch Ranch.” The three flagpoles at the property featured the American flag, the California state flag, and a flag with golden arches. 

Sculpture by King Zimmerman at the Krocs’ ranch. Photo by Danforth-Tidmarsh.

The ranch was the focus of a 1968 article in Architectural Digest. Its 17,000-square-foot main lodge served as living quarters for the Krocs, a meeting room for McDonald’s executives, and the headquarters of the Ray A. Kroc Foundation. (Later, a round house, which reminded some observers of a hamburger, was built on the property for the Krocs’exclusive use.) The article noted that the property “has more comforts and conveniences than most city dwellings and at the same time offers the invigorating atmosphere of the outdoors and sporting life.” In addition, “for the recreation of guests, there is horseback riding” and “parts of the ranch are productive work areas, involved with horse breeding and training and the raising of cattle.” 

No mention was made of a horse barn, but the cattle barn was innovative for its time: it was air-conditioned and featured “automatic sanitation facilities” and music for the cattle; Architectural Digest called it “one of the most elaborate [cattle operations] in the country.” Noted Arabian horse judge Judy Delongpré Kibler, who lived in the area, remembered that the barn “was a bit over the top from the standpoint that [the cows] stayed in this building, which had a flushing system and feeding system. Way too expensive to raise cattle that way—I believe it was used for maybe a year or two.”

It was also around this time that Ray Kroc began buying horses from Daniel Gainey, now president of the AHRA. It’s unclear exactly how Kroc and Gainey met, but they had a number of things in common, aside from owning ranches in Santa Ynez. Both of them were Midwesterners who had joined already-existing companies, (McDonald’s and Jostens), reconfigured them, and guided the organizations to unprecedented success. Both of them were also staunch Republicans who hated FDR’s New Deal. 

Gainey was campaign manager for Harold Stassen’s 1948 and 1952 presidential bids, served as Barry Goldwater’s finance chair for his 1964 presidential run, and was a longtime friend and advisor of President Richard Nixon. Kroc made his only known foray into politics when he donated $255,000 to Nixon’s re-election campaign (this would be $1.6 million today). The donation was made during the time that Kroc was doing horse business with Gainey, so perhaps the latter suggested or facilitated it. (Nixon, too, had a connection to Arabian horses via Gainey; his daughters Tricia and Julie learned to ride on the mare Gali-Ferra (Ferzon x Gali-Rose), who had been a gift from Gainey to President Dwight Eisenhower.)

Goldwater and Gainey, 1964. 

In 1967, while the Krocs’ Santa Ynez property was being constructed, Ray became the owner of his first Arabian, bred by Gainey. Kroc’s new acquisition was the 1966 colt Gi-Frisco, out of one of Gainey’s excellent broodmares and by the stallion El Kumait, owned by another local breeder, Frisco Mari. Since Gi-Frisco was only a yearling when Kroc acquired him (and thus couldn’t be ridden for a few years), perhaps he was a gift from Gainey—just as Kaniht had been a gift to him from Jostens employees in 1940. (Notably, this colt was the only horse of the hundreds bred by Gainey whose name carried a “Gi” prefix. The names of Gainey’s other horses featured the “Gai” or “Ga” prefix—suggesting that this may have been a spelling error on the part of whoever filled out the colt’s registration papers.)

Gi-Frisco’s sire El Kumait had been foaled in 1935 at cereal magnate W. K. Kellogg’s ranch in Pomona, California. Arabian breed historian Gladys Brown Edwards wrote that El Kumait “was injured on one leg as a yearling, causing permanent damage to the leg. Since it was not certain whether he would outgrow this deformity he was sold as a two-year-old, but otherwise it is doubtful if this splendid stallion would have left the ranch.” His descendants include race winners, like Speed King and Fercheyn, and numerous National winners, such as RSR Kumait, U.S. Top Ten English Pleasure and Pleasure Driving, and Speed Princess, with five National titles to her credit, including U.S. National Champion Futurity Cutting Horse. 

Gi-Frisco’s dam Galata was by Ferneyn (sire of Ferzon) and out of Gainey’s best-producing mare, Gajala (*Raffles x Rageyma). Galata’s descendants include Gurisha Ferzona++ (dam of Kaborray, U.S. Top Ten Gelding), Gai Rainbow++ (sire of Gai Beauseyn, U.S. Top Ten Jumper), and Galatia (dam of GA Amir Amage++, U.S. Reserve Champion Western Pleasure, as well as granddam of Grand Jazz, twice U.S. Top Ten English Pleasure Amateur Owner to Ride, 18 & over). 

Gubla, dam of three foals for Ray Kroc. 

Kroc made more purchases from Gainey in 1968. These were the 1960 mare Gubla (*Royal Diamond x Ghuli), her 1968 filly Ferbla (by Ferzon), and the foal that Gubla was carrying, the colt Galizon Prince (by Galizon), born in 1969. Judy Delongpré Kibler and her then husband Don DeLongpré managed the Gainey Ranch in Santa Ynez back then and delivered the horses to Kroc’s place. Ray’s new mare Gubla was by *Royal Diamond (Oran x Grey Royal), who had been bred in England by Judith Blunt-Lytton, Lady Wentworth (daughter of the previously mentioned Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt), and imported to the U.S. in 1957 by Bazy Tankersley of Al-Marah Arabians, then in Maryland. Tankersley recalled that *Royal Diamond “was a spectacular creature, but I wasn’t very happy with his disposition, nor did he have the exceptional hindquarters mandatory for Al-Marah breeding stock.” Other breeders, including Gainey, bred to him multiple times with good results. Among *Royal Diamond’s well-known descendants were stakes winner Charlie Valentine, 1988 Darley Horse of the Year; Ibn Raffon++, U.S. and Canadian Top Ten Stallion; and Royal Mace, U.S. National Champion Western Pleasure Amateur Owner to Ride.

Galizon, sire of Kroc’s colt Galizon Prince. Photo by Johnston.

Ghuli, Gubla’s dam, bred by James and Edna Draper, was of mostly Crabbet breeding. She was a full sister to Sur-Ghari, U.S. Top Ten Stallion. Ghuli’s sire, Sureyn (*Raseyn x *Crabbet Sura), was linebred to Lady Wentworth’s influential Polish stallion Skowronek, and Ghuli’s dam, Gharisa (Gharis x Mona Lisa), had bloodlines from Spain, the Davenport importations, and Crabbet Stud. Sureyn was a notable sire of champions, including the first U.S. National Champion Stallion and Mare, Mujahid and Surita. A half-sister to Gubla, named Gata (by Ferzon), foaled Nigatt, U.S. Top Ten Native Costume and sire of four National winners. 

Prior to her purchase by Kroc, Gubla produced Gublazon (by Ferzon), who is best known as the paternal grandsire of U.S. National Champion Stallion Arn-ett Perlane. Gublazona, her second foal, was a good broodmare for Arcadian Arabians of Pennsylvania; Gublazona’s daughter Arkdn Gublaziona (by *Cebion) was an early winner of the Legion of Supreme Merit. 

In 1969, Ray Kroc divorced his wife Jane. Within days, he and Joan (née Mansfield) Smith—the recently divorced wife of McDonald’s franchisee Rollie Smith—married in front of the 28-foot-tall fireplace at the J&R Double Arch Ranch. 

In 1972, Gubla was taken back to Gainey Ranch to be bred to Gai Warsaw (Ferzon x *Paleta), producing the 1973 filly Gai Easter. Gai Warsaw, a sire of champions in the U.S. and U.K., was the grandsire of Gai Radiant, U.S. and Canadian Top Ten Western Pleasure Junior Horse, who was purchased in 1997 by Shirley and Charlie Watts (of Rolling Stones fame) for their Halsdon Stud in England.  Gai Easter was Gubla’s last foal. 

Gai Warsaw, sire of Gai Easter, bred by Kroc. Photo by Sparagowski.

Kroc bred Ferbla (a full sister to Gublazon and Gublazona) twice. The first time, she was bred to Khari (Khemosabi x Carinosa), Canadian National Champion Stallion, who was trained and shown by Don Delongpré. The resulting colt, born in 1974, was named Padre Khari, presumably in honor of Kroc’s having purchased the San Diego Padres baseball team in January of that year. 

Above: Khari, sire of Padre Khari; Below: *Eter, sire of Corky. 

Photos by Sparagowski.

Three years elapsed before Ferbla produced another foal, this time by the Polish stallion *Eter (Comet x Estokada), Don DeLongpre’s well-known sire of National winners, who was standing at nearby Caravan Arabians. Ferbla’s 1977 colt—named Corky—was the last of Kroc’s breeding experiments. Corky’s name was likely a nod to Operation Cork, a foundation established by Joan Kroc to combat the effects of alcoholism on families. The foundation produced public service announcements, including animated spots featuring Corky, the talking cork. (After her husband’s death, Joan Kroc admitted that Ray’s drinking was the impetus for establishing the Cork Foundation.) Author Lisa Napoli has written an engrossing biography of the couple in Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald’s Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away. )

Corky the talking cork.

Kroc’s  seven Arabians were all of excellent Gainey Ranch bloodlines. None of the horses appear to have been shown, only two (Gubla and Ferbla) produced offspring, and only one (Galizon Prince) is known to have been sold by him, according to the Arabian Horse Association. As Judy DeLongpré Kibler noted, Kroc “really never intended—in my recollection—to be a breeder, [and] the horses probably lived out their lives on his ranch.” 

Daniel Gainey passed away in 1979, and his Santa Ynez ranch now features a winery run by his grandson. Ray Kroc died in 1984. His widow sold the J&R Double Arch Ranch—the birthplace of the Egg McMuffin and McNuggets—to, of all people, a health-supplement magnate, Gerald Kessler, who converted the ranch’s test kitchen into a fitness center. If only Pat Tanner—who died in 1976—had been around to witness this. What a novel he could have written! 

Sign outside the former J&R Double Arch Ranch.

Photo by Lisa Napoli (cropped from original). 

         

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Living Soil, Living Art: Eve Balfour, Her Arab Mare Bendira, and New Bells Farm

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

This post is part of the ongoing Crabbet Chronicles series, which also includes Lady Anne Blunt’s Stradivarius and Wilfrid Blunt’s meeting with Lawrence of Arabia.

In 2018, Prince Charles sent his “warmest congratulations” to the UK’s Arab Horse Society (AHS) on its hundredth anniversary, writing, “As the proud owner of four very beautiful Arabian horses, I have come to appreciate this particularly special breed....For one hundred years The Arab Horse Society has devoted itself to promoting interest in Arabian horses in the United Kingdom.” The AHS’s first president was Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, who, with his wife Lady Anne Blunt, established the world-renowned Crabbet Stud in Sussex.

Eve Balfour, “the Compost Queen,” and her draft horses (from Brander 2003).

The previous year, Prince Charles had celebrated the seventieth anniversary of the Soil Association, “the UK’s leading food and farming charity, and organic certification body,” whose motto is “healthy soil, healthy people, healthy planet.” While at the association’s annual luncheon, he lamented the fact that he had never met its founder, Lady Eve Balfour, OBE (1898–1990), nicknamed “the Compost Queen” for her efforts to inculcate organic farming in the UK. In addition to obtaining a degree in agriculture (at a time when few women were college graduates) and writing the literally groundbreaking book The Living Soil, Eve was an early member of the AHS and owned a mare named Bendira—a daughter of the Blunts’ famous stallion Mesaoud, whom they had imported from Egypt to their Crabbet Stud in 1891.

Eve Balfour in the 1940s (photo credit: Wikipedia).

Born in 1898, Eve was the niece of Arthur James Balfour, who later became British prime minister; she called him “Nunkie.” Her mother was the daughter of a viceroy of India, a granddaughter of prolific author Edward Bulwer-Lytton (of “It was a dark and stormy night” fame), and a sister of Neville Lytton, third Earl of Lytton, who was an artist, an Olympic medalist, and son-in-law of the Blunts. His wife, Judith Blunt-Lytton, is known to Arabian horse fanciers as the breeder and author Lady Wentworth.

Drawing of Eve by her uncle, Neville Lytton (from Brander 2003).

From a young age, Eve knew she wanted to be a farmer. She was fortunate to be born into an eccentric, passionate family. A number of her Balfour relations were early members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR) (her uncle by marriage, Henry Sidgwick, was the SPR’s first president), and her aunt, Constance Lytton, was a suffragette who was jailed four times. As Eve’s biographer noted in 2003, “It must have required a strong personality and an equally strong voice to hold one’s own in the often animated family discussion….Nor were such discussions restricted to the male side of the family.”

Fishers Hill, Eve’s childhood home (photo credit: The Lutyens Trust). 

The house in which Eve grew up—Fishers Hill, in Surrey—had been designed by the well-known architect, Sir Edwin Lutyens, whose wife, Lady Emily (Lytton)Lutyens, was Eve’s aunt. (Lady Emily became a Theosophist and went on to become a follower of Krishnamurti.) The architect’s biographer (and descendant), Jane Ridley, wrote that Eve’s mother, Betty, “was unworldly and helpless in practical matters. She shocked [Lutyens] by travelling in dirty third-class carriages with her children, none of whom ‘looked as if any care, thought or trouble was taken with their appearance, either clothes or body.’ For a family of intelligent, tomboyish, and rather neglected girls, Fishers Hill was a paradise; it [was] ideally suited to games and outdoor theatricals. Betty’s grandchild Anne Balfour remembered it as a magical house, with the feel of Kipling and Puck of Pook’s Hill.”

The teenage Eve working  with a pony (from Brander 2003).

As a youngster, Eve was often on horseback, and had numerous cats, dogs, and other animals. She became a vegetarian at a young age and also took a great interest in plant growth, encouraged by her mother and her aunt, both excellent gardeners. Whereas in a typical family of her socioeconomic class, she would have been expected to “marry well” and raise children,  her biographer wrote that it was “an example of the advanced approach to parenthood of both her mother and her father that when she announced her wish to become a farmer…she was promptly entered for the Agriculture Department of Reading University College.”

Eve’s biographer also recounted that while Eve was in college, she “was closely in touch with her Lytton relations at Crabbet Park. Judith Wentworth, her [aunt by marriage], was to become the noted Arab horse breeder. Eve, of course was greatly interested in her work and enjoyed vising her. She even contemplated leasing one of the Crabbet Park farms in Sussex and went as far as discussing the possibility with Judith. At this stage her inclinations were strongly towards eventually taking a farm in Sussex.”

However, after Eve’s graduation, she and her sister Mary instead found a 157-acre, dilapidated farm in Suffolk named New Bells. There, the two of them and an assortment of friends, relatives, and, eventually, employees, worked twelve-hours days in an attempt to make New Bells a profitable concern. Her biographer noted, “Despite the fact that there was no running water or electricity, and sanitation was primitive in the extreme, everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves in this youthful household and contributed their assistance to the farm, whether feeding pigs, herding sheep, milking, or harvesting.” Eve’s cousin Betty Lutyens remembered her first visit to New Bells, “when she was greeted at the door by Eve...in breeches and a red spotted handkerchief.”

In 1939, after working at New Bells for two decades, Eve and her associates began the well-known Haughley Experiment at New Bells and a nearby farm. This study compared organic and chemically fertilized farming methods. As Kevin Desmond wrote, “Balfour published the initial results of her experiment in a book called The Living Soil where she presented the case for an alternative, more sustainable approach to agriculture. Its influence was such that, in 1946, Balfour co-founded and became first president of the Soil Association. While continuing the Haughley [E]xperiment for the next 25 years, the Association has developed into an international organization pioneered by Balfour. [She] continued to farm, write and lecture for the rest of her life.”

Eve’s “Lytton relations” at Crabbet Stud had sold her the well-bred Arabian mare, Bendira, around 1909. Bendira’s sire, the aforementioned Mesaoud, was one of the world’s most influential stallions, appearing (often multiple times) in the pedigrees of upwards of 90 percent of today’s Arabians.

Mesaoud (Aziz x Yamamah III).

Bendira’s dam, *Bushra, was bred by the Blunts. She stood only 14 hands. Arabian historian Carol Mulder noted that though she was a bit “long and low” through the body, in some photos “she could look very beautiful.” *Bushra was purchased by Charles Husted and imported to the US in 1900. Of her nine foals, only *Ibn Mahruss and Sira have living descendants.

*Bushra (Azrek x Bozra) (from Mulder 1991).

Bendira made a cameo appearance in the journals of Lady Anne Blunt, who recorded on June 3, 1903 that Prince Scherbatoff had come to tour Crabbet Stud and that her husband “took the Prince in the road cart with Bendira to see the mares and fillies….” Some years earlier, Scherbatoff and his brother-in-law Count Stroganov had established the Stroganov Stud near Tersk, in the northern Caucasus, where they bred Arabians. In 1899, the two men had visited Crabbet and had seen Bendira’s sire Mesaoud. In their book on Arabians, published in Russia the following year, Scherbatoff and Stroganov wrote that Mesaoud was “Crabbet Park’s number-one sire. He is a splendid specimen of a first-class Arabian and has won many prizes in England.” In 1903, Scherbatoff came back to Crabbet to look for more horses. Within weeks of Scherbatoff’s ride with Wilfrid Blunt driving Bendira, Mesaoud was purchased by a Polish breeder, Wladislaw Klineiwski, and appears to have changed hands again rather quickly, as he soon took up residence at the Stroganov Stud.

*Berk (from Covey 1982).

Bendira was closely related to the Crabbet-bred stallion *Berk, whose descendants often had excellent movement. *Berk was by Seyal, a son of Mesaoud, and out of Bukra, a three-quarter sister to Bendira’s dam *Bushra. (I wrote about *Berk’s daughter Tahdik and granddaughter Santa Fe, maternal ancestors of *Marwan Al Shaqab, for  Arabian Horse Life Magazine in 2019.)

Bendira was registered initially in the UK’s General Studbook (GSB). In 1906, it was noted that she had been bred to Narkise but came up barren. The 1909 GSB recorded the birth of Bendira’s “only produce to live,” a filly named Beneyeh (by Feysul)—suggesting that if Bendira had previous offspring, it or they had died before registration. Beneyah herself was never assigned a registration number, which presumably means that she did not survive for very long. Bendira was not re-bred in 1908, and after that was sold to Eve.

In 1920, a periodical called The Near East featured the following notice: “A council meeting of the Arab Horse Society was recently held at the Grosvenor Hotel, S.W., where entries for the Stud Book Vol. II and for the Arab-bred Register were accepted.” “Miss Eve B. Balfour, of New Bells Farm,” was listed as one of the new members, and Bendira, now twenty years old, was given AHS registration number 172. She was described as a chestnut mare with a blaze and three white socks, her color and markings similar to those of her sire.

Eve did do some horse breeding at New Bells, but her biographer, Michael Brander (Eve’s nephew by marriage), did not discuss about this aspect of her farming in any detail, other than to reproduce a letter from Eve’s mother in which she wrote that “the horse dealer who brought the stallion to Eve’s mares nearly had a fit when he found the New Bells farmer was a young girl. He’ll get accustomed to that....” Whether Bendira may have produced some part-Arabian foals for Eve is unknown, though possible, since one of the reasons for establishing the AHS was “to encourage the re-introduction of Arab blood into English Light Horse breeding.”

The same letter from Eve’s mother also mentioned seeing Eve’s fellow farmer, her sister Mary, driving a pony named Betty who “just gets in between the shafts and goes a jolly pace.” Is it possible that the “pony” Betty was actually Bendira, an experienced driving mare who could have inherited her dam’s small size? We likely will never know, but it’s charming to imagine Bendira, a flashy chestnut daughter of the great Mesaoud, trotting along at “a jolly pace” at New Bells Farm.