An Unexpected Encounter with Penny Chenery, Owner of Secretariat

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

An Arizona Horse History Project Essay

This essay is part of the ongoing Arizona Horse History Project series, which also includes posts on Hank the Cowdog, Man O’ War’s son By Hisself, Frank Brophy, and Doc Pardee. 

I read today that Penny Chenery, owner of racing legend Secretariat, died yesterday at age 95. Although we never had an opportunity to meet, Ms. Chenery and I did have an unexpected encounter some years ago.
 

      In 2000, Secretariat's second-oldest son, Statesman, then aged 26, lived with me at my home in Scottsdale, Arizona. Statesman was one of two test foals sired by Big Red out of non-Thoroughbred mares, and he went on to have his own career as a breeding stallion, polo pony, and dressage horse. In addition to having an absolute blast riding him, I'd also written two articles about Statesman--one in Blood-Horse and another in Dressage Today. (The latter was later reprinted in An Apple A Day, an anthology edited by well-known equine writer Kimberly Gatto.)

       Statesman's farrier at that time was my friend J.P. Luyssaert, who decided to attend the Rolex three-day event in Kentucky that year. While there, he noticed that an artist was selling signed prints of Big Red and that her co-signer for the day was Penny Chenery. JP kindly decided to buy one for me as a gift.

        When Ms. Chenery asked JP whom she should inscribe it to, he replied, "Make it 'To Tobi and Statesman.'" Ms. Chenery then surprised him by asking if he meant Statesman, the son of Secretariat in Arizona. When he said yes, she told him she'd enjoyed reading my Blood-Horse article and that she was glad that I was enjoying Statesman so much. I was touched by both JP's gesture and Ms. Chenery's kind words.  Godspeed, Penny, and thank you.

Celebrating the Man O’ War Centennial, Part 1: Big Red’s Arizona Son—By Hisself —Rancho Loma Verde, and the Casa Grande Ruins

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

An Arizona Horse History Project Essay

This essay is part of the ongoing Arizona Horse History Project series, which also includes posts on Penny Chenery and Secretariat, Hank the Cowdog, Major-General Jonathan Burton, and Doc Pardee. 

Considered by many to be the best racehorse of the twentieth century, the colt christened Man O’ War was born in March 1917, days before America’s entry into World War I. The centennial of his birth has been celebrated this year in various ways, including the restoration of the larger-than-life bronze statue, sculpted by Herbert Haseltine, that marks his grave at the Kentucky Horse Park, near Lexington. Also at the park is the exhibit Man O’ War: The Mostest Horse That Ever Was. Other exhibits commemorating his life, career, and legacy opened this year at the Kentucky Derby Museum and the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame, in Saratoga Springs, New York.

Racing fans tend to associate this equine champion—known as Big Red—with two states: Kentucky, where he was born, stood at stud, and died, and New York, where the majority of his races were run. However, Man O’ War has some interesting connections to Arizona, which I’ll be discussing in a series of three blog posts as part of my ongoing Arizona Horse History Project.

The colt’s owner, Samuel D. Riddle, retired him in late 1920 after Big Red had compiled a record of 20 wins in 21 starts, including 14 straight victories. (For more on the colt’s career, check out Dorothy Ours’s wonderful book, Man O’ War: A Legend Like Lightning.) Hopes were high that Man O’ War would transmit at least some of his blazing speed to his offspring. Alas, his first two foals, a set of twin colts, were born dead on January 27, 1922. His next foal, a filly, died before she could be named. The first colt to survive and flourish was born on April 18 of that year to the mare *Colette II. The brown colt was named By Hisself in honor of an anecdote that Riddle loved to tell. Once, when Man O’ War was having his morning workout, an observer inquired about his sire: “Who’s he by?” And a groom retorted, “He’s by hisself and there ain’t nobody gonna get near him!”

By Hisself was bred by Walter M. Jeffords and raced in the colors of his wife, Riddle’s niece by marriage. Like many of the Man O’ War offspring, the colt wasn’t particularly precocious but  came into his own as he grew into his large frame and began to run at longer distances. Over two seasons, he ran 33 times and won 8 races, including the Bayview Handicap.

Regarding his appearance, one newspaper writer noted that “By Hisself no more looks like Man O’ War than night resembles the day. In the first place, he is a brown in color—a solid color at that…and much heavier than Man O’ War was as a two-year-old.” A few years later, By Hisself was said to measure 16 hands and weigh 1,140 pounds.

By Hisself sired a total of 85 registered foals, including 31 race winners and 3 stakes winners. Breeding historian Rommy Faversham notes that By Hisself also became a “useful sire of steeplechasers,” such as Saluda and Yemasee; this is not surprising, given that a number of Man O’ War’s sons, like Battleship, Blockade, Holystone, and Annapolis, showed excellent jumping ability.

When he was 13 years old, By Hisself became the property of the U.S. Government, to be used as a Remount stallion to sire high-quality horses that could be used in the cavalry. (Presumably he was donated by the Jeffords family, but the record is unclear on this point.) By Hisself was not the only son of Big Red to be used as a Remount stallion; there were 10 in all, including Hard Tack, best known as the sire of Seabiscuit. As one reporter wrote in 1918, “Military opinion everywhere has decided that the only truly efficient military horse is the thoroughbred grade [i.e., half-Thoroughbred]. To get thoroughbred grades in serviceable numbers the Government must have at its disposal a vast number of good thoroughbred stallions.” A remount stallion was either housed at a breeding depot or shipped to a knowledgeable horseman, who not only bred his own stock to the stallion but also encouraged the surrounding community to send mares of any breed to him. If the resulting foals met army standards, the government would then have the option of buying them.

In 1935, By Hisself arrived in the tiny town of Coolidge, Arizona, home of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument. He was installed at Rancho Loma Verde, owned by Major R. C. Woodruff, a racehorse breeder and owner dubbed “the Sage of Sacaton Mountain” for his success on California and Arizona tracks. The year before, Woodruff had stood the Remount stallion *Golden Boss, a 24-year-old Thoroughbred imported from Ireland. For Woodruff, *Golden Boss had sired 7 registered foals in 1935, including the stallion’s sole stakes winner, Boss Martin.

 

Woodruff’s co-owner in his horse-breeding operation was his good friend Martha Root White, of Santa Fe, New Mexico. White and her sister Amelia Elizabeth were wealthy transplants from New York; their father had been editor of the New York Evening Post and Chicago Tribune. The sisters’ home in Santa Fe, known as El Delirio—the madness—was the center of the nascent art and literature scene in the New Mexico capital. Today, the house is known as the headquarters of the School for Advanced Research. Both sisters raised Afghan Hounds and Irish Wolfhounds. Elizabeth was also involved in the establishment of the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, the Wheelwright Museum, and the Laboratory of Anthropology. In 1934, an article about the sisters’ interest in dogs noted that “Miss Martha White is as interested in horses as in dogs, and is an excellent horsewoman. She is fond of jumping and can put a horse over the bars, whether using the saddle or not. She owns a half interest in a ranch near Coolidge, Arizona, where she has a large stable of thoroughbred breeding stock.”

Around the time that By Hisself was standing at Rancho Loma Verde, the White sisters decided to build themselves some guest quarters: a five-level, Spanish Colonial–style house of native stone, designed by well-known Italian architect Luigi Vietti, located within sight of the barn.  Although they traveled to Coolidge a few times during the home’s construction, and filled it with furniture and artwork from their travels, the sisters never occupied it; Martha was not in good health, and died of cancer in 1937. The house was instead given as a wedding gift to Martha’s godson Julian Woodruff and his bride Mildred in June 1936.

During his single season in Coolidge, By Hisself sired 14 registered Thoroughbred foals. Of these 14, all but 2 were race winners and 1—a colt named One Shen—was a stakes winner and a durable performer. Over seven seasons, One Shen ran 144 times and won 24 of his starts, making him By Hisself’s highest earner.  In fact, on September 5, 1938, One Shen was one of three starters to “romp to victory” in a single afternoon at Del Mar Racetrack for the “Arizona sportsman.” During that race, One Shen was so underestimated by bettors at Del Mar that he paid $79.80 to win—an enormous payoff during the Depression era.

For unknown reasons, in 1936 By Hisself was transferred by the government to rancher Floyd W. Lee, in San Mateo, New Mexico. Lee was a New Mexico state senator as well as county treasurer. Although his 300,000-acre ranch, originally part of a Spanish land grant, was known primarily for its cattle and sheep operations, Lee had stood the Remount stallions Gadar (an Arabian bred by W. R. Brown) from 1929 to 1931 and Gay Laddie (a Thoroughbred) for one year, 1935. Neither stallion appears to have sired any registered foals, but Gadar did sire at least one Palomino half-Arabian after leaving the Lee Ranch. Also around 1936, Lee is known to have built a 40-foot-tall barn and invited both locals and friends from elsewhere to attend the barn opening. One observer recalled that Lee had “some fine saddle as well as draft horses in stalls.”

By Hisself is recorded as standing at stud for Lee from 1937 to 1939. During this time, he sired only three Thoroughbred foals, including the race winner Bihigh. His last recorded Thoroughbred foal was born in 1939. Given the size of the ranch, and the number of saddle horses the operation would have required, it is likely that By Hisself sired a number of partbreds out of the ranch’s Quarter Horse mares.  Man O’ War's oldest living son, By Hisself, died at age 22 in 1947—the same year as his celebrated sire.

In the next installment of this centennial tribute to Big Red, we’ll look at a legendary Arizona horseman—Doc Pardee—who was the only person, aside from jockeys and exercise boys, to sit on Man O’ War. And he even had his picture taken to prove it!

Beauty and Class: John Schiewe’s Insights into Breeding Great Arabian Horses

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

John Schiewe (1950–2021) was well respected for his knowledge of Arabian horse pedigrees, breeders, and breeding programs, particularly those associated with Polish Arabians. A resident of West Linn, Oregon, he was a contributor to Arabian Horse World, Arabian Horse Life, and Arabian Finish Line magazines and, at the time of his death, was working on a book about American breeders of Polish Arabians.

John, thank you for being willing to talk to me about horses. How and when did you become involved with Arabian horses? What drew you to the breed?

Those who like horses can never remember a time when they weren’t a source of fascination. I grew up in a family that had little involvement in horses, although my maternal grandfather had a great love of horses and used them as part of his livelihood. He died when I was seven, and he was in failing health before that time, so he had no opportunity to pass along any lore. When I was about 20 years old, I found two interesting books at the Phoenixville, Pennsylvania, library when visiting a college buddy. One dealt with the King Ranch and it was absorbing reading, but the other was Lady Wentworth’s masterful treatment, The Authentic Arabian Horse. I think the die must have been cast at this time, even though I had no master plan or goal laid out. Shortly before I met my wife, I bought a half-Arabian mare to goof around with, and started getting some practical, hands-on experience with horses. Although my equipment and techniques would be subject to ridicule now, I truly bonded with that honest little mare, and she allowed me to learn quite a bit. I started to subscribe to Arabian Horse World and pored over every issue. Of course I wouldn’t recommend my next course of action, but in those days there was almost an imperative to say, “Wouldn’t it be fun to have a foal?” Therefore I commenced on a search for a stallion to breed my half-Arabian mare to.

I lived in a Portland suburb, and the first place I chose to visit was the Patterson Ranch in Sisters, Oregon. Of course now, from the perspective of many years, I can only marvel that a place that rivaled Lasma Arabians as the foremost ranch in North America would be so close to home. Even more amazing is the courtesy and respect that Richard and Kay Patterson showed towards a neophyte such as myself. Long story short, the Pattersons showed their stallions to me, and I bred my mare to the pure Polish *Cytrys (Trypolis x Cissa by Wielki Szlem). A tall, bay filly made her appearance the following year. At this point I began to absorb whatever tidbits of information the Pattersons might send my way. About a year after I got married, I found a very pretty and refined dark bay pure Polish filly, Mi Daiclare, by *Fortel out of Mortraza by *Bask. With great good fortune I was able to sell this youngster, two years later, through the Lasma training barn for a sum that was about equal to what I had just paid for my starter house and barn on three acres. From there I commenced on the wild ride of Arabian horse breeding of the 1970s and ‘80s. I think that the overwhelming draw of the Arabian horse for me was undoubtedly the beauty and class of the best representatives of the breed.

If you could go back in time and talk to some of the great breeders of the past, whom would you choose, and what would you ask them?

First I’d like to discuss some of the great breeders of North America whom I had the privilege of meeting. I’ve already mentioned Richard and Kay Patterson. I also met both Janice Rust Garrard and Frank Rust. Mr. Rust may not be as famous as his former wife when it comes to the Arabian horse, but he was a very sharp man, to say nothing of being a tough negotiator. Janice Rust extended many courtesies towards me. Through her efforts, I was the proud owner of a syndicate share of the great stallion Gdansk, a son of *Bask. Janice Rust introduced me to the breeder Don Doessel, whom I found to be a very warm and engaging person. His passing at a relatively early age deprived the world of a great resource. Nonetheless, he not only bred some splendid replacement mares, but a high number of very important stallions, a difficult task.

Gdansk (*Bask x *Gdynia)

While visiting Bill and Susan Pereira, I briefly met Dr. Bert Husband, who was riding his legendary stallion Khemosabi, the sire of the last non–pure Polish foal that I ever bred (at least to this point in time). Dr. Husband gave off a very pleasant vibe. Shortly after I purchased the Wielki Szlem daughter *Morwa from the Pereiras, I paid a visit to Denise Borg’s Four Winds Farm in Santa Ynez, California. Ms. Borg impressed me very much, both from the standpoint of the many fine horses at her place and her straightforward, courteous manner. She was very thorough about showing me her horses. I regret to this day that I didn’t recognize how valuable it might have been for me to utilize the stallion *Wiraz (Comet x Wielka Zorza) in some capacity.

*Wiraz (Comet x Wielka Zorza)

I met Sheila Varian on only one occasion, when I visited her California ranch, and saw Huckleberry Bey as a yearling. He was absolutely stunning and an obvious star, but I was, by that time, firmly entrenched as a pure Polish guy. The car my wife and I had been riding in had been rear ended in a dust storm on the way down to southern California, and Ms. Varian was very attentive to the comfort of my wife, who was then sporting a neck brace. My memories of Ms. Varian and her horses are among my most vivid. I’ll never forget how much I fell for *Kassapia (*Pietuszok x Kassala by Bad Afas), who was being schooled in a barn aisle by Ms. Varian.

I ran into Dr. Sam Harrison at a convention held in Portland and fell victim to his mega-watt personality. He seemed to be attuned to every person in the room and was able to make judgments that were shocking in their accuracy, given that I already knew many of the individuals he was talking about and he was observing them for the first time.

I have met Mary Jo Wertheimer and appreciate her dedication to do right by every horse under her care, to say nothing of the fine quality of her breeding efforts over the decades. I personally apologized to Ms. Wertheimer over the phone when I assessed on further reflection that the individuals she used when line-breeding to *Bandos were actually perfect for the task that she set them to. Her intent was not necessarily a line-breeding experiment, but a phenotypical cross that was complementary.

*Bandos (Negatiw x Bandola)

I can also recall brash statements that I made to both Richard Patterson and Denise Borg that I now recognize as being in error. I also have a great appreciation for the knowledge and achievements of Heidi Sause, a breeder in Oregon. During an open house held at her farm, I met two experts on Polish Arabian breeding, Ignacy Jaworowski and Izabella Pawelec-Zawadska. This was the second time I met the great director from Poland’s Michalow State Stud. Our first meeting occurred when the Pattersons introduced me to him at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show. I was too intimidated to have any interaction with him on either occasion, but Izabella was very open about engaging with me during our encounter in southern Oregon. I think the common factor in almost all of these occasions was that at the time they took place, I didn’t feel I was equipped with enough knowledge and study to be deemed worthy of serious interaction. I’d like to think that now I would be closer to having risen to that level.

Tabling for a moment what I would ask these folks, I wish to mention four other individuals who have been great friends to me and with whom I have shared many long discussions. The first of these is Albert Mauck. “Mack” did not enter the Arabian horse business with great resources, but I consider him to be a true success story. He first utilized horses of *Witez II breeding with solid results, and he was one also one of the first to recognize the value of Gdansk. When charged with the task of “buying the best” for one client, Mack found a terrific pure Polish *Bask daughter that was successfully shown, bred, and marketed to great effect. Mack also had a tremendous ability to impart confidence, leavened with appropriate critiques from the ground when fine tuning already accomplished professional saddleseat trainers. I saw him ride a horse on only one occasion and he was very talented in his own right. This was when Mack was in his 60s and after a long layoff from being in the saddle.

Mustafa Sabankaya and I bought horses that were very closely related when we were both starting out. I just couldn’t keep up the pace. He is now in his fourth decade of continuous breeding, and it is clear that he deserves the designation of being a great breeder. Seeing hundreds of horses at Mustafa’s ranches in both Santa Cruz and Shastina-Weed, California, was and is a unique experience.

Robbin Stewart, who lives in my home town of West Linn, acquired some of my best horses, and thanks to her exemplary taste I got to personally interact on almost a daily basis with horses such as the following: *Algorada (Celebes x Algonkina by *Pietuszok), Posejdon (*Bask x *Portulaka by Faher), Cantarina (*Bask x *Canberra by Abu Afas), Evening Breeze (*Bask x *Boltonka by Arax), *Gwintowka (*El Paso x Gwardia by Branibor), Amad Pass AH (*El Paso x *Armada by Banat), *Ceratka (Gwarny x Cerkwica by Comet), *Eureka (Gwarny x Eunice by Comet), *Parodia (Gwarny x Parma by Aswan), *Czapla (Gwarny x Czapelka by Magnit), *Mgla (Banat x Mgielka by Mokan), *Donna (Negatiw x Dysputa by Comet), *Edykt (Eukaliptus x Elana by Elf), *Zaspa (Czardasz x Zlota Iwa by Arax), Aladanska (Gdansk x *Alergia by Ellorus)…and the list literally goes on from there. Having a conversation with Robbin is probably the closest I will ever come to understanding the experience of jamming with a jazz musician.

A client of Robbin’s was Jered Johnson, who ultimately took his program in a different direction than I might have, but whose study and dedication were more than sufficient for me to accept his decisions. The wonderfully bred Patterson horses Esconcja (Negatraz x *Esencja by Aquinor), Werwa (Negatraz x *Wieza by Doktryner), and Marionetka (*Dar x Maritza by Soverign) paid a call at Robbin’s Highland Arabians. Werwa and Marionetka were owned by Jered, and Esconcja was located by Jered on behalf of another client. I owned Andrzejevo (Negatraz x *Andorra by *Pietuszok) in partnership with Robbin Stewart and Michael Barzilay. Through our efforts at repatriating him to Oregon, I met Patty Ross. Patty is an incredible fount of information and beyond generous in her concern for the welfare of the breed. I am proud that her Andrzejevo son Romanek, out of Cerrah (Gallup x Homestead Cerysz by *Caracyn), gained the attention of the great master breeder Roman Pankiewicz, who commissioned an article on all of us by Jerzy "George Z" Zbyszewski in Kon Polski magazine. I’m sure George doesn’t remember first meeting with me, but I visited him in Washington state when he was standing *Emanor, and he confirmed certain speculations I had about some of the directors of the Polish State Studs. I would hasten to add that these speculations were serious in nature and not gossipy. More recently I have come to treasure meeting people like Jeffrey Wintersteen, Anette Mattson, and you, Tobi.

Andrzejevo (Negatraz x *Andorra)

I met Andrzejevo’s then owner Don Nitz during a visit to Mustafa’s ranch in northern California and instantly established a nice friendship with him. I did not imagine that some years later I would end up acquiring Andrzejevo. Our friendship has gotten closer and closer over the years. Don has a tremendous appreciation for the pure Polish horse, but he has also been able to stay afloat in the current world of Arabian horse breeding by producing horses that trainers like the Stachowski brothers clamor for. Don and I reminisced recently about how nice it was to sip premium Tequila shots on hay bales in his small outlying barn for aged mares, with two of our companions being pure Polish Andrzejevo daughters.

Andrzejevo (Negatraz x *Andorra)

My greatest good fortune must be that through whimsy, effort, and good fortune I was able to establish a dialog with Roman Pankiewicz during the last decade. Some of the questions that I would ask the “greats” were brought up in an interview I conducted with Roman that recently appeared in Arabian Horse World. I have other questions that I have posed to another prominent breeder, which I’m hoping will garner a response that will also be worthy of publishing. I guess I am rather selfishly holding some of these questions close to the vest in a proprietary manner. Nonetheless, I think a lot of my philosophies and general questions will still come to light as I continue to respond to your kindly received inquiries.

With respect to some of the greats, there are occasions where we have precious written records of their thoughts about Arabians and breeding. One of those exalted individuals is Mike Nichols, a celebrity who stands on his own as a great, great breeder even without the cachet of his multitudinous other accomplishments. He has spoken eloquently about the importance of Amurath Sahib as a breeding horse, mirroring similar statements made by the Pattersons and Janice Rust. He has talked about overcoming preconceived beliefs imparted by others and going with his own assessments (for example, regarding his stallion Barbary) after he attained a certain point of sophistication. My question for him would be simple: “Do you think that it is a worthy effort on my part to utilize an aged pure Polish stallion (a grandson of *Bask and *Eter), bred by you, on the pure Polish Andrzejevo daughters?” I am offering support to the owner of this stallion, and it is our hope that some viable straws of frozen semen will soon be available to be utilized for many years going forward.

Grazynaa (Romanek x Appril Love)

Are there any particular horses that you think were underutilized in past breeding programs?

I’ll now turn to the topic of underutilized horses. There is still quite a bit of latitude in how this question can be answered. I’ll start with some pure Polish horses that others have remarked upon and with the reader’s indulgence, hopefully granting that I had come to similar conclusions before seeing them verified. Let’s start with Enwer Bey and his son Trypolis. Enwer Bey was necessarily limited because he was not very fertile; being removed from Poland to Russia was no doubt disruptive as well. Not only was Enwer Bey the sire of Trypolis, but with Gazella II he gave the important Russian mare, Taraszcza, who was the dam of Negatiw. The Enwer Bey son Halef was an important horse in Germany as well. With the value of this handful of horses being so exalted, it is hard not to wish that Enwer Bey had had many more offspring.

His son Trypolis had no issue with fertility. He sired during the years of World War II, which may or may not have limited his opportunities; in other words, if Poland’s stallion power had not been diluted, would he still have been designated a chief stallion? However, it is shocking to realize that after giving two such splendid mares such as Carmen and Canaria in his first crop, Trypolis did not sire any purebreds for seven years in Poland after World War II. Thankfully he was then utilized for eight subsequent years.

It is also generally accepted that Abu Afas was an amazing breeding horse for Poland. He had only two crops of foals for Nowy Dwor, and seven foals total.  The full siblings Comet and *Canberra were noteworthy, as were the sisters *Sabellina and Sakwa. Comet and *Sabellina have achieved fame that is stratospheric. Abu Afas was sold to East Germany, where he thankfully lived and sired for a much longer time than his famous son Comet, but no one can claim that there was a group of mares in East Germany that rivaled those of Poland at this time.

Comet (Bad Afas x Carmen)

There is a dearth of English-language translations for Nowy Dwor’s great director, Joszef Tyszkowski, as far as breeding advice.  He is largely responsible for rescuing Trypolis from obscurity. He bred the Bad Afas daughter *Naganka (dam of Bay El Bey), Comet, and *Sabellina — so for these horses alone, he deserves to have his name inscribed in gold. I guess an obvious series of questions presents itself: “Why did you sell Abu Afas? Did you already know that Comet was materially better and did you feel that you could be patient in waiting for him to grow up? Was the sale something that was beyond your control, decreed by other Polish authorities?” Director Tyszkowski also deserves our admiration for literally risking his own life and that of his family during a multi-year period during World War II, rescuing and sheltering precious breeding stock as they were buffeted about in the theater of war. As long as we are talking about the war years, I have to mention an absolute favorite of mine, the *Witez II son, Wisznu. He had a good siring career in Germany, but I think he was better than any US-bred *Witez II son, and seen from my prism of being an obvious believer in the pure Polish Arabian, I can only imagine what he might have been able to accomplish if put to the broodmares of Poland.

Wisznu (*Witez II x Malaga)

I’ll step away from Polish stallions for a moment and talk about two Crabbet-bred sons of Rissla. I’m referring to Rissalix by Faris, and Irex by Naseem. Rissalix had fewer than 30 lifetime foals. His percentage of first-class sons was off the charts. Irex did a little bit better in terms of lifetime foals, with 38, but he did not have his first purebred offspring until he was 11. He had only one or two foals a year until he was more properly appreciated, with foal crops of 10 at age 20 and 6 at age 21. Rissalix may have been the better breeding horse, but both of these individuals were very underappreciated in their lifetimes.

We have you to thank, Tobi, for bringing the story of the impeccably bred Tersk import *Park (Knippel x Ptashka by Priboj) to light. It seems incredible now, but this superlative stallion, who was imported to the US by Ed Tweed at the height of the Cold War, was denied registration as a purebred because he had been bred in the USSR, and thus was not put to any significant number of mares. Nonetheless his small number of foals, some registered as half-Arabians in spite of being purebred, showed what a short-sighted loss the American registry’s policies were to the breeding community.

*Park (Knippel x Ptashka, by Priboj)

Jumping to Egypt, we have to thank General Tibor von Pettko Szandtner for finding Nazeer at an outlying stallion station and instantly conferring chief stallion status on that soon-to-be legend. He also chose to line breed to the sire of Nazeer, Mansour, by utilizing another Mansour son, Sheikh el Arab, with Nazeer blood. His legacy is gigantic, but imagine if Nazeer had been discovered a decade earlier. My absolute favorite Nazeer son was *Ansata Ibn Halima. His career was almost perfectly managed. His task of breaking ground in the US was important. Nonetheless, there was an early fallow period after his importation, as the broodmare band at Ansata was small in number, immature, and closely related, and few breeders from outside that program were able to recognize the greatness of *Ansata Ibn Halima. In this case, however, I can’t honestly suggest any change to history. At this time I feel that I need to offer a bit of a clarification about Germany. I don’t know enough about its Nazeer sons to be able to declare any of them on the level of an *Ansata Ibn Halima. This omission, along with my comments about Wisznu and Abu Afas, may imply a lack of respect for the breeding programs of Germany. I’ll address this by saying that a case could probably be made that Germany’s crossing of Egyptian, Spanish, Polish, and Russian bloodlines constituted a jumpstart on producing the “modern” Arabian that we (sometimes) can see so successfully presented today.

Since EW Sabask (*Bask x *Sabellina by Abu Afas) was a homozygous bay and his mother had such an abundance of “athletic” genes, I wish his owners at Simms Arabians had kept him at their Scottsdale ranch for a longer time before selling him to a less-traveled venue on the East Coast, where he covered only a small number of pure Polish mares.

Chopinn (*Carycyn x Baskera by *Bask) was coming into his prime just when the Arabian industry in the US was hitting challenging times. I think this horse’s quality was high, and looking at pictures of a bay daughter of his named Chovella, out of *Carawella (Negatiw x Czatanoga by Anarchista), reinforces my opinion.

Chopinn (*Carycyn x Baskera)

One could also make a case that *Carycyn could have been more heavily used in Poland before being sold to the US. Upon his arrival in the states, he was at a farm that stood four or five other breeding stallions, none of them slouches, but not, in my opinion, having as much breeding value as *Carycyn. Even though *Carycyn was bred at Janow and used at Michalow, I would ask Director Jaworowski why he sold off so many Comet sons without trying them and then why, later, he utilized Probat (a Comet grandson) so heavily? In my opinion Probat did not rise to the level of his sire Pohaniec or any number of other Comet sons. At least Director Jaworowski used Comet heavily at Michalow during the horse’s lifetime, in contrast to Director Andrzej Krzystalowicz’s parsimonious distribution when Comet stood at Janow. This of course leads to an obvious question for Director Krzysztalowicz. I’m going to self-edit the path that I seem to be proceeding down, and pull back to try and explore larger precepts now. I will use Comet as a jumping-off point, however.

One of the most amazing observations that I was able to make from a first-hand basis was the startling realization of how successful inbreeding with Comet could be. I’ve already spoken of having known the horses of Denise Borg as well as the Rusts of Halali Arabians. I also had the privilege to visit Brusally Arabians and Crown Point Arabians. I did not get to visit with the respective proprietors, Ed Tweed or the Johnsons, Ken and Peg, but it was obvious that they owned some first-class horses. I would add Mr. Tweed to the list of great past breeders that I wish I could have a conversation with. What was a common feature of my visits to each of these places? At Four Winds I could see splendid Ariston get, out of two full sisters, that were the product of breeding the Comet son *Wiraz to the Comet daughter *Bryzeida. At Crown Point I remember being totally charmed by the refinement and quality of two diminutive bay Comet daughters, *Salvia and *Murcja. Although not a closely bred individual, one of the greatest Arabians I’ve ever seen was *Cometera (Bandos x *Felluka by Comet). She was then only two years old but tall, regal, and gorgeous. I saw that the Comet son *Grojec had his best offspring out of the Comet daughter *Salvia. At Brusally Ranch, I saw an absolutely stunning *Zbrucz daughter out of the Comet daughter *Salinaa (full sister to *Salvia). The Tweed-bred double-Comet granddaughter by *Zbrucz out of *Basta owned by Frank Rust was a beauty as well. Pictures of two other full sisters of this cross were arresting.  One of them went through the Sutton Arabians dispersal sale, and the other was housed at Mustafa Sabankaya’s for a while. The Tweed-owned Comet son *Czester (full brother to *Carycyn) did a nice job with *Basta, too. I guess I would ask Mr. Tweed how he came to be one of the earliest and most committed practitioners in terms of trying this strategy.

*Cometera (Bandos x *Felluka)

Taking the great Thoroughbred breeder Federico Tesio at his word that linebreeding is a viable strategy, when does it cease to be a practical tool? Does Comet’s quality dictate that he is very much the exception to the rule in terms of avoiding breeding that is too close? This brings me to the subject of *Raffles (Skowronek x Rifala by Skowronek), bred by Lady Wentworth. It would be great to hear her expound on the topic of inbreeding and linebreeding, along with any number of other subjects. I can guarantee that she would intimidate me, but I would love to be a fly on the wall during any discussion between the formidable one and her two brilliant parents, Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt.

The Pattersons once put forth an all-star dinner guest list of great Arabian breeders and also delineated some of the lessons learned from these people. I guess I could make a partial list of some of the greats from the past, such as Count Rzewuski, Count Dzieduszcky, Prince Roman Sanguszko the elder, Count Potocki, Janow Director Stanislaw Pohoski, General J. M. Dickinson, Bogdan Zietarski, Abbas Pasha, Dr. Edward Skorkowski, General Tibor von Pettko Szandtner, and Lady Yule.

Last, I am fascinated by how scientific advancements and complex research add to our knowledge and how this ties into what might loosely be termed “breeders’ lore.” For instance, a number of great breeders swear by the importance of the tail female line, but now, how will MtDNA research relate to this previously stated precept? There are academics in Poland who have put together charts that break down in detail, with sufficient examples, the siring abilities of Polish stallions for a number of specific traits as well as overall assessments. It is interesting to compare this straightforward data to previous word-of-mouth generalities passed along by breeders about horses like *Europejczyk and *Monogramm.

Lady Anne Blunt and Her 1721 Stradivarius: A Master Horse Breeder but an “Excruciating” Violinist (According to Her Husband)

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

This esssay is part of the ongoing Crabbet Chronicles series, which also includes posts on Alec Guinness in Star Wars and Lawrence of Arabia, and Bendira, a Crabbet-bred mare owned by Eve Balfour. 

If her name is familiar today at all, Lady Anne Blunt—born Anne Isabella King-Noel—may be known to English majors as the granddaughter of Lord Byron and the long-suffering wife of the minor poet and major philanderer Wilfrid Scawen Blunt.

Computer geeks may recognize Lady Anne as the daughter of Ada Lovelace, arguably the world’s first computer programmer; Ada Lovelace Day, held on the second Tuesday of each October, is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering and math. The computer program ADA, a nod to Lovelace, was created in 1980 on behalf of the U.S. Department of Defense.

Arabian horse fanciers still admire and revere Lady Anne Blunt for her extensive, often arduous travels in the Middle East with husband Wilfrid, in search of the finest Arabian bloodstock with which to found the Crabbet Arabian Stud at Crabbet Park, their estate in Sussex. From there, the Blunts sold and exported horses they had bred to all points of the globe, including North America, Australia, and Africa. Today, virtually all living Arabians claim descent from horses bred at Crabbet Stud.

 And musicians, especially violinists, may know her as the owner of the Lady Blunt Stradivarius, a violin made in 1721, which has been called one of the best-preserved Stradivari-made violins in existence. Lady Anne purchased her instrument in 1864, five years before her marriage to Wilfrid, from a luthier named Jean-Baptiste Villaume, who acquired it from Count Cozio di Salabue. Lady Anne has been called an “accomplished” violinist by some of her biographers.  It is said that she studied with at least two well-known teachers:  Joseph Joachim, one of the most important violinists of his time, and Leopold Jansa, who also taught composer Karl Goldmark and Wilma Neruda (later Lady Halle); the latter was named Violinist to the Queen by Britain’s Queen Alexandra.

However, Lady Anne’s husband found listening to Anne practice “excruciating,” and derided her playing as “fiddling.” As a result, Anne took to playing when Wilfrid was away (which was often), or outside; one day in February 1887, Lady Anne played her Stradivarius under an orange tree at Sheykh Obeyd, her estate outside Cairo: “It was delightful—a perfect afternoon.” Even if Wilfrid was correct that she wasn’t a technically very competent player, Lady Anne did have a highly developed appreciation of beauty and artistry—she was a talented painter and the horses she bred were world class—and she would have valued the Stradivarius as an object d’art as well as for the tones it produced.

The auction house Tarisio provides an extensive chain of ownership for the instrument, noting that Lady Anne sold her violin “through Emil Hamma to the German dealer Edler in 1895 just prior to his death. It was purchased by W. E. Hill & Sons the following year and sold immediately to their most important client, the collector Baron Johann Knoop. Knoop parted with the violin in 1900 and shortly thereafter it was sold by Hills to Mr. J. E. Street of Caterham, a celebrated amateur violinist and underwriter of Lloyds. Street purchased the violin for his son Edmund, who was a promising young violinist. The younger Street tragically died in the First World War and thereafter the violin was sold again by Hills in 1915 to the most important collector of his time, Richard Bennett. On Bennett’s death in 1930 the violin was purchased by Hills and remained in their collection until 1941 when they sold it through the dealer Robert Bower to the Swiss dealer and collector Henry Werro in whose possession it remained for nearly 20 years. Werro produced a small monograph on the violin of which only 200 copies were published. It was next sold in 1959, again by Hills, to the noted American collector, Sam Bloomfield of California, who later offered it in 1971 at Sotheby’s auction. [It was played at that time by the esteemed Yehudi Menuhin, who can be heard here.] It sold then for the record price of £84,500.00 ($200,000 at the time) to Hills on behalf of Robin Loh, the collector of Singapore. Loh lent the violin to the 1987 Stradivari exhibition in Cremona organized by Charles Beare and kept the violin until 2000, when it was sold by Andrew Hill to a private collector.”

“The violin was more recently sold to the Nippon Foundation by their advisor, Andrew Hill, and sold on their behalf by Tarisio in 2011 for an again record price of £9.8 million ($15.9 million). All proceeds went to benefit the victims of the Japanese tsunami and earthquake.” That an instrument which provided Lady Anne Blunt so many hours of pleasure should prove helpful to those in need would have made her heart sing. As her daughter Judith Blunt-Lytton, Lady Wentworth, wrote at the time of her mother’s death, “To the end of her life she had the heart of a child, the brain of a scholar, and the soul of a saint.”

A Four-Letter Word for a Spirited Horse; Or, Will Shortz's Unlikely Connection to the Arabian Breed

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

Will Shortz has been the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle since 1993, and only its fourth editor since 1942, when the paper’s first Sunday puzzle appeared. Although the Times puzzle—particularly the Sunday edition—has long been a mainstay of American culture, the Times actually came late to the daily puzzle scene. The world’s first crossword puzzle, created by Liverpool journalist Arthur Wynne, was printed in the December 21, 1913 issue of the New York World, a newspaper owned by the Pulitzer family. 

So, what’s Will Shortz doing in a blog about horses, you ask? Simple. He was raised on an Arabian horse farm, in Crawfordsville, Indiana, as he noted on Twitter. Curious about the Shortz family’s Arabian horse activities, I did a little research.  Will’s mother Wilma Shortz and sister April Shortz Curtis are credited as breeders of fifty-eight purebred foals, including the mare Raffreya, a Legion of Merit winner. In the remainder of this post, I’ll show how the Shortz family’s Arabian horse activities intersect in interesting ways with the history of newspapers, politics, and horse breeding. 

The New York Times’s first puzzle editor, Margaret Farrer, had started out as a secretary, decades earlier, at the aforementioned New York World.  Back then, there were several daily papers vying for dominance and dollars, including the New York Journal, which had been purchased in 1895 by William Randolph Hearst to compete specifically against the New York World, with its circulation of one million. During this time of newspaper wars, Hearst hired an all-star cast of employees, including political cartoonist Homer Davenport. 

A major object of Davenport’s cartoon ire was Mark Hanna, an Ohio industrialist and political mastermind who worked behind the scenes to help William McKinley attain the presidency. Hanna, nicknamed “Dollar Mark” for his ability to generate corporate campaign donations, is—for good or for ill—responsible for the invention of the modern presidential campaign.  And Hanna’s daughter Ruth Hanna McCormick, who campaigned as a Progressive Republican, was among the earliest women elected as U.S. representatives to Congress. She was also the mother of Ruth “Bazy” Tankersley, who was arguably the world’s largest breeder of Arabian horses at her Al-Marah Arabian breeding operation.  One of the Shortz family’s primary broodmares was Freya, sired by Tankersley’s stallion Al-Marah Rooz; Tankersley also incorporated Shortz horses into her breeding program, including Syndara, who produced seven foals for her and is the granddam of a National winner in cutting.

Davenport was paid a great deal of money by Hearst to skewer Hanna, and was reportedly the highest-paid cartoonist of his era. In 1906, with the diplomatic aid of President Theodore Roosevelt, Davenport realized his lifelong dream of owning Arabian horses. He traveled to what was then the Ottoman Empire and purchased twenty-seven Arabians, a journey he chronicled in his book My Quest of the Arabian Horse. Davenport’s breeding program, conducted at his farm in New Jersey, has had a profound impact on Arabian horses in the United States. Hearst, the cartoonist’s boss, used horses of Davenport breeding in his program at San Simeon.  And although Davenport was highly critical of her grandfather Mark Hanna, Tankersley appears to have had no qualms about acquiring Davenport-related horses, including some from the Shortz family. Indeed, many of the horses bred by the Shortz family, including champion Raffreya, wouldn’t exist were it not for Davenport’s imported horses Haleb, El Bulad, Hamrah, and others.

In interviews, Shortz has said that he does a great deal of editing to puzzles accepted to the Times. When I was working on the Sunday puzzle for December 8, 2016, it crossed my mind that perhaps the answer for the clue “Spirited horse” — A-R-A-B — was one of Shortz’s edits. After all, he would know. 

"The Gold of Ophir”: NPR, Ophira Eisenberg, and an Arabian Mare Named Ofirka

By Tobi Lopez Taylor

As the owner and caretaker of four horses, I’ve long divided my work life and social life into five-hour increments. I feed at 7 AM, at noon, and at 5 PM, and I do what I call a “bed check” at 10 PM. In the summer, I ride for part of the first increment, and write or edit until 5 PM, and in the fall, winter, and spring, I tend to work during the first increment and ride in the afternoon. Somewhere in between the writing and the riding is the daily ritual of mucking stalls while listening to NPR.

I should pause here to say that in general, I find cleaning stalls to be a rather meditative activity, provided the stall hasn’t been completely trashed, like your typical frat house bathroom. Three of my horses are what I call “tidy cats” — they inhabit stalls with outside runs, and clearly view the stalls as places to eat and sleep, with the runs functioning as open-air outhouses. However…my fourth horse, the lovely Rose, is as piggish as she is beautiful. She can turn a freshly bedded stall into an ASPCA horse-care nightmare in mere hours.

Rose is Arabian horse royalty, and she knows it. She’s one of the last granddaughters of the Polish stallion Orzel (“eagle,” in Polish)—who was nicknamed the “Arabian Secretariat” for his exploits on the racetrack, his large size (nearly 16 hands), his chestnut coat and flashy white markings, and his undeniable charisma. Unlike the many descendants of Orzel who inherited his size, color, and speed, Rose appears to be a throwback to a previous generation—she resembles Orzel’s dam, Ofirka, a small bay mare who also happened to be a witness to some of the worst days of World War II.

Ofirka was foaled at Poland’s Janow Podlaski Stud in the spring of 1939, a pivotal year that would see Poland ransacked first by Germany and then by the Soviet Union.

In September 1939, when word reached Janow that the German army had moved westward into Poland, hundreds of horses were evacuated. The stallions, such as Ofirka's sire Ofir and her half brother Pamir, left first, followed the next day by about 100 broodmares, 150 young horses (including Ofirka), and 19 horse-drawn wagons. During this harrowing journey toward the east, scores of horses escaped from their handlers, and others were hurt, some mortally. When the much-diminished group of men and horses finally arrived in Kowel, Volynhia (now Kovel, Ukraine), they met refugees headed west, fleeing the Soviet army. The dispirited group’s leaders decided it was most practical to turn around and go back to Janow. However, numerous horses, particularly the younger ones, were so exhausted by the trek that they had to be left behind.

Ofirka—at that time an unnamed filly—was part of the young stock thought to be lost during that evacuation. The “loss” of Ofirka was actually a stroke of luck for Polish breeders, however. Upon the group’s return to Janow, many of the horses were confiscated by the Soviets, to be used in the breeding program at Tersk Stud. These included Ofirka’s sire, her dam Fryga II, her full sister Wesola, and her two half sisters Maskota and Nirwana. Ofirka herself was not located until 1941, when she was finally found on a farm in Volynhia. It’s said that when the Polish inspector Adam Sosnowski finally rediscovered this small, malnourished filly, he exclaimed “Ofirka!”— meaning “Ofir’s daughter!”—since she so greatly resembled her famous sire, and that epithet became her registered name.

In late October 1939, the Germans wrested control of Janow from the Soviets, and the stud’s breeding program recommenced in 1940. Ofirka’s first foal was born in 1944, when she was five years old. That summer, during the Soviet offensive, the Janow horses were evacuated west, to southern Saxony, in Germany. Then, in early February 1945, the horses were scheduled to be moved again, this time to Torgau, in northern Saxony. The route they were slated to take happened to go directly through the city of Dresden. On February 13, 80 stallions from Janow were led into Dresden and were walking through the middle of the city when the first firebombing began. Although most of the stallions died or were lost, among the survivors were Ofirka’s paternal half brothers Witraz and Wielki Szlem, whose groom, Jan Ziniewicz, held tight to their lead ropes as incendiary bombs exploded around them.  

Ofirka and the other mares, as well as their foals and young stock, spent the night on the road outside Dresden, in the driving snow. They were marched through the city the next day. What was left of Janow’s horses trekked to Tornau, and then to Holstein, where they stayed until the fall of 1946. That year, the horses finally returned to Janow, where the stud began a new chapter in its Arabian breeding program, in which Ofirka would play an important role.

Roman Pankiewicz, former manager of Poland’s Albigowa Stud, wrote this about Ofirka: “[She] was small (probably as a result of her wartime rearing), but had a strikingly handsome head and great refinement. Her spectacular Arabian type and golden-bay colour clearly showed the stamp of her sire, the celebrated Ofir.” Ofirka’s great-granddaughter Rose is herself a bay of a particularly golden hue, especially in the summertime.

But back to NPR and cleaning stalls. One weekend, I was cleaning Rose’s stall a bit later than usual, so I caught a show I don’t normally hear, Ask Me Another. Listening to the show's hosts, including Ophira Eisenberg, I wondered, what kind of name is Ophira, anyway? And does it have anything to do with Ofir and Ofirka? After a bit of research, I can say that the answer is a qualified yes. The name Ophira is related to the Biblical place name Ophir, known as place of riches; there are said to be several references in the Bible to “the gold of Ophir.” In addition, the translation of the Polish name Ofir is, not surprisingly, Ophir. Was the name of Ofirka’s father a play on words? For a stallion as golden as Ofir, the name makes eminent sense. After all, the Poles surely know the Gypsy expression that a horseman’s gold does not clink and glitter; it gleams in the sun and neighs in the dark. It also, I might add, needs its stall cleaned every day, preferably while listening to NPR.