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[Author's Note: in the folowing article, Al Khamsa horses are printed in capital letters, e.g. ARABESQUE, LADY FAIR. Those Davenports known as the "Second Foundation" horses have their names bold-faced as well, e.g. TRIPOLI, DHAREBAH.]
PART ONE: BEGINNINGS
The first Arabian horse registered as being bred by Charles C.Craver III is the 1955 bay mare Byzantia. She was sired by Garaff, a part-Davenport son of *Raffles, out of ARABESQUE (ROUF x KOREISH), a 1949 mixed-source Hamdani-Simri bred by C.A.West. That same year Charles acquired TRIPOLI (HANAD X POKA) and the rest, as they say, is history. But first, an introduction... Charles grew up in Kansas City, Mo, and horses entered his life at an early age. Jerry the pinto pony gave rides at a local park and Bertha and Chuck Craver agreed to care for him one winter so their son Charles could continue to enjoy him year round. A few weeks before Christmas the pony-ride proprietor informed the Cravers that he had made a deal to sell his ponies but was giving first refusal to the care-taking families. After all, it was Christmas. One assumes he sold a lot of ponies. He certainly sold Jerry to the Cravers. All growing horsemen need mentors and Charles' was "Pop" Boyer, the neighbor and friend who began by stabling jerry and continued to help with advice and stall room well into the Arabian years. Pop's teachngs are clearly reflected in the no-nonsense, low-key way in Charles handles his large herd keeping them healthy, happy and under control with a modest amount of outside help and no fancy equipment. In due course Charles went to Culver Military Academy, as his father had before him, and from there to Swarthmore. With the war his parents had also come East, moving to Chevy Chase, MD, since Chuck was now selling War bonds in Washington. Jerry the pony had been sadly left behind but another horse was soon to join the Craver family, and this one was an Arabian. Charles had been intrigued by a magazine article about C.A.West's horses, and as a result he and his parents went to see them one holiday while Charles was still in college. A bay colt leading the pack caught their eye and soon a deal had been struck to buy Indkerage (Indrage by *MIRAGE x Kerak). Since Inky still had some growing to do, he was sent back to Pop Boyer's for a few years. When he returned, his style and beauty took him successfully into the local show world, and the Craver family was drawn into the developing Arabian horse community. Family photographs of Chuck, Bertha and Inky on the front lawn in Chevy Chase give some hint of the enjoyment Charle's parents drived from their first Arabian stallion. They became founder members of the new Arabian Horse Club which claimed members up and down the coast and as far west as Ohio. In the finest tradition of volunteer organizations, Bertha Craver was voted secretary at one of the few meetings she missed. She and her husband remained quite active in the growing Arabian horse world while their son completed college and went into the Navy. While serving in the Navy, Charles used his West Coast travel opportunities to visit Arabian breeders of long-standing and see their horses. He took a movie camera with him, and in the Craver archives are many precious feet showing great horses of the period, photographed in California as well as in the mid-west and mid-Atlantic states: *Raffles, *Sulejman, *FADL, Aaraf to name a few. Alice Payne (whose son Pat bred TRIPOLI) was particularly inspiring with her collection of wonderful old bloodlines and her unswerving devotion to her beloved horses. Some of America's finest early Arabians spent their last days in peace and comfort at Alice Payne's Asil Arabians after being discarded by such places as Kellogg's. Another inspiring collection of horses were Jimmy Wrench's mares. Davenport and Davenport-related. (Wrench was the breeder of the "Second Foundation" mares DHANAD and SARANAH. Out of the Navy, Charles decided to move to Illinois where his family owned farmland as the result of his grandfather's land speculation in the early years of the century. In 1955 TRIPOLI (who had been sold when Pat Payne went into the Service) was found by Charles in California. He also located and began acquiring as many of the other twenty or so straight Davenports then alive as he could. TRIPOLI's first Al Khamsa foals were born in 1957: TIZZY (out of ARABESQUE) and the straight Davenport stallion ARAMIS (out of DHALANA) *****
In 1956 Charles acquired DHAREBAH (DHAREB X ANTARAH) and DHALANA (SALAN X DHARANAH) and in 1957 DHAREBAH'S full sister DHARANAH, DHALANA's dam. By 1959 these three mares bred to TRIPOLI had produced the stallions ARAMIS, OBERON, SIR and PRINCE HAL as well as the mares ALASKA, PORTIA and FAIRY QUEEN, all influential animals. Thus in a few short years a viable nucleus of Davenport breeding had been extablished at Craver Farms. There was another important breeding to TRIPOLI at this time: the mare EHWAT-ANSARLAH who foaled to TRIPOLI in 1958 and 1959, the mare TRISARLAH and the stallion TRIAN. EHWAT-ANSARLAH is the "Second Foundation" progenitrix of the Hadban-Inzihi strain. Her owner Liz Paynter made considerable effort to see that her mare bred on within the Davenport context. Paynter was thus the first of many breeders directly supportive of and contributory to the rennaisance of Davenport breeding. To quote from Charles Craver: "Beginning in 1955 the breeding of Davenport Arabian horses was re-established from what was left of 49 years of successful but more or less haphazard reproduction of the bloodlines involved." Of the few straight Davenport horses then alive, sixteen became known as the "Second Foundation". First, The Stallions:
1. TRIPOLI (HANAD x POKA), 1948 Chestnut Saqlawi-Jidran bred by Pat Payne, sired forty-nine Davenport foals at Craver Farms 1957-1978 2. EL ALAMEIN (DHAREB x ANTARAH), a 1943 chestnut Kuhaylan-Haifi, was bred by J.G.MacConnell and exported to Canada. Charles leased him as a aged stallion and sent young PRINCE HAL to take his place. EL ALAMEIN, though old and blind, sired fifteen Davenport foals of highest quality. 1965-68. 3. RALF (KOKHLESON x HALLOUL) was a 1945 grey Hadban-Inzihi. (Please see Pedigree Notes in the 1983 Al Khamsa Arabians for a discussion of HALLOUL's pedigree. In that book, RALF'S strain is listed as Saqlawi in accordance with the Registry.) Reba Troxell in New Jersey, RALF's owner and breeder, leased ALASKA from Charles and bred four Davenport foals 1962-65; of this line only BINT RALF has left Davenport descendents. 4. KAMIL IBN SALAN (SALAN x SCHADA) a 1951 bay Saqlawi-Jidran, was bred by H.B.Beauchamp and came into Fred Mimmack's understanding hands in the mid-1960's. He sired twelve Davenport foals during the 1970's. 5. DHARANTEZ (DHAREB x ANTARAH) a 1947 grey Kuhaylan-Haifi and 6. NAHAS (KASAR x ANLAH) a 1947 chestnut Hadban-Inzihi, were bred by J.G.MacConnell and Hearst Sunical respectively. Their blood was preserved by the Deweys who acquired two Craver-bred mares, SILVIA and TYRANAH in addition to leasing others. As a result DHARANTEZ sired six Davenport foals, (including the influential sire DHARANAD), four bred by Charles and two by his owners. NAHAS sired one foal, BINT NAHAS. KAMIL IBN SALAN
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RALF
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***** The Mares of the "Second Foundation": 1. DHARANAH (DHAREB x ANTARAH) a 1942 grey Kuhaylah-Haifiyah, bred by J.G.MacConnell. Of her seven Davenport foals, two were bred by Jimmy Wrench and one by Sullivan Ranch. Charles Craver bred the other four. Breeding stallions and producing families both descend from her. 2. DHAREBAH (DHAREB x ANTARAH) a 1947 grey Kuhaylah-Haifiyah, bred by J.G.MacConnell. Her ten Davenport foals, all bred by Charles Craver, include six influential full siblings by TRIPOLI, five of whom are still alive and producing. Her influence on the modern Davenport is legendary. 3. DHALANA (SALAN X DHARANAH) a 1950 grey Kuhaylah-Haifiyah, bred by Sullivan Ranch. Her three Davenport sons and two daughters, all bred by Charles Craver, have played a major role in the Davenport renaissance. 4. TARA (SALAN x ANTARAH) a 1950 chestnut Kuhaylah-Haifiyah, bred by Sullivan Ranch, produced twelve foals, of which five mares have established families in modern Davenport breeding. 5. EHWAT-ANSARLAH (KASAR x ANLAH) a 1948 chestnut Hadbah-Inzihiyah was bred by Hearst Sunical and bred by her owner Elizabeth Paynter to TRIPOLI on two occasions. (In 1970 she also produced a colt to PERICLES, bred by Bill Sheets.) What few Hadban-Inzihi Davenports still trace to her through her daughter TRISARLAH. 6. ANTAN (ANTEZ x GAMIL) a 1945 chestnut Saqlawiyah-Jidraniyah, was purchased from Bazy Tankersley in 1958. Charles bred five Davenport fillies from her, three of whom have bred on stongly. (He also bred her to the Doyle stallion SUBANI (GHADAF x IM GULNARE) producing the stallion SUTAN, an Al Khamsa sire-line still in existence today.) 7. ASARA (KASAR x BADIA) a 1949 grey Kuhaylah-Kurush, came to Craver Farms in 1959. Her two sons and three daughters have all bred on strongly, creating the Krush family of contemporary Davenport breeding. 8. MAEDAE (IBN HANAD x GAMIL) a 1952 chestnut Saqlawiyah-Jidraniyah, was bred by Margaret Shuey whose Sunny Acres Farm in N.C.produced many beautiful Davenport and part-Davenport horses. (The exquisite IBN HANAD was also the sire of Tsali who sired Tsatyr, a highly reqarded broodmare sire among today's show breeders.) While belonging to Frank Brewster, MAEDAE was bred to TRIPOLI and to TRIAN. Subsequently she was bought by the Mimmacks and produced three more Davenport foals, for a total of five. Her daughters MAEFAH and MOTH. Have both established important families, while her sons PRINCE HANAD and SIR MARCHEN have also bred on well. 9. DHANAD (HANAD x DHARANAH) a 1948 bay Kuhaylah-Haifiyah and 10. SARANAH (SALAN x DHARANAH) a 1949 bay Kuhaylah-Haifiyah, both bred by Jimmy Wrench, came to Craver Farms in the late 1960's and produced two foals each . Never established families, but each produced a stallion who has had major impact on today's Davenport breeding. Through her son DHARANAD, DHANAD has been paternal granddam to thirty straight Davenports, and through her highly influential son IBN ALAMEIN, SARANAH has been paternal granddam to forty-six...at last count. *****
TARA
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ANTAN
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ASARA
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MAEDAE
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DHANAD
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***** PART THREE: DAVENPORT BREEDING PATTERNS From the above brief sketch of "Second Foundation" horses it can be seen that the renaissance of Davenport breeding involved considerable group effort and cooperation among a number of interested owner-breeders. Craver Farms gave the movement a focal point and a reservoir of bloodlines, but it was never a one-man effort. Today in the 1980's this has become even more true, as interested breeders across the country continue to work with Charles Craver for the continued success of straight Davenport breeding. At present there are fewer than two hundred stallions of straight Davenport breeding; almost one-fourth of these are at Davenport Farms. Of the two hundred fifty or so straight Davenport mares, more than one-third are at Craver Farms. So Charles continues to provide a major resource to Davenport breeders as well as a focus of information, research and generously given time and counsel. But there are now, thanks in large part to his efforts, enough Davenport horses of differing types and strains to allow many smaller breeders the pleasure and challenge of creating their own breeding a programs, based on straight Davenport bloodlines. This diversity, and the challenge it entails, is Charles Craver's greatest gift to others as a breeder, and is in my opinion a far greater triumph of far greater merit than the more popular goal of "consistency". "Consistency". How often one hears those familiar words of praise, "a consistent herd". Breeding programs are founded on consistency, halter showing rewards consistency, the Registry issues a booklet with a drawing of the "ideal" type of Arabian towards which we may all consistently breed. But fashions change. Horses bred consistently to a single aesthetic ideal may be out of style twenty years hence. A herd of horses bred to resemble the Registry's drawing of twenty years ago would not look much like today's halter winner. And if we do know anything about the desert horse of the Bedouin we do know this - it was a horse of highly varied type. As those of us who support Al Khamsa are well aware, there were many strains in the desert and each had its own distinguishing marks. While many of these families have been lost through attrition or too much intermingling, miraculously a few strains do survive, bearing characteristic differences. The G.B.E. drawing of a very tall intermediate Dahman type of horse with a very small head and sweated neck is not the only type of horse to come from the desert, nor should it be the only goal of a breeder. From the very beginning Charles Craver was aware of the need to discover and strengthen the differences hidden with the genes of the "Second Foundation". I am sure that many breeders, given a stallion of TRIPOLI's quality, would simply have collected mares for him and continued to breed him to those mares and to his daughters and granddaughters. But Charles sent the first Davenport mare he bred to New Jersey, for RALF; and he put other stallions into service as they matured and as breeding opportunties became available for them. Thus in the first decade of "Second Foundation" breeding, TRIPOLI sired only one third of the seventy-six foals produced, which is to say twenty- five. RALF sired four, SIR(TRIPOLI xDHAREBAH) sired twenty, ARAMIS (TRIPOLI x DHALANA) sired five, TRIAN (TRIPOLI x EHWAT ANSARLAH) sired one, EL ALAMEIN sired fifteen, TYBALT (TRIPOLI x ASARA) sired three, PORTHOS (ARAMIS x ASARA) sired one and PERICLES (TRIPOLI x DHAREBAH) two. This pattern of always trying to choose the right stallion for each breeding, trying not to play favorites no matter how fine a stallion that favorite is, distinguished Charles Craver's breeding of Davenport horses from the very beginning. All of us who breed Davenport horses have benefitted from Charles Craver's wide-ranging intellectual curiousity, and Charles Craver has for his part benefitted from the extraordinary genetic richness locked within those few closely related animals we call the "Second Foundation". In an introduction to the non-Fasal group, Charles Craver wrote: "...it was feared that certain elements of desirable diversity in the beginning group would be overwhelmed by other elements unless a specific effort was made to safe-guard them. As an answer...it was decided to develop the overall breeding group of Davenport horses by separating it into major pedigree elements and to attempt to develop each of these elements as an independent project in its own right. That way, each element would have the oppoertunity to express its own best characteristics. At the same time, the different routes of development would provide breeding groups in the overall all-Davenport context which were weparate enough from each other genetically so that there would be out-cross effect when they were eventually bred together. (These groups)...are neither better nor worse than other Davenports, but they are different." The diverse groups encouraged by Charles Craver within the context of straight Davenport breeding include conventional strains (e.g. Kuhaylan- Haifi, Saqlawi-Jidran), exclusionary breeding groups (e.g. non-TRIPOLI, non-FASAL) and rare elements groups (e.g.BINT RALF). Each strain could as well be named for its tail-female ancestress, since each descends from a single imported mare. Kuhaylan-Haifi (the family of *RESHAN) is the most populous strain, understandably since six of the ten "Second Foundation" mares were daughters or granddaughters of ANTARAH. Saqlawi-Jidran (the family of *URFAH) is the next largest group, tracing through two "Second Foundation" GAMIL daughters. Kuhaylan-Krush (the family of *WERDI) is smaller, tracing through ASARA's three daughters and Hadban-Inzihi (the family of *HADBA) is the smallest. It should be noted that the effort to preserve the Hadban strain, while supported by Charles Craver, took place outside Craver Farms. Carolyn Case bred TRISARLAH to EL ALAMEIN twice, and it is through the resulting two mares, LETARLAH and WADDARLAH that all modern Davenport Hadbans trace. While inevitably there are many "intermediate" types among the Davenports bred-in-the-strain (and it must be noted that Davenports are freely, and successfully, bred across strain lines as well as within them), there are many Davenport horses today showing marked strain characteristics. This simple fact is highly encouraging for those of us who believe in strain theories, for most modern Davenport horses have what would appear to an outsider's eye, very similar pedigrees. In general, Davenport horses tend to share certain classic desert characteristics: fine skin and hair, large, low-set eyes and shapely ears; large nostrils; moderate size. But the Saqlawis tend to higher head carriage, a different angulation of the hind limbs, and a head with a more prominent jibbah and longer foreface. The Kuhaylans tend to have more of a "three circle" build and their foreheads are often enormously broad, with a greater tendency to be flat. As one would expect, the Kuhaylans tend to be built like sprinters and the Saqlawis like stayers. PART FOUR: A VISIT TO CRAVER FARMS In 1977 I met my first straight Davenport and I bought him in 1978: JANAN ABINOAM (TRIPOLI x DHAREBAH) a 1960 grey stallion, full brother to SIR, PRINCE HAL, LADY GREY, PERICLES and LADY FAIR. I entered into a casual correspondence with the Cravers at this time, but in my heart I was suspicious of things like "strains" and "Al Khamsa", though I very much enjoyed Charles' films and informative letters. I had a nice herd of Arabians of my own breeding and in this context JANAN ABINOAM bred on well, in addition to being a delightful mount (and winning dressage competitor, dispite his age). Then in 1982 JANAN ABINOAM underwent surgery for colic. I suddenly faced the prospect of losing him, with no replacement in sight. As soon as he was safely home from the hospital I made my first visit to Craver Farms. A mid-western farm in late November -- a herd of horses in winter fur, throwing up clumps of frozen mud as they dash about -- these are not the seductive images that have led so many to become Arabian horse owners. There was no red sawdust, no cloud machine, no baby oil, no flowers - there wasn't even a hint of a brush or curry comb. But the horses were round, healthy and lovely, with beautiful faces and exciting movement,a and the hospitality was unmatched. At last I understood that JANAN ABINOAM, much as I loved him, was not a miracle but the product of an established breeding program. I saw Saklawis that could only be Saklawis and I saw Kuhaylans that could only be Kuhaylans. I bought four Davenports and have been hooked ever since. Although most of Charles' breeding program was established during the long years he lived alone, it would be hard now to separate him and Jeanne, even for purposes of discussion. (Jeanne has managed to maintain her own horses and her own Al Khamsa breeding program, under the name of Thornhill Arabians. Inevitably, however, there has been a Davenport influence there as well.) For more than ten years the two of them worked together on every aspect of Davenport breeding. The herd's physical maintenance, feeding and watering, immunizations, injuries, diseases, geriatric care, breeding and foaling; the everyday unceasing needs of nearly 150 horses rest on Charles and Jeanne. In addition there is publicity, advertising, photographs, record-keeping and research. There is a large correspondence, constant visitors and frequent telephone calls. (Fortunately there have been no recent repeats of the complete evacuation necessitated by flood-warnings in the early 1980's) Despite the long days and constant round of chores Charles and Jeanne have continued to examine and research the Davenport horse, on paper and in fact. Charles' mother Bertha Craver is still supportive dispite the transformation of her neat modern cellar into an Equine Catacombs. There are arrayed the skulls of TRIPOLI, EL ALAMEIN, DHAREBAH and so many others. (Gifts from other breeders include a generous presentation from Richard Pritzlaff, the skulls of *RASHAD IBN NAZEER, and *BINT MONIET EL NEFOUS.) The skulls are measured and recorded and their differences studied. One of many interesting observations is the physical differences between the skulls of highheaded horses and those with more moderate carriage. In many cases the angle at which the cervical vertebrae enter the back of the skull can be seen to be dictated by skeletal conformation. (An observation which makes one begin to question the wisdom of trying too hard to change an animal's natural way of going.) The skulls also clearly show how much of the expressive difference between individual horses is the result of soft-tissue formation and can hardly be observed in the skeleton: for example, apparently big eyes and apparently small eyes may lie above skull openings of similar size. Despite the many calls on their time and attention, the Cravers are unfailingly hospitable and generous with their time and experience. If Jeanne is successful in her current campaign to bring the Craver herd down to a manageable size - ideally under one hundred -- they may be able to spend more time in writing and sharing their observations, as well as in continued research, though they are unlikely ever to be free of the apparently welcome burden of constant visitors. I have to admit I look forward greatly to my next visit. The Cravers add as much to the human Arbian community as Davenport horses do to the equine Arabian community: both are major contributions. copyright 1987 Joyce Gregorian Hampshire (With special thanks to R.J.Cadranell II for his assistance and for the research contained in Davenport Desert Arabian Herdbook. Any errors of fact are mine alone.) Return to: Craver Chronicles |
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