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Carleton Cummings holding the weanlings Antezeyn Skowronek and Abu Farwa's Rawia, both by Abu Farwa. Rawia, called by Cummings "the Queen of Diamonds" for her three diamond star, strip and snip, carried two generations of children to show ring victories, the last at age 17 when she was named champion mare of the Pacific National Exposition in Vancouver, B.C., shown by an eight-year-old boy. |
| Like
many kids looking for their first Arabian horse in the 1950's and early
1960's -- kids perhaps from less than affluent families and looking to
make their dreams of owning an Arabian horse come true -- I first heard
of Carleton Cummings after reading about his Skyline Trust Arabians. An
article by H. H. Reese stated that Cummings had "developed his
Arabian horse breeding program with the purpose of assisting boys and girls
who like horses to secure good specimens of the breed on a partnership
basis." Reese's article described Cummings's "lend lease"
program whereby youngsters could lease a mare, breed her and then, after
the birth of the foal, return either the mare or the foal. To an imaginative
11-year-old, this sounded like just the ticket. I wrote a letter to Cummings.
Having read H.H.Reese's Kellogg Arabians a hundred times, I had
pictured in my mind's eye the Arabian horse I wanted to own. I described
this horse to Cummings in the first letter. Cummings replied with a post
card. He stated he had about 2500 letters on his desk from youngsters across
the country. If I was still interested, I was to write him again. I wrote
Cummings that very day and so began a correspondence of some two years
which culminated in buying half interest in a weanling colt, Skowronek's
Antez, with my own savings in 1962. Cummings wrote the following spring
that "few breeders ever get colts of this quality and even fewer
ever offer them for sale." Nevertheless, he was giving me the
opportunity to buy out his interest in the now yearling colt. I took Cummings
up on his offer. It was a purchase I was never to regret. Within a few
weeks Cummings died of a heart attack.
Cummings's background outside the sphere of Arabian horses was in music. He had been an operatic tenor of some notoriety in the east. He later turned to teaching as professor of music at Wake Forest College and later as the head of the music department at the University of Idaho. Cummings's wife, Theresa, had been a drama major in college where they met. After their marriage and graduation, they traveled to Army posts doing music and drama presentations during World War I. |
| Cummings's
background in music and theatre suited a personality that tended toward
the theatrical, and a soul that was flamed by the same qualities in Arabian
horses. His love for the dramatic carried over to the horses he purchased
and bred and the ways he talked about them. However, his flowery descriptions
were no means an exaggeration of the splendid group of horses he assembled.
His initial purchased in 1945 was the four-year-old Kellogg-bred Direyn (*Raseyn x Ferdirah). Cummings rode in a boxcar with Direyn the entire trip from Pomona, California to Moscow, Idaho. Cummings was to become part of "the Reese circle of breeders." Reese, having left the Kellogg Ranch as manager by then, and with a ranch of his own, continued in an influential role in the early Arabian horse community. Cummings's later purchases were from Reese himself, from that circle of cooperative breeders like the McKenna brothers, and from the Kellogg Ranch. Cummings's notable purchase outside this circle was Rifala's Lami (Geym x Maatiga, by Image) from Roger Selby in 1954. She was to become one of his most influential foundation mares.
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| In 1949, Cummings purchased the weanling Abu Farwa son Antezeyn Skowronek (x Sharifa, by Antez out of Ferdith, by Ferseyn). He became Cummings's head sire. His progeny earned him a reputation as the third ranking son of Abu Farwa in the list of leading sires of show champions -- with many fewer foals on the ground than the first two ranking Abu Farwa sons. Antezeyn Skowronek ranked first of the Abu Farwa sons on another of Gladys Brown Edwards's lists: Abu Farwa sons whose own sons had sired show champions. Cummings himself claimed that for a three year period Antezeyn Skowronek had sired more ribbon winners than any sire of any breed. This was entirely possible since his progeny were in the hands of an army of horse-crazy, show-happy kids who would take their Skyline charges to every local show, weekend after weekend, entering dozens of classes in every division from halter to three-gaited to gymkhana events -- and winning. These Antezeyn Skowronek offspring were notable not just for their quality and sheer beauty. And their successes were not limited to the competition of local shows. In 1958, the Pauley girls took their young Antezeyn Skowronek daughter, Khatum Tamarette, on the road, first to Estes Park, Colorado, to take 1959 U.S.Top Ten Mare; then to Yakima, Washington, to win Pacific Northwest Champion mare; and finally to Calgary to win a Top Ten at halter. These victories, which Cummings later described as no small feat of endurance for a young mare, earned her the Legion of Merit, one of the first mares to earn this award. |
| Cummings's
band of foundation mares numbered at 16. He selected these mares to complement
Antezeyn Skowronek, but each was chosen on her own merits. Four of his
mares were daughters of Ferseyn, taking Reese's lead to cross Ferseyn daughters
with Abu Farwa, and Abu Farwa daughters with Ferseyn, an idea which echoed
Lady Wentworth's earlier cross of Skowronek and Blunt lines. Cummings purchased
the Farnasa daughter Anazeh's Nijm from the Kellogg Ranch, in partnership
with one of his protegées, Mary Hall. Anazeh's Nijm was bred to
Ferseyn prior to shipping her home. The resulting foal was the chestnut
colt Ferseyn's Rasim, whom Cummings traded Mary for full interest for his
interest in the mare. Ferseyn's Rasim became Cummings's junior sire and
proved himself an excellent cross on Antezeyn Skowronek daughters as well
as on Skyline foundation mares. Two of Cummings's foundation mars were
daughters of the Antez son Gezan, a popular southern California sire of
the early 1950's. Antezeyn Skowronek himself was a grandson of Antez, a
Kellogg sire of 100% Davenport breeding who ended an international career
as a successful sire himself at the Reese ranch. The Davenport influence
was an important presence in the Cummings breeding program.
Cummings was a somewhat controversial figure and outside his band of young, loyal protegées, he was not always well liked. He did not seem to care, and used to say "It doesn't matter what people say as long as they keep talking about you." This advice must have harkened back to the days when he performed on stage. Cummings was outspoken and did not mind stating his opinions while sitting in the stands at a horse show. If sitting on the same side of the arena as Cummings, everyone got to hear his opinions, which sometimes referred to the horses in the ring, whether they wanted to hear them or not. It was a little embarrassing for the youngster such as I who was sitting at his side. Cummings also made enemies of a few breeders who had horses for sale at fancy prices. Cummings's kids sometimes beat these breeders in the show ring with horses leased from Cummings or sold by Cummings at bargain basement prices. And the parents of competing kids must have sitting in the stands bored stiff watching the Skyline horses entering, and often winning, class after class. |
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| Cummings was not in the habit of getting things down on paper and
sometimes made agreements or promises he did not remember. After his death,
his daughter inherited his estate, which included the horses. I told her
Cummings had promised Wafa El Shammar to me to breed to my colt. His daughter
told me six other people had written to tell her Cummings had promised
this mare to them. (I did get Wafa El Shammar, who became my foundation
mare.)
Despite these discrepancies, Cummings was a real horseman and a genius as a breeder. Th horses he selected and bred from were outstanding for their "tangible as well as intangible qualities." Most of his horses were mounts and companions for youngsters. Few of the horses were ever trained or shown by professionals, but were remarkably successful nevertheless. As breeding horses, they were notable for their ability to consistently produce first rate stock. Cummings's advertising slogan "Home of beautiful heads and great performance horses" was an accurate description of the Skyline Arabians, as was another of his slogans, "bred for and born with spectacular action." Cummings admired the Crabbet-bred Naseem for his exceptional beauty above all other ancestor horses, and the Crabbet-bred *Berk for his spectacular action. He used to brag about the number of crosses his horses had to those icons of Arabian horse breeding. Cummings also admired *Raffles. He used to say he liked a "touch of *Raffles for beauty" in his horses. His statement no doubt reflected his delight with the foals of Rifala's Lami, especially the Antezeyn Skowronek son Rifala's Naseem. Cummings described Rifala's Naseem as a "peacock of horses" and "well worth traveling 10,000 miles to see him." From his pedigrees-in-a-name (another of Cummings's idiosyncrasies) his pride in these particular ancestors of Rifala's Naseem is obvious. Perhaps most important of all, Cummings provided an opportunity for kids to have their dreams come true -- not just to own an Arabian horse, but to own a good one. Cummings stressed hard work and responsibility to these youngsters, but his often heard advice was "to dream big." See also: Return to: Table of Contents |
| (Ad recreated from the one appearing with 1995
Skyline Trust article)
CMK PRESERVATION BREEDING
Carlton Cummings would have raved about this filly and he would have recognized his own breeding in her -- 4 crosses to ANTEZEYN SKOWRONEK and tracing to 6 of his Skyline foundation mares. He too would have commented on her 6 crosses to NASEEM whose influence bred down in spades. We are honored to have bred and to own such a filly to carry forward the Skyline type and bloodlines into the 21st century.
|
| (Ad recreated from the one appearing
with 1995 Skyline Trust article)
Having owned ANTEZEYN SKOWRONEK...  ...there really isn't much more one can say... ...except belatedly to thank his breeder, E.J.Boyer (and the guiding spirit H.H.Reese), his long-time owner, Carlton Cummings, who gave him opportunity with those brilliant mares in the Skyline program; the director of his later career, Rick Synowski; and the Illings of Twin Brook Farm who entrusted the old horse to us in Maryland. ANTEZEYN left us just one representative, his lovely feminine daughter ENCHANTED GOLD, from the Lewisfield mare MOSTLY MAGIC. See the Skyline descendants' photo feature for ENCHANTED and two of her offspring, CROWN OF GOLD by GALAN, making a good start as a sire at Hill House Arabians in Lincoln CA, and our own filly GOLD AND SPICES by ABU ZANZABAR. Both these youngsters are linebred ABU FARWA and CROWN traces in 50% of his pedigree to the classic Reese blend of ABU FARWA with ANTEZ. MAGIC GOLD (Zadaran x Enchanted Gold) is one of the promising young geldings we currently offer for sale; he is rising four, has been ground worked and is ready to start. Five CMK stallions at stud (shipped semen available; filly consideration on the Sweepstakes sires). Neziah+ 85494 15 hh br 1972 (Galah x Nalysa by Ayf) book closed Cantador 273930 15 hh ch 1983 (Kimfa x Auralu by Aurab) *Seffer 318071 15 hh ch 1983 (Prince Saraph x Sa'lilah by Silver Flame) Sweepstakes Najih 337363 15:2 hh br 1985 (Ben Rabba ++/ x Narah bint Neziah) Sweepstakes Zadaran 393353 14:2 hh b 1987 (Aurtal x Razya by Zadir) Abu Zanzabar 437396 15 hh ch 1989 (Abu Malacar x Zanobiyah by Brendan) Call or write for pedigrees and our stallion video, or come visit when things are a bit drier. Michael, Ann and Lydia Bowling; Claire Bowen Trommershausen |
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