Perhaps it is just another proof that some people can stretch the Arabian both ways ("honey child," or "you so-and-so," either said with sugar or whip and spurs) and the poor horse comes right back (when it is all over) to its natural self, like a good rubber band. Some people try to do that with us (generally good natured) horsemen and women, too, but some of us, when we get pulled both ways, snap right back.

By the way, our good friend Homer Davenport was a "Voice from the Northwest," too. He came from good old Oregon and never was satisfied (like you) unless he got things straight and learned the truth and nothing but the truth!

Now, to answer your questions, partner, I want you to look up page 37 in the same issue of THE WESTERN HORSEMAN (also the picture heading this article) and meditate a while on that little horse "Rifage" (819 pounds. Man and equipment weigh 268 pounds!) standing there after seven hours of riding. Yes, he had to go home to the barn near Nederland, Colo., too, which meant four hours downhill all the time and which is often harder than going up. I know this well from riding Arabians in your Three Finger Jack mountain range in Oregon, too.

Well, there he stands, little "Rifage," in a mountain meadow surrounded by jagged peaks. Many times (I am sure more than three score and ten in four years) I stopped on the very same spot. It is only 12,200 feet altitude, according to the U.S. government survey marker on that meadow, and 800 feet more to the base of Arapahoe peak, where we always ate our lunch, unless the "camp robbers" (jays) snatched the sandwiches and cold chicken from our hands.

I never walked up there on my own lily-white feet, but I always used an Arabian stud horse or brood mare to cut out dry cows, or chase an ornery bull up and down an dsideways on that steep slope on the Arapahoe and Sawtooth range. Most times I went up there with a bunch of gentle cows, but often with a wild herd of Chicago bankers and lift boys from Denver, stenographers, F.B.I. men, rice growers, bean bosses, and their assorted wives and entourages. All of them (from nine to thirty people) mounted on purebred registered Arabian horses. I still say that those Arabians in the Rockies have it as tough (or more so) than the others I knew on some of the raids I shared with the Bedouins of the desert.

Cow work in that Colorado altitude is just plain work and the horse takes the hind-end of the hard work. Not only some of the men, but many of the dieting cow girls from various big cities of the Union hit the saddle with 200 to 220 pounds behind them. Yes, my friend, dry cows were not the only trouble Arabians have in Colorado, and you see now that our Arabian horses in America are working (at least a lot of them).

Don't forget, though, that the Arabian is primarily bred in America to establish a fountain head of his blood, before it is too late. The Arabian is actually dying out outside Arabia and elsewhere, except in America. Furture generations will be either grateful to us, or they will desperately cry for Arabian blood because the Arabian is the last original horse (like a wild horse) left to us in this world to breed from. With him we can create all kinds of saddle and harness horses, or re-infuse in our already established types those good qualities which you and I like the most: speed, endurance, staying power, courage, intelligence, gentleness. You know it takes muscle and brain for any horse to do the job you want him to do.

Some are too "leggy," others have no sense, some are too awkward and not surefooted, others lack the "guts," and so goes it along the line. The Arabian may not always be just the horse fo ra particular work or purpose. Our ancestors developed specialized breeds for that: the Quarter Horse, for example, (I don't have to tell you what he is good for), the Thoroughbred for racing, the American Saddlebred for the show ring, the Morgan (perhaps the best all-around work and pleasure horse in America), but the Arabian has originally been the foundation sire for these various types of horses (all light saddle and harness horses).

You can proceed to do the same thing today: take, for example, a Shire mare (2,000 pounds and more), breed her to an Arabian and you get a 1,400- or 1,500-pound horse, a light-heavy weight work horse, but not yet a saddle horse. If this half-bred happens to be a filly and you breed this filly to an Arabian stallion, you get a first class saddle horse, weighing about 1,100 pounds, bigger an dheavier than an Arabian, but just as tough and intelligent as you ever rode. You can do even better if you start with a Percheron mare and breed her to an Arabian (and the half-bred filly thus produced also to an Arabian).

You see now why some of us try to save Arabians and talk a lot about their pedigrees. We have to if we want to get at the bottom of the best blood and eliminate the culls, even if we have to stick our own neck out once in a while.

Well, partner, I must close our little chat, but you'll find out htat there are many different reasons why we like Arabians, also why we use them and why we save them, also why we have touble with them, too.

THE END

Jan-Feb '46: Letters from Riders

Vive la Raswan!

WESTERN HORSEMAN:

I have a filly that will be four in May. Every horse in her pedigree happens to be of Davenport importation source, and she is one of the nicest fillies I have yet seen. I don't claim her to be the nicest I have ever seen, but I think she's a credit to Davenport's reputation. I bought three fillies in 1943, and of the three the "pure"Davenport one is the only one I intend to keep.

CARL RASWAN,

WESTERN HORSEMAN:

When Lady Wentworth came out in her recent book condemning practically all American Arabians I was glad to see you take up the challenge and answer it so effectively. Among my twenty-nine head of Arabians I have some with mostly Davenport blood and some with mostly Crabbet blood. If I had to make a choice between the two it would be those with Davenport blood.

WESTERN HORSEMAN:

I congratulate you on your challenge to Lady Wentworth...This challenges me also as I own Kohkle, the daughter of Farha. She is still a magnificent white mare at the age of 27 years. We still ride her daily. [Ed. Note: Kohkle's descendants are still found among today's straight Davenports.]

WESTERN HORSEMAN:

Was glad to see where you stood up for the American Arabians in the last issue of WESTERN HORSEMAN, but can't understand Lady Wentworth's ill-chosen statements.

• (Editor's Note: An answer by Lady Wentworth to Mr. Raswan's Nov.-Dec.. 1945, article "Davenport Vs Blunt Arabians" appears on Page 42 of this issue).

A "Beef" on Arabians

WESTERN HORSEMAN:

In my estimation, your last issue (Nov.-Dec., 1945), is the best you have brought forth....I have a "beef"on all this Arabian business, though. Why don't we get some articles by people who are doing something with them besides looking up their pedigrees. Is there anyone who uses them or are they all house pets? Those pedigrees won't turn many cows or carry a man over much ground. I've seen and read enough about Arabians to do me many a moon -- let's see some good Quarter Horse yarns for a change....

Did you ever see a contest roper mounted on an Arabian? He has to pay out an entrance fee to get in the pitchin' and his mount is a good fifty per cent of his chances in getting that fee back. Did you ever see a top cutest roper mounted on an Arabian? All the Arabian breeders I have met or talked with have been raising horses as a hobby or pastime. Perhaps they are all right in this category but whenever they start telling what great working horses they are and how much superior they are to the other breeds, they are treading on the toes of us boys who have to work for our money.

Chariot Farms

Davenports: Articles of History

CMK Pages

The Heirloom Pages

The Pasha Institute

Al Khamsa, Inc.

Arabian Visions'

Archives

Publications