Davenport’s first Arabian (in his ownership by 1899) was sold to Henry Schumacher who “rechristened” him Nasir Khosran and recounted impressive performance feats by him. His registration was canceled before the publication of the 1918 studbook, perhaps in error when his death was reported. Homer notoriously could not copy his own drawings, but he shows here he could draw from a photo.
*Nejdme, far left, was accounted the best individual of the Hamidie imports; she was owned for most of her career by J.A.P. Ramsdell and recurs widely in pedigrees. When the Arabian Horse Club was founded, the registration numbers 1 and 2 were assigned to Hamidie imports.
Among Homer’s first few Arabians was Nanshan (*Garaveen x *Nejdme), center. Her five registered offspring include the widely influential *El Bulad daughter Dahura.
At the end of her life Ramsdell gave *Nedjme to Homer, and she produced one last foal, Jerrede, right, by *Euphrates, in pedigrees through three daughters.
Only five of the Hamidie horses were eventually registered with the Arabian Horse Club. *Galfia produced for Peter Bradley and four of her offspring were owned by Homer Davenport.
*Mannaky (the Hamidie Company had fallen on hard times between the dates of these pictures) sired two offspring that came to be registered; both Mannaky Jr and Zitra are widespread ancestors of modern Arabians. This extract from a 1901 Hingham sale catalogue indicates *Mannaky was not living by that date.
Halool was accounted the best of the Hamidie stallions, and was another of the horses bought at the auction for Peter B Bradley. He was used for cross breeding to produce polo prospects; his only known get from an Arabian mare was not registered and left no progeny. This is likely why Halool was not entered in the Arabian stud book at the time *Mannaky, *Galfia, Mannaky Jr and *Pride were being registered to complete the pedigrees of Sheba and ZItra.
Mannaky Jr sired just two registered foals; this picture must have been taken in the fall of 1906, and his skeleton was presented to the natural history museum in May 1907.
Halool Jr was among the horses exhibited at Homer Davenport’s Farm for the 1905 Lewis and Clarke exposition, but it appears he did not live much longer since he is not listed in Homer’s 1906-07 catalogue of the World’s Fair horses.
*Galfia was reported covered by Kibaby (left) in her auction listing; she foaled a filly in Albany NY on the way from Chicago to Massachusetts. A news item refers to the foal as “Albani” for her birthplace. *Pride has to be somebody, and this is a Hamidie female in Bradley’s possession, so it seems probable that “Albani” was later known as “Dawn” and eventually registered as *Pride. The fact that *Pride was bred to Mannaky Jr to produce Sheba might be instanced as evidence that she was not his half sister—but Mannaky Jr was later bred to his full sister Zitra, resulting in the 1907 colt Manakey.
On the right is a broodmare from Hingham Stock Farm. The image has been published as *Werdi, who definitely had a hind stocking, and as *Haffia. A case can be made that this has a look of *Galfia, Zitra and Sheba. Bradley did breed some Arabians which were not registered, so the question may never be satisfactorily resolved.
Sheba was one of a group of horses sold by Davenport to the California playwright Eleanor Gates in 1908. Of her eight registered foals, her sons Nejdran Jr and El Jafil are widespread in international pedigrees, and each is his sire’s only source of descent.
Zitra was foaled in 1898 and produced for both her breeder Peter Bradley and for Homer Davenport. In 1906 Homer wrote of her that “no finer type has been produced in America.” She is shown with her last foal, a 1914 filly by Maleik.
We now understand that Homer Davenport was dyslexic, and had problems with the names Obeyran and Abeyan. He loved telling the story of “the mare of the cloak,” but it is clear from the wording of his Lewis and Clarke brochure that in 1905 he knew of only one grey Hamidie stallion.
*Obeyran sired a few foals in New England before he, too, went to Eleanor Gates. He has descent from two daughters. Aared from *Wadduda, lower right, was exported to Japan but left the widely influential *Hamrah daughter Sedjur, dam line of Bint Sahara and of the Second Foundation Davenport mare Sahanad.
News interviews with Homer in 1905 indicate *Obeyran had been the lead horse in the 1893 parade described in the first slide.
The old horse was a celebrity; his death was reported literally coast to coast.
“Frieda” appears in the Davenport catalogue of World’s Fair Arabians, but produced only for Bradley before 1918. She is shown age eight and eleven with Hingham foals by *Deyr and Maleik.
Obeyran II, bred by Davenport, is named Hamdani in the World’s Fair catalogue, reflecting Homer’s new understanding that Arabian strain names were transmitted by the dam. He was raced under that name, and also went to Eleanor Gates.
At left, in 1929 with her first foal Schilan by Antez; right, “on the way to the Rose Parade” in 1928 (a tassel on the bridle partially covers her face marking); upper right, champion Arabian mare, Los Angeles County Fair 1928. Schilla produced five foals and has descent through two of them.
Farhan, shown with a filly by Aabazem, was the only registered offspring of Miriz, but she was the foundation mare of the Donald Jones program, produced 13 foals, and is widespread in modern Arabians (though not straight Davenports).
Freda is not the registered dam of Miriz and Schilla. Mitochondrial DNA studies have shown that the Arabian horses registered to the family of *Saleefy do not match the descendants of *Urfah’s daughters Rhua and Sheria, while those mares’ lines do match the registered descent from Freda.
The most straightforward explanation of this double finding is that Freda and *Saleefy had their identities switched at or before the time they were shipped across the country from Hingham Stock Farm to the Diamond Bar Ranch in late 1918 or early 1919.
They were brown mares with minimal markings, four years apart in age; both would have been “smooth mouthed” at the time of travel. Their pictures show their overall resemblance, and they arrived in California after a long ride in a railroad stock car, suggesting Freda’s one hind coronet might readily have been, well, obscured.
Freda was a granddaughter of the Hamidie import *Galfia, whose strain was Hamdani Simri. We have come to acknowledge that the Davenports descending from Schilla share that strain designation.
Standing watch in 1947 over a herd mate with the latter’s first foal; Schilan is the main source of this influence in present-day straight Davenport pedigrees.
Schantez sired six registered Arabians from 1938-1945; he has descent through all except for one son, exported to Nicaragua. Some of his straight Davenport collateral relatives resemble him.
Gamil is a breed wide influence; she is in the straight Davenports through her sons Abuhanad and Ibn Hanad, daughters Antan and Maedae.
Shaiba was less prolific, but her daughter Schada produced Kamil Ibn Salan.
