CHARIOT FARM

Reading Raswan

From:
Davenport Arabs
By Carl R. Raswan
Western Horseman July/Aug '42
"Truly the possession of noble horses enobles man"
(Arabian Proverb)

*Haleb AHC 25 (a Maneghi Sbeyl by Shoeman Sbah)

ANOTHER ONE of Homer Davenport's Arabians was Haleb, whose parents were a combination of the Shuwayman strain (known for strength and beauty) and his dam of the Mu'niqi-Sbaili (fast, but not so angular as the Mu'niqi-Hadruj). (The Sbaili are more handsome too.) Strength, beauty and speed were qualities which had created Justin Morgan's fame in his time, making the ideal combination horse of greatest utility and all-purpose. Haleb was a horse of this Morgan type. He was first shown to Homer Davenport in the palace grounds of Nazim Pasha, Governor of Aleppo on the sixth day of August 1906. Haleb was of such fame that "Town-Arabs" like Prince Rashid of Hayil and Emir of Riyad who were not fanatic "Purists" (breeders of one particular pure strain) but just horse-fanciers who liked a good horse, sent from the distant south their mares under special convoy to Syria to breed to Haleb.

Haleb originally was born among the Saba' tribe and presented as a token of appreciation to Turkish Governor of Syria who had shown unusual fairness in dealing with the children of the desert.

DAVENPORT rode his priceless horse over two hundred mikles from Aleppo into the desert to meet the people who had raised Haleb. The tribesmen gathered from all ends of the wilderness to pay tribute to the horse that had been honored by both rulers of Arabia and the Turkish Governor of Syria. The Bedouins bowed down to the ground as they bade farewell to their beloved steed. Some cried, men of the desert, unashamed, who did not hold back their tears.

ON JUNE 17, 1907, Haleb (a seal brown without a white hair), won first prize in the Justin Morgan class at the Rutland, Vermont, horse show, competing with and winning over the best Morgans on their own home grounds. Haleb was conceded to be the most remarkable horse. Horse breeders considered him "the salvation of the Morgan breed". But tragedy was soon to follow on the heels of this historical event. With the Justin Morgan cup his prized possession, Homer Davenport lost his invaluable horse. A few days later Haleb died -- supposedly poisoned.


Haleb's pedigree, which Homer Davenport brought from Arabia with his famous horse.

TRANSLATION:

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL ALLAH: Praise be to Allah, the Lord of the Universe, and prayers and greetings upon our Master Muhammad, and upon all his family and his followers.

God, the All-High, has said in his cherished Book: By those which run swiftly with a panting noise, and which strike fire, and which make an incursion in the morning, raising a cloud of dust and piercing the ranks of a host."Also, Ali, may God bathe his face with Glory, has said: Plenty is knotted to the horse's manes.": He has also said: "(On) Their backs are splendor and (in) their wombs are treasure." And now: The pure brown stallion who is devoid of white and whose age is five years, going on his sixth, is a MANAKHY SABILY. His sire is a SHUWAYIMAN SABBAH, who breeds pure and exclusive, and is consequently free of all defects. -- and we have not testified except to what we have known, and we are incognizant of the unknown. -- written the 25th of HAMADA, the last, 1324 (HEGIRA) and the 15th of August, 1906 A.D.

(Signed) Ahmad Hafiz (Signed) Sheikh el-Bukhamis Ali Al-Rashid (Signed) Kaimakam Hagim Bey Menhad

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