Pep, the Arabian Horse Goodwill Ambassador

There are untold snippets of equine history waiting for us to find them, so I run a quick daily search on auction websites for clues about Southern California's horsey past. My search was rewarded recently when I found this small snapshot of a horse

 with an envelope, in an auction listing. 

The envelope was the clue to the horse's identity, because the printed return address reads:

W.K .KELLOGG ARABIAN HORSE RANCH

POMONA, CALIFORNIA

I've seen that heading before. There are examples of it in the collection of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona. I believe that the letterhead paper that went with the envelope, featured a drawing of the Kellogg stallion *NASIK in the foreground, with a background of the San Gabriel Mountains and fluffy clouds surrounding the horse like a full-body halo.  The typeface is the same: rather narrow capital letters. 

Source: W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library collection

Knowing from the landscape in the photo and the envelope that the horse in my small photograph was probably a Kellogg Arabian, and that the envelope probably came from the late 1920s to mid-1930s, I started comparing the image to other pictures of the Kellogg Arabians from the Ranch's heyday. Then I scanned the photo and envelope, and sent the images to some equine history researchers I know who could tell me for sure if my hunch about the horse's identity was correct.

*** *** *** 

While I waited for the researchers' answers, just for fun, I ran the horse photo through Google Lens, a search function driven by Artificial Intelligence. Remember, the old photo clearly shows that the horse had a wide white blaze and four stockings. 

It's important to remember that machines are only as accurate as the information they have been given, or are allowed to use. So while AI can be helpful in some cases, it certainly does not yet know how to correctly identify Arabian horses. I ran an online search using the same image four times in a row, and AI gave me four different answers:

1) First, it said that the horse in my photo was the Arabian stallion EL NATTALL.

Here's El Nattall. He did not have a wide white blaze and four long white stockings. 

El Nattall. Source: Arabian Stud Book, 1953.

So I ran the search again.

2) AI told me that the horse was in my photo was the Arabian stallion *EL ARABY.

Here's *El Araby. He did not have a wide white blaze and four long white stockings.

Source: All Breed Pedigree

I searched again.

3) Then AI told me the horse was the American Saddlebred stallion SENSATION, the son of Rex Firefly and Ware's Sensation.

Source: Pinterest

Except that the son of Rex Firefly and Ware's Sensation was actually called Sensation Rex. And he did not have a wide white blaze and four long white stockings.

4) In my final search, AI said the horse was the American Saddlebred mare "RWGC GOLDEN FIREFLY BHF."   

Source: Pinterest

Here's Golden Firefly. (The extra letters stood for "Reserve World's Grand Champion" and "Broodmare Hall of Fame." Google may have found this wording in a Facebook post and assumed the letters were part of her name.) She only had three white stockings. 

The moral of the story? You can search, indeed you probably should search online -- but please try to verify the findings with human beings.

You're better off asking a couple of folks who actually know Arabian horse history. My two friends confirmed my educated guess: the horse in the photo was indeed the famous Kellogg Arabian stallion PEP AHR #611. A chestnut horse, foaled in 1927, Pep was the son of two other Kellogg Arabians, the stallion Letan and the mare Fasal.

And as I looked back through my files, it appears that the same photograph had been published in the Los Angeles Times on January 5, 1930! W. K. Kellogg had saved it in a scrapbook, which is in the collection at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library. 

Let's see:

Yep, same image, neatly edited (in a day long before Photoshop) by the Times' staff in the page layout.

Pep was foaled in March 1927 at the Kellogg Ranch. He is pictured here with his dam, Fasal, and W. K. Kellogg himself.  

Source: W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library
(author's photo of image in the WKKAHL collection)

The chestnut colt was named after one of the most popular Kellogg cereals of the day: Pep, made of wheat and bran. The company had introduced it in 1923. 

Like the other Kellogg Arabians, Pep was -- even when young -- a celebrity magnet. Here we see him and Mr. Kellogg (left) with cowboy stuntman and movie star Tom Mix. 

The publicity machine worked both ways: many celebrities photographed at the Kellogg Ranch with the Arabians were also featured in magazine ads for Kellogg's cereals. (That subject is worthy of its own blog post.)

A photo of nine-month-old Pep was featured in this spread in the Pomona Progress-Bulletin published December 31, 1927.

Pep's lead rope is being held by a local Boy Scout.

Pep won first place in his classes at the Orange County Fair and Los Angeles County Fair in 1927, and was Champion Stallion at the 1929 Orange County Fair.

A naturally bright young horse, Pep became a regular feature at the free Sunday Horse Shows at the Kellogg Ranch. A souvenir postcard identifies him as "THE OFFICIAL GREETER AND SHOW HORSE."  He could open a box, remove a handkerchief and give it to trainer J. L. "Lou" Treesh, return the handkerchief to the box, and close the lid. Pep also teetered on a plank, told numbers by pawing with a foreleg, said "yes" or "no" with a nod or a shake of his head, untied knots, and would lie down and then sit up like a dog. 

Source: Author's collection. 

Newspaper accounts show us that Pep headlined a special appearance of several Kellogg Arabians in Whittier, California in 1931.

Whittier News, May 15, 1931

This 1935 newspaper ad promotes one of Pep's last public performances in Southern California, this time at Torley's Grocery Store in Ontario. 

This ad appeared in the November 1, 1935 issue of the Ontario Daily Report newspaper. 

I haven't been able to determine whether Pep actually appeared at the grocery store or not. Either way, he was about to make his exit from the Kellogg Ranch stage; he was for sale. 

In her book The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, Mary Jane Parkinson quotes from an October 1935 letter from Ranch manager Herbert H. Reese:

"Pep received an injury in a fall which damaged his graceful tail carriage, and he never developed satisfactorily as a saddle horse, so I decided to price him to parties in the Philippines at $1,000."

The Pomona Progress-Bulletin reported Pep's sale on November 13, 1935, with no mention of the buyer's name. 

Parkinson also quoted from a Los Angeles Times article that said not even Reese knew the name of Pep's new owner. The anonymous buyer had specified that he wanted "the best Arabian stallion available." 

Documents in the WKKAHL collection show the name of Pep's purchaser as "Getz Bros. San Francisco for export to the Philippines." Getz Bros. purchased two other Kellogg Arabians in September 1936, Nareyna and Raabas. 

The sale of Kellogg Arabians overseas in the 1930s and '40s is also worthy of a separate blog post.

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Many thanks to Carol Woodbridge Mulder, Dolores "Dee" Adkins, and the staff at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, Special Collections, University Library, Cal Poly Pomona, for their assistance.

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A photo of *Nasik, this time under saddle, appeared on another version of the Kellogg Ranch letterhead. It's printed in two colors and the typeface is different than the example above. 

Source: W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library

Tom Mix's visits to the Kellogg Ranch are the subject of another of my blog posts:

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2025/08/looking-gift-horse-book-in-mouth-tom.html

Burbank, California Horse Owners in the Los Angeles County Horseman's Directory Illustrated, 1949-1950 Edition

Certain images in this post are provided under the Fair Use provision in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. "Fair Use" specifically allows for the use of copyrighted materials for educational purposes only.

For most of the 20th century, Southern California was a very horsey place.

The 1949-1950 edition of the Los Angeles County Horseman's Survey and Directory was an important publication that underscores just how many people owned, rode, and bred horses here in the post-World War II era. 

For example, in the city of Burbank alone, the Survey and Directory lists more than 300 people who owned and/or bred horses. 

My copy of the book came from the estate of Monrovia/Duarte horse rancher Merle Little. It turned up on eBay a few years ago, where the seller  in Pennsylvania -- improbably -- had found it, along with dozens of Merle's Morgan horse magazines -- at a barn sale. 

When I saw the eBay listing, I pounced.

The Survey and Directory was published by Frederick C. "Rick" Knowles. Merle saved a copy of his fold-out business card, probably printed before the book was published. 

I don't have much information about Rick Knowles. Sometime after the end of World War II, he had relocated from Michigan to San Diego County. In 1947, the Escondido Daily Times-Advocate newspaper reported on his establishment of an Arabian horse ranch, and Knowles' starting an afterschool riding program for youth.  In 1948, he co-published the San Diego County Saddle Horse & Stallion Owners Directory with Edward R. Forbes.

We see Knowles advertising himself as the owner of the Kellogg-bred Arabian stallion TARIK 932 (Ferdin x Treyf, by *Nasik), stabled first in Poway, then Escondido, and later at Val-Dav Ranch in Reseda. 

The 1949-1950 Los Angeles County Horseman's Survey and Directory listed the names and addresses of more than 4,000 Los Angeles County private horse owners, along with information about what breeds of horses they owned. The addresses were listed alphabetically by city, starting with Alhambra and ending with Woodland Hills. 

Knowles estimated that there were more than 75,000 horses in LA County at the time. 73 percent of them were not registered; 12 percent were classified as "pure bred," and 15 percent of them were registered in one or more recognized Stud Books. 

Here are the horse breed abbreviations used in the book, using the initials of breed registries. Unregistered horses, which Knowles noted made up about 75 percent of the horses in LA County at the time, are listed as "PH -- Pleasure Horse" and "Stk. H -- Stock Horse."

AAHC -- Albino

ASHBA -- American Saddlebred

AHC -- Arabian

AHHS -- Hackney

MHC -- Morgan

PHA and PHBA -- Palomino

PHS -- Pinto

PH -- Pleasure Horse 

AQHA -- Quarter Horse

Stk. H -- Stock Horse

TWHBA -- Tennessee Walking Horse

TB -- Thoroughbred

Since the book at 212 pages would be too long to copy in one blog post, this one will highlight horse owners in Burbank, California. 

                     

Knowles had taken a survey of Los Angeles County horse owners, and found that "82 percent keep and maintain their stables strictly for their own pleasure and recreation. The remaining 18 percent are breeders of registered stock, who supply the ever increasing demands for quality stock, both for pleasure and show."
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Here's more information on the Survey and Directory, in one of my previous blog posts:

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2023/09/from-los-angeles-county-horsemans.html

Tournament of Roses Equine History: Miss Venice Hess

As I write, it's New Year's Eve 2025, and the weather is conducive to staying indoors. Why not search for a bit of lost Tournament of Roses Parade equine history?

People almost always focus on the flower-covered floats in the annual New Year's parade in Pasadena, and rightly so. But equestrian units have always been a big part of the parade as well.  

It isn't uncommon for the same equestrian to take part in several Rose Parades over the years, even if they appear with different horses. Such is the case of Venice Ada Hess (1889-1930), who lived in Pasadena. 

Miss Venice Hess, as she was often called in the local papers, was more than the average turn-of-the-20th-century young woman. Like many girls, she studied art and music. But her interests demonstrate she was not content to be an average female.

Newspapers all over the country carried the story in 1909, when the 19-year-old Venice completed a course for auto mechanics and became the first licensed professional chauffeur in California. 

Michael E. James' 2oo5 book The Conspiracy of the Good : Civil Rights and the Struggle for Community in Two American Cities, 1875-2000 contains the story of Labor Day events in Pasadena in 1909. The day's events included a "Ladies Nail Driving Contest," a "Fifty Yard Dash for Young Ladies," and a "Ladies Baseball Throwing Contest." All three were won by Venice Hess.

In 1911, Venice played a cornet solo, "God Save Our Country," at a women's suffrage event in Pasadena attended by close to 1000 people. Later in life, she invented a lawn sprinkler and applied for a patent. 

We first see Venice reported as a Rose Parade participant in 1908. Note that she's riding astride, rather than sidesaddle. 

In 1909, Venice dressed as a herald playing a horn while riding an unnamed gray horse wearing flowers. We see her in the photograph at the top of this post, and below. (The Los Angeles Times misspelled her first name "Veince" in its photo coverage of the parade.) 

Los Angeles Times, January 2, 1909

The 1911 Tournament of Roses Parade saw Venice winning a prize for portraying "California," riding a gray horse and driving a dark horse. She carried a golden cornucopia filled with flowers. 

Next we see another example of horses that are obviously not purebred Arabian horses, being referred to as such. In 1913, the people lining Colorado Boulevard on New Year's Day saw Venice driving "a gaily decorated chariot" in the Tournament of Roses Parade. "In the garb of Minerva [the Roman goddess of wisdom, the arts, intellect, and other things], this entrant, with a wealth of golden hair and delicate beauty, made a striking figure. The chariot, drawing by a span of pure-blooded Arabian horses, which showed careful grooming and training, was gaily decorated with hundreds of rose buds and flowers."

Pasadena Star, 1/1/1913

It's important to remember that, during this era before most Americans had ever seen a "pure-blooded Arabian horse" in person, many kinds of horses were wrongly identified as "Arabians" in circuses, parades, and theatrical events. That was the case here, because a photograph from a 1913 Tournament of Roses publication shows us that Venice's chariot horses had spots on their hindquarters like blanket Appaloosas.

There were only about a dozen living registered purebred Arabians in California in 1913, and these spotted horses were not among them. If they were part-Arabian, to the best of my knowledge no record of their names or parentage exists. 

Venice's later life seems to have been not entirely happy. Newspaper accounts and online genealogy websites show that she married a musician whose life was a series of ups and downs, including several legal battles. The 1920 census shows that she had three children within four years, and apparently separated from her husband in the late 1920s. Her health seems to have failed, since she died at age 40 as an "inmate" of the Pisgah Home, a sanitarium operated by a religious community that emphasized service to the poor and social action, in Highland Park.

I choose to remember Venice in her heyday, dressed in costumes made by her mother, decked out in fresh flowers along with her horses, making those earlier years of the Tournament of Roses Parade that much more special.

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Many thanks to equine historian extraordinaire Dolores "Dee" Adkins for showing me a photo of Venice Hess on horseback, which started my search for information for this post. 

 

Christmas Greetings from the Kelloggs, 1935

It is not uncommon for people to share photographs of their animals when sending holiday greetings. American cereal magnate and Arabian horse breeder W. K. Kellogg and his wife, Dr. Carrie Staines Kellogg, once sent out a Christmas card featuring a painting whose creator we don't usually associate with equine portraits, artist and banker George McKay.

The card features a 1935 portrait of the Kellogg Arabian mare Shemseh 656 (chestnut 1928, *Nasik x *Rifla) and WKK's German Shepherd dog, Rinson, who was a son of the famous movie dog Rin-Tin-Tin (1918-1932). Rinson was one of a series of German Shepherds owned by Mr. Kellogg. 

A copy of the card is in the collection of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona.

The verse reads:  

Two friends of man that never fail, 

It matters not how hard the trail; 

They'll stick with you the last long mile,

Contented be with just a smile. 

Shemseh and Rinson were indeed part of the Kellogg "family" of horses and other animals at the Kellogg Ranch in the late 1920s and early 1930s.

When Shemseh was still a filly, she had already attracted the attention of celebrities and photographers. Here, she poses with champion cowgirl Mabel Strickland in the December 7, 1928 edition of the Los Angeles Times.

Shemseh was shown fairly often throughout Southern California, and became the champion Arabian at the Ninth Annual Los Angeles National Horse Show in 1930. In 1931, she was part of a Kellogg exhibit at a Whittier, California horse show.

Of Shemseh, Arabian horse historian Carol Woodbridge Mulder wrote:

"The very beautiful mare Shemseh was kept at the Kellogg Ranch until she was 8 years old. A chestnut, she was marked with a blaze, stockings on both hind, and a rather small, but noticeable, belly patch. Shemseh was proudly taken to several exhibitions where she did well and was a crowd pleaser. I do not know why this favorite was eventually sold. Her buyer was R. E. Ewell, Walnut Creek, California, but he apparently resold her to Mrs. I. H. Hale of the same town. Shemseh became the dam of five foals and traces into modern lines." (The Crabbet Influence, July-August 1989) 

You can see the white belly patch Carol mentions, in the painting.

In her book The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch, Mary Jane Parkinson details the story of how, in 1927, Mr. Kellogg traded one of his Arabian horses, Ben Hur, for Rinson, from Rin-Tin-Tin's owner Lee Duncan (1892-1960). Ben Hur 513 (*El Bulad x Rhua) was a gray 1923 colt bred by Albert W. Harris.

Ben Hur, Lee Duncan, Rinson, and W. K. Kellogg in the courtyard
of the Kellogg stables, 1927

In 1930, an Associated Press article on Rinson ran in newspapers around the country:

As a child Carol Mulder, whose father worked part-time at the Kellogg Ranch, also had a special connection to Rinson:

"Mr. Kellogg liked to take his current dog with him on his cross-country drives between California and Michigan but he disliked the dog hair which shed off on the way. My mother was a gifted clothing designer and seamstress. One year she was asked to make what she later called a 'suit' for Mr. Kellogg's dog so it could travel with him without shedding hair all over the car. Accordingly, the dog was brought to the home of my parents for the designing and fitting of the suit. My mother, who was frightened of large dogs, had the big German Shepherd stand on top of our dining room table for measurements and fittings. The dog left for Michigan almost encased in a fine, specially-designed suit." (The Crabbet Influence, March-April 1987)

We've seen examples of some of W. K. Kellogg's Arabian horses being used in advertisements. In 1932, Rinson got into the act as well, promoting Dr. Ross' Dog Food in newspaper ads:

The "telegram" in the ad purports to be from W.K. Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan, writing to the Dr. Ross' Dog Food company in Southern California:

PLEASE ADVISE NEAREST AGENCY FOR DR. ROSS DOG FOOD STOP RINSON MY VALUABLE POLICE DOG WHO HAS BEEN EATING YOUR DOG FOOD IN CALIFORNIA ALL WINTER AND THRIVING IS NOT DOING SO WELL HERE WITHOUT IT STOP MISSES HIS RATIONS VERY MUCH AND I MUST SECURE ANOTHER SUPPLY AT ONCE 

Rinson took part in at least one dog show. The Battle Creek, Michigan Moon-Journal reported that he would be shown at the Southern Michigan Kennel Club dog show in September 1933.

But who was the artist whose work was reproduced on the greeting card, George C. McKay? 

Newspaper articles describe him as Kellogg's "right-hand man" who later became chairman of the board of Security National Bank in Michigan. He worked his way up in the Kellogg cereal company and, by 1910, was vice president. By 1924, he was Senior VP, Secretary, and Treasurer. 

After leaving Kellogg's in 1936, McKay became chairman of the board of Security National Bank.  He was well-known as a patron of the arts, and as an artist. In October 1969, the Battle Creek, Michigan Enquirer newspaper published a feature story on an exhibit of his work, which mentioned the painting of Shemseh and Rinson.

McKay may have used a 1931 photograph of Shemseh with actress Laura LaPlante as the inspiration for his painting, substituting Mr. Kellogg's dog Rinson for the actress.

 

Ultimately, Mr. Kellogg owned two dogs called Rinson. In 1942, the Battle Creek Enquirer noted this fact:

Businessman and artist George McKay died in 1977 at the age of 96.

And what of Ben Hur, the Kellogg Arabian that Mr. Kellogg traded for Rinson? Newspaper articles like the one above say that he was trained as a movie horse for actress Lina (sometimes spelled Lena) Basquette (1907-1994). I think she may be riding Ben Hur in this Hoot Gibson Western film, Hard Hombre (1931). We see Lina riding a handsome gray horse starting at about 34:58:

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Many thanks to the leadership and staff at the W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, Special Collections, University Library, Cal Poly Pomona, for their assistance during my equine history research.

And special thanks to Carol Woodbridge Mulder, whose careful research, meticulous attention to detail, and delight in telling the stories of the Kellogg Ranch in her writings, continue to educate and edify us all. 

Sources:

Mulder, Carol Woodbridge. "The W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch" in The Crabbet Influence in Arabians Today, 20th Anniversary Issue 1983-2003 & Collectors Volume I (Special 3rd Edition Reprint). Battle Ground, WA: Silver Monarch Publishing, 2004.

Parkinson, Mary Jane. The Romance of the Kellogg Ranch: A Celebration of the Kellogg/Cal Poly Pomona Arabian Horses, 1925-2000. Pomona, California: W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center, 2001.

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It would be hard to overstate just how important Rin-Tin-Tin was in the entertainment world back in his day.  Here's his Wikipedia entry:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rin_Tin_Tin

Here is a link to one of his early silent films, Where the North Begins (1923):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6X5oa8SdgMQ

Rin-Tin-Tin's owner/trainer, Lee Duncan:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/113897454/leland_leroy-duncan

YouTube has a copy of Hard Hombre. in which we may see the Kellogg Arabian Ben Hur, here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lJIrYxKw3k

Lina (or Lena) Basquette's biography is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lina_Basquette

Lina Basquette was the half-sister of dance legend Marge Champion, and the widow of Sam Warner, one of the Warner Brothers of Hollywood fame. A long version of her obituary recounts the story that Lina once fought back against an overly aggressive German superfan by kicking him in the groin and getting away from him as fast as she could. His name was Adolf Hitler.