From the Merle Little Archive: Smaller Southern California Horse Shows in the 1930s and 1940s

Perusing the scrapbook and photographs compiled by Monrovia/Duarte (San Gabriel Valley) horse rancher Merle H. Little during the 1930s and '40s, I see examples of how horses and horse shows were used to build community connectedness in Southern California during the Great Depression. 

I can also trace the evolution of horse show class lists during that period of time, by comparing what I find in the scrapbook and photo albums with my other equine history sources for the period. It goes without saying that the kinds of classes offered at horse shows were connected to the organizers and participants. During the Great Depression, as always, one had to have a certain amount of disposable income to keep a horse, and the ability to transport it to shows. There were many riding clubs, but their events may have skewed more towards youth gymkhanas, trail rides, and rodeos.  And during that era the various horse breed registries were either not yet formed or not active in sponsoring shows for their members in California, as they were in the decades following World War II.

Merle saved programs from horse shows, rodeos, and other equine events in which he participated with his Pinto and Morgan horses. They provide insight into smaller horse shows, the details of which may not have made it into the local newspapers.

Based on the horse shows that got detailed newspaper coverage back in that day, it seems a lot of them focused primarily on classes I associate with the Eastern and Midwest US, rather than the West: classes for Three- and Five-Gaited saddle horses, fine harness horses and ponies and roadsters, and classes for Hunters and Jumpers. The saddles for these horses can generally be classified as "English" saddles, and the harnesses "fine" as opposed to the heavier "draft horse" harnesses. 

This may be because large horse shows often appeared in the "society" pages of newspapers. Many wealthier people in Southern California rode American Saddlebreds and Thoroughbreds, and drove Saddlebreds, Hackneys, and Hackney and high-stepping Shetland Ponies.

The Los Angeles Times' coverage of the 1930 Los Angeles National Horse Show provides us with an overview of the class list, heavily weighted towards horses wearing English saddles and fine harness; only one class was held for stock horses in Western saddles:

(It's interesting to note that all the photos in the LA Times society section coverage are of young women riders. And despite the fact that most of the under saddle classes are for horses wearing English saddles, three of the photos in the full-page image above show young women next to horses wearing Western tack.)

Long Beach Sun, 21 March 1930

A Long Beach Sun story, also from 1930, describes a horse show with mostly English and fine harness classes, with one stock horse class at the end. Specialty acts in between classes included an exhibit of Arabians from W. K. Kellogg's stables, some gymkhana-type activities, and an exhibition of "bucking" featuring two boys, ages 5 and 6.  

But you can't take the west out of California, and many people -- including children -- learned to ride using Western tack. Newspaper accounts of gymkhanas, even from the 1920s, were illustrated with photos of horses and riders in Western gear; the lists of events included "riding, hurdling, tying, and roping" as well as balloon jousting and egg-and-spoon races. A 1925 benefit gymkhana also featured a polo match.

And there certainly were smaller horse shows being held in the 1930s and '40s that had diverse class offerings of English, Western, and even bareback classes. 

From the Merle H. Little archive

Looking at Merle Little's scrapbook, I see programs from smaller horse shows from the early 1930s in Southern California. These shows featured a wide variety of classes -- almost like a gymkhana combined with hunter/jumper and Saddlebred classes -- at a couple of horse shows that were held for charity or were aimed more at the "average rider" and/or specifically included children. 

From the Merle H. Little archive

One horse show, held in October 1932, was held to benefit the San Gabriel Valley's Unemployed Milk Fund. ("Milk Funds" were operated in the area as far back as 1919, to help undernourished children.)  The class list was quite diverse:

1) Jumpers -- bareback, children 10 years or under. Horsemanship to count 75 percent, performance 25 percent. 

2) Jumpers --to be ridden bareback over three jumps about 3 feet 3 inches by amateurs over 10 years of age. Horsemanship to count 75 percent, performance 25 percent.  

3) Three-Gaited Saddle Horses -- 14.2 hands and over, to be ridden by an amateur 17 years or over. Style, action, and manners to count. 

4) Horsemanship -- children 9 years and under. 

5) Three-Gaited Saddle Ponies -- 14.2 or under. To be shown by children 13 years or under. Style, action, manners, and horsemanship to count. 

6) Jumpers -- open to all

7) Horsemanship -- amateurs, 17 years or over

8) Saddle Ponies -- 44 inches and under, to be shown by child 13 years and under. Style, action, and manners to count.

9) Trail Horses -- to be shown at walk, trot, canter and gallop on a loose rein, by an amateur of any age. General suitability for use on trails only to count.

10) Jumpers -- 14.2 and over. To be shown by amateur, any age, over jumps about 4 feet high.

11) Pony Jumpers -- 14.2 and under. To be shown by child of 13 years of age or under. Jumps about 2 feet 6 inches.

12) Park Hacks -- To be shown by amateur, any age.

Another show, also from October 1932, was sponsored by a group called the "Breakfast Club Rangers" and offered classes that sound more like a gymkhana mixed with a traditional horse show.  (The Breakfast Club and its equestrian members are worthy of a separate blog post.)

From the Merle H. Little archive

The cover of the program says there was no entry fee; ribbons to 4th place; if you don't own a horse, borrow one from a local riding academy.  Some classes were "open" and did not specify what kind of saddle was to be used. To compete in some of the classes, the rider had to be a member of the Breakfast Club. 

The classes were as follows:

1) Parade of Entrants

2) Ham and Egg Race 

3) Children's Event (with a trophy for 1st place)

4) Amateur Five-Gaited Saddle Horse Event

5) Professional Jumping Event

6) Tilting at Rings (amateur, open, at a gallop)

7) Tug of War -- California Riding Stable Team vs. The Breakfast Club Team

8) Professional Five-Gaited Event (trophy donated by Pickwick Riding Academy, Burbank -- "Where Folks Enjoy Riding")

9) Amateur Jumping Event -- no jump over 3' 6"

10) Amateur Stock Horse Event

From the Merle H. Little archive

Another example of  an "English" predominant show comes from Little's scrapbook: the 1933 Pickwick Riding Academy, assisted by Cavalry of California, Horse Show, in Burbank:

Children's Event

Jumping (military academy boys only)

Jumping (amateur only)

Special Event: Display of stock horse with $30,000 saddle (I assume laden with silver)

Three-Gaited (amateur)

Polo Ponies (open)

Five-Gaited (amateur)

Fine Harness

Stock Horse Event ("riders to use only one hand on reins")

Three-Gaited (open)

Five-Gaited (open)

Jumping (open)

His hand-written notes show that Little's tall Pinto horse Thunder placed second in the stock horse event.

From the Merle H. Little archive

It's important to note that a stock horse was not a particular breed back then. Merle also saved a copy of an article from the 4 February 1934 edition of  the Los Angeles Times, written by L. C. Deming. 

Merle Little saved a copy of this 1934 article
from the Los Angeles Times

Deming describes a variety of horses popular in California, including the "cowboy stock horse" -- not a Quarter Horse, but a horse he describes as weighing 750 to 1100 pounds, "short-legged, short-necked, close-coupled with a big barrel, approximating closely the Morgan horse of years ago." Deming also discusses American Saddle Horses (Saddlebreds), Standardbreds, Hackneys, and draft horses including Percherons and Belgians, which Deming says seem to be the most popular in California. 

By the 1940s, however, class lists seemed to be evolving in Southern California horse shows, to include more classes for horses in Western tack, breed-specific halter classes, and even shows just for Arabians, Quarter Horses, Morgans, and Palominos. 

For example, when I look at the edition of Joe Droeger's Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast reporting on shows held in 1944, I see the American Legion Burbank Post 150 Horse Show class list, with more than just one event for horses with Western saddles:

3-Gaited

5-Gaited

Fine Harness

Ponies (harness)

Roadsters

Hunters

Jumpers

Walking Horses

Then we have some events for horses wearing Western Saddles:

Stock Horses

Parade Horses

Trail Horses

Children's Horsemanship (English and Western, separate classes)

And some "Model, In-Hand" classes:

Stallions, American Saddlebred

Stallions, Palomino

Stallions, Pinto

Mares, American Saddlebred

Mares, Palomino

Mares, Pinto 

American Saddlebred colts

American Saddlebred fillies

Other Los Angeles area shows later in 1944 offered similar lineups -- heavy on the English saddle classes with some Western, some children's, and some breed-specific halter classes. Southern California was home to many Palomino and Pinto horses back then, so perhaps they were included because that's what a lot of people rode. Other 1944 shows added purebred Arabian and Quarter Horse halter classes. 

 

"Who sponsored the show?" is also important in reviewing the classes offered. In Droeger's book, we also have the 1944 Long Beach Mounted Patrol Fourth Annual Horse show, with this class list that skews Western in performance:

3-Gaited

5-Gaited

Fine Harness

Polo Ponies

Jumpers

Pinto Stallions

Morgan Stallions

Palomino Stallions

Quarter Horse Stallions

Mares -- all breeds

"Plain" Western

Trail Class

Children's Pleasure

Silver Mounted (western, divided by "men" and "ladies")

Open Parade

Hackamore

Stock Horses

Stake Race

Barrel Race (men and women participating) 

Why the Western focus? I'm guessing it's because the sponsoring Long Beach Mounted Patrol rode Western in parades, and the people they hoped to attract as participants and spectators also rode Western.

Merle Little's Pinto stallion Tesoro 

Merle Little's horses did well at this 1944 show. His Tesoro won the Pinto Stallions class; Sun Down Morgan won the Morgan Stallions class, while Senor Morgan placed fourth.

Merle Little's Morgan stallion Sun Down Morgan

Merle Little's Morgan stallion Senor Morgan

We'll look at more examples of horse shows and other events that Merle and his horses took part in, in future stories in this blog. 

Sun Down's Morgan Horse Club of the West Trophy

Sun Down Morgan in the pasture at El Rancho Poco,
Monrovia/Duarte, California, in the 1940s.

Earlier this year, I wrote a blog post about the "Parade Morgan" bookend by Dodge, Inc., designed in 1946 by Gladys Brown Edwards.

The W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona holds the papers of Cecil and Gladys Brown Edwards. 

In a January 1949 letter to The Morgan Horse magazine, Cecil (Gladys' husband at the time) stated that the Morgan Horse Association (he used the word "Club") of the West used this design as its official trophy. 

GBE's design was based on the Morgan stallion Abbott.

This letter from Cecil Edwards to The Morgan Horse magazine
is part of the collection at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona.

Western Livestock Journal had run a photograph of the trophy version of the bookend design in 1947.

The caption notes that it was one of the trophies sponsored by the Morgan Horse Association of the West, presented to winners in Morgan breeding classes at the Los Angeles County Spring Fair in Bellflower, California.

The Spring Fair must have been an impressive event. The Los Angeles Times reported that it featured a parade of more than a thousand horses of many breeds moving through the streets of the city, before the horse show began.

Los Angeles Times, 15 June 1947

The champion Morgan stallion at the show was Merle Little's Sun Down Morgan (dark brown horse, foaled April 8, 1933, Raven Chief x Texsky). 

The Morgan Horse magazine's August 1947 issue carried the results of the show; the classes were quite large.

The Morgan Horse magazine, August 1947.

The Morgan Horse magazine, 1947

The 1947 edition of the book Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast, published by Joe Droeger, also recorded a summary of the results:

And because members of the Little family saved it for all these years, we know what one of the actual trophies looked like.  I'd never seen one before in person. The base makes it taller than the bookend.

Here's the inscription on the front:

Merle made notes on the back of the wooden base in pencil. (He noted there were 19 horses in Sun Down's class; the magazine said there were 17, but either way there was a lot of competition!)

They also saved a copy of the photo of Sun Down's win.

Sun Down Morgan's name is often spelled Sundown Morgan; if we zoom in on his Morgan Horse Club registration papers, we see that his name was indeed three words:

I'll add more to the story of Sun Down Morgan in a future blog post. 

Here's a link to my earlier post on the origin of the GBE "Parade Morgan" bookend design:

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2021/04/all-together-now-parade-morgan-bookends.html

Images from El Rancho Poco

El Rancho Poco sign

When the Monrovia-Duarte, California Community Book was published in 1957, the portraits of the featured, notable local citizens were taken in professional portrait studios. Head shots of humans.

All except for one: horse rancher Merle H. Little (1906-1975) had posed in front of  a hay barn with his chestnut Morgan stallion, Lippitt Morman.  Merle autographed his own copy of the book for both of them.

Lippitt Morman and Merle Little

Merle Little passed away far too early, in 1975, leaving behind a treasure trove of photographs and memorabilia of a horseman's life in Southern California between World War I and the end of the Vietnam War.  His wife, Edna May, died in 2004.  I never had the chance to meet either of them.

But during the course of my equine history and model horse history research over the past few years, I have had the honor of meeting, and becoming friends with, Merle's children. And when his older daughter died earlier this year, she left me "Daddy's horse stuff" with the understanding that she wanted it to have a permanent home at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library's Special Collections unit, which includes the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library. WKKAHL already holds some of Merle's other papers, given (through me) by his younger daughter. 

I am grateful to the Little family for the opportunity to be the temporary custodian of this treasure trove of local and equine history. It's an honor to have the opportunity to organize the photographs, correspondence, and ephemera, making it easier for other researchers to use the archive once it's in a public collection. And I can write about what's in the collection as I work my way through it.

Merle Little on his Morgan stallion Kandy King

To summarize: Horses were an integral part of Merle Little's life. His papers include materials dating back to the 1920s from a wide variety of regional equestrian activities: the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. 1930s Rancheros Visitadores trail rides in Santa Barbara County. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Posse activities over several decades, including horseback search and rescue. The Monrovia Mounted Police. The post-World War II activities of the Morgan Horse Association of the West, of which Merle was a co-founder. The Kellogg Ranch property in Pomona. Horse shows for children and adults. Duarte 4-H club activities. The Monrovia Day parade. 

Merle Little's Pinto stallion Tesoro (right)

And there are photographs of Merle and his family and their horses at home: El Rancho Poco, which used to occupy several acres near what is now the busy intersection of the 210 freeway and Mountain Avenue -- retail stores, car dealerships, restaurants.  Their horses were well-known participants at horse shows and parades: Pintos like Thunder and Lightning, Apatche, and Tesoro. Morgans like Sun Down Morgan, Senor Morgan, Senorita Morgan, Betty Joaquin, Lippitt Morman, and Kandy King. And so many more. Merle's donkeys and hinnies (a cross between a male horse and a female donkey) afforded his family and the neighborhood much joy. El Rancho Poco itself was a gathering place for family, friends, and community groups. My model horse collector readers know that some of Merle's horses inspired ceramic horse figurines designed by artist Maureen Love and produced by the legendary California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc.

Hagen-Renaker "Lippet" designed by Maureen Love,
inspired by Lippitt Morman

These days of the horse may be in the past, but because Merle took so many pictures and saved so much paper ephemera, we can revisit them, appreciate them, and learn from them. I hope you'll have a chance to follow along with this blog over the next many weeks, as I share highlights from the collection.

"The Horse with the Proud Tail": Chestnut Arabian by artist Rich Rudish

This is the story of The Horse With the Proud Tail.

Every so often a piece of a horse's history will find its way to me, demanding to be told, reminding us of just how important the horse was to the humans who loved him. That happened to me again today, when my Horse Radar went off as I drove towards an antique mall.

When I went inside, I quickly spotted a very special original painting. The first thing I noticed about it was the horse's brilliant chestnut color with white markings, sparkling eyes, and flying tail. He looked like an Arabian.

The second thing I noticed was the artist's signature:

 "RUDISH '65."  

The artist was Rich Rudish. Sold.

But I wondered: Was this a portrait of a real horse? And if so, how could I find out? There were no other identifying marks on the painting, front or back, so I looked for clues from other sources.

Rudish was born in 1941; the painting is dated 1965. So he was only 24 when he painted it.  A Kansas City newspaper article said that Rudish joined Hallmark Cards as an illustrator in 1964, so we know he was active as an artist as a young adult.

With those dates in mind, I started looking for connections between Rudish and Arabian horses. Newspaper articles told me that Rudish rode and trained Arabians in the Midwest in the 1960s. Later, he would serve as an officer in his area's Arabian horse club and as a judge of Arabian classes at horse shows.

After a few minutes' searching online I came up with the name of a horse ridden in a show by Rudish: the chestnut Arabian gelding Zartai, foaled in 1954.

The Clinton, Missouri Eye newspaper,
July 19, 1966.

My friend and fellow researcher Dee Adkins found this photo of Zartai ridden by Rich Rudish from 1966, in an old Arabian Horse World magazine. 

I kept looking, and found a photo of Zartai from 1967, again ridden by Rich Rudish. Zartai belonged to Triangle "C" Arabians (the Campbell family), and had won a Top Ten Award at the Arabian US Nationals. 

Belton, Missouri Star-Herald, August 24, 1967

The photos are not great quality, but we can see that Zartai had an oddly shaped blaze on his face...

So does the horse in the painting.

Zartai had two white stockings on his forelegs, and a white sock on his left rear leg...

So does the horse in the painting!

So I think it's highly probable that the horse in the painting is indeed Zartai.  

A search of the Arabian Horse DataSource shows that Zartai, foaled in 1954, was sired by Ibn Nusi; his dam was Zatai.

Here are his sire Ibn Nusi and his dam Zatai, from Dee Adkins' extensive collection of images from vintage horse magazines.

Zartai's pedigree reads like a Who's Who of Arabian horses in the late nineteenth and early to mid twentieth centuries; many of his ancestors were owned by the likes of the Crabbet Arabian Stud, Homer Davenport, W. R. Brown, Spencer Borden, and J. M. Dickinson. As a Top Ten stock horse at the US Nationals, Zartai did his ancestors proud.

It's difficult to single out a few of the important Arabian horses on Zartai's family tree, but here are some. It's interesting that some of these horses were the subjects of other artists' work.

Zartai's great-grandsire Gulastra, a chestnut stallion, was bred by W. R. Brown, and later owned by William Randolph Hearst, J. M. Dickinson, and Bazy Tankersly of Al-Marah Arabians.

And this signed print is labeled as Gulastra's portrait by artist Elizabeth Bell. You used to be able to buy prints of her work through the mail. (As one reader has pointed out, Gulastra's markings were different than the horse in Bell's drawing.)

Zartai's great-great-great-grandsire Mesaoud -- also chestnut -- was purchased in 1889 by Lady Anne Blunt and her husband Wilfrid. He had an enormous influence on the Arabian horse.

Mesaoud was immortalized in this portrait by Gladys Brown Edwards:

Another of Zartai's ancestors was the great and beautiful mare Mahroussa.  Here's a head study photo by Carl Raswan:

A print of a painting of Mahroussa by C. W. Anderson:

And another by Arizona artist Nancy Strowger, reproduced on a greeting card:

Another female ancestor of Zartai was the influential mare Bazrah, who lived out her days in California. W. R. Brown sold her to William Randolph Hearst; she later went to Roy L. Jackson of Orange, California, and died in 1948. (I couldn't find a painting of her, so equine artists, here's your chance.)

Rich Rudish had a varied career. He worked for many years at Hallmark Cards, creating several popular animal characters. My favorite of his greeting card images is a Christmas card with Arabian horses. 

Here are two more examples of Rudish's greeting card designs with horses:

A Hallmark card

An Ambassador card

Rudish served as Director, Art Director, and in the Animation Department on several films in the 1980s, including many of the "Rainbow Brite" animated movies.

Among horse lovers, he is well known as an illustrator of horse books such as Marguerite Henry's Our First Pony, and the 1975 edition of her book The Little Fellow.

Here are some horse stickers Rich Rudish designed for Hallmark.

Rudish's art appeared on coffee mugs and playing cards. He also illustrated a pop-up book called Dancer and a calendar for Hallmark, as well as a book on the Old West.

Rudish illustrated Arnold R. Rojas'  book These Were the Vaqueros.

He also designed model horses for Breyer, including "Sham" and "Lady Roxana," and also for Enesco.

Cincinnati Enquirer, May 10, 1987

Starting in the 1970s, it was common to see illustrations by Rich Rudish in Arabian horse magazines and horse show programs. You can see his style evolving over the years.

Rudish's sense of humor is obvious
in this illustration in an advertisement.

Rudish's stylized color ads depicting real Arabians are unmistakable.

*Tamarlane and Taktika

*Padron and Bint Padron

The chestnut Arabian gelding Zartai died in April 1972. Arabian Horse World ran an obituary under its "Green Pastures" heading, written by his owner. Jane Campbell.  She said his nickname was "Hoppi." His story underscores the importance of the horse in the life of a family and their friends. 

The article reads, in part:

"After sharing our home and a place in our hearts for nearly ten years, our 18-year-old gelding, ZARTAI met with a fatal accident in April of this year [1972]... Our liver chestnut friend was shown by our son...our daughter...and by friend and Hallmark Card artist Rich Rudish. At age 13, Hoppi, ridden by Rich Rudish, was among the Top Ten Stock Horses at the U. S. Nationals. At ages 15 and 16, he qualified for the Nationals again in stock horse, English pleasure, and halter. Last summer Hoppi, at age 17 and [her son] Jeff, at age 18, qualified for the Nationals in costume, but a conflicting college schedule did not permit participation. We were thrilled with his achievements.

"Whether in the ring or just in a paddock out for an afternoon romp, Hoppi's tail was always held high, his neck proudly arched.... [We will be] forever grateful and will not soon forget our horse with the proud tail."

Rich Rudish died in Glendale, California in 1989, which may partially explain how the painting of Zartai made its way from Missouri, where he lived for so long, to an antique mall in Ventura County, California. 

Where the painting was in the meantime, we may never know. Perhaps Rudish himself saved it, sold it, or gave it to someone else. 

Belton, MO Star-Herald, May 25, 1989

Because it lived for who-knows-how-long at an antique mall surrounded by thousands of other used decorative objects, the  painting of "Hoppi" could have ended up in the home of someone who had no idea of its story, or (God forbid) it could have been damaged or painted over.  Instead, I was drawn to it like a magnet -- which I can't explain. 

However this example of Rudish's early art came to me, I like to think that somehow its story needed to be told, if only to remind us again just how important horses, our love for them, and our memories of them, are to us. 

______

Because I'm such a fan of the Kellogg Arabians, I want to mention that Zartai was related to the great chestnut Arabian stallion Abu Farwa, foaled at the Kellogg Ranch, through their mutual great-grandsire Gulastra. Here's Abu Farwa.

This previously unpublished black and white head study photo of Abu Farwa is owned by Melanie Teller:

* * *

Many thanks to equine history researchers Tobi Lopez Taylor and Dolores "Dee" Adkins, and to Arabian horse enthusiast Melanie Teller, for their assistance in preparing this blog post.