Lost, But Now Found: Horse Magazines and Books

Equine history research takes a great deal of diligence, sometimes aided by more than a little luck. Or -- if you believe that "coincidence is when God chooses to remain anonymous" -- a great deal of grace.

Readers of this blog may recall that, a couple of years ago, I was given a substantial amount of horse history research material by the family of the late Monrovia/Duarte, California horse rancher Merle H. Little (1906-1975). There were hundreds of photographs, original horse pedigrees, a bit of correspondence, some artwork, even a few horse show trophies. They all shed light on just how important horses were in local communities in the 1900s.

Merle Little on his Morgan stallion, Lippitt Morman, in 1954

But, to my surprise, there were very few horse magazines, which would have been a "given" on most mid-20th century horse ranches. In California, they might have included copies of Western Livestock Journal, Western Horseman, and perhaps some of the breed-specific magazines that proliferated after World War II.

I had long wondered what sorts of magazines he would have subscribed to, and kept; which ones were important to him during the heyday of his El Rancho Poco. Ah, well, I thought. Someone must have given away any magazines Merle saved, or sold them, or thrown them out years ago.

Last week I found out where his magazine collection ended up. And providentially, they're now here in my research office. 

Occasionally just to see what's out there, I do a random search for "horse" on eBay. (I keep another search for "horse" stuff running on one of the estate sale websites.) Most equine history researchers probably don't spend much time doing this, but since my interest lies mostly in horses during the mid-20th century, I sometimes see things of interest. The problem is, there are hundreds of thousands of used items listed under "horse" at any given time.

In last week's search, I stumbled upon a couple of copies of The Morgan Horse magazine from the mid-1940s. I don't often see these for sale, and started scrolling through the photos in the listing. When I got to a picture that showed the previous owner's address, I hit the "Buy It Now" button so fast my computer got whiplash. 

Here was one of Merle Little's "lost" horse magazines! It was the August 1946 issue of The Morgan Horse, the official publication of the Morgan Horse Association. Merle had saved it, perhaps in part because it featured a story on the most recent version of the famous Hundred-Mile Trail Ride in Vermont, won that year by a Morgan stallion named Lippitt Morman. 

I contacted the seller to ask if they had any more items that may have once belonged to Merle Little. A wooden wine crate full of them, the seller said. And here's the most strange part of all: the seller had bought the crate full of Merle's magazines by leaving a bid on the lot at an auction house... 

...In rural Pennsylvania. Almost 2700 miles from Monrovia, California. 

The wine crate bore a date of 1980, so the magazines were put in there sometime after Merle passed away in 1975.  

I ended up buying the whole lot of magazines (though not the wooden crate). There are well over 100 of them. Most of them are old back issues of The Morgan Horse magazine. These are very early issues, from the mid-1940s.

Most are from the late 1940s through early 1960s.

 

I was very excited to see that the lot of magazines included some I have never seen in person before: copies of The Vermont Horse and Bridle Trail Bulletin. 

The second issue from the right on the top row has a cover photo of Lippitt Morman, when he won the 100-Mile Ride in 1946. It's the same photo on the back of the issue of The Morgan Horse at the top of this post. Lippitt Morman was sold by W. E. LeBoeuf to California Morgan rancher Roland Hill, who then sold him to Merle Little!

There were also four issues of Western Livestock Journal...

...and a copy of an interesting 1940 publication called The Thoroughbred in California. 

Merle had also saved copies of regional horse owner directories from Los Angeles and San Diego Counties, dating back to 1949-50.

Where Merle Little's horse magazines were for 48 years, and how they got all the way from California to Pennsylvania, will probably always be a mystery.

I think some things are "meant" to come home, though, to a place where they can be useful again, and be enjoyed and appreciated by people who know their history. I look forward to sharing more images and stories from these vintage publications soon.

The "Press Prevue" Arabian Horse Show: May 8, 1964

In 1964, Arabian horses were gaining in popularity in the United States. And if you'd been a member of the "press corps" working for a newspaper, magazine, TV or radio station in Southern California, you might have been treated to your own special preview horse show, put on by the Arabian Horse Association of the San Fernando Valley (AHASFV) in early May of that year.

It was common for Arabian horse ranches to invite the public to visit and meet real Arabian horses; sometimes they would host Open Houses. It's also common to invite news reporters and photographers to promote, attend, and report on the results of horse shows. 

But this brochure demonstrates that the AHASFV went out of its way to promote better public understanding of the Arabian horse's beauty, disposition, and versatility by putting on a separate horse show just for members of the local press.

A copy of the program for this Press Prevue* Arabian Horse Show turned up at a Southern California estate sale several months ago. The program gives us some insight into the way Arabian horses were promoted as a breed almost 60 years ago.

The cover showed one of the best-known Arabian stallions in Southern California at the time: the 20-year-old Ferneyn. The back cover showed Harvey Ellis on his Arabian mare Moneyna, who was Ferneyn's dam. (They were photographed at the old Kellogg Ranch stables in Pomona.) 

The two horses, mother and son, were good examples of Arabians to show to reporters who were probably not all that familiar with the breed.

In an article for The Crabbet Influence in Arabians Today, Carol Woodbridge Mulder described them this way:

"In 1944 came one of the most important sons Ferseyn ever got -- the classic and beautiful gray, Ferneyn 2865, bred by Harvey G. Ellis. A double grandson of *Raseyn, Ferneyn was out of Moneyna 1352 [herself a daughter of *Raseyn], a particularly sweet tempered and lovely mare renowned in her time for her bridleless appearances in parades, shows, and on trail rides. Ferneyn got 151 foals, the most famous of which was Ferzon 7723, a double grandson of Ferseyn and a triple grandson of *Raseyn."

The inside cover of the program also extolled their virtues. Then the inside pages of the program provided information about the upcoming Annual All Arabian Horse Show, May 29 through May 31 at the Carnation Ring of the Los Angeles County Fair Grounds in Pomona, California. More than 350 Arabians from eight states were entered.

Then there was a list of the judges, a schedule of classes, the officers of the AHASFV, and details of  the Press Prevue Horse Show. The Prevue was held at the Brierwood Arabian Farm Show Ring in Hidden Hills (Calabasas area, in the San Fernando Valley), owned by the Yale Freed family, the afternoon of May 8, 1964. At the time Yale Freed was president of the AHASFV.

The press prevue horse show on May 8 featured some of the best Arabians in the state, indeed the country, at the time. For example, the Arabian Costume class featured Neyseyn, Bolero, and Amir Dharan. 

Neyseyn, a son of Ferseyn and Moneyna, was a multi-champion show horse.

This photo came from an Arabian Horse Yearbook.

Bolero, a son of the immortal *Witez II, was the 1961 US National Reserve Champion Stallion.

This photo was found online.

The versatile and successful Amir Dharan, by Ferneyn, was ridden by his owner, Arabian horse costume designer Lois Ann Kroll. He showed in Costume, Park, and Hunter/Jumper classes. (I found this photo of Amir Dharan and Lois Ann in a local newspaper from later the same year.)

Every horse in the small show for the press had ancestors that came from the Crabbet Arabian Stud in England and/or the Kellogg Arabian Horse Institute in Pomona, California. Names like *Raseyn, Ferseyn, Antez, Abu Farwa, Farana, and others appear in their pedigrees, underscoring the impact of those breeding programs in the 1960s.

The brochure also gave a Brief History of the Arabian Horse. Ensuring the promotion of the accepted story of the history of the breed was important in dealing with the press.

 

The brochure assured members of the press that the Arabian was not just a high-spirited animal, but rather a "high-class using and pleasure saddle horse."  The text reads: "Disposition is far more important today than it ever has been, because so many with little experience are riding. Easy action and beauty are also of paramount importance."

The AHASFV brochure asserted: "Today Southern California is virtually the Arabian Horse Capital of the World..."

It was important to the AHASFV that the group's own history was also part of the press brochure. The text gives credit to the Kellogg Arabian Ranch in Pomona for helping establish Arabians in Southern California. The brochure also contains a couple of blank pages headed "NOTES" so reporters and photographers could add information by hand.

The final page of  the program showed the classic Gladys Brown Edwards illustration of the ideal Arabian's conformation.

During the mid-1960s, it was important that local and statewide breed groups, as well as the International Arabian Horse Association (based at the time in Burbank), promoted Arabians. This helped to ensure that information about the breed's distinctive differences was disseminated, and encouraged the general public to ride, own, and enjoy Arabian horses. This brochure gives us some insight into how those goals were achieved through local and regional media coverage of Arabian horse events. 

_____

The University Library at Cal Poly Pomona, through its Special Collections & Archives and W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, hold a lot more information on the topics in this blog post.

Here's a link to their online search engine, where you can find some of the materials they hold from the AHASFV: 

https://libguides.library.cpp.edu/c.php?g=753464&p=6517247

And a link to the Lois Ann Kroll papers: 

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8z03fjw/

And to the Cecil and Gladys Brown Edwards Papers: 

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8vd745z/

And an article on the Fairplex collection:  

https://polycentric.cpp.edu/2021/11/thummer-blue-ribbons-photos-galore-fairplex-donates-vast-archive-to-cal-poly-pomona/

The AHASFV's website is here:  https://ahasfv.org/ 

and their Facebook page is here: 

https://www.facebook.com/ahasfv/

_____

*If I recall correctly, midcentury American print media would sometimes use the alternative spelling "prevue" instead of "preview." I'm not sure why, except that "prevue" takes up less space in a headline than the longer "preview." Anyway.

Inspired Not Just By Islam: Gladys Brown Edwards' "Classic Arabian Stallion" Trophy

I'm not really a fanciful person. But lately I've almost felt like the spirit of author, artist, and Arabian horse expert Gladys Brown Edwards (1908-1989) has been looking over my shoulder, whispering, "Tell about that thing that happened. Tell that story!"  That's because I keep finding examples of her art, and am compelled to look up the stories behind them.

Original Quarter Horse pencil sketch, signed "Gladys Brown 1947,"
found at an estate sale several years ago. 

Although I never met Gladys, I keep passing through the long shadow cast by the woman so well-known in the Arabian horse community in the last half of the twentieth century that they just called her "GBE."  

Gladys Brown Edwards horse with Western tack,
found at an estate sale by the author

I'll find a piece of her artwork at an estate sale, or read an article on her, or peruse her correspondence and look at her scrapbooks in the collection of the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library (WKKAHL) at Cal Poly Pomona. And I get the quiet nudge: "Now tell that story!" 

Miss Gladys Brown,
in the 1948 edition of Here's Who in Horses of the Pacific Coast

In this post, I'm ultimately going to tell the story of the time that Gladys sent a metal horse through the mail to a very important friend, and how the horse did not make it to the recipient intact. 

I've told many of Gladys' stories in my horse-related blogs in the past. About her designing Boston Terrier dogs for the California pottery, Hagen-Renaker, Inc., and meeting the quiet equine artist Maureen Love, who is little-known outside the model horse hobby.

Source: Hagen-Renaker Online Museum

About Gladys designing a trophy/bookend for the Morgan Horse Association of the West.

About bringing Gladys' large original painting of the great Arabian stallion *Orzel from Arizona to WKKAHL just before the pandemic brought the world to a temporary halt in 2020.

About watching someone buying one of Gladys' life-size fiberglass Quarter Horses, produced by Prewitt's, at an estate sale, tying it to the top of his car, and taking it home. 

Three weeks ago, I found an example of an Arabian horse US Nationals Trophy at a  regional estate sale. I told his story in a blog post (link below).

Two weeks ago, I traded for a pair of Arabian foal bookends by Gladys Brown Edwards at a model horse collectors' gathering.

Their story is pretty straightforward. The foals are marked on the base "Dodge, Inc. Gladys Brown 1946."

Each foal is about 7" tall at the ears, and 6.25 inches wide at the base. Interestingly, they're about the same scale as the Arabian US Nationals trophy I'd found at an estate sale the weekend before. The adult Arabian trophy design originally dates to 1968. 

I had recently seen another design by Gladys of two Arabian foals  at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library (WKKAHL). It's in the collection of materials from the US Army Quartermaster Remount Depot in Pomona, California -- site of cereal magnate W. K. Kellogg's famous Arabian horse ranch. Gladys drew these foals for the cover of a printed program for an event celebrating the Pomona Remount's second anniversary, in October 1945.

Arabian foal illustration by Gladys Brown (Edwards), in the collection of 

the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, Cal Poly Pomona. Photo by the author.

A year later, in 1946, GBE's  Arabian foal bookend designs were copyrighted and produced by Dodge, Inc., which issued many of her other metal horse designs. 

So, three weekends ago, I found the US Nationals trophy -- designed by GBE. 

Two weekends ago, I found the Arabian foal bookends -- designed by GBE.

And this past weekend, I found one of GBE's "Classic Arabian" trophies at another estate sale.  

Here's the story I feel like I'm "supposed" to tell now. 

This particular trophy was in trouble. At some point in the past, it had been damaged. Two of its three "down" legs were broken at the ankle, and the metal base under the hooves had come loose from the wooden base that held the plaque commemorating the winning horse's award. Knowing its backstory, I took pity on it and brought it home.

The trophy design dates to 1946. Gladys and her then-husband Cecil Edwards called it the "Classic Arabian Stallion."

When the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library at Cal Poly Pomona had their "Becoming Gladys Brown Edwards" exhibit a few years ago, they showed one of the trophies with photos of its prototype. 

Photo by the author of a display in "Becoming Gladys Brown Edwards,"
W. K .Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, 2016-2017.

It's common to hear this piece referred to as "Islam," because the owners of the real stallion Islam, the Payne family, used the trophy top to market their horse, who was foaled in 1939.

Some online sources repeat the story that the stallion Islam was the inspiration for the GBE "Classic Arabian" trophy, but that's not the whole story.

Letters from Cecil Edwards, Gladys' then-husband, in the collection at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library explain that Gladys used several Arabian stallions to make this composite design. One was addressed to Mr. Kellogg himself, and is dated 1946.

Another letter, dated 1950, explained to Forrest Mars (of chocolate fame) that the Classic Arabian Stallion design was influenced by "the most impressive Arabian horses that were available" to Gladys at the time, including Islam, *Lotnik, Alyf, and others.

Islam (b. 1939, Gulastra x Nafud)

*Lotnik (gr. 1938, Opal x Mokka) (Polish)

Alyf (gr. 1938, Ronek x Fath)

The name of the metal GBE design might be confusing to model horse collectors, since Breyer also called one of its plastic figurines the "Classic Arabian Stallion." The two horses are roughly the same scale, but the difference in design (and material) is obvious. 

Gladys Brown Edwards "Classic Arabian" (1946), left;
Breyer "Classic Arabian Stallion" (1973), right

Breyer licensed the Hagen-Renaker, Inc. 1958 ceramic design for "Ferseyn," by Maureen Love, to produce their own Classic Arabian Stallion in 1973.

Breyer Classic Arabian stallion, left; Hagen-Renaker "Ferseyn," right

Ferseyn (gr. 1937, *Raseyn x *Ferda) 

Top-heavy, balanced precariously on three tiny hooves, 6.5 inches tall (off the base) and weighing in at almost 3.5 pounds by himself (without the base), the GBE Classic Arabian is rather tippy and prone to breakage. 

This is evident in a letter from Cecil and Gladys Brown Edwards to the influential English Arabian horse breeder, Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth, in 1948, a copy of which is at WKKAHL. 

The couple had mailed one of the "Classic Arabian" trophies to Lady Wentworth. She had written to tell them it had been damaged in the post. Her letter is not in the WKKAHL collection. (Note the misspelled the name of her stud, Crabbet Park, in the reply.) 

So Lady Wentworth, Gladys, and Cecil would have understood just how prone the "Classic Arabian" trophy top is to being broken, as was the one I found at the estate sale. 

The trophy was very popular among Arabian horse lovers around the United States. Here's a photo showing one of the trophies being awarded to Radamason in Michigan:

Here's a clipping from the Pomona, California Progress-Bulletin in October 1948, showing one of the trophies, mounted on an elaborate base, being used as the W. K. Kellogg Perpetual Trophy of the Arabian Horse Breeders of Southern California. 

Another collector has contacted me asking if she can obtain my broken Classic Arabian from the estate sale so she can restore it. Given its graceful design, and the piece's history, I know it will be well worth a try. 

____

For more information on Gladys Brown Edwards and her art, here are some links:

The "Finding Aid" for the Cecil and Gladys Brown Edwards Collection at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, which contains a good summary of her life and career:  

https://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/c8vd745z/

GBE "Farana" cowboy and horse design, part one:

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2017/06/farana-goes-home-part-one.html

Part Two:

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2017/07/farana-goes-home-part-two.html

Quarter Horse trophy designs by GBE:  

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2020/11/spirit-of-west-gladys-brown-edwards.html

*Orzel painting by GBE:

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2020/04/capturing-eagle-in-flight-orzel-by.html

Prewitt's fiberglass Quarter Horse:

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2020/09/prewitt-fiberglass-quarter-horse.html

"Parade Morgan" Bookends:

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

Morgan Horse Club of the West Trophy:  

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2022/07/sun-downs-morgan-horse-club-of-west.html

US Arabian Nationals Trophy: 

https://californiahorsehistory.blogspot.com/2023/04/us-arabian-nationals-trophy-by-gladys.html

Gladys Brown Edwards, Hagen-Renaker, and Maureen Love:  

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2019/12/miniature-menageries-history-and.html