Davenport Arabian Horse

The Davenport bloodline was established by Homer Davenport acting mainly in the decades before and after 1900—from 1893 to 1912.

Davenport was a leading political cartoonist, a newspaper man, a showman, friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Buffalo Bill and others, an author, an adventurer, a self-educated man. Especially he was a horseman who was deeply dedicated to the native horse of Arabia.

In 1893, Davenport first saw Arabian horses at the World's Columbian Exposition, usually known as the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. His interest in these horses (which had been directly imported from Arabia under the auspices of Sultan Abdul Hamid, Emperor of the Ottoman Empire) was intense. He ended up owning several of them.

In 1906, his friend, Theodore Roosevelt, then President of the United States, sponsored a trip by Davenport to Arabia to purchase Arabian horses. Davenport obtained 27 horses directly from Bedouin sources. They were the major exportation from Arabia of authenticated Arabian horses known to the Arabian Bedouin of that time.

In America, Davenport, in partnership with Peter Bradley of Hingham Stock Farm, formed a stud of these horses. The horses of the Davenport importation, to which may have been added minor elements from the World's Fair horses, provided a major part of the foundation stock of American Arabian breeding, where they are still important today.

Since the 1920s, they have been called "Davenport Arabians."

"Davenport Arabians" can also be defined in terms of their physical form. Like their desert ancestors, they are a moderate-sized horse of 14 to 15 hands. Their movement is suitable for dressage or advanced western riding. They show ability in endurance competition. Davenports have fine skin, big eyes, width between the jaws, large cranial boxes, and friendly, amenable dispositions. They embody several different types of the Arabian horse that were present in Arabia, from a muscular well-balanced, moderately upright sort to a more upright, lighter bodied, elegant type. They are unexcelled as companion horses. At the same time they have enough spunk for serious training. Experienced horsemen from the U.S., Canada, Holland, Germany, Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia have commented on Davenport horses from Craver Farms as illustrative of the authentic Bedouin Arabian horse.