The Maynesboro Stud (1912-1933)
Founded by, William Robinson Brown (1875 - 1955)
William Robinson Brown was one of a number of American businessmen who lived at the time of the Blunts and Lady Wentworth and had a passion for the Arabian horse. Moreover, he, like others, were passionate advocates of introducing pure Arabian blood into local horse stock and infantry horses to improve their strength, stamina and temperament. Bearing in mind in these times, horses weren’t merely an animal one kept solely for pleasure, they were working or cavalry horses with very demanding tasks to accomplish.
Brown, like the others, also travelled to the Middle East to look for quality horses to purchase straight from the desert. It is quite amazing how so many, busy, well educated, wealthy people put their lives on the line to travel great distances in harsh conditions in order to seek out these horses. Bear in mind that the Bedouins rarely sold their purebred horses to anyone let alone outsiders from Europe or America and the tribes were constantly at war or carrying out raiding missions.
W.R. Brown was a very important and significant breeder of purebred Arabian horses, several of which came from Crabbet and his legacy lives on today amongst bloodlines that can still be traced back to his Maynesboro stud.
Timeline
1912
1918
1921
1923
1929
1932
1933
1936
Founded the Maynesboro Stud near Berlin, New Hampshire with the purchase of Abu Zeyd from his elder brother Herbert (who had purchased the house from the estate of Homer Davenport). Brown acquired a further 10 mares from the Davenport estate
Purchased 20 horses from Crabbet stud (including Berk), although only 17 made it to the USA. He paid £2727 for the entire lot as Lady Wentworth was desperate to raise funds to settle a bitter dispute with her father Wilfrid Blunt. This was considered cheap - but is the equivalent of £176,750 at today's prices.
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Also in 1918, he set up a test ride in which he had two of his horses travel from Berlin to Bethel, Maine, a distance of 162 miles (261 km). Following the test, Brown helped organise the first U.S. Official Cavalry Endurance Ride in 1919, which was won by his mare Ramla. He won the race for 3 of the next 5 years.
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Brown became president of the Arabian Horse Club of America, a position he held until 1939.
Travelled to Europe with the US Army Remount Service. He visited Crabbet but purchased horses from France in 1921 and 1922. Note: Spencer Borden shared Brown's interest in Arabians as remount bloodstock.
Purchased two more Crabbet horses from England although not from Lady Wentworth. He acquired Astraled from another US breeder (Astraled had been imported to the USA in 1909).
Travelled to Egypt and Syria with Carl Raswan in search of desert bred horses, but apparently they didn't get along and the 5 horses they purchased didn't make it back to the USA.
Stud manager was sent to Egypt and he purchased two stallions (Nasr and Zarife) and four mares, two of which were daughters of Mahroussa whom he described as 'the most beautiful mare he ever saw'.
The horses of the Stud were sold in an effort to raise funds to keep the 'Brown Company' solvent during the Great Depression. They were bought by the Kellogg Ranch, William Randolph's Stud and J.M. Dickenson of Travellers Rest Stud
Brown published his book 'The Horse of the Desert'
Further reference
Book: The Horse of the Desert, W.R. Brown
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