Talk:Godolphin Arabian

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I wonder where the information comes from that the Godolphin Arabian was bred in Yemen. Several web sites cite that he was a gift from the Bey of Tunis ... not, I think, directly to the French King, but to someone else in his court. By several accounts, he was referred to as the "Barb", which I presume means he came from the Barbary Coast ... again, Morocco.

A delightful children's book, King of the Wind, reports the story of the Godolphin Arabian (following a partly-fictionalized account published in France, but available now in English, in the mid-1800s, by a man named Eugene Sue. The author of King of the Wind was Marguerite Henry, who also authored Misty of Chincoteague (about a real pony on that island in America), and Born to Trot (about Rosalind, a champion pacer). King of the Wind adds a sympathetic deaf-mute groom, who travels with "Sham" from Morocco through his many tribulations in France and England, before he became famous.

Marilyn Justman mjustman@ricis.com