The Arabian in Arabia

Plot

THE ARABIAN IN ARABIA
Author: Alexis Wrangel
Preface: Lieut. General Sir John Glubb, K.C.B.
Publisher: JA Allen, London
Date: 1962
Edition: 1st
Format: Hardback (green cloth); dustjacket (with repeated frontispiece illustration of 'Habib el Arab'); 18x25cm; 95pp; 580g packed.


PREFACE by:
Lieut. General Sir John Glubb, K.C.B.

As the distinguished writer of the Preface, who has spent the best part of a lifetime in the desert and the mountains beyond the Jordan says,

"To me, this is a nostalgic book, for I, like Baron Wrangel himself, was a member of the generation which grew up in a world of horses and survived into a world of jet airliners. This new age has introduced us to many wonders, indeed to many blessings, but it has also inflicted upon us losses which are irreparable, for nothing can atone for the bereavement suffered by the horseman.

"Baron Wrangel speaks with sympathy and understanding of the Arab horse. Even before the machine age, our way of life in England segregated us from our horses. Perhaps for twenty hours out of the twenty-four, our horses were tied up by the head gazing at blank white-washed walls. Such was not the way of life of the Arab horse, which shared the tent with its master's family. How often, sleeping the night as a guest in some Arab tent, have I woken up to find a mare standing over me or lying down beside me. The horses would move into the tent for shelter from wind or rain, but never would they place a foot on any of the recumbent sleepers.

"In the morning the horses would be turned out to graze, wandering alone across the desert, often out of sight of the tents. But as the sun sank into the west, the mares would come wandering back, each picking out her master's tent, and this even when the tribe was moving every day to fresh camping grounds.

"To-day, alas, as Baron Wrangel himself records, the Arab people no longer treasure their horses. As our author explains, the Arab mare was originally bred for war and, in a lesser degree, for sport. Nowadays tribal raids are a thing of the past and the Arab who can afford it keeps a car. Irreplaceably beautiful things--which we have jeopardized in exchange for air-travel, television and neon lighting. Baron Wrangel's little book is a deeply sympathetic elegy." --Mayfield, Sussex, 1961

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ALEXIS WRANGEL is the son of General Baron Peter Wrangel, former Commander-in-Chief of the White Russian Army 1919-1920.

He comes from a cavalry and horse breeding family; being on the father's side a descendant of the Swedish Field Marshal Wrangel, on the distaff side from the Cossacks of the Ukraine.

His uncle, Col. Ivanenko, was a member of the Russian imperial Horseshow team which won 3 times in a row the Prince of Wales Cup at Olympia 1911, 1912, 1913.

Alexis Wrangel is an equestrian pupil of the famous horseman General Alexander Rodzianko and of Captain Littauer, teacher and author in the United States. With the latter he wrote the book "Common Sense Horseman­ship."

He served in the United States Air Force from 1950 to 1954 and is now with Tolstoy Foundation, Inc., as Director in the Middle East.

Show-jumping, hunting and racing have been his main interests, but after coming to the Middle East he became interested in the Arab horse, its history and the lore of fact and legend surrounding it, hence this book.