Once Upon an Island - Al Hamseh

From Catalina to Canada to Colorado, the story of the Arabian mare Al Hamseh

In my quest to fill in every single detail about the stories of the horses and horsemen and women that lived and worked with the Arabian horses on Catalina Island, I find myself looking at every single caption from a photo with renewed interest. I've created a gigantic binder of all the mentions I can find related to the descendants of Kaaba, Bakir, Wardamar Alla and the other stallions that produced for Philip Wrigley. And one of the first things I should mention is that while all the horses bred here are listed as being bred by Philip K. Wrigley, Wrigley family history firmly states that the breeding decisions were all made by Helen Wrigley. But that's another story to be told.

If I were to tell the story of the Catalina Island Arabians based on a timeline, we can think of the Al Hamseh's chapter as starting when she was born at El Rancho Escondido in 1936. She was part of the first foal crop managed by Millard Johnson, and would have left the El Rancho Escondido before the tenure of the reknowned El Rancho Escondido trainer, Joe Dawkins.

The first interesting thing that I noted from her records is that she is not sired by the first Catalina Island stallion, Kaaba. By 1935 the Wrigley's were already thinking about slowly expanding their gene pool, so in 1935 Ismalia (Nuri Pasha x Bint Yildez) and Kholey (*Nuri Pasha x *Ana) were sent across the channel to WK Kellogg's ranch in Pomona. Ismailia was bred to Raseyn and Kholey was bred to Hasan. Kholey produced a colt (which was later gelded) and Ismailia produce a filly which was named Al Hamseh.

The 1953 Arabian Horse Yearbook includes a rather unflattering photo of Al Hamseh but the caption indicates that she was still competing at the age of 17! This fourth place in Trail while owned by Dr. Paul Tramp of Loveland, Colorado.

But I think that this photo of her, shown during a rodeo competition put on for the Chicago Cubs at El Rancho Escondido deserves a place in the records!

The Chicago Cubs held spring training on Catalina Island from 1921-1941 and this photo falls somewhere towards the end of that timeline when the staff at El Rancho Escondido held a rodeo for the entertainment of the Cubs!

Thanks to the Fort Collins Coloradoan newspaper (archives available online), we also know that not only did this well-traveled mare place in trail at the All Arabian Horse Show in Denver, she was also ridden by Dr. Tramps' nephew in Western Pleasure and ran barrels at the same show.

Researching Arabians of this era can become a bit of a detective story. Because while her record on AHA's Arab Datasource displays this photo of her from 1953 with owner listed as Dr. Paul Tramp, the data available never records her as ever being transferred out of the name of Philip Wrigley.

However, I've learned that if you look up the production record of a mare, you can get some clues as to her subsequent owners, and sure enough that is how one can track Al Hamseh from El Rancho Escondido on Catalina Island, to becoming the first horse in the Canadian Arabian Horse Registry, to producing five foals for Dr. Lloyd C. Moss (shown as being in Arizona) and then ending her career with Dr. Paul C. Tramp of Loveland, Colorado.