FREE THE BYERLEY TURK: THE TRUE STORY OF THE FIRST THOROUGHBRED PDF Jeremy James | 352 pages | 30 May 2013 | Merlin Unwin Books | 9781873674987 | English | Shropshire, United Kingdom The Byerley Turk: The Incredible Story of the World's First Thoroughbred by Jeremy James If this is one of the weirdest books I've ever read, it's also one of the most endearing. The "first The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred goes by a range of names, initially Azarax or "son of fire", and recalls a whole range of literary horse heroes: the Silver Brumby, the Little White Horse, the runaway colt from old Regret and the "small and weedy beast" on which the man from Snowy River rounded him up and brought him home. The Byerley Turk was a real horse, but also the stuff of legend; here his life is fictionalised but also scrupulously researched. The author, Jeremy James, is a tough adventurer-scholar, someone who can travel across Europe on horseback and handle lipizzaner stallions in a war zone, but who can also spend hours in library basements patiently blowing the dust off ancient documents. It's commonly accepted in horse racing that the lineage of all thoroughbred racehorses can be traced to three foundation sires about the end of the 17th century, of whom the Byerley Turk is the earliest. If you've watched the running of the Melbourne Cup over the past few years you will have seen one of his direct descendants, the great Irish stayer Vinnie Roe. Born in a turbulent region at a turbulent time, the bay stallion from the Balkans was taken to England after the Siege of Buda inwhen his life began to be historically documented. Up to this point, James very skilfully puts together a colourful, emotive story of how and where such a horse might have been born and trained, using historical sources documenting the practices, the military equipment and the losses and victories of the Ottoman army. The first of the two human heroes of this story is the Turkish "seyis" or groom who trains and cares for Azarax from the portentous night of his birth, for the colt's distinguished fate is over-determined: he is born in a thunderstorm on the night of a fire, with a rare pattern on his hide that portends "safety in battle", his birth date the Night of Justification when the Angel of Death inscribes his register. The seyis is responsible for the training of Azarax and goes about this in Islamic fashion, grounded in respectful gentleness towards animals rather than the brutality and intuitive connection of perceiving them as machines and slaves: "Descartes's proposition that animals were machine-like in their responses destroyed Western horsemanship for centuries," James says in a footnote. The opposing view also has its counterparts in contemporary Western storytelling, from National Velvet to The Horse Whisperer. The seyis finds his successor in Colonel Robert Byerley, whom he acknowledges as his The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred and equestrian equal, and to whom he hands over the care of the magical stallion after both horse and seyis are captured and taken to England. Under the care and ownership of Byerley, the horse with all his careful training and previous experience as a war-horse in the east provides inspiration for Byerley's men at the Battle of the Boyne. The character of the seyis is based on a documented, albeit unnamed, figure from the stables of the Ottoman sultan in Istanbul, but the biography of Robert Byerley is well-documented. To those of us for whom the very words military history have soporific qualities, this is a palatable way to learn a bit of it: to follow a colourful, well-told story of the life of one extraordinary horse through the intricate embroidery of European history is to learn, with surprise, that two essentially religious but otherwise very different conflicts, the Ottoman Empire's Siege of Buda and the Battle of the Boyne, took place within 10 years of each other, The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred the opposite margins of Europe. As well as his skills as horseman and scholar, James has a lovely way with words; his prose is often ornately but skilfully bejewelled, as The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred the book's Byzantine background and its celebration of beauty and skill. The Sydney Morning Herald. Save Log inregister or subscribe to save articles for later. License this article. Byerley Turk - Wikipedia The Byerley Turk c. The biographical details of the stallion are the subject of much speculation. Other sources speculate he was one of three Turkish stallions captured at the Battle of Vienna. According to early records, Captain Byerley was nearly captured while reconnoitering the enemy, "owing his safety to the superior speed of his horse". As a general rule, the spelling of a name registered with the Jockey Club is considered definitive, even if it is an obvious error. Most sources consider the correct spelling of the horse's name to follow the correct spelling of the owner's name, Byerley. The Byerley Turk was a dark brown or black [1] horse of unknown breeding, but described in historic accounts as an Arabian. InCaptain Byerley married his cousin, Mary Wharton sole heir to the estate of Goldsboroughnear KnaresboroughNorth YorkshireEngland and moved to live with her at her family home of Goldsborough Hall. Goldsborough Hall is now a private family home that offers accommodation, which includes the commemorative Byerley suite. He did not cover many well-bred mares, [11] but his most significant sons include:. The Byerley Turk also sired several highly influential daughters, most of whose names do not survive. They are generally classified by the female family that they belong to:. The Byerley sire line persisted by producing a major sire every few generations, whose sons would create branches of their own. Most of these branches have died out over the course of time. The line of descent to the present day is as follows: [20] [21] [22]. Thus the continuation of the Byerley Turk Thoroughbred sire line via Herod now largely depends on the descendants of Ahonooraseveral of whom are at stud in Europe. Note that focusing on the sire line underestimates the ongoing influence of the Byerley Turk: detailed pedigree analysis shows that he has a higher percentage of blood in the modern Thoroughbred than either of his fellow foundation sires through other lines of descent. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Byerley Turk descendants click to expand. Retrieved The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred 2, Animal Genetics. Retrieved June 3, Apex Publishing Limited. The New York Times. Retrieved 21 February Retrieved 2 June Retrieved 5 June Retrieved 3 June Retrieved 4 June Retrieved Retrieved 29 December Archived from the original PDF on Categories : Arabian racehorses Individual Arabian and part-Arabian horses 17th-century individual animals Byerley Turk sire line Foundation horse sires. Namespaces Article Talk. Views Read Edit View history. Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred Upload file. Download as PDF Printable version. Godolphin Arabian - Wikipedia The Godolphin Arabian c. He was named after his best-known owner, Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin. The Godolphin Arabian was foaled about in Yemen and moved several times before reaching England. At some early age, he was exported, probably via Syria, to the stud of the bey of Tunis. From there he was given to Louis XV of France in Not valued by his new French owner, it is believed he was used as a carthorse. The horse was then imported from France by Edward Coke and sent to his stud at Longford Hall, Derbyshirewhere he remained until the death of his owner in He was bequeathed to Roger Williams, "proprietor of the St. James's Coffee House ", [2] who inherited Coke's stallions. He was bought by the 2nd Earl of Godolphin, [3] and placed at his stud at Babraham[ citation needed ] Cambridgeshire, until his death on Christmas Day A stone marks his grave under the archway of the stable block of Wandlebury House. The Godolphin Arabian was a bay colour with some white on the off heel behind. There never was a horse… so well entitled to get racers as the Godolphin Arabian…his shoulders were deeper, and lay farther into his back, than those of any horse yet seen. Behind the shoulders, there was but a The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred small space where the muscles of his loins rose exceedingly high, broad, and expanded, which were inserted into his quarters with greater strength and power than in any horse. Controversy exists over the ancestry of this horse; some writers referred to him as a Barbbut Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth of the Crabbet Arabian Stud concludes that it is most widely believed that he was an Arabian or had primarily Arabian lineage. Whyte in the History of the British Turfrefers to the horse The Byerley Turk: The True Story of the First Thoroughbred "The Godolphin Barb, or as he has been improperly calledthe Godolphin Arabian" emphasis added [8] before further clarifying, "he was long considered an Arabian, although his points resembled more those of the highest breed of Barbs. There was also an argument raised that he was actually a Turkomenmerely called an Arabian in order to raise the stud fee. The Earl of Godolphin referred to the horse as an Arabian, and he was described as such by the painter George Stubbs.