Tag: Horse Tales

BAZY

bazy

The horse world has lost a piece of history as the breeder and owner of Al-Marah Arabians, Bazy Tankersley, passed away yesterday at her home in Tucson, AZ. Bazy was a founding sponsor of HorseTales.org, family friend and inspiration to my father with her decades of knowledge about bloodlines, conformation and training. As she said recently, “I was blessed to do what I loved and now (getting older) to remember the names of all my horses.” Mrs. Tankersely had thousands of friends – four and two footed.
Here’s a video of her at the farm

And the obit from the local paper;

Ruth “Bazy” McCormick Tankersley, renowned Arabian horse breeder and the founder of St. Gregory College Preparatory School, died Tuesday at her home. She was 91.
Tankersley bought her first purebred Arabian horse when she was 19 years old and opened Al-Marah Arabians in her early 20s when she and her husband moved to Tucson in 1941, according to Star archives.
Tankersley moved the ranch to Maryland in the 1950s but returned to Tucson in the mid-1970s.
In 2001, Tankersley bequeathed the 85-acre property at 4101 N. Bear Canyon Road to the University of Arizona, which will continue to use the property as a working ranch.
Tankersley also helped found horse breeder organizations, created a program to train young horse lovers and was a supporter of Therapeutic Riding of Tucson, known as TROT, a program that helps children with disabilities ride horses.
“You see, I come from that old-fashioned background of noblesse oblige: If you’re born with money, you have an obligation to do good works for others,” Tankersley said in a biography. “Only in recent years did I come to feel that through Arabian horses I might do more for my fellows than in any other way.”
Tankersley was born in Chicago in 1921. Her father, Medill McCormick, was a U.S. senator from Illinois and her mother, Ruth Hanna McCormick, was an Illinois congresswoman. Both parents were also in the newspaper industry.
Tankersley’s uncle, Robert R. McCormick, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, appointed her publisher of the Washington Times-Herald. Tankersley wrote a column for the Tribune after the Times-Herald was purchased by the Washington Post in 1954.
Continuing her mother’s passion for education, Tankersley founded two schools in Maryland and St. Gregory in Tucson.
She donated millions of dollars to the school and gave an annual donation of $100,000 to be used for scholarships, according to Star archives.
Tankersley was a board member of several organizations in Tucson, including the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, where she served as president in the late 1970s.
“Bazy was an enormously generous person and I got involved with many causes in my life here in Tucson and whenever I needed help financial or just good support, I could turn to Bazy, she was just enormously generous,” said George Rosenberg, one of Tankersley’s longtime friends and former editor of the Tucson Citizen.
Though Tankersley had a privileged life, her longtime friend Marty Lynch said she remained very down to earth.
“She was the most genuine, normal person I’d ever known,” Lynch said. “She was interested in people, in animals, in the world and had the background of being part of all of them.”
A memorial service for Tankersley is scheduled for Feb. 25 at 1:30 p.m. at St. Alban’s Episcopal Church, 3738 N. Old Sabino Canyon Road.

Christmas Show Black Stallion Style!

HorseTales.org Christmas Show
HorseTales.org
Christmas Show

 

 

 

 

 

All the books and more!

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A teacher writes;
I personally read The Black Stallion with my students this school year. I, myself, had never read it. In the beginning, I was worried because a few of my boys were disappointed that it wasn’t “action” packed like the back cover states. By chapter 3, they were in love with the book and so was I. They were eager to read it, and couldn’t wait for the next chapter. As a class, we fell in love with the relationship that Alec had with the Black Stallion. To be able to witness one today was exactly what they hoped for.

Read on!

tim

BIG BLACK FRIDAY STALLION SPECIAL!!!

To celebrate the start of the wonderful CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY time of year we are offering that special gift someone you know and love needs to have in their home! By giving the timeless GIFT of a piece of HISTORY, the TREASURE of the desert;
BUCEPHALUS for $49.95 (20% off – our lowest price ever!!)
plus ++ BLACK STALLION hardback book – classic edition
by adding a small $3 donation to help children learn to read.
This is only going to be available for a very short time and comes with priority shipping (2-3 days in the US). Give the ones you love a classic gift they can leave to their children or relive the days when they ran wild like a Black Stallion!!
Give the gift that helps us all – READING – with a small gift to Horse Tales Literacy Project and make a  difference . Ride through Black Friday on a charging BLACK STALLION!!
Thanks for Reading and helping children learn to read!!
Tim

A dozen stories about horses

Trying to catch up from the weekend … funny how fun can cost so much – here’s the next book / chapter … maybe you’ve already read it but take a look, it’s my favorite;
The countryside through which they were now driving was heavy with green fields of tall cane, but occasionally there would be open pasture land with lush grass upon which cattle, goats and horses were grazing. Steve had thought it best to wait awhile before mentioning his desire to visit Azul Island, but the sight of the horses caused him to consider bringing up the subject at once. What’s the sense of putting it off? he thought. I like Antago all right, but only as a place from which to get to Azul Island. I’ve only a little over two weeks, and I might as well find out now if Pitch knows how I can get there.
Pitch had been quiet for a while but now he turned to Steve. “Steve,” he asked, “are you still interested in horses? I remember that as a youngster you sold me about ten subscriptions to a magazine I never wanted just because you were going to win a pony.” Pitch’s tone was hopeful again, as though he was still striving to find something of real interest to Steve.
“Yes,” Steve replied, “very much so. I’ve ridden a lot during the past year.”
“Good,” said Pitch. “I was hoping you would be.” He paused a moment and Steve noticed an intentness in his pale blue eyes that hadn’t been there before. “I’d like to tell you something,” Pitch went on, “that’s been of great interest to me of late.” He paused again, and Steve waited impatiently for him to continue.
“Yes, Pitch,” Steve had to say finally. “What is it?”
“Do you recall the picture I sent your father several weeks ago? The one of our rounding up the horses on Azul Island?”
Did he remember it! “Yes, Pitch, I do. That’s why I …”
But Pitch interrupted with evident eagerness to tell his story. “It was the only time I’ve been to Azul Island,” he began. “Oh, I’d heard about it, of course; Tom spoke of it occasionally. And before I arrived here he had written me once or twice about wrangling horses on a small island not far from Antago. But,” and Pitch smiled, “you know I’m pretty much of a greenhorn about things like that, and I never really understood any of it. That is, not until I went to Azul Island with Tom and the others.”
Pitch paused and glanced at Steve. Then, as though pleased with the boy’s obvious interest, he went on: “I remember that we all looked upon our visit to Azul Island as very much like a day’s outing. And we spent the time there imagining ourselves as cowboys. I couldn’t help thinking, as we ran after the horses, how strange we’d look to any people from our western states. All of us, of course, were wearing our shorts and had on our sun hats because the day was extremely hot. We had no trouble chasing the horses into the canyon, because the island is very narrow at that point; and twenty of us, walking about thirty yards apart, I would say, easily forced the horses into the canyon. Tom was in charge because he was the only one who knew anything about horses. The rest of us were plantation men, laborers, fishermen and the like with no experience whatsoever in this business of wrangling horses. However, as I’ve said, there was little to it, because Tom told us what to do, and it was he who selected thirty of the most likely looking animals to take back with us to Antago.”
Pitch stopped, thought a moment, then said in an apologetic tone, “I must tell you, Steve, that the horses are small, scrawny beasts and not very much to look at, really. But if you’d seen the desolateness of that small bit of the island, with the sparse grass and only the few, meager fresh-water holes, you’d wonder that they’d survived at all.”
Pitch paused again before adding with renewed enthusiasm, “But they have, Steve! Their breed has survived for centuries on Azul Island!” His words came faster now. “It was on the way back from the island, with the animals crowded into the barge we towed behind our launch, that I first learned of it. I was sitting next to the photographer of our weekly newspaper, and I mentioned that I had been surprised to find so many horses on Azul Island. He mentioned, very casually, that these horses were believed to be descended from the ones that the Spanish Conquistadores rode centuries ago! I tried to learn more, but that was all he knew. His editor had told him, he said. It was just an assignment to him. He wasn’t really interested. It shocked me, actually, because I’ve always been so very much interested in Spanish colonial history that I suppose I assumed everyone else would be. To think that here was a breed of horse the Conquistadores rode, and which had survived all these hundreds of years, and no one—not even Tom, who knew of my interest—had thought it important enough to tell me!

the rest of the story – 12th book chapter

ride on! — tim

… AND ONE MORE STORY!!!

Here’s an interesting article on the start of the Black Stallion Literacy Project (now known as Horse Tales Literacy Project).
It was published in Arabian Horse Magazine and is about how the program developed as a non-profit.

It’s about the most fun you can have (bringing horses, books and kids together) & we  hope you can experience – the experience at Horse Tales Literacy Project!

Too bad sister Alice and brother Steve have never been interested in, involved with or even seen my program in 12 years :( Guess that’s what livin’ for the city (NYC) will do to you, as Stevie Wonder sang way back when!!! You gotta take a look at this (with Ray Charles).

Whole article (pdf) Arabian Horse Magazine