Bazy Tankersley
Bazy Tankersley

Renowned US Crabbet arabian breeder Bazy Tankersley died on February 5 at the age of 91 in Tucson, Arizona.

Ruth “Bazy” McCormick Tankersley bought her first purebred Arabian horse when she was 19 and opened Al-Marah Arabians in her early 20s when she and her husband moved to Tucson in 1941. She was particularly dedicated to the Crabbet Arabian horse.

In the early days, she bought Indraff for $10,000. He was the first son of Arabian legend *Raffles (Skowronek x Rifala) and out of the Raseem daughter *Indaia.

In an interview, she said she had strict rules regarding the handling of her broodmares. “If a mare doesn’t produce better than herself, I don’t keep her. If she does, I still want to sell her when she is around 12, to keep her better daughters, and let her go do some good for somebody else.”

Of the arabian temperament, she said: “Disposition is undoubtedly inherited. I have a rule here, that I have to be able to walk in the stall of any stallion and put on a stable halter with no chain and lead that stallion out without any problem. If not, he is a gelding. I don’t care how good he is – because I think there is no excuse for an Arabian not to have a superb disposition.”

After the death of Britain’s Lady Wentworth of the famed Crabbet Stud in the late 1950s, Tankersley imported the largest single consignment of Arabians ever made from England.

In 2001, Tankersley bequeathed her 85-acre property at 4101 N. Bear Canyon Road to the University of Arizona.

Two books have been written about Tankersley and Al-Marah Arabians: “.. And ride away singing“, by Mary-Jane Parkinson, and “A field of Arabians“, by Suzanne and Jake Page.

 

Obituary

 

 

Crabbet breeder Bazy Tankersley dies

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