SIRE LINE–SKOWRONEK PART 4, *RASEYN AMERICAN LEGENDS

*Raseyn was foaled in 1923 at Crabbet Park. Despite being grey and just 14.3 hands tall, he was one of the less typical Skowronek sons. For one thing, he was heavily pigmented, being nearly black as a colt and turning grey very slowly as he matured. He also appears to have been not quite as pretty as many other Skowronek get, although he was certainly very handsome. Both the dark pigmentation and the larger head were legacies of his dam, the bay mare Rayya, who, based on her photo, does not appear to have been a great beauty. As far as that goes, Skowronek did his usual reliable job of improving the offspring’s type. Rayya was a daughter of the *Astraled son Rustem, which may explain both the dark coloring and the plainish head. If not for *Raseyn, no one would remember her. He was Rayya’s only foal that bred on; his full brother was gelded and none of her daughters had any registered foals.

*Raseyn as a young horse at the Kellogg Ranch.

At the age of three, *Raseyn was sold to W.K. Kellogg along with a group of 17 other Crabbet Arabians. He was the first Skowronek son to come to the U.S.; actually one of two, the other being *Raswan who was on the same transport. Apparently Mr. Kellogg valued *Raswan, who was certainly the prettier of the two, more highly. But as *Raswan died not long after arriving in the U.S., without siring a single foal on American soil, it fell to *Raseyn to pioneer the Skowronek line in the United States.

*Raseyn was first put under saddle and became one of the stars of the Kellogg Ranch’s Sunday shows, where the Kellogg Arabians were presented to the public in a broad variety of displays. *Raseyn was shown over jumps and also as a 5-gaited horse. He was one of the rare Arabians that are able to perform the amble and the rack, as were some of his get, which made for a spectacular display.

As a breeding horse, *Raseyn sired a total of 135 foals, which was quite a lot for the 1930s/1940s. They included not only significant broodmares such as Nafa and Angyl, the dam of Bay-Abi, but also several stallions who established their own branches of his line.

Ronek, foaled in 1931 out of the