Over the years, breeders have made various proposals for trying to improve the soundness, stamina, or speed of the Thoroughbred by outcrossing to other breeds. None were more dedicated to this idea than the nineteenth-century Kentucky horseman Alexander Keene Richards, who spent much of his life and his fortune in securing the finest possible Arabian horses in hopes of creating a better racehorse through judicious crosses to Thoroughbreds. In Reinventing the American Thoroughbred: The Arabian Adventures of Alexander Keene Richards, Gary O’Dell tells the story of Richards’s quest, which took him from the plantations of Kentucky and Mississippi into the deserts of the Near East to find the horses that could fulfill his dream.
Richards does not fit easily into the mold of twenty-first century sensibilities, and O’Dell does not shy away from the complexities of Richards’s life. He focuses more on making Richards understandable than on trying to fit him into any of the polarities so common in our own day. Using contemporary sources in outlining Richards’s background and education, O’Dell shows how he became the man he was. The author then follows Richards’s travels, which led him through the hardships and dangers of nineteenth-century international travel and of navigating unfamiliar cultures and customs in an area well known for tribal warfare. Richards spared no expense in bringing back the finest Arabians possible for his experiment with crossbreeding, and he also played a key role in furthering the career of his close friend and traveling companion, the artist Edward Troye, whose paintings of both Richards's cherished Arabians and of the scenes the two men encountered while traveling in the Holy Land and Syria helped cement his reputation as the most important American painter of his time.
Ultimately, Richards’s quest was doomed, both by his misunderstanding of the Thoroughbred’s origins and by the post-Civil War shift away from heat racing that mirrored what he had already witnessed while observing racing in England. Nevertheless, Richards was more than a failed visionary; he was an important player in both the development of the American Thoroughbred and in the explosive political and cultural developments of his time. As O’Dell portrays him, he was neither icon, saint, nor sinner; he was, in O’Dell’s words, “a fascinating man who led a remarkable life.” O’Dell’s account of that “remarkable life” is a worthy addition to the libraries of both equine historians and of readers interested in the expanding and rapidly changing world of the nineteenth century.
Richards does not fit easily into the mold of twenty-first century sensibilities, and O’Dell does not shy away from the complexities of Richards’s life. He focuses more on making Richards understandable than on trying to fit him into any of the polarities so common in our own day. Using contemporary sources in outlining Richards’s background and education, O’Dell shows how he became the man he was. The author then follows Richards’s travels, which led him through the hardships and dangers of nineteenth-century international travel and of navigating unfamiliar cultures and customs in an area well known for tribal warfare. Richards spared no expense in bringing back the finest Arabians possible for his experiment with crossbreeding, and he also played a key role in furthering the career of his close friend and traveling companion, the artist Edward Troye, whose paintings of both Richards's cherished Arabians and of the scenes the two men encountered while traveling in the Holy Land and Syria helped cement his reputation as the most important American painter of his time.
Ultimately, Richards’s quest was doomed, both by his misunderstanding of the Thoroughbred’s origins and by the post-Civil War shift away from heat racing that mirrored what he had already witnessed while observing racing in England. Nevertheless, Richards was more than a failed visionary; he was an important player in both the development of the American Thoroughbred and in the explosive political and cultural developments of his time. As O’Dell portrays him, he was neither icon, saint, nor sinner; he was, in O’Dell’s words, “a fascinating man who led a remarkable life.” O’Dell’s account of that “remarkable life” is a worthy addition to the libraries of both equine historians and of readers interested in the expanding and rapidly changing world of the nineteenth century.