"It is often indicated that impressions made on young people carry through during their entire lifetime, and certainly this was true of Harry Harness, who was raised on a ranch at Roberts, Montana, where horses furnished transportation and 'horse power' for ranch operations. Harry and his brother, Bob, had much experience in this way and in the case of Harry, at least, interest continues on to the present time even though many years intervened from the time they left the ranch in Montana.

Harry and his wife, Katherine, have an Arabian horse ranch near El Cajon, California, and from a very modest beginning they have become well known in the Arabian horse world. Katherine does much of the work with the horses and their three boys also aid materially in the care and feeling of the Arabians. Many people stop by to see the horses and Katherine serves as hostess and guide on these occasions. Both Mr. and Mrs. Harness ride in parades as well as participate in horse shows.

The Harness Arabian Ranch is located ten miles east of El Cajon on Highway 80 at 15651 Dell View. A good number of horses of various ages are on hand at all times, including riding and show animals as well as foundation breeding stock. Their first purebred Arabian mare was purchased from the Pomona Quartermaster Depot (Remount), former Kellogg Ranch, this being Diana (Farana x Hazzadina). Diana was in foal to the famous Polish-bred horse *Lotnik and produced the Harness' first foal Rommel, now one of their senior stallions and sire of several fine fillies. The next purchase was Ma Ahla (Sahiby x Ghrazal) which was in foal to Al Farabi, producing Al Sirat, also one of their present stallions. Murtah (Sanad x Carshena) was purchased at the same time, and bred to Rommel, produced Rose of Tra Lee, winner of many blue ribbons. Murtah was later sold to Raymond Ashton of Kaysville, Utah. All three of these foundation mares won many ribbons in the filly and mare classes during the years they were shown. Ma Ahla was trained for western use after her purchase and at the Fall Show in 1947 at Devonshire Downs won the Western Pleasure Class, the first of a long string of such wins.

Al Sirat has participated in many of the finest parades in Southern California, the 1951 Tournament of Roses being his first parade just before he was three years old, and he has been in this spectacular event in Pasadena for the past seven years. In the 1960 parade he led the group of purebred chestnut Arabians "under silver," and has been the division leader on several other occasions.

Redwing (Al Sirat x Diana) won a blue at her first show (Southern Nevada All-Arabian) as a yearling in 1956, repeating this win that fall at the Southern California show. The next year she was reserve champion at Las Vegas but in the summer she suffered a severe leg injury in which the front tendon of her left hind leg was cut out from the hock to the top of the hoof. This ended her show career. However, with the courage of a fine purebred she learned to use the leg and can now run and play with the best of them. It took over a year for the injury to heal and cover the bone with skin and flesh. High hopes are held for her foals and she is now a member of the broodmare band.

The broodmares include, besides Diana, Ma Ahla, Rose of Tra Lee and Redwing, the following Arabians: Ankarita, Faasarouf, Zamajwa's Nanni and Mounigha (on lease from Mr. and Mrs. W.R. Hearst, Jr.). The following fillies will eventually join the broodmare band: Sun Danns, Rose of Shannon, and the 1960 filly by Roayas out of Ankarita.

Rahmoun, the last colt sired by the great Maynesboro-bred stallion Rahas, is leased by the Harness family from Mr. and Mrs. Hearst, and a new purchase is the colt Asil Altair, bred by Alice Payne. Silvertip (Ibn Rasraff x Diane) was sold to H.P. McNeil of El Cajon, and has been awarded a certificate of eligibility to compete in the National Championship classes at Estes Park and The Canadian National classes at Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

In 1949, when Harrison Cutler was manager of the Del Mar Horse Show, Harry succeeded in getting a Native Costume class for Arabians in the show for the first time as a $500 stake. It went over well with ten or twelve entries. The next year Harry Marrel, manager of the horse show at the Indio Date Festival asked Harry to get together an Arabian costume class for the Riverside County Fair as their theme was "Arabian Nights." This again was a successful class and from these two costume events originated the highly colorful classes in Native Costume seen in All-Arabian shows and others since that time.

Each year since 1949 Del Mar has held Arabian classes in the fair and in 1959 had an All-Arabian day with halter classes in the morning and performance classes in the afternoon. This year the classes are still bigger and better, and will mark the first time a California fair has put on a Class A show under AHSA rules. The Del Mar Horse Show is the largest open show in the United States, the 1959 show having something over 4,000 entries, more than double the number for the next largest show at Devon, Pennsylvania.

Harry Harness helped organize the Arabian Horse Association International and was secretary of that organization during its first year. Harry and Katherine helped form the Arabian Horse Club of San Diego County, and Harry was president for the first three years of this club, which later became the Arabian Horse Association of the Desert, of which he is currently a director.

Harry is an AHSA recognized judge in Arabian; Saddle and Fine Harness; Parade; Western; Palomino and Morgan divisions, and has judged at numerous open shows as well as at All-Arabian shows. Some of the latter include Southern California Spring Show, Northern California Spring Show, Utah, MAHO, and Golden Gate Northern California Arabian Show.

Mr. and Mrs. Harness have contributed their full share in the development of Arabian breeding enterprise in the United States and they deserve their share of credit from all those interested in the Arabian horse in this country today."