Farana Arabian Stallion Photo Gallery and Biography

Sired by *Nasik (Rijm x Narghileh)
Out of *Farasin (Rasim x *Ferda)
AHR #708
06/05/1929 Bay Arabian, Deceased 1949
Historical Stallion
Bred by WK Kellogg, Pomona, CA
US Army Remount Service stallion, stationed at the Pomona Quartermaster Depot Remount in California in 1947
Transferred to the University of Idaho Light Horse Program
100% Crabbet and the 'K' in CMK, Al Khamsa, Pyramid Society: Egyptian-Related, Sheykh Obeyd Foundation
Tail Male Zobeyni
Tail Female Ferida
Ma’naqi Sbayli
Ancestral Elements:
Egypt I: 59.4%
Blunt: 40.6%

Markings

Small star, left hind sock.

🐎 Biography

Farana was bred by WK Kellogg, a well-known early American Arabian horse breeder. He was used at the Kellogg Ranch, the US Army Remount Service, and the University of Idaho.

This spectacular sire and athlete was one of 9 full siblings along with El Nahas, Farik, Farnasa, Nafara, Narasa, Sikara, Sikin, and Trey.

Farana is widely regarded as one of the most influential performance stallions in the history of the Arabian breed in America. He was a key part of W.K. Kellogg’s vision to prove that the Arabian was not just a beautiful horse, but a superior working athlete.

The Kellogg Stock Horse Legend

While many Arabians of his era were celebrated for their beauty in halter, Farana became a sensation for his utility. Under the training of Mark Smith at the Kellogg Ranch in Pomona, California, Farana excelled as a stock horse. He was renowned for:

Precision and Speed: He was famous for "dizzying spins" and "electrifying response to the rein."
The "Figure Eleven" Stop: He could slide to a stop with the same depth and straightness as the finest modern reining horses.
Exhibition Excellence: He was a star of the Kellogg Sunday afternoon shows, often performing high-speed backing maneuvers; even backing uphill out of the arena as a finale.
Soundness: Despite a rigorous exhibition and competition career spanning over a decade, he remained sound and "clean-legged" into his senior years.

Breeding Legacy

Farana’s impact on the Arabian breed is cemented by the long list of descendants. He was a foundational sire for the "Kellogg" look—horses characterized by powerful frames, athletic bone, and high "cow sense."

Historical Significance

His success in open stock horse competitions against all breeds helped break the stereotype that Arabians were "too stylish" for ranch work, proving that they could out-perform the best working horses of the day.

Just as the all-Arabian shows brought out the best bloodlines, so too did the Sunday shows in the early days of the Kellogg Ranch serve to distinguish the most 'trainable' horses as far as performance was concerned. As the shows developed, so did the horses, until eventually really notable exhibitions were staged. Certainly Farana had few equals as a stockhorse according to the requirements of his time, in which fast spinning and faster backing was a sensational part of the performance, as well as his sliding 'figure eleven' stops." Herbert H. Reese in his book The Kellogg Arabians: Their Background and Influence (pp. 18-19)

An impressive mahogany bay stallion, standing 15.1, Farana had good withers, great depth of chest, long, sloping shoulder, very short back, level croup and powerful hindquarters. His head, although not dished, was well-chiseled and breedy, with large eyes and small, alert ears. To be hypercritical, he could have had a longer, finer neck and heavier bone.

Although at one time he was an exhibition horse doing the Spanish Walk in harness, he was later trained as a stockhorse, and in this role he made Arab history.

Never up to that time had an Arab shown such speed and precision, such dizzying spins or electrifying response to the rein. A spectacular worker, Farana was especially good at spinning, a type of showmanship demanded of stockhorses in those days to indicate their reining ability, and he could whirl so fast that he occasionally ‘spun’ right out from under his rider.

Farana slid to the straight ‘figure eleven’ stops as well as any low-headed Quarter Horse, with instant take-off into a run when so indicated. Stockhorses in those days also had to work with the rope and he held the ‘calf’ with a taut rope at all times.

Although he was too stylish to please the average cowboy, carrying his neck arched and tail high, Farana could out-perform all exhibition Stockhorses of his day.

He also could back faster than the average horse can trot, and would back uphill out of the arena at Kellogg’s at a fast clip as finale to his performance. Although shown for over ten years, twice each Sunday, occasionally worked during the week, and often on exhibitions at fairs and other shows, Farana remained sound and clean-legged until he was an aged horse.

Nor did he ever go sour, anticipating stops, as so many horses eventually do.

Farana was shown in a few breeding classes, taking several firsts and won the Arab championship at the California State Fair. He took a second to the then champion stockhorse at another fair, and won the lightweight stockhorse class at the Coronado National Horse Show.

After Farana had gained quite a reputation as a stockhorse from his few but sensational appearances in open horse shows, competitors became disinclined to show against him. This led to a person representing a group of such exhibitors telephoning the ranch just before the horse show at the Los Angeles Fair and inquiring if Farana was to be entered there.

Curious as to the cause for such an inquiry I tried to find out who was calling and why, but was told it was just a 'friend'. After much hemming and hawing it finally developed that the group he represented did not plan to enter their horses if Farana was to be shown.

So I told the caller that if it made that much of a difference to the exhibitors in the class, then Farana would not be entered. Although this prevented Farana from competing in a class he had a good chance of winning, it was a tribute to his ability, even though in the nature of a rather left-handed compliment.

At tis time the ranch was owned by the University of California and although the horses were seldom shown in competition, it was just such incidents that made it difficult to show state-owned horses, for other exhibitors always felt they had a right to protest.

As might be expected, Farana has bred on well. His descendants often inherit his cat-like agility as well as his best points of conformation.

Champions and reserves tracing to Farana are:
Airama, Barq, El Nattall, Fadjur, Faikah, Farasa, Fer-Natta, Fersara, Ga'Nissa, Gavrelle, Haj-Amin, Hassan Pasha, Hirzam, Lallegra, Mideyr, Rose Rahnafin, Sakifa, Santez, Sara Jean, Synbad, Victory Day's Coronata, Fermait, Bint Sahara, Royal Grey, Sands, Rebecca, Utez, El Rahna, Clarissa, Nadjur, Mailah, Sef, Swain, Amsheh, Mischief, Mitez, Raffael, Saki, Silver Mist, Zadeeda.” Herbert H. Reese in his book The Kellogg Arabians: Their Background and Influence (pp. 126-128)

...Farana had potential for greatness, if the right job could be found for him. Because of his extreme agility, nimbleness, quickness, and lightness on his feet, it was decided that [Kellogg Ranch trainer] Mark [Smith] would try Farana as a stock/reining horse. This fast, keen, and demanding work caught Farana’s full interest and also gave him the full physical engagement he liked. He took to reining/stock work wholeheartedly. He never became bored with this work. He put his all into it - and became famous." Carol Mulder from Farana's biography linked in the related resources section below

On April 20, 1949, the day of Farana's death, Phyllis Stricker and her fiance, Jack Lacy, both students at University of Idaho, went out on a short ride together. Jack, an agricultural student who as a sophomore had matriculated to University of Idaho from his native Dallas, Texas, had been given the job of assisting in the care and exercising of Farana. In this capacity, he had frequently taken Farana out on short rides. Jack had previous experience working during a summer at the Ellis ranch in the panhandle of Texas.

On the day of Farana's death, Jack took Farana out on a short ride for exercise. He invited Phyllis to go with him; she rode a Morgan mare. The ride was, as usual for Farana's exercise, not very long. They never went faster than a walk. They stopped in a field, sat on logs, holding the horses, to talk and rest.

When they started out again, Farana and Jack were walking a little ahead of Phyllis. Farana's left hind leg faltered, as though he had stepped in a hole, but there was no hole. Not many steps after, the horse simply collapsed and went down. Jack mostly fell clear of him, but one of his legs was pinned under the horse. He got it out and pulled the saddle off Farana, who was still alive. Phyllis raced on the Morgan mare to get help. Farana died with his head in Jack's lap.

The postmortem of Farana found the cause of death to be 'hemorrhage of the brain.' It was nobody's fault at all - it just happened that Farana had some kind of circulatory problem in his brain; one wonders if it was an aneurism that broke (which could, or could not, have been present all his life, but only broke when he was 19 years old), but that is only speculation." Carol Mulder from the Addendum #2 of August 2018 to Farana's biography linked in the related resources section below

💗 Get/Progeny

Farana sired 55 registered purebred Arabian foals, and 1 Anglo-Arabian filly foal between 1934-1950. 22 are listed as stallions with an additional 6 colts that were gelded, the remaining 27 foals were fillies/mares.

NAME	AHR #/CAHR #	DOB	COLOR	GENDER
FARAM	AHR*1043	03/22/1934	GREY	STALLION
FEYDA	AHR*1120	03/31/1935	BAY	STALLION
EL KUMAIT	AHR*1124	05/04/1935	BAY	STALLION
ANEYSA	AHR*1139	05/14/1935	BAY	MARE
ALI BABA	AHR*1181	09/05/1935	BAY	STALLION
BARAD	AHR*1220	03/26/1936	GREY	STALLION
IL ID ILKBIR	AHR*1223	04/12/1936	BAY	MARE
YATANA	AHR*1232	04/16/1936	BAY	MARE
FARAWI	AHR*1203	04/18/1936	BAY	STALLION
SHAUB	AHR*1225	07/12/1936	BAY	STALLION
RIFF	AHR*1350	12/20/1936	BAY	STALLION
FARIDA	AHR*1438	01/01/1937	BAY	MARE
ABDULLAH	AHR*1387	03/25/1937	BAY	STALLION
SURANA	AHR*1356	03/31/1937	GREY	MARE
WIGHAZA	AHR*1340	04/10/1937	BAY	MARE
HALFAN	AHR*1421	04/16/1937	BAY	STALLION
BAIRAM	AHR*1346	04/23/1937	GREY	STALLION
NURAN	AHR*1359	05/09/1937	BAY	STALLION
FAREDA	AHR*3087	08/15/1937	BAY	MARE
LOURANA	AHR*1441	09/12/1937	GREY	MARE
FARNADA	AHR*1442	09/22/1937	BAY	MARE
FLARAN	AHR*1443	12/06/1937	BAY	GELDING
SETANA	AHR*1528	03/03/1938	BAY	MARE
KHARAS	AHR*1572	06/03/1938	BAY	GELDING
MAILAT	AHR*1487	07/10/1938	BAY	MARE
FERDIA	AHR*1588	08/24/1938	GREY	MARE
FARSANA	AHR*1532	10/07/1938	GREY	GELDING
TERHANI	AHR*1640	03/25/1939	BAY	STALLION
GHAZAN	AHR*1637	05/01/1939	BAY	GELDING
LAYLA	AHR*1785	06/19/1939	BAY	MARE
FRAVO	AHR*2107	07/10/1939	BAY	STALLION
ALAZA	AHR*1718	09/30/1939	BAY	MARE
FARASA	AHR*1777	12/21/1939	GREY	STALLION
ZARIF	AHR*2062	01/03/1940	BAY	STALLION
NATTA	AHR*1963	02/29/1940	BAY	MARE
FARADINA	AHR*2337	03/14/1942	BAY	MARE
FARLOUMA	AHR*2345	10/28/1942	BAY	MARE
DIANA	AHR*2585	04/03/1943	BAY	MARE
POMONA AVESTA	AHR*2991	03/03/1944	BAY	MARE
POMONA AMMON	AHR*2995	03/31/1944	BAY	STALLION
BARIZ	AHR*3290	04/06/1945	BAY	STALLION
BARUKA	AHR*3298	07/16/1945	BAY	MARE
RAABANA	AHR*3676	06/17/1946	BAY	STALLION
BEAUFAIR	AHR*4269	01/20/1947	BAY	GELDING
LUNA	AHR*4270	03/13/1947	GREY	MARE
FARIKA	AHR*4271	04/13/1947	BAY	MARE
NATAF	AHR*4835	01/10/1948	GREY	STALLION
ZADENA	AHR*4834	01/29/1948	BAY	MARE
KEFAR	AHR*4837	03/15/1948	BAY	GELDING
FARABI	AHR*4839	04/19/1948	BAY	MARE
FAR STAR	AAHR*AA253	06/02/1948	BAY	MARE
LURAN	AHR*4836	06/05/1948	BAY	STALLION
FARALA	AHR*4838	06/08/1948	GREY	MARE
FARNATAA	AHR*5268	05/10/1949	BAY	MARE
FARSEYN	AHR*5247	07/16/1949	BAY	STALLION
BINT FARANA	AHR*6417	03/07/1950	BAY	MARE