Curwen's Bay Barb ( 1690 - 1728) was a foundation sire of the

Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...

breed. A

bay horse Bay is a hair coat color of horses, characterized by a reddish-brown or brown body color with a black point coloration on the mane, tail, ear edges, and lower legs. Bay is one of the most common coat colors in many horse breeds. The black ...

with a white blaze, he was imported by Henry Curwen in 1698 from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. He had originally been a present to

Louis XIV , house = Bourbon , father = Louis XIII , mother = Anne of Austria , birth_date = , birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France , death_date = , death_place = Palace of Ver ...

from the

King of Morocco This is the list of rulers of Morocco, since the establishment of the state in 789. The common and formal titles of these rulers has varied, depending on the time period. Since 1957, the designation King has been used. The present King of Moroc ...

. One of his early sons, Mixbury, stood just over 13 hands high and apparently ''"there were not more that two horses of his day that could beat him under light wrights"''. He also sired Tantivy, Brocklesby, Brocklesby Betty, Creeping Molly and the top stallion Hip. It has also been suggested that he may have been the sire of Alcock's Arabian. His sire line is extinct, but he made a significant contribution to the

breed. The three traditional foundation sires whose sire lines still exist today were

Darley Arabian The Darley Arabian (foaled c. 1700) was one of three dominant foundation sires of modern Thoroughbred horse racing bloodstock. The other two founders were the Godolphin Arabian and the Byerley Turk. This bay Arabian horse was bought in Aleppo, ...

, Godolphin Arabian and

Byerley Turk The Byerley Turk (c. 1680 – c. 1703), also spelled Byerly Turk, was the earliest of three stallions that were the founders of the modern Thoroughbred horse racing bloodstock (the other two are the Godolphin Arabian and the Darley Arabian).Ahnert ...

. However Curwen's Bay Barb contributed significantly to the breed through other lines of descent. Modern Thoroughbred's tend to have most crosses to Godolphin Arabian (contributing 13.8%), then Darley Arabian (6.5%), Curwen's Bay Barb (4.2%) and Byerley Turk (3.3%).

Sire line tree

*Curwen's Bay BarbHistoric Sire Lines
/ref> **Hip ***Windsor **Mixbury Galloway **Monkey ** Alcock's Arabian ***Tipler *** CrabCrab
/ref> ****Grey Ward ****Crab (Routh) *****Valiant ****Rib *****Sober John ****Sloe *****Sweeper ****Bustard *****Dorimond *****Gamahoe ****Othello (Portmore) ****Allworthy ****Locust ****Oroonoko *****Brunswick ****Spectator *****Pagan *****Sulfur *****Mark Anthony *****Vandal ****Brilliant *****Antelope ****Crab (Cumberland) *****Milksop ****Crab (Shepherd) *****Lath (Protector) ****Othello (Kingston) *****True Briton *****Selim ***Gentleman ***Why Not

References

tbheritage.com. Retrieved 2012-08-29 * {{cite book , last1=Taunton, first1=Theo , title = Famous horses, url=https://archive.org/details/famoushorseswi00taun, publisher=Sampson Low, Marston, date = 1901 Individual Arabian and part-Arabian horses 1720s racehorse deaths Arabian racehorses Individual male horses