“Jacob McGavock Dickinson started his Arabian horse farm when he purchased his ancestral home, Travelers Rest, in 1929. He named the farm after the property and continued to use the name when he bought a second location on Del Rio Pike in Franklin, TN. He operated the farm at both locations until the mid-1940s when he sold both Tennessee locations. Dickinson’s Travelers Rest Arabian Horses were popular in the United States, Poland, and England. He even was the first to import an Arabian horse from Brazil. Dickinson owned several notable Arabian horses, including Antez, Nsar, Czubuthan, Bazleyd, Jedran, Gulastra, Arie, Aziza, and Hallany Mistanny. J.M Dickinson kept the name when he moved to Santa Barbara, CA, and started the T.R. Ranch in 1947. When Dickinson moved to California, his farm was considered the second largest stud behind the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Ranch.
Travelers Rest Arabian Horse farm returned to Tennessee when his daughter, Peggy Dickinson Flemming, opened an Arabian farm on her 300-acre farm in Columbia, TN. She continued the Travelers Rest bloodline through her breeding program. She would focus her career on dressage and running the Travelers Rest Riding Camp through the 1970s.
Image 1: Photo of the backside of Travellers Rest. In the Foreground is a Saddlebred mare and foal, Lizzie McDonald and Berwick Lass, and Mickey Mouse, the Shetland pony, in the background. Taken in May 1931. Travellers Rest Collection, Dickinson Era
Image 2: Photo of the barn and horses at the Franklin farm on Del Rio Pike. Travellers Rest Collection, Dickinson Era
Image 3: Sandy Hughes, head trainer with Bataan in California. Travellers Rest Collection, Dickinson EraImage
4: Peggy Fleming practicing the levade, a part of the Airs above ground move, a series of classical dressage movements. Travellers Rest Collection, Dickinson Era” - Historic Travellers Rest
