Patrick Swayze and his horse Tammen
The actor, Patrick Swayze was very fond of his Arabian stallion, Tammen. Tammen was bred by Tom McNair, he was very prominent in the Arabian breeding world. Tom McNair also either bred, owned or trained many other famous Arabians such as Morafic, Barnaby and Sakr. Tom McNair passed away in 2006 and his wife Syliva set up an online photo tribute to him. In the many photos are shots of Pat Swayze and his wife along with Tammen and Tammen’s offspring. That tribute page can be found here
Tammen’s sire was Abenhetep a famous Egyptian bred Arabian horse that has very few horses alive today that carry his bloodline.
The photo above shows Pat with Tammen, taken about 1991-1992. If I remember correctly the poster was done to raise money for a cause.
Below is a YouTube video of Pat riding Tammen with his friend Olivia Newton-John. Both he and Olivia use to have their Arabian horses trained and boarded at the same trainer in the mid-west. The video took place sometime in the early 1990’s.
Patrick always had a fondness for horses and Arabian horses are his passion.
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July 14th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
I’ve always loved this magnificent picture. You can just feel the absolute love of Patrick for Tammen. The picture is inimitable. I always wondered why Patrick’s last name was misspelled and can’t find any of that info anywhere. My Mom was one of the top Arabian Women horse trainers from the 50’s until her retirement at age 70. I love all horses but grew up mostly with Arabians. I was more of a fan of Patrick after finding out he and his wife also loved horses (riding and showing them). Blessings to him and his family.
September 15th, 2009 at 5:46 pm
I love this photo, too. It is a living sculpture, not to be separated. I printed out a copy last night as a private memento to Patrick. I’ve contacted a stable that knew Tammen; I was never sure whether Tammen was owned by Mr. Swayze or not. I did learn from the stable, though, that Tammen had died in April 1999, at age 17. This is the first time I’ve known about what time the photo was taken. God bless them both. May I meet them in Heaven. Betty.
September 15th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
Tammen was Pat’s pride and joy. I have several copies of Arabian World magazine that has the promotional ads that he ran to promote Tammen at stud. Pat showed Tammen himself and also rode the stallion when ever he had the time, between his movie filming schedule. Both of them will now be very much missed. They are both together now and riding the trails of heaven.
September 18th, 2009 at 11:05 am
Needless to say my heart goes out to Patsy Swayze and to Lisa Niemi, they both were so lucky to have Patrick in their lives as we all well know. Debbie Allen’s story of the dancing school made me cry yesterday, what wonderful people they are! This is the first time I saw the picture of Patrick and Tammen and it made me just ache, the last time I was touched by this was when Wayne Newton lost his pride and joy Aramus who was Naborr’s son, I still have the poem that Wayne wrote on my wall and Patrick & Tammen will also be there. There is only love here, I feel so lucky to have been able to also share all of them, my love to Patsy & Lisa. Nina Malek