The Blunts of Crabbet Park Arabian Stud    
Article by Anne Brown for a major Russian horse magazine, October 2007
   

 

Crabbet Park in southern England is synonymous with one family - the Blunts - who scoured the desert of the Middle East from 1878 to import and breed Arabian horses of the finest purity. From 1917, their daughter Judith, Lady Wentworth, also a gifted breeder, raised the stud to worldwide fame and success until her death in 1957.

By the time the stud finally closed in 1971 - a victim of motorway construction - "Crabbet" horses formed the base for the studs of almost every major Arab horse-breeding country in the world, especially Australia, the United States, South Africa and of course Russia.

Appreciating the quality of the Crabbet horses, the Russian government bought 25 of the best in 1936. This importation included the influential stallion Naseem by Skowronek and also Raseem by Rasim, Ferhan by Raswan, Jeruan and Shareer, both by Nureddin 11, and Shareer's son, Rytham.

Among the 19 mares brought to Tersk in the same shipment were seven daughters of Nureddin 11, including Ruallia out of Riyala, Ryama out of Dafina, and Neraida out of Nasifa - plus Nasifa herself by Skowronek. Notable mares who bred on at Tersk were Rissalma (Shareer x Rissla), Star of the Hills (Raswan x Selima) and Ruanda (Najib x Rythma).

 

Back in the 1880s, the bold adventurer Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, and his gentle wife, Lady Anne (the wealthy grand-daughter of the poet Lord Byron) had made a number of journeys to the Ottoman Empire and the Near East. They learned Turkish and Arabic and travelled with the Bedouin on horseback, sleeping always in their own tent, attended by their own servant. They left Judith and the comfort of their newly-restored mansion and vast estate at Crabbet Park to explore the deserts of Syria in search of the finest Arabian horses.

 

Earlier in the 19th century, many foreign breeders and dealers had already acquired horses from the Arabian deserts. These had gone to Poland, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, France, India and other countries which valued quality bloodstock. But because the Bedouin prize their mares so highly, they seldom sold the females to foreigners. So there was almost no breeding of Arab to Arab outside the desert.

 

Yet prior to their foray into Arabia, the far-sighted Lady Anne wrote in 1877: "We have made a plan of importing the best Anazeh blood to England and breeding it pure there. It would be an interesting and useful thing to do, and I should very much like to try it."

She and Wilfrid succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.

The unique heritage that the Blunts left the Arabian horse world was four-fold - firstly: they selected only the very best horses; secondly: they persuaded the Bedouins to part with their priceless mares; thirdly: they appreciated the value of the pedigree, written on a "hujjah", which guaranteed the purity of the breeding (the Bedouin rate purity above all other qualities - beauty, speed, stamina, intelligence and loyalty), and fourthly: they created a pure Arabian breeding programme at Crabbet Park using these imported mares and stallions from verified lines.

Lady Anne was rich enough to provide the time, facilities and staff to take the long-term view. So the couple could experiment with different matings to see which produced the best horses and most improved results. They culled or gave away those that did not meet their exacting standards. They sold others, when persuaded.

Count Joseph Potocki bought Wilfrid's own "charger" Pharaoh by in 1882, although he later sold him to the Imperial Russian Stud. The life-size portrait of Wilfrid in Arabian costume on a rearing Pharoah, painted in oils by Lady Anne, now hangs in the English home of artist, author and expert in all things Arabian, Peter Upton. When I stood beside the picture, it over-powered me!

Speaking Arabic, the Blunts had a huge advantage over other "horse-hunters". Lady Anne recounts in the daily journals that she kept meticulously (even in the discomfort of the desert), the pleasure of meeting sheikhs from the horse-breeding tribes, and the adventures they had securing each horse.

The Blunts were very much aided in their plans to secure Arabian horses by James Skene, the British consul at Aleppo. Skene had a great understanding of the country and an appreciation of the native horses and made the Blunts welcome on their arrival in 1877.

Their very first purchase was made on Christmas Day - a yearling filly of the Kehileh Dajanieh strain whom they finally named Dajania. Her influence has been enormous and a huge number of her descendants survive around the world.

In the new year, they bought a gentle-tempered mare they called Hagar who turned out to be very fast with the long, low stride of an English racehorse. She became Wilfrid's 'journey mare', carrying him from Aleppo to Baghdad and back through northern Mesopotamia to Damascus.

The other major purchase at this time was Kars, the impressive 4-year old bay Seglawi Jedran, the first stallion used at Crabbet. He was from the Ibn Sbeyni strain of the Mehed of the Fedaan Anazeh. This tribe still produces fine horses that they were proud to show visitors to the World Arab Horse Conference in Syria last April.

At the wells of Abu Fayal, the Blunts found a top quality mare, the celebrated Rodania, a 12-year old chestnut bred by Ibn Rodan of the Roala.

Wilfrid later noted: "nearly everything of the best at Crabbet is now descended from her". His comment still holds true today as her influence continues in a thousand breeding programmes. Rodania came with a history and wounds on her torso, the result of the battles between the Roala and the Gomussa, who captured her in war.

Mr Skene was responsible for the purchase of the dark bay Queen of Sheba, from Beteyen Ibn Mirshid, supreme sheikh of the Gomussa tribe of the Sebaa in 1878 - for £20 and 14 camels. The sale of this important mare produced quite a stir in the desert because, as Lady Anne recorded, "When Beteyen brought her to his tent, we saw that she was superior to all the mares we had been looking at."

In 1880, an English newspaper reported: "The beautiful Arabian Stud at Crabbet Park has been increased by five splendid creatures including a mare and foal". These were the mares Sherifa, Zefifia, Hagar, Dahma and Rodania.

The Blunts' aspirations really began to be fulfilled in 1885 with the birth at Crabbet of two remarkable fillies, Rodania's daughter, Rose of Sharon and Dajania's daughter, Nefisa, both by Hadban, a stallion the Blunts had bought in India.

After an insignificant start, Rose of Sharon grew into a fine mare, the dam of Rafyk, sold to Sir James Boucaut and exported to Australia.

Rose of Sharon's most famous and influential son was Rijm, but it is through just one of her five daughters, Ridaa, that the line thrived as Ridaa produced the fillies Rim, Riyala and Risala.

Nefisa must hold some sort of record as a brood mare with 21 foals to her name, the last born when she was 27, although some died before maturity. Many of her colts were exported, including Naaman to Russia, a sad loss to England where few breeders appreciated the value of this desert blood.

In addition to importations from the Bedouins of Syria, the Blunts were fortunate enough to acquire a collection of fine horses from the dwindling stud of Ali Pasha Sherif. He had inherited a much larger stable from the Egyptian ruler Abbas Pasha who had collected one of the finest herds in the Orient.

In 1892, the Blunts first saw a stallion of this breeding called Shawan (by the superb old Seglawi stallion Wazir) whom they bought for £62 and imported him to Crabbet later that year. They also acquired the important grey mare Sobha also by Wazir, as well as another son of his, Merzuk.

However, by far the most important stallion they bought was the rich chestnut Mesaoud (Aziz x Yemameh) foaled in 1887, a Seglawi Jedran of the strain formerly belonging to Ibn Sudan of the Rualla tribe. He has become by far the most prepotent and influential sire in Arabian breeding. Many of today's horses from Crabbet lines owe 25% of their pedigree to Mesaoud.

Between 1888 and 1896, the Blunts bought 17 of the Egyptian horses, some of which came to Crabbet Park. Others, such as the stallion Ibn Nura, stayed behind at Sheykh Obeyd, their home outside Cairo. The couple's separation in 1906 and scandalous divorce in later years left lady Anne in Cairo and Wilfrid at Crabbet Park and their other stately home, nearby Newbuildings Place, where some of the horse were badly neglected, resulting in unnecessary foal deaths.

When Lady Anne died, she left a number of horses to the newly-formed Egyptian Agricultural Organisation. Her will was hotly disputed between Wilfrid and his daughter Judith, ending with a court decision to award the stud to Judith and her children. Tales abound of horses being moved secretly on dark nights between the properties of Judith and her father as each tried to secure the prize horses for themselves!

The Blunts sold their surplus horses at an auction each year. In the 1899 sale, de Sdanovitch bought five horses and later the legendary mare Sobha from the Ali Pasha collection, when she was 20. And in the greatest loss to Britain, Mesaoud was unforgivably sold to the Kleniewski Stud in 1903. None of these lines survived the Russian Revolution, but at least the highly-valued blood of Sobha and Mesaoud lives on in modern Crabbet pedigrees in Britain and elsewhere.

Because of the Blunts' meticulous pedigree research and recording, all these early Arabian horses were accepted into the General Stud Book, the record of English Thoroughbreds kept by Weatherbys for the Jockey Club and the British racing fraternity since 1789.

Once the horses had arrived safely from the Middle East, the Blunts established new stables for the mares and youngstock in a main yard although when Lady Wentworth later took over the stud, she liked to keep her favourite horses, including Skowronek, in the stables close to the house. The stallions' paddock and stabling were a little further away at Caxtons, the home of the stallion man.

The famous Coronation Stables were later built by Lady Wentworth in the form of a square with an elegant stone-pedimented clock tower over the entrance facing a large gravelled area and the old walled garden. Sadly, this historic clock tower has been pulled down and the façade destroyed, as developers attempt to transform the site into a casino!

The tall brick garden wall is the backdrop for many classic photos in Lady Wentworth's time. She often used a groom of small stature to stand the horses up, making them look larger than they really were. A tiny pony stallion was brought out at the last second before she snapped the shutter to make the horses look alert - just a couple of many tricks she used to maximise the appearance of her animals.

In preceding years, she had paraded the horses for visitors on the grass verges running along the drive to the house to the back of the tennis courts. Photos of the horses stood up against the distinctive tall paned oval windows of the ornate indoor Real Tennis court are world renowned.

On her death, Lady Wentworth's will stipulated that Crabbet be left to her estate manager and tennis coach Geoffrey Covey, but he had died a few days earlier than Lady Wentworth, so the Stud passed to his son, Cecil who managed the stud until it closed in 1971.

From the earliest days, the Blunts, then Lady Wentworth, showed the horses in national competition, first as "Orientals" as there were few other pure Arabians to stand against them. The descendants of these original imports to Crabbet Park continue to grace show-rings, race courses, dressage arenas and endurance competitions at the top level around the world, a heritage the Blunts can be proud of, despite their family disputes.

Arab enthusiasts everywhere owe them a great debt of gratitude.

Copyright: Anne Brown 2007