Down the centuries, what have the Arabs prized most highly in their
horses?
Beauty and spirit?
Speed and stamina?
Strength?
Intelligence?
Loyalty?
Well, above all of these undeniable attributes, the Arabs have
valued purity. For with a known pedigree, the Arabs have preserved
a horse of great refinement and unique physique without any coarser
outside influences. Their qualities are usually very safe within
this gene pool, even though they do not show up in every generation.
Anatomically, the Arabian has several special features: a short
head with large low-set eyes and wide nostrils, small, inward-turning
pricked ears, and often a dished face, pronounced jibbah (forehead)
and jowl and an elegant set of head on neck.
His skin is fine and his coat silky. His movement is elevated and
powerful as if his feet barely touched the ground.
Many have one fewer vertebrae which shortens the back and raises
the tail-set. This flowing tail is known in the desert as "the
Flag of the Prophet". A back with a shorter arc is much stronger
than a longer one, which is why Arabs can carry greater weights
for longer than other breeds.
Arabians also have unique articulation in their legs - their joints
absorb shocks much better than other horses, giving the rider a
more comfortable, less jarring ride and the horse's joints much
less wear and tear. This makes them ideal for riding great distances.
They regularly win World Championships run over 100 miles (160kms).
The bones and hooves are much denser than other breeds, so they
rarely have problems with legs or feet, and are often ridden unshod.
They have short cannon bones and a well-set 45 degree angle shoulder
to give maximum strength and free movement.
Their conversion of air intake to energy output is also much more
efficient than other horses. Like Seb Coe, they turn oxygen to energy
more quickly and are therefore more successful athletes.
They certainly seem more intelligent than other horses. When clinical
examinations compared the space for the brain in the skull of a
Thoroughbred with the skull of an Arabian (which is half the size),
scientists found the brain capacity of the Arabian to be twice that
of the Thoroughbred. On average, the Arabian's brain is at least
as large as a human's whilst a Thoroughbred's is normally the size
of a large turkey egg.
The Arabian is the origin of the English Thoroughbred; all racehorses
registered today in the General Stud Book descend from just three
Arabs imported in the 18th century - the Godolphin Arabian, the
Byerley Turk and the Darley Arabian.
Perhaps because they have been domesticated and valued for longer
than any other breed, Arabians have developed a close affinity with
humans. Many, many stories attest to their devotion to their owners,
their fierce loyalty, yet gentle temperament. The Bedouin allowed
them to live beside them in their tents. The new-born foal would
be passed around the tribe to accustom it to its "family".
But of course, it was only those Arabians that would adapt most
easily to sharing the lives of the Bedouin which survived in the
harsh desert conditions. Most true desert Arabians and those tracing
back to them will not tolerate strangers. New humans must be formally
introduced.
The qualities of the Arabian have long been valued by historians,
artists, writers and poets. Who could not thrill to the passionate
words of "THE ARAB'S FAREWELL TO HIS HORSE" by the 19th
century poetess Caroline Norton:
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My Beautiful! My Beautiful! That
standest meekly by,
With
thy proudly arch'd and glossy neck, and dark and fiery eye,
Fret not to roam the desert now, with all thy winged speed;
I may not mount on thee again - thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!
Fret not with that impatient hoof - snuff not the breezy wind.
The farther that thou fliest now, so far am I behind.
The stranger hath thy bridle-rein - thy master hath his gold,
Fleet-limb'd and beautiful, farewell; thou'rt sold, my steed,
thou'rt sold.
Farewell! Those free,
untired limbs full many a mile must roam
To
reach the chill and wintry sky which clouds the stranger's
home.
Some other hand, less fond, must now thy corn and bread prepare.
The
silky mane I braided once must be another's care!
The morning sun shall dawn again, but never more with thee
Shall
I gallop through the desert paths, where we were wont to be.
Evening shall darken on the earth and o'er the sandy plain
Some other steed, with slower step, shall bear me home again.
Yes, thou must go! The
wild, free breeze, the brilliant sun and sky,
Thy
master's home, from all of these my exiled one must fly.
Thy proud dark eye will grow less proud, thy step become less
fleet,
And
vainly shalt thou arch thy neck, thy master's hand to meet.
Only in sleep shall I behold that dark eye, glancing bright;
Only
in sleep shall hear again that step so firm and light.
And when I raise my dreaming arm to check or cheer thy speed,
Then
must I, starting, wake to feel - thou'rt sold, my Arab steed!
Ah! Rudely then, unseen
by me, some cruel hand may chide,
Till
foam-wreaths lie, like crested waves, along thy panting side:
And the rich blood that's in thee swells, in thy indignant
pain,
Till
careless eyes, which rest on thee, may count each started
vein.
Will they ill-use thee? If I thought - but no, it cannot be.
Thou
art so swift, yet easy curb'd, so gentle, yet so free.
And yet, if haply, when thou'rt gone, my lonely heart should
yearn,
Can
the hand which casts thee from it now command thee to return?
Return! Alas! My Arab
steed! What shall thy master do
When
thou, who wast his all of joy, hast vanish'd from his view?
When the dim distance cheats mine eye, and through the gathering
tears
Thy
bright form, for a moment, like a false mirage appears;
Slow and unmounted shall I roam, with weary step alone
Where,
with fleet step and joyous bound, thou oft hast borne me on;
And sitting down by that green well, I'll pause and sadly
think,
"It
was here he bow'd his glossy neck when last I saw him drink!"
When last I saw thee
drink! Away! The fever'd dream is o'er.
I
could not live a day and know that we should meet no more!
They tempted me, my beautiful - for hunger's power is strong
-
They
tempted me, my beautiful! But I have loved too long.
Who said that I had given thee up? Who said that thou wast
sold?
Tis
false, 'tis false! My Arab steed! I fling them back their
gold!
Thus, thus, I leap upon thy back and scour the distant plains;
Away!
Who overtakes us now shall claim thee for his pains!
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So, having chosen this exceptional breed, why did I concentrate
on Crabbet Arabians?
As you can read in their brief history (click HERE), the wealthy
land-owning couple Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt travelled to the
Near East (mostly modern-day Syria) in the 1880s and 1890s and spent
years with the Bedouin searching for the perfect Arabian horses
to bring back to their vast estate at Crabbet Park in Sussex and
establish a stud breeding Arabian to Arabian. Because they were
very knowledgeable, they chose the best and thereby produced the
crème de la crème in the optimum conditions at Crabbet
Park.
Many breeders before them had acquired Arabian horses from the
desert, but mostly stallions, as the Bedouin were loathe to part
with their precious mares. They heeded the words of the Prophet
Mohammed: "Devote great care to the broodmares: their backs
are seats of honour, and their bellies are inexhaustible treasures."
These stallions were crossed on to local horses. Only a handful
of studs - mostly in Poland, Hungary and France - established breeding
programmes with pure Arabians.
With diligence, diplomacy and a true understanding of the worth
of an undisputed pedigree, the Blunts managed to buy some of the
finest mares and stallions from tribes like the Rualla, the Tai,
the Hamdani, the Shwaimani and the Managhi. Their progeny bred at
Crabbet Park by the Blunts, at Sheikh Obeyd Stud in Egypt and later
by their daughter Lady Wentworth and finally by Cecil Covey who
eventually inherited the stud in 1957, have been exported all over
the world. They have established dynasties of their own, notably
in Russia, Australia, the USA, South Africa, and South America.
What was good enough for them is good enough for me. The Crabbet
stock at Gadebrook Stud descends directly from those carefully selected
horses. I could never have the time, the money, the knowledge of
Arabic or the facilities to make the journeys that the Blunts did,
nor gain the trust of the Bedouin that the Blunts had.
I appreciate that I benefit from the meticulous research and years
of breeding they put in to creating a stud of such exceptional quality.
Other Crabbet breeders have also inspired me, especially Iona Bowring
of Chedglow Stud and her sister-in-law Caroline Murray of Foxbury
Stud, Carol Carpenter of Nomad Arabians (it was her husband Richard
who identified that Magic Domino would one day dominate the Arabian
world), Jane Pointer of Cranham Stud, the Wrights of Moulton Stud,
and of course, the writings and paintings of the Middle Eastern
expert, Peter Upton.
Crabbet was and still is the most influential Arabian stud of all
time. Neither war, pestilence, famine, national nor international
calamity deterred the breeding program. The continuity and reliability
of the stud is simply unparalleled. It is entirely thanks to the
dedication of the Blunts, the incredible efforts of Lady Wentworth
and the preservation by a few devoted breeders worldwide that the
blood continues in as close a form as it was in its heyday.
An excellent book on "The Crabbet Arabian Stud" by Rosemary
Archer, Colin Pearson and Cecil Covey with Betty Finke has been
published by Alexander Heriot.
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A
Brief History of Crabbet Park Stud
The Crabbet Arabian Stud was established on 2 July 1878 when the
first Arabian horses brought to England by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt
and Lady Anne Blunt arrived at Crabbet Park, their large estate
in Sussex. Six months earlier, while staying in While travelling
in the Near East, Wilfrid and Lady Anne had made a plan to import
some of the best Arabian horses to England and breed them there.
In Lady Anne's words, "it would be an interesting and useful
thing to do and I should like much to try it."
The Blunts' journeys in Arabia are described in Lady Anne's books
Bedouin Tribes of the Euphrates and A Pilgrimage to Nejd, based
on Lady Anne's journals, though heavily edited by Wilfrid. In the
winter of 1877/1878 they left Aleppo for what is now Iraq and reached
the camps of Faris (a prince of the Anazeh tribe), Ferhan and other
Bedouin leaders. Wilfrid became the blood brother of Faris. On a
subsequent trip in 1881, he and Lady Anne reached the heart of the
Nejd in what is now Saudi Arabia.
Among the horses the Blunts acquired on these journeys were the
bay filly Dajania, purchased on Christmas Day in 1877; a dark bay
mare eventually named Queen of Sheba, purchased from the Sheykh
of Gomussa and his cousin in the summer of 1878; and a chestnut
mare named Rodania. All three have left many descendants. Through
their connections among the tribes, the Blunts also heard of a celebrated
grey stallion. They sent a trusted friend, Zeyd Saad el Muteyri,
to buy him; the horse was named Azrek, and became an influential
sire.
As important to Crabbet as the desert Arabians were, the collection
of Egyptian leader Abbas Pasha proved an equally valuable source.
This Governor of Egypt acquired horses from Arabia and Syria; his
stock formed the foundation for the stud of Ali Pasha Sherif. The
Blunts made their initial visit to Ali Pasha Sherif in 1880 and
purchased the stallion Mesaoud, in 1889. Lady Anne wrote of the
stallion: "He is four white legged and high up to the knee
but surprisingly handsome." He became the most influential
sire at Crabbet Park. To this day, many Crabbet Arabian horses contain
25% Measoud blood.
As he aged, Ali Pasha Sherif's health failed and he encountered
financial and political problems, leading to the ruin of his stud.
In 1896 and 1897, Lady Anne inspected what she called the "sad
remnants" before they were sold at auction, and was able to
procure several of the best horses that remained. Some of these
horses remained in Egypt, at a stud farm owned by the Blunts called
Sheykh Obeyd. Thus, according to breed expert Rosemary Archer, some
of today's horses of Crabbet breeding carry a higher proportion
of Abbas Pasha blood than many present-day Egyptian Arabians.
Thanks to these purchases, Crabbet eventually became the center
of Arabian horse breeding. But there were many problems along the
way. The Blunts spent much of their time travelling in Arabia and
did not know what was going on in their absence. The pastures were
ill-tended, the stables and paddocks not cleaned, stallions were
shut up without exercise for weeks at a time.
The Sheykh Obeyd stud fared little better while the Blunts were
in England. Horses in Egypt were cared for by inattentive grooms
and alcoholic managers, left tethered in the hot sun without shade
or water, and many died. Further, Wilfrid Blunt had no experience
of horse breeding and believed that Arabians should live in "desert
conditions" - that is, with little food or shelter. Lady Anne
disagreed, but she was not able to demonstrate the superiority of
her methods of horse management until the Blunts separated in 1906.
In that year, Wilfrid's mistress, Dorothy Carleton, moved in with
Wilfrid, and the Blunts agreed to a formal separation. The Stud
was divided. Lady Anne signed a Deed of Partition drawn up by Wilfrid.
Under its terms, Lady Anne kept Crabbet Park and half the horses,
while Blunt took Caxtons Farm, also known as Newbuildings, and the
rest of the stock. Soon thereafter, Lady Anne retired to Sheykh
Obeyd in Cairo, where she lived for most of the remainder of her
life. Wilfrid frequently had to sell off horses to pay off debts.
Lady Wentworth wrote of Wilfrid, "His tyranny and spirit of
discord eventually alienated him from his family, from most of his
friends, and from several countries...He had a theatrical tendency
to thunder and lightning stage effects which verged on melodrama...and
his temper was not improved by hashish and morphia..."
Lady Anne died in 1917, passing on her titles to the Blunt's only
child, their daughter, Judith, who became the16th Baroness Wentworth.
The Crabbet estate went to Lady Anne's granddaughters, as did those
horses she still owned in England. Lady Wentworth had already purchased
back some animals that Wilfrid had sold to third parties and thus
had a small herd of her own. Wilfrid then attempted to seize the
horses and land, making a night time raid on Crabbet and initially
taking all of the horses, including those already legally owned
by Lady Wentworth.
The mare Bukra, too near foaling to travel, was shot on Wilfred's
orders. Bitter and anxious to pay off his creditors, Wilfrid sold
37 horses, exporting several to W.R. Brown's Maynesboro stud in
the United States. Between thefts and sales of horses at Newbuildings,
many horses of the original Blunt breeding program were lost to
Crabbet. In turn, Lady Wentworth and her children forcibly took
her favorite mare, Riyala, from Wilfrid's stable, and purchased
back many horses from their new owners.
A protracted lawsuit ensued between Wilfrid against both his granddaughters'
trustee and his daughter. Eventually, the courts ruled against Wilfrid.
At one point, after Wilfrid had shot seven more horses, the Trustee
for the granddaughters obtained an injunction to prevent the sale
or destruction of any more animals.
In 1921, the court declared that Wilfrid's seizure of horses was
illegal, and that even the Deed of Partition was invalid, having
been signed by Lady Anne "under duress". Lady Wentworth
was able to buy out her daughters' share in the estate from the
Trustee, who was anxious to liquidate the assets. Upon Wilfrid's
death in 1922, Lady Wentworth also bought Caxtons Farm from his
executors and finally reunited the entire Stud.
Lady Wentworth, had an unhappy marriage, divorcing in 1923. By
the time she took over the Stud, Crabbet Park had been leased. The
Stud itself retained only eight horse boxes, some cowsheds and a
few weed-choked pastures. The horses had been sorely neglected,
some had starved to death, and others took years to recover.
Lady Wentworth spent many years carefully rebuilding her stock
and refining her breeding practices. To raise funds, she sold some
bloodstock back to Egypt in 1920, including the stallions Kasmeyn,
Sotamm, and Hamran, as well as the mares Bint Riyala and Bint Rissala.
She also sold a number of horses to Spain's Duke of Veragua, including
five Skowronek daughters. In 1926, she again received a significant
infusion of much-needed cash when the famed Kellogg Arabian Ranch
in California, owned by breakfast cereal magnate W. K. Kellogg,
spent over $80,000 to purchase a number of Crabbet horses.
Lady Wentworth rejected Wilfrid's "desert conditions"
theory as well as a prevailing conviction that Arabians were naturally
the size of large ponies (that is, under 14.2 hh at the shoulder).
She first proved that Arabians could produce taller horses from
the projeny of Rijm, a grandson of Rodania, who reached 16.1 hands.
Her great contribution to Arabian breeding, however, was her outcross
of the Blunt bloodstock to Skowronek. Lady Wentworth knew that she
needed additional horses to outcross on descendants of her parents'
original bloodstock. Therefore, she added the chestnut stallion
Dargee, and her most famous purchase, the grey stallion Skowronek.
The English painter, Walter Winans, bought Skowronek from Count
Josef Potocki's Antoniny Stud in Poland, where he had been foaled
in 1909. Winans rode the stallion and used him as a model for several
bronzes. He then sold him to Webb Wares, who used him as a hack,
and eventually sold him to H.V. Musgrave Clark, where he was shown
and used at stud. For the first time, he came to the attention of
Lady Wentworth.
Lady Wentworth bought Skowronek under circumstances that remain
a bit confusing even today. Clark believed he was selling the horse
to an American exporter, but at the last minute, the export was
cancelled and Lady Wentworth suddenly was the owner of Skowronek.
Clark was a rival Arabian breeder, and Lady Wentworth may have used
the agent as a front; concerned that if Clark had known she was
interested, he might have increased the price - or refused to sell
the horse at all. Clark was not happy with the result, and the two
breeders had a somewhat cool relationship after she purchased the
stallion.
While Count Potocki apparently found Skowronek unimpressive as
a colt, having sold him to Winans for £150, the grey became
a spectacular stallion and was named "Horse of the Century".
Lady Wentworth later turned down an offer of $250,000 from the Tersk
stud, and bragged that she once received a cable "from the
Antipodes" addressed to "Skowronek, England."
The outcross of the Crabbet stock with Skowronek was extremely
successful, and the resulting animals not only sold throughout England
but were exported to Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark,
Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan,
Poland, South Africa, Spain, Russia and the USA.
Crabbet's peak year was 1929, when over 30 mares were bred. But
as the Great Depression deepened, it affected Crabbet Park, with
Lady Wentworth only breeding eight foals in 1932, and two foals
in 1933. In 1936, to reduce the size of the herd, she sold 25 horses
to the Tersk Stud of the Soviet Union, including the beautiful Skowronek
son Naseem. The stud's financial picture also improved by selling
three more horses to the Kellogg Ranch in the USA. In this period,
Lady Wentworth also sold horses to Australia, Brazil, Holland and
Portugal. Nonetheless, the Depression years resulted in the birth
of many fine horses, including Sharima, Indian Gold, Indian Crown,
and Sharfina.
During World War II, Lady Wentworth's aunt, Mary Lovelace, died,
leaving a large fortune. This inheritance was much needed and marked
the end of the financial problems which had dogged Lady Wentworth
and the Crabbet Stud. In the War years, even though Lady Wentworth
cut back her herd due to shortages and the necessity for the Stud
to be completely self-supporting in horse feedstuffs, horses such
as Grey Royal, Silver Gilt, Indian Magic, Silfina, and Serafina
were produced.
While Crabbet was bombed during the war, with over 32 incendiaries
dropped, all landed on farmland and no humans or horses were injured.
A Canadian Army Supply Unit took over part of the stud, with soldiers
billeted in the house and even in some of the horse boxes.
Nevertheless, Lady Wentworth purchased the stallions Raktha and
Oran, and produced other significant breeding stock including Silver
Fire, Indian Magic and Nisreen. By the time of her death in 1957
at the age of 84, she owned 75 horses, noted for their height, excellent
movement and regal carriage.
Lady Wentworth left the Stud to her estate manager, Geoffrey Covey,
but as he predeceased her by a few days it passed to his son Cecil
who managed the stud. The Queen Anne house itself passed to Lady
Wentworth's daughter Lady Winifred Tryon, who sold it; today, it
is an office block and its Real Tennis court has been restored.
Fortunately, Cecil Covey had inherited some other land. Only by
selling land and nearly half of the 75 horses was he able to pay
the 80% death duties owed on Lady Wentworth's estate. But he was
able to keep the Stud going. What followed was the largest single
consignment of Arabians ever made from England, to Mrs Bazy Tankersley's
Al Marah Stud in the USA. In 1961 Covey also sold the stallion Sindh
to Dora Maclean of Fenwick Stud in Australia, where he became one
of Australia's most important Arabian sires.
For twelve years the stud ran smoothly under Covey, with 20 to
30 horses plus visiting mares as, for the first time, the Crabbet
sires were open to outside breeders. In early 1970, however, Covey
learned that the government planned to build a motorway connecting
South London with Gatwick Airport and Brighton. The motorway eventually
bisected Crabbet Park, and, having lost most of the horse pastures
to development, in 1972 Covey reluctantly sold off the last of the
Stud. At least 90% of all Arabian horses alive today trace their
pedigrees in one or more lines to Crabbet horses such as Mesaoud
and Skowronek.
Many major Arabian sires worldwide show a strong Crabbet influence
in their bloodlines. Polish and Russian bloodlines have a Crabbet
influence through the Skowronek son and Mesaoud grandson Naseem,
and his son Negatiw (or Negativ). Mesaoud himself was sold to Russia
in 1903. Spanish bloodlines have a Crabbet influence through the
stallion Nana Sahib and others. Even major historic "Egyptian-bred"
sires such as Nazeer trace to Mesaoud through his Crabbet-bred grandson,
Sotamm. The Crabbet-owned stallion Raktha, sire of Serafix, was
exported to South Africa in 1951, along with several other Crabbet
horses. The first Crabbet stallion imported to Australia was Rafyk,
who was imported, along with two Crabbet mares, in 1891.
Today, Australia now has a significant number of "pure"
Crabbet lines, undiluted by infusions from other sources, with possibly
the highest percentage of straight-and high-percentage Crabbet blood
in the world.
A small number of Arabian horse breeders continue to produce preservation
or "straight" Crabbet bloodlines, with all animals produced
descending in every line from horses bred or purchased by the Crabbet
stud. An even smaller group of breeders maintain preservation bloodlines
tracing strictly to the horses imported or bred by the Blunts.
For the average Arabian horse owner, horses with Crabbet ancestry
are noted for athletic ability, attractive appearance, and good
dispositions. They are popular in ridden classes and excel in in
many equestrian disciplines, both those limited to Arabians and
those open to all breeds.
The particular virtues of Crabbet horses - sound, athletic conformation,
good movement, solid temperament and performance abiltity - show
up especially well in performance competition, and particularly
in the Arabian-dominated field of endurance riding, highlighted
by 100-mile competitions such as the Tevis Cup in the USA and the
Australian Quilty 100-Mile Endurance Ride. Crabbet breeding is also
popular in the "Sport Horse" disciplines such as Dressage
and show jumping.
The modern Arabian of Crabbet ancestry can be seen in the backyard
of the single horse owner, on rugged wilderness terrain, or at the
highest levels of national performance competition.
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