In 2005 WAHO presented its very first trophies to the top Arabians around the globe - many with strong connections to Britain

How the crowd at last year's Arab Show at Malvern cheered PHA SILVERN RISALM (Silvern Sceptre/Rislina) on winning the first WAHO trophy for Britain! Despite the squelchy conditions, rider Darren Crowe produced a dazzling arena display for which the pair has become renowned in international Ridden Championships and now Dressage competition. Owners Tiffani and Tony McCarthy realised their dreams and ambitions in that single award. He had in fact lived here at Gadebrook Stud during his youth, and his sire spent his latter years at stud here.

Around the world, similar crowds at racecourses and showgrounds applauded their national winners. Each of the registries within the World Arab Horse Organisation was asked to honour their own most outstanding home-bred and -owned Horse of the Year, and to celebrate its achievements as an ambassador for the Arabian breed with this prestigious new award. Every winning owner received a specially commissioned bronze plaque with a bas relief horse sculpture of the famous WAHO logo as a challenge trophy.

The broad spectrum of winners illustrates the range of activities at which Arabians excel including racing, showing, dressage and endurance.

In Australia, a country of outstanding horses, one contender stood out above the rest: endurance champion BREMERVALE JUSTICE (Rave VF/Bremervale Katische).

Owned by Peter Toft and his wife Penny, the chestnut gelding has twice represented their country, winning team Gold in the 2000 World Championships and team Silver in 2004. The couple generously allowed Abdullah Chamis Ali Saeed to take him into the tough prestigious Tom Quilty Ride last year, where he was the first pure-bred Arabian to finish, in appalling weather conditions which caused the Ride to be abandoned. The Tofts' breeding programme, based largely on Crabbet and Old English lines, is the proud product of generations of home-breeding on the female side. I was privileged to enjoy one of their famous 'Bremervale barbies' in Queensland last November as their future show and endurance Arabs were paraded for World Crabbet Convention delegates.

Equally in the USA, one all-rounder stands heads and shoulders above the competition, the Premium stallion REMINGTON STEELE (Gaffizon/Jordjina) of predominately Crabbet lines. His owner Patti Bailey has competed him successfully in just about every field, from Top Ten in Halter at the US and Canadian Nationals in 1988 as a 6-year old, to Tevis Cup Awards over the toughest 100-mile ride in the world, with dressage, harness, Liberty, Western Pleasure and hunter/jumper championships in between. He was recently honoured at the Kentucky Horse Park as the most versatile horse in history.

'Rem' is a leading Sport Horse sire and many of his offspring are equalling or exceeding his record. But none could match his golden temperament. He is ridden by children, visits schools and acts as an outstanding ambassador for the Arabian breed. He is also brave, once facing up to a mountain lion who attacked Patti on a trail ride.

I met 'Rem' and fell under his spell in 2004 at the Arabian Extravaganza in Denver where he was awarded Living Legend status. This honour is given to only 10 horses out of 650,000 in the USA, and olny once every 25 years. Toddlers were in his stall, crawling between his legs, climbing up his tail and sticking fingers up his nose. He just nuzzled them affectionately. What a stallion! His frozen semen is available in the UK from Gadebrook AI Services.

The WAHO Qatar winner is MUGADIR (Amer/ Kachia), an imposing grey racehorse bred by HH Sheikh Abdullah Bin Khalifa Al Thani at his farm in Qatar. The six-year old stallion races in the colours of his young son HH Sheikh Tamin Bin Abdullah Al Thani who received the WAHO Trophy at Rayyan Park racecourse in February. Mugadir has won fifteen races in Qatar and is living proof that horses can be bred and raised in the Gulf successfully.

A spokesman for the sheikh's stud, Umm Qarn Farms, said: "Mugadir has a tremendous following among the local race goers in Qatar as he has remained unbeaten for so long. WAHO is of major importance to all breeders of Arabian horses and these awards have definitely raised their profile throughout the world. We were honoured that WAHO nominated Mugadir as the Qatar Horse of the Year."

Syria will be in the spotlight this year with the biennial WAHO Conference scheduled for Damascus in September. And I for one will want to see the lovely grey mare ANGHAM AL BADER (Hassan/Somah), owned by Mr Saleh Khaddam Al Srouji, the worthy first recipient of the WAHO award and winner of their National Championships Show. This gracious 6-year old is the result of several generations of breeding at Mr Srouji's Damascus stud, in this case sire-on-daughter mating. Their lines trace exclusively to Bedouin-bred horses, from the tribes of the Anazeh, Iquaidat, Shammar, Jboor, Rualla and Weld Ali.

Poland, host to the last WAHO Convention in 2004, chose the legendary matriach ETRURIA (Palas/Etna) to receive the Trophy, a great honour in a country known for the excellence of its mares. Several of Etruria's foals or
grand-get are in UK through the progeny of her sons Etman (who was leased to Silverdale Stud at one time), Etogram and Ecaho. Etruria's daughter Epifraza (full sister to Ecaho) is now in Britain.

Another horse to carry all before him in a very competitive racing country, is Turkey's WAHO winner Ozgunhan (Ozgun/Neame39), bred by the Andalou State Stud and now owned by Adil Turan and Ali Yildiz. Their chestnut gelding boasts an absolutely phenomenal record of 26 wins and 10 places from 38 starts including eight Group 1 and six Group 2 races - so a most worthy Trophy recipient.

The 10-year old grey pure Crabbet stallion JUPITER (Kfir/Rash Idyll) won the award in Israel for breeder and owner Yftah Lev-Ron of Sabra Arabians, a fitting recognition of his commitment to the breed and enthusiasm for show-jumping and other ridden events. Jupiter regularly competes successfully against all breeds and stands at stud at Kibbutz Givat Haim Ihud.

There are British links to the winner in The Netherlands, Mr Mokveld's AMAL (Abdullah/Naomi) which was leased to Cavewood Grange for a couple of seasons. His Russian sire was a former World Champion and his dam imported in utero from Britain from almost entirely Crabbet lines, tracing back to Rodania. Amal followed his sire to win the World Stallion Championship title in 1984. He was National Champion in Britain in 1994 and International champion in 1995. Now aged 26, his offspring continue the winning ways. Daughters Lestokada, Langani, Lady Amal, Vicuna, Elounda, Rabhar and Armanai are all international show ring champions; Amach raced successfully in Britain, and the talented Western and dressage horses Karami and Makkeda have almost reached Prix St Georges level.

Jordan's winner SCUDSLY (Hamadahn/Shela) also has a British background as both his sire (bred by Maxwells) and dam (bred by the Bancrofts) were imported to Jordan from the UK. This 15-year old grey stallion, bred and owned by Mr Said Khair, has won championships at international level from a young age and is on the ECAHO list of 'star' horses. More importantly, the quality of his progeny has earned him the Sire Produce title several times.

Well deserved congratulations are due to all the WAHO award-winning horses, true ambassadors of the Arabian breed. Full details of all the 2005 WAHO Trophy winners, with photos, can be viewed on the WAHO website, www.waho.org

Copyright: Anne Brown 2007