Articles Archives | Crabbet.com

RAS Bint Vanity (Silver Vanity x Blue Sal) 1977 grey mare owned by Rhodes Arabian Stud.

Long Live Crabbet: A Tour of Straight Crabbets in the American North East

September 18, 2019September 18, 2019 AngelaLeave a Comment

By Alexia Ross. The good news is that there are a small number of breeders in America who are still trying to preserve a resource of Straight Crabbet Arabians and are doing so with some very nice horses. Standards vary, as in any bloodline group, with some plain heads and rough couplings in evidence but good temperament and athleticism is pretty standard with more than enough exotic heads and smooth bodies to offer a positive future. On the whole, limbs, length of shoulder and movement are better than the norm that is accepted in the show ring these days with long ground covering strides on offer instead of the stylized, but not particularly functional, high knee action which is becoming fashionable now in Europe.

Silver Aura from Anne Brown of Gadebrook Stud

Two Pages of Anecdotes from Ben Rabba Fans Near and Far

September 16, 2019September 16, 2019 AngelaLeave a Comment

I ended up with a beautiful bay colt with just enough chrome. When Ed came up to see him, his biggest concern was that I not give him a ‘wimpy’ name. When asked for suggestions, he came up with Bayrabba. It worked for me. Bayrabba is now 13 years old and has sired a dozen or so babies. He and his foals have that typical Ben Rabba look with a twinkle in their eyes. They’re consistently very kind and people-loving, but they all have enough mischief in them to keep from ever being boring. This is all in addition to being very correct, beautiful and athletic. While it is sad that Ed and Ben are gone, it is made less sad for me when I look out over the pastures and see what I have because of the both of them.

Ben Rabba Photo Essay: Sons, Daughters, Grandsons and Granddaughters

September 16, 2019September 16, 2019 AngelaLeave a Comment

Ben Rabba photo essay of sons, daughters, grandsons and granddaughters that was originally included in the 1999 Stallion Issue of the Crabbet Influence in Arabians Today magazine.

Ben Rabba: An Exceptional Influence on the British Arabian

September 15, 2019September 15, 2019 Angela2 Comments

By Alexia Ross. Ben Rabba’s visible debt to the Nasik son Rifnas appealed to many of the breeders of Crabbet lines at the time. It reintroduced a factor for extreme shoulder and front structure that was hard to find within the surviving Crabbet gene pool in the UK. Less obvious to the English eye was his debt to other early American influences, notably the Davenport importation. It is to this influence that Ben Rabba owed his good hindquarter and exceptionally well muscled loin, the latter a trait often overlooked by Arabian breeders for the show ring but essential to genuine athleticism in any horse of any breed.

Joe and Sue Norman with Kasadi foals (l) Gavin (R) Marceline

Centenary of the Harwood Stud

September 13, 2019September 14, 2019 Angela1 Comment

By Rosemary Archer. Harwood has the distinction of being the oldest Arabian stud in Britain. It was founded in 1896 when Colonel F. Lyon of Horsham, Sussex, bought the four year-old mare Howa at the 8th Crabbet Sale. Howa was a great-granddaughter of the Blunt’s well-known mare Hagar, which they bought in Arabia and rode on their desert journeys, and her sire was Azrek, one of the Blunt’s finest imports.

Painswick Lodge Stud – Part II

August 25, 2019August 25, 2019 AngelaLeave a Comment

By Emma Bennett. One of the nicest aspects of the Painswick Lodge Stud is that after the death of Margaret Murray in 1967, several members of her family continued to breed from her bloodlines: her daughter, Iona Bowring, from the families of Gleaming Gold and Farette; her son and daughter-in-law, Pat and Caroline Murray, through Fari II and Gleaming Gold; and her niece, the Countess Lewenhaupt, through Rifari in Sweden.

Risslina (Rafeef x Rissla) 1926 chestnut mare. Photo from the Crabbet Arabians by Cecil Covey.

Margaret Murray and the Painswick Lodge Stud: Part 1, 1932-1967

August 25, 2019 Angela1 Comment

By Emma Bennett. Perhaps the inspiration to own and breed Arabs came from Margaret Murray seeing her mother drive a pair of South African Arabs in a phaeton, for in 1932 she bought a grey two-year-old colt from Mr. T.C. Armitage’s stud at Taunton in Somerset. This colt was Sahban, by *Aldebar 1864 (bred by the Prince of Wales) out of the Crabbet mare, Seriya (Skowronek x Somra). Sahban was the start of a long friendship between Margaret Murray and Tom Armitage who was president of the Arab Horse Society three times. Sabhan was used mainly on pony and Thoroughbred mares and only sired a few purebred foals as at that time Arabs were used mainly to improve other types of horses.

Count Manilla

August 23, 2019August 25, 2019 AngelaLeave a Comment

Count Manilla was bred by Miss Gladys Yule of Hanstead House, whose mother, the late Lady Yule, had bred Count Manilla’s sire, Count Dorsaz. Count Dorsaz was by Rissalix from the mare Shamnar, whose sire Niziri was a full brother to Naseem. Shamnar’s dam was the famous Rasim mare Razina, who appears on the third line of Manilla’s pedigree as well. Manilla was by Algol from Nurschida.

*Count Dorsaz

August 20, 2019August 20, 2019 Angela2 Comments

The story of *COUNT DORSAZ and his descendants is one ideally suited to the writing of an entire book, rather than just an article. It is a tale of international success, as his descendants appear in pedigrees all over the world. His influence on the breed in America is a combination of chance circumstances: the exchange of breeding stock between the Crabbet and Hanstead studs, the sudden demise of Miss Gladys Yule shortly after the death of Lady Wentworth, and the foresight of the American breeder Bazy Tankersley in acquiring the cream of Crabbet and Hanstead horses, only available due to the high death duties on the estates of Lady Wentworth and Miss Yule.

Vanitys Count++ 66104

August 14, 2019August 14, 2019 AngelaLeave a Comment

Vanitys Count++ went on to win championships in halter, English pleasure and western pleasure, culminating in winning a Top Ten in Western Pleasure at the U.S. Nationals in 1976. That same year his son, Bey Vanity+++, owned by Don and Janet Amburgey of Germantown, Ohio, won his first of six U.S. Top Tens in Half-Arabian Western Pleasure. A month later Vanitys Count++ and Bey Vanity+++ received their Legion of Merit awards.