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

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.

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*Count Manilla

Count Manilla

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.

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*Count Dorsaz

*Count Dorsaz

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.

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Vanitys Count++

Vanitys Count++ 66104

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.

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Rissla (GSB) Chestnut Arabian Mare at Crabbet Park, England

Rissla – The Legacy of Crabbet

From the Crabbet Convention Organisation. Continuing the series begun in the March issue we feature this month the most famous mare of the great RODANIA female line – RISSLA. RODANIA was a celebrated mare in Arabia and the Blunts first heard of her on a journey through the Nefud two years before they saw and bought her. Lady Anne Blunt described her as “having extraordinary strength and style of going” and the mare had been so much sought after that she became the object of a feud between the Sheykh of the Roala and his kinsmen.

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*Silver Drift: Sire Supreme

By Arlene Magid. To many American breeders, *SILVER DRIFT is a familiar name to be found a few generations back in pedigrees today. Some may recognize him as the only full brother to *SERAFIX, or as a noted broodmare sire in his own right. There is a great deal more to be learned about this fascinating stallion who left his stamp on the horses of Europe, Australia, and North America.

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