Tag: Gadebrook Stud

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

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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.

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Silver Aura from Anne Brown of Gadebrook Stud

Two Pages of Anecdotes from Ben Rabba Fans Near and Far

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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.

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Ben Rabba: An Exceptional Influence on the British Arabian

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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.

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