Ben Rabba: An Exceptional Influence on the British Arabian

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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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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The Original Crabbet – Maynesboro – Kellogg Mare Families

By Rick Synowski. While CMK Arabian horses have come to represent a minority breeding group today, CMK foundation mare lines hold fast to their international domination of lists of leading dams of champions. Their production records, some accomplished by mares now deceased, may never be equaled. The character, type and breeding of such celebrated mares must inevitably be diminished and disappear when out crossing to stallions of other breeding groups predominates.

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