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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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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Sirella (UK)

Distinctly Crabbet: Sirella and Hanif

Shortly after he won the Supreme Male Championship at the Arab Show in 1962, *Silver Vanity 22555, was exported to America. It was a great los to England as much of the little stock he left behind was also exported. However, the year that *Silver Vanity left, a colt was born to Sirella who was to become an all-time favourite of breeders on both sides of the Atlantic – Hanif. Hanif was one of only two pure Crabbet stallions left by *Silver Vanity in the UK, the other being Rayyan out of Risseefa.

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