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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Templars Stud, Lancashire – UK Summer 2000 Stud Tour

By Georgia Cheer. Regrettably, I was unable to view Rachelle Newnham and Keith Barnes horses at Templars Stud as a foal had been ill and it was feared that I might possibly tread a germ onto another farm so it was decided for me not to visit. However, Rachelle had sent me this list of horses as of last summer 2000 and pedigrees which I have posted on the site.

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Pilgrimage to Crabbet Park – 2002 Crabbet Convention

By Tiffani McCarthy. Like a modern-day Canterbury Tales, the devoted pilgrims flowed to Crabbet Park in Sussex for the opening of the Crabbet Convention. The only problem was that Crabbet Park is now less Canterbury Cathedral and more Bodiam Castle, just a shell of its former glory and purpose. This did not deter the delegates, however. This was the ancestral home of their beloved horses. For a few moments all of the memories from countless books and film clips and for a lucky few actual time spent at the stud came together through the magic grout of the imagination.

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