It has been suggested that [the author] clarify (or try to) some of the trends, fads, and oft-mentioned bloodlines that might confuse the newcomers to the breed - those who are well-versed enough on horses in general but not on the history of the breed in America, old time breeders and other references that are seen in ads or articles in Arabian horse magazines.
Possibly the thing most obvious now, in advertising, is the breakdown of bloodlines into various countries of origin. Most often mentioned are Polish and Egyptian at present, but earlier, "all-Crabbet" was a popular reference. There are others too, so here are a few of these "foreign" references:
EGYPTIAN:
This now usually refers to the new (last couple of decades) imports but can also include horses tracing in all lines to earlier imports from Egypt. Egyptian breeding is often thought to be totally of the Abbas Pasha lines (horses obtained in Arabia by Abbas Pasha I just before 1850) but except for a very few around 1900 and before (such as MESAOUD, etc.) there has been a more or less continuous flow of outside blood into Egyptian Arabs. This was due to the incorporation of stock from various breeders (the Blunts, and several Egyptian princes) when the Royal Agricultural Society's foundation animals were acquired, and which included not only remnants of Abbas Pasha bloodlines but also those of the breeders' own desert importations. Also there was the group of Crabbet horses, whose descendants still are featured in Egyptian pedigrees. This latter lot had not only some Egyptian lines (from the Blunt's Egyptian sources, which included their Sheyk Obeyd Stud) but also some of the Blunt's selection in Arabia - such as QUEEN OF SHEBA, whose name appears over and over in some of these pedigrees, plus RODANIA and AZREK.
The Royal Agricultural Society is now the Egyptian Agricultural Organization, and it is the breeder of the majority of fairly recent imports. The Harnza Stud has also sold horses to America of late, and this stud has both EAO and Polish (SKOWRONEK) lines, though the latter is of course "overwhelmed" numerically by Egyptian lines. There is a similar line of this same SKOWRONEK source (which is via the Crabbet bred REGISTAN) in some EAO stock too. Ahmed Hamzah's most important (and favourite) rnare was MAHASIN, whose dam is REGISTAN.
A great many race horses can be found among the ancestors of modern EAO Arabs, some with such provocative titles as 11 race horse of Lord Kitchener's," or, "TURGID, a race horse" (hopefully faster than the name indicates) while others at least had strain names if nothing more. Some of these were in the pedigrees of horses from breeders whose stock is now represented in EAO horses, although quite a number were used by the RAS and then EAO since the belief is that racing tests a horse to a degree that no other way can, and when this ability of speed and endurance is combined with good conformation and type (and possibly good temperament) then a horse should be a good sire - with luck. While I don't know about the earlier ones, the stud books stress the fact that a thorough examination of the race horse's background is made. At least as far as one can go, on desert breds, which is reliance on memory only, and of course, on truth being told.
ENGLISH:
The great majority of bloodlines which make up this category are either pure Crabbet (see Crabbet paragraph) or of mostly that ancestry combined with stock tracing to other E imports. Some of the latter were famous race horses in India or even officers' chargers (in the case of MAIDAN, it was both) or horses imported simply as breeding stock, such as YATAGHAN and HAIDEE. The Indian racers were desert bred horses as a rule, and the Blunts even recognized a horse in India that they had seen among the desert tribes.
The English horses provided the major foundation stock of American Arabians at first, and were augmented in 1906 by the Davenport imports (see own paragraph). Importations from England go right on into the present time, and stallions of mostly or all Crabet breeding have up until recently dominated the Sire List. The country's leading sire, *SERAFIX, was a Crabbet-bred. It must be remembered that the offspring of SKOWRONEK were all (except for two bred by H.V.M. Clark and three or four "outsiders") bred by the Crabbet Stud and therefore his get have been considered as being of Crabbet breeding, with some people even having the impression that he himself was a Crabbet bred horse. Nevertheless he was bred in Poland.
POLISH:
Polish Arabs have the longest verified pedigrees (i.e., written in stud books of various breeders) of any except for a few Weil (Germany) horses, which continue into today's bloodlines and start in the first decade of the 19th century. They contain, as well as their own importations (Desert) and early breeding stock, records of importations from several other countries - England and Russia (which itself imported from England, France and Poland - and lately Egypt). Nearly every generation shows a top cross to desertbred stallions - until recently, when the lack of quality in the latter did not encourage use of desert imports.
In American shows on the National level (Canadian too), Polish breeding has dominated the scene for many years, both at halter and performance. As in Egypt and Russia, the major breeding farms are State-operated and owned. The number of such studs has varied - for the last decade or so there have been two, now another has been added. Before World War II there were many private Arabian studs, mostly of the nobility who in fact had been the major factors, especially before World War I and just before World War II, in breeding purebred Arabian horses and in importing many desertbreds.
The most sensational modern prizewinner and sire imported from Poland is *BASK (43 champions), a National champion himself at halter and in Park, and sire of so many National Champions - both English and Canadian, in halter and performance, it is getting hard to keep account. He, like all Polish Arabs (except those imported very young), was raced, in his case for four years. *NABORR, mentioned under "Russia", was imported to Poland from Russia - as was his sire later - and is another which has gained fame as a sire of champions, with a plurality in National wins (assuming this word includes more than just two).
SPAIN:
While Spanishbreds are not numerous here as yet, there are nevertheless some important lines which trace to the Draper importations of 1934. This is especially true of the female lines. A more recent importation was made of 23 mares and a colt (and two en-utero foals) in 1966 by the Steen Ranch, and Greengate Farms has imported an excellent stallion still more recently. The Spanish breeding features its own desert- bred importations of foundation stock as well as early imports from Russia, Poland and England. Some lines were literally lost in Spain's civil war, but a few of these have been identified and authenticated, and accordingly reinstated. Among them are some of the very best of Spanish breeding. The chief stud is government-owned but there are also private breeders.
RUSSIA:
At present directly-imported Russian Arabs are not registered in this country although paradoxically many of their descendants are, as well as some first used in Poland - such as NABORR, PIETUSZOK and so on. Taking the former alone, there are at least 26 champions sired by him (as of 1972) and innumerable champions by his sons and grandsons, or out of daughters, granddaughters, etc not to mention the vast number which are not shown, or not at halter, at any rate, or which have won in performance. Their horses of all light breeds are tested on the race track, in jumping and in cross-country racing as well as 3Day and similar "Events". Arabs are started at two years of age, and according- ly have several months' more training than do those of Poland, for instance, as young horses. Whether this has anything to do with the fact that they have a larger number of record-holders than other countries, I don't know. The bloodlines are Polish (mostly from a large number con fiscated during World War II) English (Crabbet) a touch of French, and lately some Egyptian.
To indicate the quality purchased, MESAOUD and NASEEM were among the stallions from Crabbet, and OFIR was a Polish prize, as was the famed brood-matron GAZELLA 11 whose record as dam and/or grand- dam of superior sires will be hard to equal. The Arabs are bred at the Tersk Stud near Pyatigorsk in the Caucasus region - between the Black and the Caspian Seas. In flat racing they have Arab-only races, but also compete with other Russian light breeds - some of which are very tough indeed. They do not contest Thoroughbreds in flat racing of course ... but any breed that can stand it can have a go in certain of the gruelling cross-country tests, and some of these have been won by Arabs. Other sources have contributed breeding stock to America, but the foregoing are the major ones. However it may be that the term "desertbred" should be clarified. Obviously it doesn't mean the Mojave or the Gobi deserts, nor even as a rule the Sahara, but instead the Arabian and Syrian deserts. The various horse-breeding tribes wander from winter grazing grounds even as far south as Najd (in the past, at least) all the way up to the vicinity of Aleppo, some tribes even farther, in summer. Which tribes went where of course depended on "grazing rights", a chief cause of warfare. Some purebreds have been obtained from North Africa, where there are many breeders - mostly high officials, but also a few tribes - and since it was the fashion for emirs and similar officials of these countries to import horses from Arabia, quite often they were desertbred, even if thereafter they were housed in fancy stables.
It is true that most North African tribes bred Barbs, but some near Egypt, or actually in Northern Egypt, bred purebred Arabian horses. Often horses were purchased in towns or villages, such as a few of the Davenport imports, *DEYR, *KUSOF, *EL BULAD, etc., but which were said to be bred by nearby tribes. Even *ANTAR (no relation to the Egyptian ANTAR), bred in Aleppo, is called "desertbred". In fact our Stud Book in the first printing of Vol. V (1944) listed the sires and dams of Egyptian-breds im ported by Babson and Dickinson as "d.b." when instead they came from a long line of Egyptian breeding. In the 1962 reprint of that volume the designations have been corrected to read "Egypt". The abbreviation "d.b ...D.B." or "DB" in its restricted sense means horses actually bred in the desert by (usually) a Bedouin (or of course the king and other officials in Nejd) or his tribe, but generally includes horses of Arabian type (and hopefully, bloodlines) obtained in or near Arabia, Syria, Jordan, Irak, etc. Normally the strain of at least the dam is given, and sometimes the sire, if that is known (after several changes of hand by sale or stealing, some facts get lost). Turkey is often included on the "desert" list since during the days of the Ottoman Empire the Sultans and other officials would obtain some of the very best horses and mares as tribute from the horse-breeding tribes, even though Turkey had never managed to incorporate all of the Arabian Peninsula in its empire. Turkish army officers too made it a point to ride what in India were classed "high caste" Arabian horses, and accordingly in Turkey's various wars with Poland, Hungary, and so on, a goodly lot of these chargers remained in foreign lands after their owners had been captured or (more usually) exterminated.
In those days there was always a ready market for desert- bred colts and stallions, either for Army or general use, or for racing (mostly in India), so in the desert colts were not destroyed at birth, as was so often the case in later years (up to and including the present century) and only fillies were raised by the tribes. At least the inadvertent "exportation" of Arabian stallions to other countries via unlucky warriors had the beneficial result of upgrading the local stock, and in time it whetted the appetite of nobility in those countries to import horses directly from, the desert for not only did they want to ride handsome Arabian stallions themselves, they wanted to breed purebreds. The latter was at first to produce their own "top-grading" stallions, and later additionally for the pure delight in breeding such beautiful animals.
In the desert, only mares were ridden on raids, and although occasionally stallions (always few in number in any case) - were ridden in full scale wars, it was the war mare who did most of the work, and who in turn became famous for this or that feat, and thereby often founded her own strain, or sub- strain.
In addition to references of countries as "breeders" there are often references to people or ranches - such as Kellogg, Selby, Maynesboro, Babson, Dickinson, Huntington, etc. Some of these are described here:
BABSON:
Horses imported or bred by Henry Babson. He imported some from Poland, Egypt and England, but it is his Egyptian lines most often referred to now, since he and W.R. Brown imported the first - in any number - to this country. Because of inbreeding heavily to ancestors with leg faults the early Babson horses of these lines became unfavourably known for such faults. However there were notable exceptions. The most famous line tracing in tail-male (sire line) to a Babson Egyptian horse is that of the FADHEILAN branch of the *FADL line, since the "fabulous FADJUR" is a son of FADHEILAN (whose dam was Polish). As of 1970 this line was credited with 60 champions, 35 of them by FADJUR himself (now with over 40). The FAY-EL-DINE line had 25 champions, but none of his sons had more than 6 champions although grandsons helped add to the total. The Babson horses were used for polo, endurance rides, etc at least originally.
The most famous Polish import by Babson was *SULEJMAN, a horse of the same family (female line) as *FERDA. He sired 6 champions and as of 1970 18 champions traced to him in direct tail male. Among the Babson Polish mare* *AZJA IV is well-known as the dam of the "Living Legend" AZRAFF (21chs. as of 1970, but 26 at end of 1972), and *KASZTELANKA is the dam of FADHEILAN.
The "old Egyptian" Babson lines apparently nick well with the "new Egyptian" imports, when care is taken in regard to legs and quality - and in fact when the latter attributes were considered in the Babson lines themselves (and with minimum inbreeding to the cause of these faults), excellent horses were produced.
DAVENPORT:
While this usually refers only to the impor tations made direct from Syria by Homer Davenport, it can also include such horses as *ABU ZEYD (of Crabbet bloodlines but not bred by that Stud) and *NEDJRAN, a desertbred purchased in England. The Syrian group was for the most part purchased from the Anazeh tribe, which has its summer pastures in that country, but also some were obtained in towns as already mentioned. Apparently only one was actually town-bred however.
Quite a number of American-bred Arabs trace in at least one line, often more, to Davenport imports. Since so many of the group were mares, and they in turn had daughters which were also prolific, this resulted in many branches of the original families. While I don't know about other than halter champions (on which I keep records), in these at least there are many which trace to Davenport mares in tail female, but a very few (compared to other importations no mater how small) trace in direct tail male to Davenport stallions. The pedigrees show continuous top-crossing with other lines - English, Egyptian, Polish, etc. - on the mare lines, while those which do have a Davenport stallion in tail male are generally heavily "under- crossed" with the same selection - either one or a few.
The all-Davenport lines nearly died out in the 1940's and '50's due to the great success of horses of SKOWRONEK and MESAOUD blood, for instance, but there are attempts to collect horses of all-Davenport (DS) blood, to enlarge the numbers and possibly eventually produce champions. However this is not their goal, they (according to some sources) want to bring back the "old desert type", although just what that is is hard to say, since there were so many types, even among the animals Davenport imported. An idea of the same diversity of type among desertbreds can be seen among those pictured in the August AHM, so no matter what type or types the Daven port breeders come up with, it is bound to match some desert- bred (and lots of American-breds too).
BROWN
This is the stud of W. R. Brown, possibly better known as Maynesboro. Since Maynesboro bloodlines have in corporated Crabbet and some early American (Borden, Hun- tington, etc.) breeding, it may be more or less lost as to in dividuality in today's pedigrees. However Brown was the breeder of many of the breed's "greats" including GULASTRA, and, since he stressed performance, a goodly number of the best Park (though not then so designated) and harness horses were bred there - such as ROSHANA and RABIYAT (although there she was used as a polo pony). He imported large groups from Crabbet, and a few from France, winding up with a group from Egypt - none of which (of the latter) he had used in his breeding program since Maynesboro was despersed a few years later. These included such important animals as *ZARIFE, *NASR, *RODA, AZIZ and the two "H.H. Mahomed Aly" (in the prefix) mares *. HAMAMA and HAMIDA. The Maynesboro Stud initiated participation by Arabian horses in the U.S. Offi cial Endurance Rides, and their wins attracted such favourable attention by the Army that Arab stallions were soon used in the Remount Service.
CRABBET
This is the Crabbet Park Arabian Stud of England, founded by Lady Anne and Wilfrid Blunt in the early 1880's (or late 1870's) on a combination of horses they had themselves selected during their two trips to Arabia and of horses they had bred or obtained for their Sheyk Obeyd Stud near Cairo, Egypt. They sent their best horses to England, among them MESAOUD and AZREK.
Their daughter Lady Wentworth eventually became owner of Crabbet Park, and was famous not only for her skill in breeding and exploiting Arabs, but also for her writings, which include the impressive and valuable tome Thoroughbred Racing Stock and The Authentic Arabian, among others. Her parents had written the interesting and instructive Bodouin Tribes of the Euphrates and A Pilgrimage to Nejd.
The breed's Leading Sire of champions (60) is the Crabbet- bred *SERAFIX. The majority of successful studs in England are based on Crabbet stock, and the same is true of many in this country - such as the Selby Stud, for instance. After Lady Wentworth's death Cecil Covey owned the Crabbet horses but recently the stud was disbanded entirely. However the horses of Crabbet Park live on through their great descendants.
Many of the breed's most famous horses were bred or owned by Kellogg's, including *RAYSEN, whose son FERSEYN was the Leading Sire of champions for a decade. ABU FARWA, through whom the majority of champions of the GULASTRA line trace, was another Kellogg product. He was by the Brown- bred RABIYAS out of *RISSLETTA, a Crabbet mare imported with two others by Kellogg in 1936. Since the Kellogg ranch featured Sunday exhibitions, many an eventual Arab breeder acquired his or her first enthusiasm for the breed upon seeing these shows, which included Arabs doing all sorts of performance, even tricks and Liberty Drills, as well as jumping, park, harness, stockhorse, etc. Other breeds were shown too, to illustrate light horses which descend from the Arab, and draft horses - Percherons - in an 8-horse hitch, since this breed is also said to have a bit of Arab blood.
*WITEZ 11 was of the Army importation and this Polishbred was always near the top of the Leading Sire list, but also is known as a sire of all types of performance horses - from the 2 1/2 mile racing champion OFIR, to Park, Pleasure, Stock and champion jumpers, and endurance winners. He was the first to bring the value of OFIR (grandsire of the racer) blood to the attention of Americans. 'BASK is another grandson of OFIR.
SELBY
The Selby Stud was founded by Roger A. Selby, of shoe-manufacturing fame. He imported a large group from Crabbet Park - or rather small groups at a time, but "large" in the final number. Most renowned among them is of course *RAFFLES, a pony in size (1 3-2 or less) but a giant when rated by his subsequent role in the breed. His dam *RIFALA also produced other important sires, but only one daughter. Several of the other Selby mares proved to be significant too, but managed to have more daughters than did *RIFALA and accordingly made more of an impression in Leading Broodmatron charts. *MIRAGE DB, was another important Selby stallion. He was purchased as an aged horse from Crabbet, where he had never been used at stud. Despite his late start, he founded a strong line.
Selby published one of the most beautiful catalogues ever issued by an Arabian breeding farm, showing pictures of all the horses as well as some of their ancestors, along with infor- mative text.
DICKINSON
The Travellers Rest Farm was that of J. M. Dickinson, and originally was in Tennessee but later moved to California, and thence back to Tennessee by his daughter after his death. He had horses of all the bloodlines then prevalent and some that were rare - such as South American. He imported two groups from Poland and was the purchaser of Brown's Egyptian horses as well as much of his other stock. He had purchased ANTEZ from Kellogg's and sold him to Poland since that country raced its Arabs and this horse had been run against time for a half mile in .51. ANTEZ was sold back to the U.S. to a purchaser who wanted him as a sire of Palominos, and none of his line remains in Poland. Dickinson obtained some Selby horses also, and blended the lot. He sold horses to many countries and continents. His catalogues are collectors' items, packed full of information on horses and bloodlines as well as pictures.
HARRIS
This is A. W. Harris, for many years president of the Arabian Horse Club, as the Registry was then known. He started out with horses of Davenport and other early American breeding, but imported some horses from England and Arabia. His favourite was the Englishbred *NURI PASHA, a very plain horse, and in fact he seemed to prefer plain animals, placing emphasis in performance. He was rider of the Crabbetbred mare *RAMLA when she won a U.S. Endurance Ride for Maynesboro.
KELLOGG's
Founded by the cornflake magnate W. K. Kellogg, subsequently this ranch had various titles and state ownerships, winding up as The Kellogg Unit of Cal Poly. It was owned by the Army during World War II, and operated as a Remount Station. Early Kellogg stock was Davenport, but in 1926 a large group was imported from the Crabbet Stud, later augmented by Maynesboro horses, two Egyptian breds and, under the Remount, the famous "Patton imports" i.e. Polish Arabs saved in the war by General Patton in Germany. The Davenports were gradually eliminated, except for a line through the sire of one mare.
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