![]() Mesaoud at Crabbet Park | |
Breed | Arabian |
---|---|
Sire | Aziz |
Grandsire | Harkan |
Dam | Yamamah III |
Maternal grandsire | Shueyman |
Sex | Stallion |
Foaled | 1887 |
Country | Egypt |
Color | Chestnut |
Breeder | Ali Pasha Sherif |
Owner | Crabbet Arabian Stud: Wilfred Scawen Blunt Lady Anne Blunt |
Last updated on: January 21, 2008. |
Mesaoud, an Arabian stallion, foaled 1887, was one of the foundation sires of the Crabbet Arabian Stud in England. Bred in Egypt by Ali Pasha Sherif, he was imported to England by Wilfred and Lady Anne Blunt in 1891. [1] He is recognized as an Al Khamsa Arabian, with verifiable lineage tracing to the Bedouin of the desert. [2]
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is also one of the oldest breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses in the Middle East that resemble modern Arabians dating back 4,500 years. Throughout history, Arabian horses have spread around the world by both war and trade, used to improve other breeds by adding speed, refinement, endurance, and strong bone. Today, Arabian bloodlines are found in almost every modern breed of riding horse.
The Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park Stud, was a horse breeding farm established on 2 July 1878 when the first Arabian horses brought to England by Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt arrived at Crabbet Park, their estate in Sussex. Six months earlier, while staying in Aleppo, Wilfrid and Lady Anne had made a plan to import some of the best Arabian horses to England and breed them there. In Lady Anne's words, "it would be an interesting and useful thing to do and I should like much to try it."
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to the west and Scotland to the north. The Irish Sea lies west of England and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. England is separated from continental Europe by the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south. The country covers five-eighths of the island of Great Britain, which lies in the North Atlantic, and includes over 100 smaller islands, such as the Isles of Scilly and the Isle of Wight.
He was a chestnut stallion with brilliant white markings, noted for his correct conformation, good Arabian type and powerful build. [3] His markings included a blaze, three full stockings with a right front partial stocking, and slight roaning to the body with scattered white spots on the body and on the head under the chin and jowl. [4] The body white suggests that he had sabino genetics, and he is thought to be a primary source for that coloration when it appears in Arabians today.
Markings on horses are usually distinctive white areas on an otherwise dark base coat color. Most horses have some markings, and they help to identify the horse as a unique individual. Markings are present at birth and do not change over the course of the horse's life. Most markings have pink skin underneath most of the white hairs, though a few faint markings may occasionally have white hair with no underlying pink skin. Markings may appear to change slightly when a horse grows or sheds its winter coat, however this difference is simply a factor of hair coat length; the underlying pattern does not change.
Sabino is a group of white spotting patterns in horses that affect the skin and hair. A wide variety of irregular color patterns are accepted as sabino. In the strictest sense, "sabino" refers to the white patterns produced by the Sabino 1 (SB1) gene, for which there is a DNA test. However, other horse enthusiasts also refer to patterns that are visually similar to SB1 as "sabino", even if testing indicates the gene is not present. Use of the term to describe non-SB1 "sabino" patterns in breeds that apparently do not carry the gene is hotly debated by both researchers and horse breeders.
The Blunts purchased Mesaoud in protracted negotiations with the aging Ali Pasha Sherif during 1888–1889. [5] [6] They finally completed the purchase of him as a two-year-old, along with the stallion Merzuk and the mare Khatila. In the two-year period before being shipped to England, he ran in the Cairo Eclipse Stakes at Ghezireh, which covered a distance of over a mile and a half. Victim of a bad start, he finished seventh out of ten horses. [4]
Ali Pasha Mohamed Sherif was an Egyptian government official and a renowned breeder of Arabian horses during the late 19th century.
In England, Mesaoud was used both as a riding horse and as a sire, with over 100 known purebred Arabian offspring recorded. [7] He was also shown in 1896, 1897, and 1898 at the Crystal Palace Horse Show, taking first place each time. [4] He was exhibited at the World Exhibition in Paris in 1900, alongside Arabians from around Europe. [8]
The Exposition Universelle of 1900, better known in English as the 1900 Paris Exposition, was a world's fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century and to accelerate development into the next. The fair, visited by nearly 50 million, displayed many technological innovations, including the Grande Roue de Paris Ferris wheel, the moving sidewalk, diesel engines, talking films, escalators, and the telegraphone. It also brought international attention to the Art Nouveau style. Major structures remaining from the Exposition include the Grand Palais, the Petit Palais, the Pont Alexandre III, the Gare d'Orsay railroad station (now the Musée D'Orsay and two of original entrances of Paris Metro stations by Hector Guimard.
Over time, his bloodline became a part of nearly every breedable mare at Crabbet, and thus he could not be used at the stud without the risk of inbreeding. [5] Therefore, Mesaoud was eventually sold to Wladislas Kliniewski for 240 guineas in July 1903, and shortly thereafter was exported to Russia by Count Sergei Aleksandrovich Stroganov, [9] [10] where he lived for the remainder of his life [4] at the site of the present day Tersk Stud. Mesaoud's exact fate is unknown, but it is believed that none of the Stroganov horses survived the Russian Revolution. [11]
Inbreeding is the production of offspring from the mating or breeding of individuals or organisms that are closely related genetically. By analogy, the term is used in human reproduction, but more commonly refers to the genetic disorders and other consequences that may arise from expression of deleterious or recessive traits resulting from incestuous sexual relationships and consanguinity.
Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country in Eastern Europe and North Asia. At 17,125,200 square kilometres (6,612,100 sq mi), it is, by a considerable margin, the largest country in the world by area, covering more than one-eighth of the Earth's inhabited land area, and the ninth most populous, with about 146.79 million people as of 2019, including Crimea. About 77% of the population live in the western, European part of the country. Russia's capital, Moscow, is one of the largest cities in the world and the largest city in Europe; other major cities include Saint Petersburg, Novosibirsk, Yekaterinburg and Nizhny Novgorod. Extending across the entirety of Northern Asia and much of Eastern Europe, Russia spans eleven time zones and incorporates a wide range of environments and landforms. From northwest to southeast, Russia shares land borders with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, China, Mongolia and North Korea. It shares maritime borders with Japan by the Sea of Okhotsk and the U.S. state of Alaska across the Bering Strait. However, Russia recognises two more countries that border it, Abkhazia and South Ossetia, both of which are internationally recognized as parts of Georgia.
The Tersk Stud was officially established on February 11, 1921, on the orders of Marshal Semyon Budyonny. The breeding farm was used to restore the Russian horse population, which suffered heavy losses during the Russian Revolution.
One of his most famous sons was Astraled, who sired a number of foals in England before being imported to the United States by Lothrop Ames of Massachusetts in 1909. Astraled was used in Oregon as a Remount sire for crossbred working horses. Astraled then went to live with W.R. Brown in 1923, where he sired his last foal crop, which included his best-known son, Gulastra.
The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or simply America, is a country comprising 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, it is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe. Most of the country is located in central North America between Canada and Mexico. With an estimated population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the most populous city is New York City.
William Robinson "W. R. " Brown was an American corporate officer of the Brown Company of Berlin, New Hampshire. He was also an influential Arabian horse breeder, the founder and owner of the Maynesboro Stud, and an authority on Arabian horses.
One of Mesaoud's descendants, the mare Rissalma, was imported by the Tersk Stud of the former Soviet Union in 1936 and produced the famous Russian-bred stallion Priboj. His grandson, the Astraled son Sotamm, was sold to Egypt, thus returning the Mesaoud bloodline to its nation of origin. Sotamm's great-grandson Nazeer is one of the most famous horses in the "Egyptian" line of pedigrees. [3] Nazeer's son Aswan was exported from Egypt to Tersk in 1963, thus reintroducing the bloodlines of Mesaoud to Russia from yet another source.
Mesaoud's descendants are found worldwide and he appears in the pedigree of over 90% of all Arabian horses in the world today. [12]
Sire Aziz Ch. 1881 | Harkan | Zobeyni | Barq |
---|---|---|---|
Sununah | |||
Harka | desertbred | ||
desertbred | |||
Aziza | Samhan I | Al Qumiz | |
Udayha | |||
Bint Faras Nakadan | Zobeyni | ||
Faras Nakadan | |||
Dam Yamamah III Gr. 1872 | Shueyman | Jerboa | Gharran |
Hajlah | |||
Shueyma | desertbred | ||
Salimah | |||
Yamamah II | Zobeyni | Barq | |
Sununah | |||
Ghazieh | desertbred | ||
desertbred |
Anne Isabella Noel Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth, known for most of her life as Lady Anne Blunt, was co-founder, with her husband the poet Wilfrid Blunt, of the Crabbet Arabian Stud. The two married on 8 June 1869. From the late 1870s, Wilfrid and Lady Anne travelled extensively in Arabia and the Middle East, buying Arabian horses from Bedouin tribesmen and the Egyptian Ali Pasha Sherif. Among the great and influential horses they took to England were Azrek, Dajania, Queen of Sheba, Rodania and the famous Ali Pasha Sherif stallion Mesaoud. To this day, the vast majority of purebred Arabian horses trace their lineage to at least one Crabbet ancestor.
"Al Khamsa" is a designation applied to specific desert-bred bloodlines of the Arabian horse considered particularly "pure" by Arabian horse breeders, who sometimes also describe such lines with by use of the Arabic word asil, meaning "pure".
Judith Anne Dorothea Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth also known as Lady Wentworth was a British peer, Arabian horse breeder and real tennis player. As the owner of the Crabbet Arabian Stud from 1917 to 1957, her influence on Arabian horse breeding was profound, with over 90 percent of all Arabian horses in the world today carrying lines to Crabbet bloodstock in their pedigrees.
Skowronek was an Arabian stallion foaled in 1908 or 1909. He was bred by Count Józef Potocki who owned the Antoniny Stud in Poland. He was imported to England as a young horse. Upon purchase by Lady Wentworth, Skowronek became a foundation stallion at Lady Wentworth's Crabbet Arabian Stud. He was most often crossed on mares who were daughters or granddaughters of the stallion Mesaoud, another foundation stallion for Crabbet, who had been bred by Ali Pasha Sherif and imported from Egypt to England by Lady Wentworth's parents, Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt.
Sheykh Obeyd was a stud farm that raised Arabian horses, located near Cairo, Egypt. It was founded by Wilfred Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt in the late 19th century, and was the home of Lady Anne following her permanent separation from Wilfred in 1906 over his ill-treatment and blatant affairs, until her death. The foundation bloodstock for Sheykh Obeyd came primarily from the breeding program of Ali Pasha Sherif, and the best animals were sent on to the Blunts' Crabbet Arabian Stud in England.
Witez II was a bay Arabian stallion foaled at the Janów Podlaski stud in Poland. He spent his early years at Janów at a time when Poland was under occupation by Nazi Germany before ultimately arriving in the United States in 1945, where he lived for the remainder of his life until his death. His name came from an archaic Polish word meaning "chieftain, knight, prince and hero."
Al Khamsa is a nonprofit organization in the United States that supports the preservation breeding of certain strains of purebred Arabian horses, specifically lines tracing exclusively to those pedigrees providing a detailed chain of evidence to prove they were bred by the Bedouin of the Arabian peninsula. The name derives from the Al Khamsa Arabian mares, the name applied to the legendary five favorite horses of Mohammed. The particular purpose of Al Khamsa is to "preserve the original Bedouin Arabian horse in pure bloodlines in North America."
Aswan (1958–1984), originally named Raafat in Egypt. Aswan was a highly influential grey Egyptian-bred Arabian stallion who stood at the Tersk Stud in Russia. Sired by Nazeer out of Yosreia, he was given as a gift to the Soviet Union by the Egyptian government in 1963, in return for Soviet help in building the Aswan Dam.
Nazeer was a gray Arabian stallion from Egypt. He was sired by Mansour out of Bint Samiha.
The Purosangue Orientale or Puro Sangue Orientale (PSO), is a horse breed developed in the Kingdom of Italy by Royal Decree n° 2690 of 19 September 1875, which created a stud book dedicated to the breed. Beginning in 1864, the Italian Government had sent emissaries into Syria and Mesopotamia to purchase desert bred Arabian horses directly from Bedouin tribes. Numerous stallions and mares were purchased and brought back to Sicily, many being destined for the Royal Remount Station in Catania. The breeding of Arabian Horses in Italy, therefore predates the Crabbet Park Stud which only started in 1878. Furthermore, the Crabbet Park Stud obtained most of its horses from the stables of Abbas-Pasha in Egypt, and therefore Africa, whereas the horses obtained from the Italian Government came directly from the Syrian Desert, and therefore from Asia and Arabia. One must also consider that the financial resources of a major European government must also surpass those of a private individual and a government can certainly afford to purchase much more expensive horses, since the purpose was to improve cavalry remounts and therefore national interest was at stake. Lastly, the Italian Government could also rely on the expertise of Carlo Guarmani, who was born in Italy in 1828, but whose family moved to the Middle East, where he was raised. He was fluent in Arabic and had a passion for horses, and spent 16 years traveling in Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Northern Arabia. He knew the Bedouins of the Syrian desert well and spent much time with them. He was commissioned to acquire Arab stallions for the stables of Napoleon III and for the then king of Italy, Vittorio Emanuele II. Although he had been to Egypt, he headed for the Syrian desert when he needed to purchase horses. His knowledge and direct contact with the Bedouins of the Arabian desert was far greater than that of Lady Anne Blunt, the founder of Crabbet Park Stud.
The Hanstead Stud was a breeding farm in England for Arabian horses. It was active from 1928 to 1957, and its animals had a significant impact in many countries, "second only in importance to" Crabbet Arabian Stud. It was based at Hanstead Park, a country house estate near St Albans in Hertfordshire, not far from London.
Abu Farwa was an Arabian stallion used in the W.K. Kellogg Institute horse breeding program at Cal Poly, Pomona.
Naborr, originally named Nabor, was a gray Arabian stallion foaled in Russia at the Tersk Stud. He was sired by Negatiw, a Russian-bred stallion with Crabbet ancestry, out of the Polish-bred mare Lagodna. After establishing himself on the race track and show ring in the former USSR, Naborr was exported to Poland, where he lived for seven years, and from there was purchased for import to the United States by a wealthy Arabian horse breeder from Arizona, Anne McCormick. Upon her death, Naborr was sold in 1969 to Tom Chauncey and Wayne Newton for $150,000, which was at the time the highest price ever paid for an Arabian horse at auction. He went on to become a leading sire of champion Arabian horses in the United States and Canada.
Negatiw, sometimes anglicized Negativ, was a gray Russian-born Arabian stallion with Crabbet ancestry. He was sired by Naseem, a Skowronek son bred in England, out of the Polish-bred mare, Taraszcza. Negatiw was credited to be the stallion that returned the Ibrahim sire to Poland. He is also regarded as the most internationally influential grandson of Skowronek.
Bandos was a gray Arabian stallion with Crabbet ancestry. He was sired by Negatiw, a Tersk bred stud, out of Bandola, who was known by the title of "Queen of Poland". Bandos was a sire in Poland for 11 years, and in 1982, he was imported to the United States.