The Godolphin Arabian, also known as the Godolphin Barb, was an Arabian horse who was one of three stallions that founded the modern Thoroughbred. He was named after his best-known owner, Francis Godolphin, 2nd Earl of Godolphin.
The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse with historic roots 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 modern breeds. Although modern DNA cannot trace breed purity in the modern population beyond 200 years, there is archaeological evidence of horses in the Middle East with landrace characteristics that resemble modern Arabians dating back 3,500 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.
Wilfrid Scawen Blunt, sometimes spelt Wilfred, was an English poet and writer. He and his wife Lady Anne Blunt travelled in the Middle East and were instrumental in preserving the Arabian horse bloodlines through their farm, the Crabbet Arabian Stud. He was best known for his poetry, which appeared in a collected edition in 1914, and also wrote political essays and polemics. He became additionally known for strongly anti-imperialist views that were still uncommon in his time.
Anne Isabella Noel Blunt, 15th Baroness Wentworth, known for most of her life as Lady Anne Blunt, along with her husband the poet Wilfrid Blunt, was co-founder of the Crabbet Arabian Stud in England and the Sheykh Obeyd estate near Cairo. 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 princes such as Emir Fendi Al-Fayez 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.
The Crabbet Arabian Stud, also known as the Crabbet Park Stud, was an English horse breeding farm that ran from 1878 to 1972. Its founder owners, husband and wife team Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt, decided while travelling in the Middle East to import some of the best Arabian horses to England and breed them there. They maintained the Sheykh Obeyd estate near Cairo to facilitate this. Their daughter Judith Blunt-Lytton, 16th Baroness Wentworth carried on the stud until her death. The stud was sold up in 1971, but its bloodlines continue to influence the breed worldwide in the 21st century.
Lieutenant-Colonel Noel Anthony Scawen Lytton, 4th Earl of Lytton,, was a British Army officer, Arabian horse fancier and writer.
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 per cent 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.
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. He is recognized as an Al Khamsa Arabian, with verifiable lineage tracing to the Bedouin of the desert.
Ali Pasha Mohamed Sherif was an Albanian-Egyptian government official and a renowned breeder of Arabian horses during the late 19th century.
Ada Byron Milbanke, 14th Baroness Wentworth was a British peer.
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, 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.
Carl Reinhard Raswan, born Carl Reinhard Schmidt, was one of the greatest connoisseurs and patrons of the asil Arabian horse. He authored numerous books on Arabian horses and the Bedouin people who raised them. A scholar of Arabian bloodlines, he also published the Raswan Index, an extensive compilation of Arabian horse pedigree and strain information. He advocated tolerance and understanding of Bedouin ways of life and culture in Arabia.
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.
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.
Ibn Sbyel or Ibn Sbe'yel or AlSbyel are a family from the Al-Qmesah clan, from the Adnanite tribe of `Anizzah. The family is notable for their connection to the Ma’anagi Arabian horse studs :
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.
Dora Maclean was an Australian pedigree horse-breeder known for her Arabian horses. During the war she was obliged to employ women from the Australian Women's Land Army. She only employed women after that.
