by Carol Woodbridge Mulder © 1992, revised September 2007

100% Crabbet, “straight” Crabbet, and “pure” Crabbet all mean the same thing. In this treatise I used the term 100% Crabbet. A 100% Crabbet pedigree means that the pedigree traces in all lines to Arabians which were:

1. PURCHASED AND OWNED BY CRABBET:
A) Original Blunt desert purchases and importations to Crabbet.
B) Blunt importations to Crabbet of Ali Pasha Sherif and other  Egyptian source stock.
C) Skowronek, 1908 gray stallion bred by Antoniny Stud in Poland from all Polish non-Crabbet stock, but the major part of the stud career of this great horse was under Crabbet ownership; acquired for Crabbet by Lady Wentworth.
D) Jeruan,1920 chestnut stallion bred by Arthur J. Powdrill, England,of 87.5% Crabbet lines and 12.5% non-Crabbet lines; acquired for Crabbet by Lady Wentworth.
E) Dafina, 1921 gray mare, desert bred and imported to England through King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia; acquired for Crabbet by Lady Wentworth.
F) Dargee, 1945 chestnut stallion bred by George Ruxton, England, from 84% Crabbet lines and 16% non-Crabbet lines, but an important Crabbet sire; acquired for Crabbet by Lady Wentworth.
G) Zirree El Wada, 1948 gray mare bred by Mrs. S. A. Nicholson, Ireland, from 87.3% Crabbet lines and 12.7% non-Crabbet lines. It is unclear if Lady Wentworth bought this mare, leased her, or borrowed her, but she was evidently at Crabbet for a brief time before Lady Wentworth’s 1957 death, and Lady Wentworth is recorded as breeder of Zeus II (AHS Stud Book, Volume 9, page 51), 1957 son and first foal of Zirree El Wada. Zeus II appears to have been foaled after Lady Wentworth’s death, and Zirree El Wada returned to her breeder who bred her next 7 foals from her, including her 1958 foal, which was full-sister to Zeus II.

2. ARABIANS BRED BY OTHERS WHICH PASSED THROUGH THE HANDS OF CRABBET WITHOUT BEING BRED FROM BY CRABBET:

A) El Lahr, 1899 bay mare bred by Miss Ethelred Dillon, England, from a Crabbet-bred mare she owned, but exchanged back to Crabbet when El Lahr was a foal at foot. Crabbet owned El Lahr for approximately 2 years, as was acknowledged by Lady Anne Blunt, until she was sold to Boucaut in Australia. El Lahr left successful influence in Australia. Her pedigree was 50% Crabbet and 50% non-Crabbet.
B) *Mirage 790, 1916 gray stallion, desert bred; eventually taken to England where Lady Wentworth much admired him and bought him to use at Crabbet, but sold to Selby in America when the General Stud Book of England closed their books to new desert stock.

3. ANY PUREBRED ARABIAN BRED BY CRABBET STUD, FROM ANY OF THE BLOODLINES USED BY THAT STUD, BETWEEN THE YEARS 1878 TO 1971.

The non-Crabbet backgrounds of Skowronek, Jeruan, Dargee, Zirree El Wada, and El Lahr are not considered Crabbet when found in pedigrees through sources other than Skowronek, Jeruan, Dargee, Zirree El Wada, and El Lahr. These lines are:

A) All the Polish ancestry of Skowronek;
B) Maidan and El Emir in Jeruan’s pedigree;
C) *Aldebar 1864, known as Aldebaran in England, and Shahzada in Dargee’s pedigree (although the Crabbet parts of the pedigrees of *Aldebar 1864 and Shahzada are always considered Crabbet);
D) El Lahr’s sire *Imamzada 210;
E) Jezail and the old Egyptian parts of Zirree El Wada’s pedigree (although the Crabbet part of Jezail’s pedigree is always considered Crabbet).

The influence of Crabbet Stud has been enormous and continues to exist in the 21st century in most of the Arabian horse breeding countries of the world, particularly in the West.

Revised by author in September 2007; the original first appeared in the April/May/June 1992 issue of Crabbet Influence magazine. 

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