We have owned and bred Pure Crabbet horses as a sort of “stud within a stud” since the 1970’s, because, like Lady Anne Blunt, we feel it is a “useful thing to do” in terms of preserving precious bloodlines for the future. As time has moved on since we first began breeding Purebred Arabians in 1973, the Crabbet lines are becoming more and more absorbed into the global culture of Arabian breeding, and we can see that some of the more valuable characteristics of the Crabbet Arabian are disappearing into the melting-pot, along with the rich and broad diversity of bloodlines we once had. Crabbet was just one stud, but it managed to gather some of the most significant Arabians in history, at a time when, historically, many of them could have disappeared forever, and then was responsible for dispatching them all over the world. We in Australia were so fortunate in our early breeders who imported and bred on these wonderful bloodlines so that we can still enjoy their close influence today.
Even as Crabbet breeders, we have our favourite bloodlines, and we were always attracted to the Crabbet Silver Family founded by the beautiful mare Silver Fire. To Australia came a son and daughter of Silver Fire, and we were lucky enough to acquire daughters of them both – HAMOONETTE and ELECTRA MOON by Silver Moonlight*, DEIRDRE from Silver Magic*. All three established families which we are still breeding with. Deirdre was a Pure Crabbet mare by Lady Wentworth’s Supreme Champion Grand Royal*. This family has produced internationally-renowned endurance horses through Deirdre’s daughter THE CAMEO MAGNOLIAA by Chip Chase Desert Wind.
Over the years we added the Pure Crabbet “Silver” blood of the stallions SAMIRI [Stefan/Tamarisk] and SPARKLING VANITY [Fabulous/Silver Sparkle ], and of course the magnificent SOMERLED [Baz/Silver Radiance] whose blood is so prominent here through his son CEDARDELL ZANZIBAR and some fantastic daughters such as CAMEO SILVER SKY, CAMEO SOMERTIME and CAMEO SOMERSET, as well as the Pure Crabbet mares PURE SILVER and SIMPLY SILVER who each left a Pure Crabbet daughter with us.
A handsome bay Pure Crabbet mare named FAIRWAY OPERETTA [Sindh*/Rosileta] also left a strong family in our stud. We bred her mostly with our stallion Chip Chase Desert Wind as it was a magic mating, and right at the end of her life she produced a Pure Crabbet filly CAMEO TOSCA by Royalund Sparkling Silver, who has an enviable group of offspring as her own contribution to the family.
Evaluating our group of Arabians now with the value of hindsight, we can see how important is the influence of such stallions as SILWAN* [Dargee/Silwa] through his grandson Chip Chase Desert Wind, and through the Pure Crabbet mare TROPIC FIONA whose tall and athletic family is one of our most treasured. We have also valued the Argent mares such as ARABELLA and JADARA for their contribution. The Morocco mares MOROCCAN MOON and WELLWORTH DREAMTIME brought their beauty, strong conformation and exceptional movement to the mix.
We always loved the stallion AL BORG JARIM who we used to see on our annual trips to the National Stud Horse and Pony Show in the 1970’s, and still admire his reachy smooth elegance on our grainy Super 8 videos of the shows. His son ROYALUND SPARKLING SILVER has proved a superb sire of broodmares which we are only now appreciating for their worth. Cameo Tosca is the eldest of them and she simply doesn’t know how to have a second-rate foal, but others are pushing their way up through the ranks as exemplary matrons. “Sparky” has an amazing standing heartrate of 20 which has been a great trait to put into our endurance programme, and he also transmits his beautifully-shaped neck with its fine throat, his long low floating trot, and a temperament second to none.
Paul and Judy Ward’s stallions ARFAJA HALUJ [Rasham/Persareh] and BOLD AS BLAZES [Al Borg Jarim/Oxford Wonder] have also been used with very pleasing results, and there is a close association between our two studs, Judy with her chestnuts, me with my greys: two sides to the same coin.
Our entire breeding programme is high-percentage Crabbet, although CEDARDELL ZANZIBAR, probably the best son of Somerled, brings in some Polish blood through his dam Zaria*, a grand- daughter of Zirree el Wada and Dargee, and the daughter of Argos by Naborr [Skowronek]. Our mare families are now out to 5 and 6 generations of our own breeding, although we are not breeding so much these days. The best thing is that we didn’t shift our breeding programme at all once our emphasis swung to endurance some 20 years ago now. All these lines we love – Silwan*, Silver Moonlight*, Samiri, Grand Royal*, Morocco, Greylight* - combine to produce top-quality endurance horses that have both beauty and ability. We value both our Pure Crabbet nucleus and our high-percentage Crabbet horses. We even have one mare CAMEO MICHAELIAA who is 99% Crabbet!
CURRENT PURE CRABBET STUD - 2011:
STALLIONS AND COLTS
ROYALUND SPARKLING SILVER S14152 Grey 1988 [Al Borg Jarim/Fenwick Silver Serenade]
HALLELUJAH S19761 Grey 1998 [Arfaja Haluj/Fenwick Ramara]
MARES AND FILLIES
CAMEO TOSCA F20620 Grey 1994 [Royalund Sparkling Silver/Fairway Operetta]
VELVET RIBBONS F24068 Grey 1999 [Royalund Sparkling Silver/Fenwick Velveteen by Greylight*]
CAMEO SILVER SHELL F26091 Grey 2001 [Royalund Sparkling Silver/Simply Silver by Somerled]
CAMEO SILVER HALO F27502 Grey 2003 [Hallelujah/Pure Silver by Somerled]
CAMEO HALCYON F27072 Grey 2003 [Arfaja Haluj/Cameo Tosca by RSS]
CAMEO ARIANNA F28751 Grey 2005 [Hallelujah/Cameo Tosca by RSS]
CAMEO SILVER SLIPPER F28961 Grey 2007 [Royalund Sparkling Silver/Adorable Dancer]
CAMEO SILVER MASK F28814 Grey 2006 [Bold as Blazes/Cameo Silver Shell]
CAMEO INDIE SILVER [Pending] Grey 2008 [Hallelujah/Cameo Silver Shell]
CAMEO FILIGREE [Pending] Grey 2008 [Hallelujah/Adorable Dancer]
CAMEO TIRRA LIRRA [Pending] Grey 2009 [Tobruq by Arfaja Haluj/Elshada Opal Fire]
CAMEO SILVER SPARROW [Pending] Grey 2010 [Royalund Sparkling Silver/Adorable Dancer]GELDING
CAMEO SILVERSMITH G24049 Grey 2005 [Royalund Sparkling Silver/Cameo Silver Sky by Somerled]
