The Royal Crabbet Mare Amida by Robert J. Cadranell
Unfortunately, we know of no photos of Amida herself, so we must rely on her sire, her dam, her sister, and her progeny. Above left, Ibn Yashmak, sire of Amida. Above right, Ajramieh, dam of Amida.
Amida appears in modern Al Khamsa pedigrees through *Ana and *Aldebar, her two foals by Dwarka, an Arabian stallion imported to the U.K. from India. Of these two foals, the better known is *Aldebar, a 1919 stallion bred by the Prince of Wales that stood later in life at the Babson Farm in Illinois. But how did a mare bred at England’s seminal Crabbet Stud find her way into Royal ownership?
Amida had two older full brothers bred in the Newbuildings Half, both sold as two-year-olds (an unnamed 1909 colt and Azhar), and a younger full sister named Ajjam – judging from how often this cross was repeated, Ibn Yashmak on Ajramieh seems to have been regarded as a successful pairing. After a decade of slowly dwindling in size, due largely to Wilfrid Blunt’s failing health, the Newbuildings Half came to an end in March of 1916 when he made over the last of his breeding stock to Lady Anne. See Archer, Pearson, & Covey (AP&C), The Crabbet Arabian Stud, Its History and Influence, p. 150. This transfer included the filly Amida.
Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt started their Crabbet Stud in Sussex, England, with 1878 and 1879 importations of horses from the desert, some of which they obtained with the assistance of the British Consul at Aleppo, James Skene. Later, the Blunts added horses from Ali Pasha Sherif ’s collection in Egypt. But by 1906, the Blunts’ marriage had broken down, and they decided to separate. They partitioned the Crabbet Stud so that each could manage their own half.
Amida however did not remain long in Lady Anne’s ownership. In 1915, Lady Anne had sold the Mesaoud daughter Rakima (x Rosemary) to J.Q. Eddy of Plymouth. Rakima was supposed to have been in foal, but when Eddy found her to be open, Lady Anne gave him the three-year-old Amida in July of 1916 as a replacement for the foal Rakima was supposed to have been carrying.
Amida was foaled in 1913 in Wilfrid Blunt’s portion of the Crabbet Stud, known as the Newbuildings Half. Wilfrid Blunt had chosen Amida’s sire and dam, Ibn Yashmak and Ajramieh, at the 1906 partition. The Blunts had bred Ibn Yashmak (Feysul x Yashmak by *Shahwan) at their farm in Egypt at Sheykh Obeyd Garden, from Ali Pasha Sherif bloodlines, and imported him to England in 1904. The Blunts had bred Ajramieh in England. She was one of their many daughters of Mesaoud, a horse bred by Ali Pasha Sherif. Ajramieh was out of Asfura, a daughter of two Blunt desert imports, Azrek and Queen of Sheba.
This transaction angered the Blunts’ daughter, Judith, who became Lady Wentworth following her mother’s death in 1917. Judith wrote in the Crabbet Herd Book (CHB) that Eddy had “extracted” Amida from Lady Anne, who “had a somewhat mistaken idea of her obligations” to Eddy after having sold Rakima to him for just 25 guineas, “a ridiculous price.” Given the influx of horses from the Newbuildings Half, and that World War I was causing shortages of labor and fodder, it is understandable that Lady Anne would have made Amida available to Mr. Eddy. Lady Wentworth was frequently critical of her parents’ business practices and also “the sharks who imposed on the Blunts.” However, even Lady
This complete history includes horses that are not Al Khamsa horses. Those names are underlined.
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