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by Robert J. Cadranell

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by Kate Rhodes

by Kate Rhodes

The Royal Crabbet Mare Amida

by Robert J. Cadranell

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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?

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

Ajjam (Ibn Yashmak x Ajramieh), fulll sister of Amida.

Anne’s manager, Arthur Caffin, testified in court when asked about her, “If she had a fault it was that she was inclined to be too generous.” London Times, February 20, 1920, p. 4.

Lady Wentworth had a reputation as a shrewd and largely unforgiving negotiator. She once commented, however, that the Russians who bought a large draft of horses from her in 1936 were the hardest people to deal with that she had ever met. (AP&C, p. 185). One would not be surprised to learn that the Russians felt the same way about her.

Lady Wentworth wrote in CHB that by December of 1916, Eddy had sold Amida to King George V. That Eddy did not keep Amida seems to have angered Lady Wentworth still more. In 1918, Amida was bred to Dwarka, then owned by the Prince of Wales, who was later briefly King Edward VIII and then, following his abdication in 1936, Duke of Windsor. Amida produced her first foal at age six in 1919, a chestnut colt registered as Aldebar in the Arabian section of Weatherby’s General Stud Book (GSB), but as Aldebaran in the stud book of Britain’s recently founded Arab Horse Society (AHSB). *Aldebar’s breeder was not George V but rather his son, the Prince of Wales.

Lady Anne Blunt died late in 1917, and by 1919, her husband and daughter were in a bitter dispute over ownership of the Crabbet horses. In 1920, the courts finally decided the resulting lawsuit in Lady Wentworth’s favor, but during this time and continuing after the lawsuit was decided, Lady Wentworth had been buying back Crabbet horses previously sold by the Blunts in the U.K. (and even some they had sold overseas, in the case of *Battla and *Nafia).

Lady Wentworth wrote in CHB that after breeding for the Royal family, Amida “was sold at auction with broken knees 1919.” Lady Wentworth bought Amida in 1919, either at the auction or shortly after, in foal again to Dwarka.

Amida remained at Crabbet long enough to foal her 1920 bay Dwarka filly, named *Ana, before Lady Wentworth sold both Amida and her foal *Ana to Sidney G. Hough of Springhouse Park, Theydon Bois, Essex, along with a seventeen-year-old mare named Simrieh. Simrieh then foaled her 1920 filly, *Selmnab (by Nawab), in Hough’s ownership. Although Hough had a small stud, he had begun breeding Arabians as early as 1903, when his mare Riad (*Hail x Raschida) produced the filly Sheeba by Ben Azrek (Azrek x Shemse).

Amida’s sale to Lady Wentworth in 1919 explains why the stud books name Crabbet Stud as *Ana’s breeder — Lady Wentworth bought Amida in foal to Dwarka, but because the British stud books named the breeder as the owner at time of foaling, not the owner at time of covering, *Ana is registered as having been bred by the Crabbet Stud, and not by the Prince of Wales.

Before 1920 was over, Lady Wentworth took Amida back from Hough in exchange for a young mare named Halima plus a sum of cash. Amida produced her 1921 chestnut colt Afrit, by Lady Wentworth’s stallion Rasim, at Crabbet. Lady Wentworth sold Afrit to Peru as a yearling.

In 1922, Lady Wentworth sold Amida to S.G. Hough once again. Amida was carrying a 1922 foal, registered in both GSB and AHSB as a chestnut filly named Akabah, and foaled in Hough’s ownership. Both stud book authorities name the grey Skowronek as sire of Akabah. However, Akabah notwithstanding, Skowronek is known to have been homozygous for the grey color, meaning that all of his foals should have been grey. So either Akabah turned grey as she got older, or she was not really by Skowronek. CHB shows that Amida was bred to Skowronek in 1921 and then later that season to the chestnut Rasim, who is probably therefore the actual sire of Akabah. The question is of academic interest only, because although Akabah produced a 1930 filly bred by Wilfrid Lavington of Poplar Cottage, Bracknell, Berkshire, her line did not continue.

Amida’s 1923 foal was a chestnut filly bred by Sidney G. Hough and named Abideh, sired by *Nuri Pasha, a stallion bred by Hough. Lady Wentworth commented in CHB that Abideh was “very good,” but that she died of sunstroke as a young animal. AHSB volume 3, page 199, confirms that Abideh was destroyed in 1925 after a heat stroke.

Sidney Hough died in the hunting field on October 31, 1923, age 60, and his 27-year-old son Cecil W. Hough took over breeding the Hough family’s Arabians.

Almas, a grey full sister to Abideh, was foaled in 1924, and bred by Cecil Hough, who retained her as a broodmare.

Astrella (Raseem x Amida), daughter of Amida and dam of Oran.

In 1924, Cecil Hough sold both *Nuri Pasha and *Ana to Albert W. Harris of Chicago, Illinois and Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. That year, Hough bred Amida to Shahzada, a 1913 stallion bred by Henry C. “Inky” Stephens, who seems to have provided Sidney Hough with his initial Arabian stock. Amida produced the grey colt Amizada in 1925. Amizada was gelded as of AHSB volume 3 (see p. 199), printed in 1930, and has no registered progeny.

Amida was not covered in 1925, but in early 1926 Cecil Hough bred her to another of his stallions, Nuri Sherif. Lady Wentworth then bought Amida back for Crabbet for the third and final time, through Col. J. Hamilton Leigh, on April 22, 1926. However, Amida apparently had not settled to Nuri Sherif, and she had no 1927 foal.

The GSB lists a 1928 grey colt by Naseem under Amida’s production record and gives his name as Dafiyan. The careful reader will have noted that Amida was from Crabbet’s “A” mare family, and that all seven of her foals thus far had names beginning with the letter A: *Aldebar, *Ana, Afrit, Akabah, Abideh, Almas, and Amizada. Dafiyan is an unlikely name, therefore, for a foal bred at Crabbet in the 1920s out of Amida. Lady Wentworth also had at Crabbet a desert bred Kuhaylah Kurush mare named Dafina, imported in 1927. Because Dafina was imported after the GSB had closed to new imports, Lady Wentworth could not register her in GSB. As for the AHSB, which had been founded in 1918, although Lady Wentworth had initially registered all the Crabbet horses in its stud book, up to and including her 1922 foals, she had shortly after fallen out with the Society. Lady Wentworth’s 1924 stud catalogue proudly claimed that Crabbet had “No Connection with any Arab Society.” It was not until sometime in the 1930s that Lady Wentworth rejoined the Arab Horse Society, and in the meantime she had no place to register those few of her horses, such as the imported desert bred stallion and mare *Mirage and Dafina, who had arrived in England after the GSB had closed to new imports.

AP&C, p. 108, states that Dafina’s first foal at Crabbet was in 1928. According to CHB, Amida was barren in 1928. Dafiyan has no progeny, but the evidence suggests he was actually out of Dafina, not Amida.

Lady Wentworth next bred Amida to Raseem, and she produced an extravagantly marked chestnut filly named Astrella in 1929. Astrella is noted in Crabbet records as having an “Enormous blaze with horns.” Lady Wentworth sold Astrella to Mr. and Mrs. Kent, for Lady Yule, in 1932. Astrella became a broodmare at Lady Yule’s Hanstead Stud.

Amida’s last foal at Crabbet was a 1930 colt by *Nureddin II named Ashram. Although Lady Wentworth retained Ashram for some years, he has no recorded Arabian foals, and was eventually sold to George Grant of Tottingworth Park, Heathfield, Sussex.

Amida was bred to Naufal in 1930 and then sold to Roger Selby of the Selby Stud in Ohio. In Ohio, Amida died foaling a bay filly in 1931. The filly died too. Amida was never registered in the U.S. and her name is almost never included in the story of the Selby importations from Crabbet, but she was apparently part of the large 1930 Selby importation that included *Mirage and the mares *Kiyama, *Selmnab, *Hilwe, *Namilla, *Rasmina, and *Rose of France.

What follows is a closer look at those of Amida’s foals which left descent.

*Aldebar, 1919 chestnut stallion (Dwarka x Amida)

*Aldebar remained in the ownership of his breeder for most of his life. *Aldebar sired seven Arabian foals born in England between 1923 and 1930, three bred by the Prince of Wales and four bred by Mr. Tom C. Armitage of Dene Court, near Taunton, Somerset. It is unclear whether Armitage had a special connection to the Prince, or whether Armitage used *Aldebar simply because of Taunton’s proximity to the Tor Royal Stud in Dartmoor.

In 1929, the Prince sent *Aldebar to his E.P. Ranch in Alberta, Canada. He had purchased this ranch of more than 1,440 acres in 1919 and stocked it with horses, cattle, and sheep. He owned the ranch until 1962, although his visits were infrequent. *Aldebar’s 1929 arrival in Canada was covered in the Toronto newspapers.

Volume I of the Canadian Arabian Horse Stud Book relates of *Aldebar: Anything associated with that ranch purchased in 1919 by the then Prince of Wales was assured of the widest publicity and people drove hundreds of miles to see the proud chestnut horse. But, again, there being no pure bred mares of the breed with which he could be mated, his Canadian influence was restricted to crossing with Dartmoor ponies and Thoroughbreds then on the ranch. From these crosses, however, came some fine show horses, the first half-Arabs and Anglo-Arabs many westerners had seen. In September, 1938, the aging horse was sold to Henry B. Babson of Chicago and went to the United States…. *Aldebar’s first U.S. foal was born February 11, 1941, indicating his arrival at the Babson Farm in Illinois probably no later than March of 1940. *Aldebar sired just two foal crops in the U.S., born 1941 and 1942, with a total of nine foals bred by Henry Babson, one by Albert Harris, and one by Alfred Watt. These foals included Baarouf (x *Maaroufa), who briefly succeeded his sire as a Babson

Below, *Aldebar (Dwarka x Amida), on arrival in Canada.

Farm breeding stallion before going to Roy and Nellie Jackson in California, and Durral (x Fadurra), a foundation stallion for Bill and Pat Trapp of Wisconsin.

*Ana, 1920 bay mare (Dwarka x Amida)

Imported to the U.S. by Albert Harris in 1924, *Ana produced four foals for Harris between 1925 and 1929, three by *Nuri Pasha, and one by El Sabok. Her production record had a second phase from 1936 to 1942, during which she produced four foals for another Chicago businessman, Philip K. Wrigley.

Almas, 1924 grey mare (*Nuri Pasha x Amida)

Cecil W. Hough retained Almas for her entire breeding career. She produced nine foals for him, the last in 1942. She was put down in 1943.

Astrella, 1929 chestnut mare (Raseem x Amida)

Astrella spent her entire production career with Lady Yule at the Hanstead Stud. During that time, she produced two Anglo-Arab fillies and eight Arabian foals. She was put down in 1948. Her bestknown foal was her son Oran, by Riffal. Lady Wentworth offered to buy Oran from Lady Yule when he was three, but she turned the offer down, apparently in retaliation for Lady Wentworth’s earlier refusal to sell Indian Grey to Hanstead. According to Rosemary Archer (AP&C, p. 188), Lady Yule sold Oran the next year, in 1944, to Mr. C. McConnell, who sold him to the British Bloodstock Agency, from whom Lady Wentworth purchased him: “So far as Lady Yule was concerned, Oran’s arrival at Crabbet was the final straw and thereafter all horse dealings between the studs came to an end.” Oran was the last stallion at Crabbet bred entirely from the bloodlines of the Blunts and became a major post-war sire for Lady Wentworth. He died at Crabbet in 1968, age 28.

Ajman (Feysul x Ajramieh), three-quarter brother to Ajjam and Amida, as a youngster at Newbuildings. Ajman was sold to Felix Buxareo y Oribe (Hernan Ayerza’s brother-in-law), Uraguay, 1912, and then later either loaned or sold to the Ayerza program.

Ashram (*Nureddin II x Amida)

Daughter *Ana (by Dwarka), above left. Grandsons of Amida: at left, Baarouf (*Aldebar x *Maaroufa) and above, Oran (Riffal x Astrella).

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