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"The current high visibility and interest in Arabian
sport horses within IAHA due to the recent addition of the Sport Horse
In-Hand division has persuaded many people that Arabian sport horses are
a new invention. This idea could not be further from the truth. The
history of the Arab breed shows clearly that Arabians were sport horses
centuries before the term existed, since the sporting disciplines
developed from cavalry training and usage. Because the foundation
breeders of what have come to be identified as CMK horses were focused
on utility, whether for civilian or military purposes, they bred on from
horses that preserved the original capabilities of the breed.
As a result, from the 1870’s right through to the
present, CMK and high-percentage Crabbet horses have been a very strong
factor in the make-up of Arabian sport horses. There are far too many to
mention more than a few here, but following are some good
representatives. Additional details for some and additional horses will
be covered in my talk.
 Aazrak, a chestnut roan stallion foaled in
1956 and an outstanding
multi-discipline sport horse himself, founded an Anglo-Arabian dynasty
that is still going strong today, and has one purebred grandson that
could sire CMK offspring to carry on his line. By Aaraf (*Raffles x
Aarah) and out of Aazkara (Azkar by Rahas x Aarah), Aazrak excelled in
hunter, dressage and eventing. He was always known for his superb
temperament.
Originally owned by a Thoroughbred breeder, Aazrak’s first career was as a pony
horse. While working on the farm, Ann McKay
recognized the 14.2-1/2 hand stallion’s potential and ultimately
purchased him. In McKay’s capable hands Aazrak began to make a name
for himself in Maryland. McKay and Aazrak achieved an exceptional
partnership that resulted in an amazing show record. He was the horse to
beat in Hunter, Jumper, Dressage, Hunter Hack, English Pleasure, Western
Pleasure, Pole Bending, Stock Horse, Trail Horse and Harness classes. He
won Reserve Champion at a 50-mile Trail Ride, qualified for national
championships and was a New Jersey High Point award winner. In addition,
McKay hunted him regularly for years with the Elkridge-Harford Hounds in
Maryland, where he was much admired for his impeccable manners and calm
bravery over all obstacles.
 Al-Marah Quebec,
a 1988 grey stallion by AM
Canadian Beau out of Al-Marah Ironlady, was a regular performer at Mark
and Galen Miller’s Arabian Nights Dinner Theatre outside Kissimee,
Florida at the same time that he was competing in open dressage through
FEI levels. He has won on the Florida circuit in Intermediare I
Freestyle. Standing 14.3 hh (although the American Trakehner Association
lists him as 15 hands), he is one of only three Arabian stallions (two
are CMK) approved for breeding by the ATA. Of his 12 get, nine were
foaled in 2002. One of them, AM Sand Piper, is out of Al-Marah Xanthium,
who is also approved and registered in the ATA Official Stud Book,
although ATA rules do not allow a purebred Arabian to be registered as a
Trakehner.
Anchorage, a grey stallion foaled in 1972,
earned IAHA US National Top Tens in 1st and 2nd Level Dressage, competed open through 4th
Level and won
Hunter and Hunter Pleasure classes. By Ibn Alamein out of Alaska,
Anchorage is a perfect example of the Davenport in CMK. He also sired
three out of 14 total purebred get that are carrying on the sport horse
tradition he began. These are the lovely CMK mares, Shara of Chorage and
Bay of Chorage, and Davenport/CMK stallion Vision of Chorage. These
three have been winners in open sport horse in-hand competition and
were inspected and accepted for registration by the American Warmblood
Society, three of 11 ~ out of 22 ~ horses approved at that inspection.
Vision of Chorage has made a solid start on a dressage career of his
own.
 Deb’s Dancing Prince was a grey stallion foaled in 1971 sired by
Azrhand by
Azraff out of Heyoka, a
Ferneyn granddaughter. Owned, trained and ridden from the age of two by
Will McBride, Prince was a very successful open show jumper and, like
Aazrak, made his biggest breeding splash as the sire of a number of
Anglo-Arabian jumpers, a couple of them earning multiple IAHA National
Top Tens in jumper and hunter. Prince competed several times at the
Colorado State Fair; in 1982 he won the Open Jumper Championship and
High Jump Class. He is shown at the 1981 Fair just missing clearing 6'3"
after clearing 6'1" to take 2nd in that year's High Jump Class. Unfortunately, Prince sired only two purebreds, full brothers now 14 and
19 years old that are listed as stallions by the Registry but have not
sired any purebred offspring if they have been used at all at stud.
These horses, although out of a mare that was not all CMK, could be used
to get CMK offspring.
 FFC Geynius+/ is
a 1982 15.2 hand grey gelding bred by Fairfield Farm of Virginia and now
owned by Julie Lawson of Park City, Utah. By Al-Marah Canadius++/ out of
Fairfield foundation mare Geynivir, he does have 20 get sired prior to
being gelded in 1997 to resolve a medical problem. Geynius earned
regional and national honors in Dressage up to 4th Level, hunter
pleasure and show hack. He also won halter, sport horse in-hand,
pleasure driving, English side-saddle, worked in the Arabian Nights show
and appeared in parades at Disney World for some time while he was for
sale after being gelded. His current role is primarily as a
schoolmaster, although he is still shown as high as 3rd Level. He has
always been an elegant, willing performer. Geynius get and grandget have
won consistently in a variety of sport horse and other disciplines. Two
daughters are active in the Fairfield Farm broodmare band, and their
offspring are proving to be wonderful sport horses, so Geynius continues
to have a positive influence on the Fairfield Farm breeding program and
their show string. Sadly, there is no son to carry on his branch of the
Mahruss sire line.
 Ferishal,
a 1949 blaze-faced chestnut stallion, was by Ferhal out of *Rishafieh,
who was purchased with Ferishal at side by Margaret Trethewey of
Coniagas Ranch in British Columbia, Canada. Through a long show career
trained and ridden by Barbara Marsden McCauley, he won consistently in
open jumping shows, open hunter, show hack, hunter hack and dressage.
One year he was the Western Canadian Dressage Champion for the Medium
test, and he placed each of the three times he was shown at the
all-breed Royal Winter Fair in Toronto. He never placed lower than
second in local One Day Events; he won a Vancouver 3-Day event. At age
13 Ferishal competed at the 1962 Pebble Beach 3-Day Event (California)
as a member of the San Fernando Rey team. At 14.3 hh he was a full hand
shorter than any other horse entered, the only stallion and the only
Arabian at the event. His efforts helped his team to a Bronze medal.
Ferishal was also successful in the breeding barn.
Many of his get, purebred and part-Arabian, won in jumping, dressage and
hunter, winning at the local and regional level in British Columbia.
Several of his get were shown both as ponies and as horses, depending on
the show.
 Gahalla, a 1971 14.1 hh bay mare, was the
first purebred in the United States to compete and win at Grand Prix
level in dressage (followed shortly thereafter by the Babson stallion
Serr Maariner). She was by Gajala Etoile and out of Lalissa, a
great-granddaughter of *Rishafieh. Trained and ridden by Mari Monda
Zdunic under the instruction of American master Chuck Grant, Gahalla was
a little dynamo. Owned since she was four by Paul and Dolores Lavins,
she lived out her retirement at Shine-A-Bit Farm, which was
inherited by Zdunic after Chuck Grant’s death. Gahalla produced no
foals and died peacefully in 2003.
 Ice (1975-1997) was a grey gelded son of The
Real McCoy out of Mirdaha by Farlowa. In the ownership of Christine
Smith-Byerly from 1990 until his death, he embarked upon a new career in
combined driving. Ice was a very competitive Singles horse, and
certainly not the first CMK Arabian to do well in the sport. Several Al-Marah
and Hewitt horses have had successful combined driving careers, singly
or in teams up to four-in-hands.
 *Magic Domino AHS+/, a 1988 grey stallion, has
led an even more international life than Ferishal. Domino was bred by
Mrs. A. Brown in England, imported to Canada by Sherry Trethewey
(granddaughter of Margaret Trethewey) and sold several years later to
Mark and Kim Thomason of Tennessee, USA. Domino is by Ludomino, himself
a ridden champion, and out of Hamsfah. While in Canada, Domino was
approved for Canadian Sport Horse Phase I and the Canadian Trakehner
registry. Standing 16 hands, he is at the upper limit of the Arab’s
size range but nicely balanced and typy. He has competed to 2nd Level dressage and now has the opportunity to make a breeding
contribution to Crabbet and CMK preservation, as well as Arabian sport
horses in general.
 *Naomi, who was the key mare of Randolph
Huntington’s purebred breeding program, must be mentioned at least
briefly. She appears several times in the pedigree of the exceptional
jumper Senrab (below). The offspring of two desert bred horses imported
to England, *Naomi was foaled in 1877 and died approximately 1899. She
was a tall mare (15.2 hh) from two average sized parents, an outstanding
trotter and wonderful jumper, certified in England as a field hunter.
*Naomi was credited with having cleared 7-foot fences carrying 196
pounds.
 Senrab
was a 1953 chestnut gelding by Potif
out of Mufissa. He began life as a misfit in danger of ending up in a
can of dog food, but through patient and persistent training developed
into one of the greatest jumpers the Arab breed has ever known. Standing
just 14.3 hands, in his competitive prime, Senrab cleared up to 6’4"
fences with ease in FEI jumper classes on the West Coast. He often
competed in Puissance (high jump) classes, and carried many young
students of the girl’s school which owned him to wins in tough
children’s jumper classes at open shows. As his jumping successes
grew, his difficult temperament mellowed, and he became a school
favorite. He was well known for his own unique style of jumping and for
his preference for a capacity crowd, so he was very popular with
spectators. After his retirement from competition in his late teens he
was still shown frequently in exhibition--jumping tractors and
stacked-up wheelbarrows--and ridden as a school mount.
 Silent Fire,
a 1980 chestnut stallion by Naxif out of Silent Dove, was owned and
stood at the Sherif Pyramid Stud in Wales. This stud combined a breeding
operation with a holiday riding center using their Arabian horses. Shown
as a five year-old in 1985, Silent Fire was a major star of the stud’s
twice weekly exhibitions of classical training. This stallion showed
tremendous promise as a performance horse and sire. Unfortunately, his
youngest offspring was foaled in 1988, so he may have died young or was
gelded. Of his nine purebred offspring, only one daughter, Bint Eastern
Fireez has so far bred on.
 Sir,
a 1958 grey stallion by Tripoli out of Dharebah, was bred by Charles
Craver and in his 20’s went on lease to live with Alice Martin. She
bought him at age 25 and owned him until he died in 1993. Alice is shown
riding Sir at age 27. Sir was a successful sire with 68 get and 248
grandget to date. For Alice he sired several sons that have competed
very successfully in dressage, including Star Sir Galahad, who has won
at FEI levels, Star Sir Galagars, and Star Sir Rheged. Star Sir Galahad
has won at the national level in IAHA. For a number of years, Alice held
a charity benefit for the USDF in honor of Sir’s birthday. Although
there was a break after his death, I believe she resumed the benefits in
his memory and still hosts one every year.
The brief
profiles above represent only a very few of the many good CMK Arabian
sport horses, a sampler of the information available and merely an
introduction to each horse. I have had to leave out many worthy horses due
to time constraints, but no slight should be inferred by lack of
inclusion. No endurance horses have been mentioned since it is widely
known that a large percentage of the best ones are CMK or at least half
CMK, and Heidi Smith, who will also speak, is very familiar with CMK
endurance bloodlines."
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