Tobago featured in big US Arab magazine!

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htobago

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Sorry - a bit of a self-indulgent post, but I just had to tell you cos I'm so chuffed!

There's a piece about Tobago and me in the current (December) issue of Arabian Horse World, a big US/international Arab magazine. It came out yesterday and I've only just seen it!

It's in the main editorial feature, entitled 'Visits with British Breeders' by a very famous Arab breeding expert and author called Gari Dill-Marlow. She was asked to write a feature about breeders and horses she admires in the UK - and Tobago and I are the very first item in this feature!

The others are all proper breeders, but it's typical of Gari to put the little one-horse newbie nobody first! Daft, as I shouldn't even really count as a breeder, with only one horse, but she thinks Tobago is a rather special horse, bless her.
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I can't do a link cos I'm a total numpty, but if you want to have a look, go to arabianhorseworld.com, then click on 'Current Issue' and 'Featured Editorials', then click on the box "Vists with British Breeders"...and you will see my silly face and Tobago's pretty face!

Sorry - this really is a bit boasty and self-indulgent, but I can't help feeling very proud of my little Tobago!
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Lovely article, King of the Wind is one of my absolute favorite books. I recently bought a copy off Amazon as I lost mine a few years ago, love it!!
 
Gosh - thanks everyone! And thanks to LAW for posting the link for me (now you only have to click on the 'Visits with British Breeders' icon). It's so nice that people on here are pleased and excited for us - I really appreciate this.

Well, volatis I hope you are right about the American breeders! Some of the show-Arab breeders there are breeding a very different type - ghastly creatures with long giraffe-necks and long, weak backs and long, weak cannons; and often rather long, narrow, plain heads as well, without the wide forehead and pretty dish. Oh, and no movement. They look like spindly Saddlebreds.

But there are still some who are breeding the typey, compact, big-moving sort of Arabs that are prized in the UK and Europe. So with any luck some of them will like my boy. It's still a bit of gamble, as they have plenty of Padrons Psyche and Bey Shah blood over there already (Tobago's sire is US-bred).

And to promote a stallion properly over there you have to spend a fortune on advertising, which I can't do! But hey - 'nothing ventured' and all that. We'll see. I'm so lucky just to have Tobago - anything more he does is just icing.
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Thanks again for your kind thoughts!
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Many congrats indeed. She's a good family friend, and it takes A LOT to impressive her. You must be delighted by this recognition.

Forgive me if you have been asked this a thousand times, but does he have crabbet bloodlines?

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Oooh! You know Gari! She must know more about Arab breeding and bloodlines than anyone on the planet. Would be scary if she weren't also one of the nicest people in the world. She's been a great friend and mentor to me.

Tobago is a mix of Russian, Crabbet/Old English and Polish lines, with a dash of Egyptian. His tail-female line is Crabbet/OE - always a good 'foundation'.

(I don't mind being asked! Only danger is that I won't shut up - could happily talk pedigrees for hours! Do your family breed Arabs?)
 
Feel free to talk about it for hours - facinating stuff. My family used to breed Arabs - my grandmother had a stud called the Underriver Stud (in its prime in the '70s /'80's really,) and was chairman of the Arab Horse Society for years, and is still an international judge and on the council.

We all still have an active interest, especially as many of the crabbet bloodlines she 'introduced' and worked very closely with are still influential today.

Would love to hear more...
 
WOw that is just fantastic, I hope all the people who use him appreciate what a stunning horse is he and how much he is loved. I have to say he was a superb purchase, not for his stud use, but for a classical horse who is bred well and seems to have the most super attitude
 
Well you know what I am going to say I am sure
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............I am just sooo thrilled for you, and dont you worry.........we are just so very very happy for you... Its great to hear the good news besides all the other stuff, and nobody deserves it more than yourself.

You deserve to have a puffed out chest........you have a gorgeous stallion!!

Cxx
 
Lovely article - lovely photos - hopefully lovely business will come from it. Very happy for you and I can totally understand why you are bouncing off the walls!!
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Feel free to talk about it for hours - facinating stuff. My family used to breed Arabs - my grandmother had a stud called the Underriver Stud (in its prime in the '70s /'80's really,) and was chairman of the Arab Horse Society for years, and is still an international judge and on the council.

We all still have an active interest, especially as many of the crabbet bloodlines she 'introduced' and worked very closely with are still influential today.

Would love to hear more...

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Thank you! Gosh - you seem to have a rather illustrious pedigree yourself! I won't be indiscreet and ask your grandmother's name, but would love to know more about which Crabbet lines she bred, etc.

Meanwhile, this is Tobago's pedigree:

http://www.allbreedpedigree.com/h+tobago

(Assuming the link works - I'm not good at links!)

As you can see, there is actually quite a lot of Crabbet/OE in there, if you add up the lines via Russia, etc. as well as the obvious tail-female line. Tobago has a very 'fashionable' sire, Psytadel, and Padrons Psyche and Bey Shah are the world's leading sires of show horses.

But it was his Russian x English damline that really appealed to me - his dam Teeba is my idea of the perfect Arab mare, and was virtually unbeaten in the show ring, winning Supremes and Reserve Supremes at all the big shows. Her dam Queens Topaz (Crabbet/OE) is already a legend - ALL of her many offspring are show champions. Teeba's sire Gonorar was a Classic-winning racehorse in Russia, then Supreme British National Champion in hand, and stallion champion at the UK International.

So I hope some American breeders will be interested in these lines. Gari tells me the magazine isn't actually out yet, won't be for another week or so. So I'll just have to be patient!

But you know Tobago is my friend, not a business venture, and will be loved and cherished whatever happens with his stud career.

Do your family still have/breed any Arabs now? Please tell me more about your grandmother's Crabbet lines!
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Wow! Great article and bloody impressive stuff from the very little I know of Arab breeding.

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Tobago is my friend, not a business venture

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Just out of interest, I note you talk about Crabbet bloodlines. Now I know nothing about arabs, but I used to keep my horse at Crabbet Park in Sussex and years ago, the owner had arabs. Is it the same place?
 
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Well you know what I am going to say I am sure
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............I am just sooo thrilled for you, and dont you worry.........we are just so very very happy for you... Its great to hear the good news besides all the other stuff, and nobody deserves it more than yourself.

You deserve to have a puffed out chest........you have a gorgeous stallion!!

Cxx

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He he - I could do with a puffed chest atm - with all the weight loss from this stupid illness, my already woefully inadequate boobs have now shrunk to pitiful non-existence LOL!
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But joking aside, what a very sweet thing to say - thank you!

I feel the same, actually - I love to read people's good news about their horses; it can really brighten my day if I read something happy and exciting from one of the gang on here!
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Just to make sure I don't get too puffed-up and complacent about him, Tessa tells me Tobago did one of his drama-queen numbers the other day and refused to let the nice EDT man anywhere near him.
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Just panicked and ran to the back of the box and started rearing as soon as the poor chap came to the door. Silly moo had to be sedated, just to get a couple of wolf-teeth removed.

He's a sweet boy and there's not a nasty bone in his body, but he sure knows how to make a big melodramatic fuss about nothing sometimes. *sigh*
 
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Just out of interest, I note you talk about Crabbet bloodlines. Now I know nothing about arabs, but I used to keep my horse at Crabbet Park in Sussex and years ago, the owner had arabs. Is it the same place?

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It is indeed the same place! It's a big estate, I think, so you may not have been in the original buildings where the Blunts and later Lady Wentworth kept their Arabs, but Crabbet Park was the home of the most influential Arab stud in the world! Lucky you - I've only ever seen photos of the place - mostly very old photos!
 
Oh that's fantastic, you must be over the moon.

I'd love to read the article but it's really small how do I make it bigger?

I used to live in Horsham and I couldn't believe that Crabbet Park was only in Crawley! I've been to a couple of hunter trials there and you can see the old yard through the hedge, it looks just like the old pictures.

Axel is Crabbet bred and related to Tobago
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seahorse I think if you click on the page it comes up a bit bigger, and then try clicking on a photo to make it bigger again. I only figured out the first of these clicks, but a friend says clicking on photos works!

Axel has a lovely pedigree!
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