The line, century by century
The studs, the stud books, and the horses that carried the breed out of the desert and into every hot blooded line alive today.
Bred in the desert
The Bedouin bred for endurance, soundness and temperament, and kept the line in memory rather than on paper. Strain and dam line were recited, not written.
Europe starts its own studs
Weil in Germany and Janow Podlaski in Poland begin breeding Arabians under state control, and the first European records of the breed are kept.
Crabbet is founded
Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt travel to Egypt and the Nejd and bring desert bred horses to England. Crabbet becomes the source most English speaking pedigrees run through.
Skowronek is foaled
Bred at Antoniny in Poland and later the foundation stallion at Crabbet, he leaves descendants in England, Egypt, Russia, Australia and the United States.
Nazeer
Foaled at El Zahraa in Egypt and chief sire there. Nearly every Straight Egyptian pedigree written since runs back through him.
One record, worldwide
The World Arabian Horse Organization is founded, and the national stud books of the breed are recognised against a single standard for the first time.
Still on paper
Five thousand years of breeding, and the record still sits in filing cabinets, in national registries that do not speak to each other, and in the memory of the people who kept it. That is what this is for.
I found my mare her match in an afternoon. It used to take a season of phone calls and a great deal of luck.