Bloodlines "SKOWRONEK"

["Greg Miles" <elbarec@icon.co.za>]

 

-----Original Message-----
From: Greg Miles <elbarec@icon.co.za>
To: EWestfall@Ardmore.Net <EWestfall@Ardmore.Net>
Date: Wednesday, May 06, 1998 10:39 PM
Subject: Fw: Skowronek

 

-----Original Message-----
From: EWestfall <EWestfall@Ardmore.Net>
To: Greg 
Miles <elbarec@icon.co.za>
Date: Wednesday, 
May 06, 1998 8:21 PM
Subject: Skowronek


>Dear Mr. 
Miles
>
>I enjoyed your posting to ridecamp.
>
>There is 
a website at the url below that has some articles on Skowronek
>(I got 
this address off of one of the  Whitehorse Forums :
>
>http://www.hhdevel.com/becky/desert/arabian/index.html
>
>I 
would be very interested in the article written by Ian Thompson to 
the
>editor of the SARAB magazine 1977 regarding Skowronek including 
pic`s.
>
>Thank you.
>
>(Mr. RJCadranell has some 
articles on the Blunts and Crabbet at his
>archive site:
>
>http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Prairie/8800/
>
>Reply:
Here 
is the copy of the letter from Ian Thompson to the sarab 1977.

Charmante 
Arabians
The Editor South African Arabian.
Dear Sir,
In view of the 
reaction to my comments in an earlier Newsletter 
regarding
SKOWRONEK-RAKHTA_GENERAL GRANT bloodline, I would like to make it 
clear that
the intention was not to cast reflections on the horses belonging 
to any
particular studs or persons, but merely to correct a highly inaccurate 
and
misleading opinion which had previously been published. Futhermore , 
my
remarks were offered constructively in the hope that they might 
be
instrumental in improving the standard of the Arabian horse in 
S.A.

It is an unfortunate fact that all too few of our breeders have seen 
any
Arabs outside of those in our own country and the United Kingdom ,which 
are
basically very similar . Many do not subscribe to avrious Artabian 
Horse
magazines or keep up to date with new books on the subject . 
Consequintly
the majority of our most experienced breeders and even judges 
are not
familiar with the degree of excellence of conformation which can and 
does
exist in the highest class of Arabian  , and have their 
"eye" spoiled by the
mediocore assortment of shapes and sizes whith 
which they have come into
contact . Others are so convinced that the horses 
in their own stud are the
paragons of every virtue in the Arabian breed that 
they are quite unable to
take an objective view of the situation and regard 
any horse of a different
type a suspicion .
Of the various non-authentic 
elements in the pedigrees of our Arabs
SKOWRONEK at least did not damage the 
"breed points" , such as heads and
tail carraige - in fact , in 
these respects his progeny were frequently
improved over their dams though 
heads frequently tended to be too fleshy -
but , more than any other , he 
wrought havoc with the conformation of the
true desert horse producing a 
completely new type . The difference is so
marked that there is a group in 
the U.S.A which considers the SKOWRONEK
descendants are entitled to be 
regarded as a breed . (offshoot of the
Arabian , such as the Shagyas )in 
their own right .

The following drawings (with apologies for my lack of 
artistic ability) and
photographs will , I hope , serve to clarify the 
difference :

A :SKOWRONEK grandson RAKHTA pictured in his prime at 
Crabbet . Almost a
replica of his grandsire except that he has a long back as 
well , this in
spite of the fact that every other ancestor in RAKHTA'S 
pedigree was of
authentic desert descent .

B:A prizewinner and stud 
sire in England , and a good example of the
transmission of thhe SKOWRONEK 
influence through the female line . Sire has
one cross to SKOWRONEK in the 
6th generation. Dam a daughter of RAKHTA.

C:The " Polish pony " 
that started it all . One of the rae photographs of
SKOWRONEK which has not 
been retouched so as to completely alter his shape .
Note particulary the 
height of his croup in relation to where his non
existent whithers were 
supposed to have been , the short and relatively
straight shoulder and 
shallow girth . A caricature of a riding horse.

D: Tha Abbas Pasha mare 
KOHEIL AGUSE , very influental in the weil and
Bablona studs . The true 
desert type - note especially the well defined
withers , relative heights of 
withers and croup , length and slope of the
shoulder and clearly visible 
" girth   groove "

E:Abbas Pasha type 120 years later 
. The 16 yr old brood mare pictured was
bred by the Egyptain Agricultural 
Organization and imported to the U.S.A
Note again the excellent withers , 
great lenght of shoulder and greatest
depth of body between forelegs . 
(Photograph with acknowledgements Mrs
Judith Forbes .  )

As any 
breeder of experience knows only too well , " like does not beget
like 
" and there are horses descending from SKOWRONEK which have 
excellent
conformation (One well-known example which come to mind is the late 
RAKHTA'S
SOUVENIR , a horse of vastly superior conformation to that of his 
sire ,
thanks to a very prepotent dam line ).

THE REST OF THE LETTER 
WILL FOLLOW TOMORROW.

Cheers Greg Miles
El Barec 
Arabians.

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