Arabian horses

In North America, the Seglawi horses became very popular in the 1950s and 1960s and then, as it were, breeders of this flavor of Arabian horse established the terms of "breed type" for the entire Arabian horse breed in North America in reference to their favorite flavor of horse!

Indeed, careful study will indicate that "breed type" at that time emanated from the Polish bred Skowronek, used in England by Lady Wentworth at Crabbet Park. Later, in the 1970s, with the importation of the Polish horses, Kuhailan type came to be recognized, though often judged with reference to Seglawi type rather than as Kuhailan. More recently, importations from Russia and France have introduced horses of the Managhi flavor which are outstanding athletes, but are again judged with reference to Seglawi type.

To be sure, then, we have four common and distinct types or flavors of Arabian horses. Plus we have combinations of the various types. It is up to the astute breeder, then, to determine as accurately as possible what types he or she is dealing with, and what combinations are most

successful. As an example, strongly bred Kuhailan stallions cross well on Seglawi mares. Bask, when bred to many of the beautiful Siglawi mares of domestic breeding in this country produced many national champions. Interestingly enough, the opposite rarely holds true, i.e. breeding strongly concentrated Seglawi stallions to Kuhailan Haifi mares of good quality very rarely produces superior horses.

Certainly many of the artisans, i.e. the serious breeders of the breed, recognized the various types within the breed and utilized them on occasion. Line breeding Seglawi type in America was very common in the 50s and 60s and produced many wonderful horses. An example of these horses were those of Mr. Dan Gainey, who line bred strongly to a small number of superior Seglawi sires and thus fixed a specific Seglawi flavor as his landmark in the breed. It was

interesting to watch him use Bask (Kuhailan) blood with little apparent success. However, when he introduced the Seglawi Kuhailan blood of Comet into his program, he and his family produced beautiful national champion athletes.

Now that we have established and defined the various types within the breed of the Arabian horse, the next task is to delineate the combinations of the above types that have proven to be successful in producing excellent horses. One of the most exciting combinations in the last 50 years was that of the Seglawi stallion Nabor (Negatiw x Lagodna) on the Seglawi bred Amurath Sahib daughters of Poland. An example of this cross was the multinational champion mare, Dornaba. Mares of this combination were famous all over the world. In line breeding Kuhailan type the Poles used the Kuhailan Adjuz stallion Pietuszok (Priboj x Taktika) on their beautiful Witraz (Kuhailan Haifi) daughters and produced not only beautiful national champion offspring, but also Derby winning race horses.

Of more recent times, the Poles used the Seglawi son of Aswan, Palas (out of Panel by Nil), on many of their Seglawi mares and produced world champions such as Etruria (out of Etna). Panel was a daughter of Platina who was a full sister of Pietuszok.

In Russia, the breeders were highly successful in crossing the Seglawi blood of Naseem on the

Kuhailan bred Priboj mares. Examples of this combination are Pustinia (Salon x Ptashka), Palmira (Salon x Ptashka) and Muscat (Salon x Malpia). Mares and stallions of this combination have contributed greatly to the breeding system in Tersk and in North America.

The Bairactar sire line, utilizing the small but exotically pretty bay Seglawi stallion Nabeg (Arax x Nomenklatura by Naseem), was then used on the Naseem Priboj mares. The offspring of this combination were often very pretty and most commonly of Seglawi type. You will find this line represented through Stop the Show and TR Narvina at Willomar.