The Australian Colonial Arabian Horse and Endurance Riding

The type of Arabian horse was unchanged from around 1800 BC. C. until the XX century d. During the first three millennia of its existence, the Arab was a war horse, and this dictated the type. The Australian Colonial Arab descends from early desert breeding imports, often via Blunts (early Crabbets), with the notable addition of the famous endurance stallion Shahzada. Colonials were originally bred on the first Australian stallions that were selected on the basis of their skill under the saddle.

It is therefore not surprising that the Colonial Arabian is best known for its success in the field of endurance and as a saddle horse in general.

One of the greatest endurance horses of all time, Shahzada, was a pure colonial. Shahzada was the winner of the 100, 300 and 500 mile endurance tests in England, as well as flat races against Thoroughbreds, before being exported to Australia. Pure Colonial breeder Les Ellery de Cudglebar Stud (founded 1930) decades ago once rode a mare for Jedran (for Prince Nejd for Shahzada) to catch an unhandled mare. They had to run the mare unhandled until it was exhausted, and then immediately they had to run towards a thoroughbred until it was exhausted and lay down. In those days when large estates in the Australian outback had numerous unhandled horses, this was the only method of catching a horse. The Jedran mare never had a whip or spur on her. They used it repeatedly to drive flocks of horses to Orange sales from Blayney in western New South Wales. A distance of 40 kilometers was covered at a gallop, since the horses were not handled and came from various properties. Les Ellery also raced Arabs against Thoroughbreds in picnic races, and at one point competed with a Shahzada granddaughter who was so fast she had to agree to give a half-stadium out to the rest of the field before she was allowed to start.

Many settlers carried the lineage of Belka, who defeated Shahzada on a 300-mile journey, and whose son Bendigo came fifth on the 4½-mile Newmarket Town Plate, carrying 12 stones, to 8 Thoroughbreds. The Bendigo driver commented that he would have won easily if they could have done another lap.

The imported Sala stallion was used by early colonial breeders. His grandmother was from Rasim, a World War I porter and father of race winners. Also featured in his pedigree were Crabbett’s father, Mahruss, who won America’s Amy Endurance 300-mile test on concrete roads in just over 49 hours, and Nadir, Polo Pony Sire Champion at Tunbridge Wells (UK) in 1913 and in Islington. (United Kingdom) in 1911, 1913 and 1915. Close descendants of Sala’s resistance include Quilty winners, Quilty placegetters and Distance Award horses.

Sala Arcadian’s grandson was an incredible sire of endurance horses, including 1981 Quilty winner Robbie and stallion Credit, who is the sire of Peter Toft’s Electra BPP Murdoch. Murdoch won the Quilty, then placed fourth in the 2003 Tevis Cup. Of the official Australian racing sheets of 1979-1989, the Arcadian progeny and the grand-get won 66 races in the Open / HW division, placing second place 22 times, third place 14 times and they successfully completed another 29 races.

Kataf (for the desert-bred outlaw) is another stallion who figured prominently in colonial bloodlines. The most famous descendant of Kataf was Hestia, Aethon’s mother. Hestia is consistently in the pedigree of Australia’s best endurance horses and her lines are highly sought after.

The pure colonial stallion Talisman Rose Bahri dominated the western show classes from 1983 to 1987. He was Western Horse Champion at the National Stud Show in 1983 and Bridle Path Hack Champion in 1991, and in the Australian Championships he was Top 10 Ridden Stallion in 1984 , Western Pleasure Champion in 1985, 115-inning Bridle Path Hack Champion in 1986, and Western Pleasure Champion in 1987.

The resistance results of Colonials are remarkable considering that pure Colonials have been in short supply for a few decades. In 1991, only 86 pure colonial were alive.

Of those, 10 were actively competing in Endurance that year.

Pure Colonial stallion Cudglebar Rasuli was a fast Arabian racehorse, winning his first two races at Australian Jockey Club registered tracks by wide margins. Rasuli had completed The Kikkuli Experiment (a replica of the Kikkuli Text, a 33-century-old horse training text) when he was a three-year-old colt.

Hyksos Sabok has proven to be the best performing pure colonial endurance horse today, being NSW’s distance horse from 1999, Australia’s third from 1999.

Distance, and you’ve racked up a lot of miles. Sabok’s sire was the Heavyweight Endurance horse Cudglebar Nur ed Dam, who also completed the Kikkuli Experiment and later became a successful Heavyweight Endurance horse. The pure colonial mare Cudglebar Mujeor was a Kikkuli Experiment horse at the age of three, and went on to be a high performance endurance horse, completing over 3,000 km and placing the 20th middleweight (open) in the Quilty, winning the award for the lowest Heartrates. . She is the half-sister of Carol Layton’s Leshal Ikon, a barefoot endurance stallion.

Another strong Colonial resistance line is that of Barada II. His pups with Rakib * produced mares Badoura, Baksheesh, Baz and stallion Bahri. This line has produced, through Talisman Stud, numerous winning Australian endurance horses.