The endurance fraternity sports an oral tradition like few ­other human groupings. Over ­campfires and in the sweat of the midday sun, the pros and cons of ­stallions and ­bloodlines are debated and discussed. Newcomers hang onto every word that experience has taught the elders of the group. Breeding and buying decisions are made in true ­Bedouin fashion – by word of mouth.

For the less sociable among us, there is the option of pedigree studies – an equally bewildering experience, having to be faced with lists of outlandish names. We hope that our efforts at research will become ­pyramids in the shifting dunes of opinions and a helping hand from the smothering quick sands of pedigree ­confusion.

Performance predictability is the dream of every endurance breeder, buyer and ­rider alike. Planning and raising an ­endurance horse to adulthood is a slow and ­expensive project, not to mention the time and ­investment required to further ­develop the potential athlete properly. ­Fortunately, ­generations of dedicated breeders, ­horse­men and -women, and courageous equines have gone before us, ­contributing since 1974 to the annual Fauresmith ­Endurance Ride records.

A history of diversity

Our database covers 33 years, from 1974 to 2006. The first ten competitors in each category, for example heavy weight and standard weight, were sifted for pedigreed Arabians. Albie Jacobs’s Southern Africa Arab Horse Bloodline Index and Pedigree Reference was indispensable in this part of the process. A database of 238 pedigrees was compiled and subjected to analysis of various aspects.

In order to understand the findings, a bit of background: All pure-bred ­Arabians are related “under the skin”, but ­following their removal from their native desert home, they have been bred by ­variously talented ­breeders and for achieving ­various ­performance objectives. ­Arabians arrived in South Africa from different ­destinations and in different time frames. This diversity has led to sub-groupings of SA Arabians.

The main groups of importance for the Fauresmith (FS) database are: ­Desert-bred (imported directly from the greater Arabian desert at any date), Old ­Egyptian, Modern Egyptian, Old English (imports from ­England as well as ­English ­Arabians imported from the USA), ­Crabbet, ­Russian and Polish. These crude but brief ­definitions are ­self-explanatory, except for “Crabbet”.

In 1877 Lady Ann and Wilfred Blunt ­established an Arabian stud at Crabbet Park in England. The stud was continued by their daughter, Lady Wentworth, until her death in 1957, after which it was run under the direction of stud manager, Cecil Covey’s son. The Crabbet Stud dominated Arabian breeding internationally for almost 100 years. By virtue of the huge impact it has had, it warrants a sub-group.

A spot of confusion often arises because the Crabbet Stud has had such a ­tremendous influence on other English studs, that the terms “Crabbet” and “Old English” are ­often interchanged or used as synonyms. This practice is not strictly accurate, but it is convenient; “Crabbet” is a short word as well as being the nucleus around which the Old English Arabian developed.

Or to put it differently: All Crabbet ­horses are classified as “Old English”, but not all Old English Arabians can be ­classified as “­Crabbet”. Horses bred by other English studs and breeders such as the ­Courthouse Stud, Lady Yule’s Hanstead Stud and ­Musgrave Clark ­mostly used ­Crabbet ­horses as ­foundation stock. ­However, ­sometimes the strict definition of “Crabbet” is not ­applicable to these horses.

Interesting findings

The fourth generation of great ­grandparents (eight per horse) in the Fauresmith ­database was scored into two broad categories: “Old English” and ­“Non-English”. The first category included ­Crabbet as well as English horses which came to South Africa via USA. Great grandparents of mixed ­descent were counted as “Non-English”. Of the 1 904 great grandparents, 1 300 were found to be Old English (68,28%) and 604 are Non-English (31,72%).

The tremendous importance for ­current South African endurance horses of ­ancestors imported from England, was ­further ­highlighted in a more detailed ­scrutiny. A sixth generation blood percentage analysis revealed an even higher score of 73,60% Old English blood for the top ten Fauresmith category winners.

The genetic contribution of the Non-English group was found to have shrunk to 29,40%. The discrepancy in the two totals is accounted for by the ­disregarding of the Old English contribution to great ­grandparents of mixed descent.

It was further found that of the 238 ­horses, 85 were of pure Old English ­descent. In the entire database, only four horses were found that excluded all Old English blood into the sixth generation. The remaining 148 horses are of mixed descent, leaning heavily towards the Old English.

Wilfred Blunt, co-founder of the ­Crabbet Stud, is recorded on page 234 of The ­Authentic Arabian Horse, published by his daughter, Lady Wentworth, as having ­stated: “The great difficulty in all studs is that of producing stallions of the very ­highest quality. However pure the ­breeding stock, only perhaps one in 50 colts of the highest breeding will rightly deserve the ­position of future sires.

“Colts of high merit they may all be. But only a few will be found of perfect shape possessing the exact type and free from all defects of form or quality. These are the colts that should be chosen to breed from, and high prices should not be grudged for them.

“As sires, they will be found worth more than three times the value of the rest, though the others may be just as fit for work and as useful for common ­purposes.”

It seems that good fortune has brought some of these very finest Crabbet animals to African shores, here to prove exactly the claims of Wilfred Blunt.

Tracing the winners

Who were these horses? To trace the ­winning-streak ancestry, the genetic ­contribution of particular ­individuals to the Fauresmith ­database was ­investigated. ­Individuals were firstly ­determined by ­virtue of the frequency of their occurrence in the database.

Secondly the candidates had to be ­present in the pedigrees of horses born roughly between 1966 and 1998 in order to have taken part in Fauresmith between 1974 and 2006. This criterion allows for present athletes to contain these ­ancestors in or before the sixth generation.

As the newer Polish, Russian, USA and Egyptian imports are absent from the ­earlier Fauresmith pedigrees, they were not taken into consideration for ­individual analysis. Their combined ­contribution is, however, accounted for in the above ­figures as “Non-English”.

Fifteen horses were identified for ­detailed sixth-generation blood ­percentage ­analysis. These horses, ­appearing in ­order of the size of their contribution, will be the subjects of f­uture ­articles. Another article will ­focus on the ­concept, ­practice and results of ­“hybrid ­vigour”, together with other breeding ­practices such as the use of “old blood” ­versus “new blood”, the need for ­experimental breeding and so on.

An attempt will be made to ­publish ­photographs of each of the ­above-­mentioned horses. The purpose is partly to offer those of us fortunate enough to own a purebred Arabian, to spur on a photo pedigree for our beloved equines. Adding a picture to a meaningless name, suddenly makes the name much more memorable and ­accessible! So easy.

In case the pedigree picture ­collection bug bites hard, there are a number of ­specialist booksellers who will be ­delighted to quench your thirst for more ­information.

(© 2007 Liane van der Hoven and ­Albie Jacobs. Copyright of the ­following ­research and information belongs to the authors ­exclusively. The article is ­submitted for ­once-off publication in SA Distance Rider, and copyright remains vested in the authors.)