A very special horse

As it’s the summer holidays I am out and about rather a lot at the moment, so prepare yourself for several posts on encounters with real horses before we get back to the model pedigrees.

The first of these was a day back in July when I accompanied my friends Keren and Carra to the Al Waha Arabian Stud, situated not too far from me in Surrey. One of the longest established Arabian studs in the UK, Al Waha was founded by Mrs Jane Kadri around thirty years ago. Starting with mares of Crabbet lines, she has judiciously introduced crosses of Russian and other blood to produce a very attractive, consistent type of horse.

Our main reason for visiting was to see the last remaining pure Courthouse stallion in the UK: Spearmint, foaled in 1982. You may remember how I previously blogged about Courthouse and how the small number of horses bred there made it something of a ‘Holy Grail’ of bloodlines. Spearmint, bred by J M Oppé but of pure Courthouse lines, has had various owners but Mrs Kadri was delighted to be able to give him a home in his old age, a few years ago, and has also bred several offspring from him. When we were planning activities for Carra when she came to visit from the States, Keren suggested and arranged this visit, mentioning that as Spearmint was now twenty-nine years old, we might not have the opportunity to see him for much longer.

We were overwhelmed by the hospitality shown us by Mrs Kadri, her stud manager Kathy and all the staff. Feeling rather like royalty, we sat on the row of chairs provided for while the horses were brought out of their stables one by one for us to view, pet and photograph. After the ‘show’ we repaired to the tack room for tea, cake and more chat – a truly warm welcome.

We saw a selection of horses stallions, broodmares, foals and youngstock (with an emphasis on Spearmint’s progeny), and were very struck by their consistent quality – all strong, athletic horses but with plenty of Arab type including beautiful wedge-shaped heads and large eyes. Many people feel that the modern in-hand Arabian is becoming something of a long, thin caricature, with an extreme head, completely flat back and a multitude of leg faults, but Mrs Kadri’s horses certainly showed that one does not have to sacrifice type for substance. They were also well-mannered and we felt completely safe with all of them.

This was a lovely mare whose name I’m afraid I did not record:

 

And this was the stallion Daas, of pure Crabbet breeding:

The star of the show was, of course, Spearmint himself, a grand old man with great presence. Only the hollows above his eyes gave away his age; other than that he looked very well and was still sprightly and interested in the mares in the stables opposite him. He was clearly a favourite with all the staff and although not spoiled, had a bit of special treatment, such as the bag of carrots which hung outside his stable door. The same door also displayed his pedigree, and it is quite something to think that the horse to whom you are happily feeding carrots is only three generations away from a desert-bred stallion foaled in 1913.

 

You can imagine how shocked I was when, requesting permission to share my photos on this blog, I heard from Mrs Kadri that Spearmint had been euthanized less than a month after our visit. Although physically healthy, he had become increasingly mentally unstable and was starting to pose a danger to himself and others. Mrs Kadri wrote ‘we are all very miserable’ and having seen the regard in which Spearmint was held at Al Waha, I know this must be true. It makes us even more grateful that we were able to see him when we did.