ROMAC CRABBETS

(Ibrahim 1899 x Jaskolka - means swallow in Polish - 1891). You will notice on the 'Link to Pedigrees', there are huge gaps in Skowronek's lineage...probably goes back to a point where there was no documentation at that time.

'Influencial Crabbets' would not be complete without this iconic Arab. Below is a short piece. Words borrowed from Wikipedia.

The English painter Walter Winans bought Skowronek from Count Josef Potocki's Antoniny Stud. Winas had originally gone to Poland to hunt game at Count Potocki's private animal park, Piławin, located north of Antoniny, where he spotted the grey stallion and purchased him for 150 pounds. Winans rode the stallion and used him as a model for several bronzes, then sold Skowronek to Mr. Webb Wares, "who rode him as a hack," and eventually sold him to H.V. Musgrave Clark, where he was shown and used at stud for the first time, coming to the attention of Lady Wentworth.

Lady Wentworth bought Skowronek under circumstances that remain a bit confusing even today. Clark believed he was selling the horse to an American exporter, but at the last minute, the export was cancelled and Lady Wentworth suddenly was the owner of Skowronek. Clark was a rival Arabian breeder, and Lady Wentworth may have used the agent as a front; concerned that if Clark had known she was interested, he may have increased the price - or refused to sell the horse at all. Clark was not happy with the result, and the two breeders had a somewhat cool relationship after she purchased the stallion.

While Count Potocki apparently found Skowronek unimpressive as a colt, having sold him to Winans for a relatively low price, he matured into a very fine stallion. Lady Wentworth later turned down an offer of $250,000 from the Tersk Stud in the Soviet Union and bragged that she once received a cable "from the Antipodes" addressed to "Skowronek, England." The outcross of the original Crabbet stock with Skowronek was extremely successful, and the resulting animals not only sold throughout England but were exported to Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, Poland, South Africa, Spain, Russia and the USA.

Skowronek died in February 1930 at the age of 22. Lady Wentworth donated the stallion's skeleton (showing 17 pair of ribs and five lumbar vertebrae) to the British Museum in London.
Lady Wentworth, eventually had Skowronek in all her Crabbet breeding program.
Words adapted from Wikipedia.

(Silvern Idyll x Grecian Gilt). Daphne thinks this beautiful stallion is the best of his kind. Luckily, her own 100% Crystal Stardrift had a stunning colt by him...Crystal Satisfaction.
Photo by Alexia Ross with kind permission.