Anne Brown, Gadebrook Stud UK... Our partner and friend
Patti and Anne are almost joined at the hip - or at least, closely related
by horse! They are partners, friends and travelling companions (to the WAHO
conference in Qatar in November 2014) and share the same breeding aims and
ethos.
Both strive for happy, healthy athletic Arab horses that can compete under saddle in many disciplines at the highest level.
At her Gadebrook Arabian Stud in the UK (www.gadebrookstud.com), Anne proudly represents Patti's multi-talented, dear departed Remington Steele*++ with frozen semen.
In the USA, Patti represents Anne's mighty Russian Arab racing stallion and sire, Sambist.
Patti knew Anne's horses even before the pair met, having visited Gadebrook Stud when Anne was abroad in her travel-writing days. Patti recalls:
"I first went to visit Gadebrook in 1996 and fell in love with Anne's dapple grey Ridden Champion stallion Silvern Sceptre, her incredible broodmares and the wonderful bright chestnut colt Bright Sceptre." (owned since weaning by Sarah Hare - of whom more later)
Patti also hugely admired Sambist whom she saw at HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al Thani's Umm Qarn stud in southern England, before his arrival at Gadebrook. Most recently, Patti flew over to Anne's for the sad duty of saying farewell to Sambist at the age of 27.
Sambist has many fans around the world, including our friend Larry Cohen from the
USA, Patti's son Tory, and breeders Deb and Ian Wilson of Moondarra Stud in
Queensland who own the Sambist son, Samson Tai, a leading endurance sire in
Australia. They came to visit with Lyn Hall of Lyndale Arabians on a very
wet August day in 2014.
Two of Sambist's
progeny live at Patti's Phase II Ranch: the home-bred endurance stallion II
Damb Much, and the three-year old pure Russian filly, Mariska, bred at Gadebrook
who flew the Atlantic as a yearling.
Her full sister back in Britain, Kallista, is following a career in both flat racing and endurance with new owner, Paul Simmons.
Anne's 15hh endurance gelding Remynisce from her Crabbet mare Jazmyn (by Arab race horse Kasadi) was the first foal to be conceived by the excellent frozen semen from Remington Steele*++ in 2007. Backed by Sarah Hare, schooled by Emma Thomas and now ridden by another of Anne's friends, Susan Hawes, 'Remmy' is helping spread his sire's reputation in UK Endurance.
He won Gold in the '75 miles Golden Horseshoe race' in atrocious weather on Exmoor in May 2015 and was awarded the Faranoush Trophy by the vets for 'Best Conditioned' at the end of the three days.
Anne established Gadebrook Stud in 1969 to breed pure Crabbet Arabians for ridden performance, especially endurance. One of the most notable horses from the early days was Hachim (Achim's Silver Magic x Hamsfah). He went on to win the World Endurance Championship (WEC) over 100 miles (160 kms) in the world record time of 7 hours 2 minutes in Dubai, ridden by HH Sheikh Hazza for his father HH Sheikh Sultan bin Zayeed al Nahyan.
And Anne was there in the crew car to support him every step of the way and see him also win the vets' 'Best Conditioned' award, a great tribute to his trainers, his rider and his own abilities.
Hachim, the youngest ever stallion-tested Premium sire in the history of the Arab Horse Society, had produced four Crabbet fillies at Gadebrook before his sale to HH Sheikh Sultan in 2000. After Hachim's victory in the WEC, the sheikh immediately sent his stud manager over to Gadebrook to snap up the last available daughter, Magic Sheen (x Crystal Sheen), for his W'rsan Stud in Abu Dhabi. She is breeding on well and again, Anne + Patti's paths crossed as Anne saw Lady Steele Amie, a daughter of Remington Steele*++ at W'rsan, on a visit to see Hachim and Magic Sheen.
By an amazing coincidence, Sheikh Sultan had chosen Patti, to introduce his two sons to competitive endurance riding at her California base in the USA five years before - at the very same time that his vet was checking out Hachim in the UK, prior to the purchase for these two young men!
Anne sold Hachim's impressive half-brother Magic Domino (Ludomino x Hamsfah) as a 16hh 3-year old Junior Champion to Sheri Stewart in Canada where he proved very successful in ridden showing and dressage, and shone especially as a Sport Horse sire. Mark and Kim Thomason of Arabian Dream Farms in Tennessee, who already had his stock by AI, then bought him and Kim took him to the very top in the USA, earning him the coveted "Living Legend" status in 2004.
And this is when Patti and Anne finally met up as Anne flew over to Tennessee to help Kim transport Magic Domino for the three-day four-state 'Thelma and Louise' journey to Denver, Colorado for the "Living Legend" presentation at the Arabian Extravaganza. Remington Steele*++ had also been awarded the "Living Legend" honour, only given to 10 Arabian horses out of a population of over 500,000 in the USA - and only once every generation.
At the "Living Legend" venue, Anne immediately fell in love with
Patti's Rem as he stood patiently in his stall with children crawling between
his legs, swinging on his tail and sticking fingers up his nostrils (and all
this with a broken jaw wired up for the occasion). Anne's loyalties were divided
between support for Rem and for Domino, two of the finest Arabian stallions
in the USA!
After the ceremony, Anne followed Magic Domino back to the East Coast for
the national Crabbet Show, where she was persuaded to take part in the Fancy
Dress class - as The Queen of England.
Anne has been fortunate to receive gifts of many superb quality horses of very valuable blood lines over the years.
Among them was the Crabbet stallion, Silvern Sceptre, sire of Britain's first ever WAHO winner, Silvern Risalm, in 2005, the same year that Remington Steele*++ won the trophy in the USA. On her retirement, revered breeder Iona Bowring of Chedglow Stud passed her treasured mares to Anne, including the statuesque Crystal Sheen (Crystal Magician x Silver Sheen) and her half-sister, the gentle Silver Aura (Ben Rabba x Silver Sheen), who produced many ridden show winners, including the British "Horse of the Year Show" Ridden Champion Silvern Enchanter and Sarah Hare's Bright Sceptre ('Chester').
Sarah, who has helped at Gadebrook over the years, flies the Atlantic as often as she can for endurance training and competition with Patti.
The greatest gift of all was the racing supremo Sambist, from HH Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa al Thani. Not only was Sambist one of the finest race horses of his generation and the unbeaten distance winner at Goodwood (twice) over almost three miles, he has sired so many race winners that he has been awarded the Arab "Racing Sire of the Year" title ten times in the past 12 years.
Sambist was born at Tersk, the Soviet State Stud, in 1987 and was unbeaten in the five classic Russian races, before being bought at auction for the record sum of $385,000 by Sheikh Abdullah who raced him in England, Europe and the Middle East.
A posthumous life-size-and-a-half bronze statue by the artist Hamish Mackie to Sambist rears in the heart of London, unveiled by a minister of the British government in the summer of 2015.
Sambist has offspring around the world - in the USA, Australia, the Middle East, Mexico, S Africa, Russia and all over Europe - mostly in racing and endurance competition.
Anne has retained his last daughter, the dramatic grey pure Russian Samska (x GAS Skala) who is in foal to another top-rated Russian race horse Vadeer, with 10 wins and over $100,000 in prize money to his name. Hopefully, the combination of these two great racing pedigrees will produce an exciting prospect for the future.
Anne is a former President of the Arab Horse Society and a current Council member. She chairs the PR and Marketing Committee, edits the renowned "Arab Horse News", and administers the annual 'Performance Horse Awards'.
But her first love is the well-made, well-mannered and athletic Crabbet Arabian descending from the first desert imports to Crabbet Park in the 1870s by Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt.
Anne runs the annual "Crabbet Show at Equifest" (see show flyer for Equifest, above). Embarrassingly, her horses collect more than their fair share of rosettes there each year. And no, she doesn't bribe the judges
At the 2013 World Crabbet Convention in the UK, Anne had five horses on parade, more than any other stud. 8-year old stallion Binley Prince Salim (Prince Sadik x Silvern Image) led with his two full brothers, Silvern Prince and Ikoni.
Anne's home-bred FEI** endurance mare, Kalish (Crystal Magic x Kumasha) kitted out in Arabian costume, led the finale. In between, pretty 2-year old Palmyra (Klinta Sultan x Palma Benay imp) and the pregnant imported Australian mare Pevensey Zariffia (Ghazari x Veridan Za'aria) pranced proudly round arena. And bay 3-year old colt Kaalif (Silver Zaanif x Palma Benay imp) who had just gained the highest score nationally in the British Equestrian Federation's Endurance Futurity Awards, showed just why Gadebrook had re-imported the bay gene.
Anne's current senior stallion, Binley Prince Salim, has been hugely successful under saddle, competing up to 75 miles in FEI** endurance. He is now at advanced Medium level in affiliated British Dressage.
Tragically, Gadebrook has lost the gracious bay Crabbet mare Pevensey Zariffia, imported from Australia, foaling a long-legged 10-day overdue colt by Binley Prince Salim, with a prolapsed colon in April 2016. Fortunately, a foster mare was available immediately, so orphan Hadiya min Zariffia (‘Gift from Zariffia’) has been saved by a big Belgian draught horse. Mazaria, Zariffia’s pretty filly from 2014, won the Junior Crabbet title at Equifest in 2015. Both colt and filly are clear of SCID and LFS.
In 2013 Salim won the overall championship in the AHS's Performance Horse Awards and paraded at the annual show at Malvern to receive his trophies from the AHS President.
In 2015 he was Reserve PHA Champion and the High Points winner in the Dressage section. His daughter, Silvern Sunbeam, has bred on and is now headed for stud duties in Australia. His full brother, Silvern Prince was awarded the coveted WAHO Trophy for 2015. The handsome stallions met up in the main arena of the national Arab Show.
Anne's parallel breeding programme using three pure Crabbet mares from Australia aims to increase the depleted gene pool in Britain and re-introduce the lost bay coat colour. In just six years, this "Boomerang Plan" has been so successful that Anne is already on her third generation with the birth of bay colt Shaarif in 2015 from the imported mare Inshallah Signature.
His sire is Anne's junior stallion, another pure Crabbet, the well-made bay, Kaalif, already a winner under saddle, and First in the Sports Horse Class of the 2015 National Arabian Championships. He was the first foal from the imported Australian mare Palma Benay - she has since produced filly Palmyra, and colts Palermo and Dandini.
The boys are sold to other Crabbet studs, but Anne has retained breedings to preserve these precious lines. Palma is now in foal to the powerful white stallion Imperial Silver Star, a former Crabbet champion.
Anne is indebted to Australian breeders Leon Bennett and Rob & Yvonne Day, and to Larry & Marillyn O'Dea for sharing their Crabbet heritage horses with Gadebrook.
As a former travel journalist and linguist, Anne has visited many studs around the world and attends conferences, breeding seminars and Crabbet conventions whenever she can, and represents the Arab Horse Society at WAHO conferences.
Anne is proud to have Patti as a partner and wishes the Phase II programme every success. We both have strong bonds to the owners and riders of our equine progeny around the world and enjoy hearing about their successes.
She'd love to know more: anne@gadebrookstud.com
