31/01/2023
International Women's Day, and a woman with a filly that changed Arabian horse breeding globally forever.
*Rifala (Skowronek x Rissla by Berk), six generations of Crabbet Park breeding, being handled by Baroness Wentworth, Judith (Wilfrid Scawen Blunt x Lady Anne Blunt), photo taken in the early 1920's at a horse show in England, photographer unknown, legacy immeasurable.
We'll start with *Rifala, maybe not as solid in the body as her full sister, Reyna, who was exported to Spain for the Duke of Veragua, but Lady Wentworth's pick of the two and the one she chose to show.
Among her many titles won in Great Britain, *Rifala won the Royal Show Gold Medal as a weanling in 1922, the First Prize at Horsham as a yearling in 1923 and the Sussex County Show Silver Cup the same year. She would re-enter the show world, after a 10 year hiatus and a change in continent, to be named 1933 National Champion Mare at the Nationals held in Nashville, under the ownership of her second owner, the Selby Stud.
What can one say about *Rifala? She founded a dynasty of breeding stallions through her sons; Image (by *Mirage) at the Selby Stud, Rifage (by *Mirage) at the Van Vleet Stud, Phantom (in-bred by her own son Image) at Gainey Arabians in Minnesota and that father/daughter mating that resulted in the "sterile stallion", *Raffles (Skowronek x *Rifala by Skowronek) who was brought back to fertility by Jimmie and Thelma Dean and changed the course of breeding Arabians for several decades here in the US.
*Rifala produced one daughter, Ragala by *Mirage, but her influence is still felt today through hundreds and hundreds of descendants (some not even owned by Dick Hasbrook), and *Rifala's legacy is guaranteed for generations to come.
Now, onto Lady Judith Wentworth. What can one say, other then she has influenced Arabian horse breeding on every continent and virtually in every country that breeds Arabian horses today. There are only two breeding groups, the straight Egyptian group and the Davenports, who are immune from her influence. She brought Skowronek (Ibrahim x Jaskolka by Rymnik) to the Rodania, Dajania, Sobha, Bint Helwa and Makbula mare lines at Crabbet Park. To frame this into a perspective we all can appreciate, there would be no Michalow, Tersk, Yeguada Militar, Janow, and the list goes on and on.
No Cal-Poly, no Lasma, no Varian, no Mulawa, no Haras Mei Lua, no Om El Arab, no Halsdon. In 2022 terms, no Scottsdale Arabian Show Junior, Senior or Yearling Champions would have been crowned that weren't directly influenced by Lady Judith Wentworth.
What can one say about Judith Wentworth that hasn't already been said? She was quirky, brilliant, stubborn, sneaky, impeccable at judging horse flesh and impeccable at making breeding decisions. She was as complicated as she was brilliant. She could have taught at "Master Class" in horse marketing, long before that was even a term.
As a business woman, she would do (and did) whatever necessary to keep the doors open Crabbet Park, through good times and bad. Smart, savvy and sophisticated, few business leaders today could hold a candle to Lady Judith Wentworth. So, on International Women's Day, my hatโs off to your legacy, Judith Anne Dorothea Blunt-Lytton and the legacy of yours that continues to thrive and prosper today.
Jim Robbins for We LOVE Arabian Horses, celebrating women around the world today and every day and remembering that one special moment I sat at Lady Wentworth's writing desk, a treasured memory to this day.
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