Hi, I’m Lois Selby Perry. Welcome to this expression of Raffles and the Arabians imported by my father, Roger Selby, from the Crabbet Park in England to the Selby Stud in Ohio, This foundation stock has flourished throughout the United States of America these 80+ years. It is embraced in the nature of these animals and in the hearts of the people.

Living the dream from the bottom up

My story began not with dolls, blocks, or marbles (we did not have computer games in those days), but skipping around in the wide long aisle of the barn that housed the imported stallions, playing at the feet of *Mirage who would so carefully stand as long as needed, climbing over the high tile walls into the stalls of one or another stallion, encouraging them to come over to the manger with a little handful of oats, and sliding onto their backs. As I grew I tagged along with farm hands, vets, visitors, worked in the hay fields, trained the growing colts and fillies, trucked and showed, until it all became 2nd nature to me – breeding, foaling, showing – great shoulders to build on

The spirit that built Selby Stud

For Roger A Selby, beauty was in the eye of the beholder, and he sought it everywhere. The farm was an extravaganza of local and exotic flowers and animals, but his eye and heart were stolen when he discovered the Arabians at the Crabbet Park in England. With a beauty that inspires artists and viewers alike, and a history unique and exotic, his vision became reality.

The process of success

Dad bargained with Lady Wentworth –not an easy matter—for a group of her best stock that could develop a substantive breeding program in America. Over several years he imported 30 in all. As his vision for look, style, and quality developed, he sold all that did not fit our template, and honed in on a nucleus.

A horse named *Raffles

This barely 14 hand on tiptoe stallion was considered unmanageable and sterile by Lady Wentworth. - - What to do - - I opine she was glad to find a place to put him with a group being bought by a wealthy American businessman, making a handy excuse he was for the kids. That story has circulated for long it is considered true. But let me ask you - - what sense does it make to give a vicious unmanageable stallion to kids - - was he to eat us for breakfast?

Becoming “Raffles”

The small size of this stallion was completely overshadowed by the magnitude of his presence. His striking classic beauty was dominated by a dynamic spirit that made him magnetic. But he arrived quite a terror. Seemingly having been badly managed, Raffles trusted no one and no one but our 6’4” 240 lb. manager, Jim Dean, tended him for many months. Eventually his wife, Thelma (“Buck”), was able to ride him, and after 6 hours a day over many more months, he calmed.

Sealing our fate

Jim Dean was curious if Raffles’ sterility was associated with his prior handling, and bred him to 2 mares. It took, they foaled, and the path became clear. Raffles possessed a purity of genes you could depend on for inbreeding, line breeding, outcrossing, improving cold bloods. - - - Raffles kids galloped across America! Inbred to the famed Skowronek (the equally famed Rifala bred back to her father), he had a prepotency beyond the expected degree. You always recognized his imprint, even generations later.

The others

Others of the importations were of great value in their own right. The wonderful mares – Rifala, Indaia, Kareyma, Nisa, Selmnab, Rose of France. And then there was the celebrated pure white, desert-bred Mirage, with the style and elegance that personified the beauty and quality of the ancient desert elite. From the desert of Arabia, to the stable of a king, to the parades of England, to America, Mirage was gentle enough for a child, magnificent enough for a king.

The rest of the story

So much has been written about the Selby Stud through its years in production and the ensuing generations of progeny. My book is a comprehensive offering of that data and the truths learned, as well as a personal account of the 80 year journey.

Breeding

Inbreeding – pooling the genes to test the purity of blood, strength to pass on qualities. More dependable, focused.
Linebreeding – preserves the stock quality, style, look, strength using various lines of the same blood.
Outcrossing – using usually a stallion of another bloodline on a proven linebred mare line (often produces a good show horse, even though not your breeding stock).I basically line bred, inbred when appropriate, with an occasional outcross for a specific purpose. A full accounting of the program is in my book offered here.

Raising - - Nurtured by Nature

Environment counts? - - Naturally! Large open pastures with sheds and trees, and abundant green grass – like for the best racehorses of the neighboring Kentucky bluegrass country, the nourishment was in food not pills. The closest smoke stack was the occasional river boat chugging down the Ohio River from Port Cincinnati on its way to the Mississippi. The water was from wells offering up the earth’s vital minerals. Hard, yes. Good, definitely. The Ohio River overflowed its banks every year to bring rich fertile soil to the bottomlands of the farm. There we grew our own corn, oats, and hay, rotating to preserve the nutrients. Offer animals the ingredients to reach their full potential – the soil, the air, the water, the space, and watch them thrive! - -Me too! All these decades later, I am still “healthy as a horse”. No high blood pressure medicine, no cholesterol, no heart, no arthritis or tranquilizer meds. Mother (Nature) knows best.

Working with Arabians, the original people horse

Why the reputation ? Too hot to handle? Folk lore and paintings are rampant with depictions of rearing, charging stallions carrying their masters to conquer neighboring tribes with their athleticism and wit, escaping to gallop endlessly, tirelessly across desert sands. Yet Arabian mares and foals shared the tents with the Bedouins, receiving the best of nurture - unique bonds for these highly intelligent animals. In early America, the “cowboy mentality” of throwing, keeping down, forcing until their spirit was broken, and they became beasts of burden, did not set well with Arabians. They were tagged by the misinformed, as being fractious and difficult to handle. To the rest of us, there is no more willing and bonded companion. They listen and respond to those who care for them. Show them what you want them to do, correct with understanding, praise the progress, and trust the bond – at home, on the trail, with the kids, and in a pinch they will “go through fire and carry you home”.

growing up great