Lady Anne Blunt (1837-1917) and Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922)
The Blunts were intellectual and adventurous members of the British aristocracy. In 1873, they began their rugged explorations of the Middle East and Desert Arabia, traveling by camel and horseback. By 1877, they became determined to try to breed purebred Arabian horses on Wilfrid's ancestral estate at Crabbet Park. Ten years later, they also established a stud near Cairo. Many Heirloom bloodlines would not be extant today without the Blunts' exhaustive efforts to acquire and breed the finest individuals of pure bloodstock then available in the desert and Egypt. Moreover, our present knowledge about these early lines would be minimal without the careful records kept by the Blunts and published in their books and studbooks. (See Library) Their colorful personal history is portrayed in Archer, Pearson and Covey, The Crabbet Arabian Stud (1978).

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