Geoffrey Plaister
and The Imperial Stud
When the Crabbet stud was disbanded in 1971 because of the forthcoming M23 motorway which was to be built straight through the middle of the stud, Cecil Covey contacted Geoffrey Plaister to see if he wanted any of the stock that was to be sold. Indeed he did and soon after, five horses had been purchased, the mares Sherilla and her full sister Siretta by Bright Shadow out of Sirella, (half sister to Hanif) Sunset also by Bright Shadow out of Silver Gilt, Silver Rani by Hanif out of Silver Grey and of course the stallion Hanif by Silver Vanity out of Sirella.
Geoffrey Plaister was to become one of the foremost breeders of his time. Peter and Roger Upton regularly showed Geoffrey's horses and here are some of Peter's memories of Geoffrey.
Geoffrey was born in 1929, the eldest child of a dairy farmer. The family which included a sister and younger brother lived at Spratt's Barn Farm, close to Coped Hall, some two miles from the town of Royal Wootton Bassett, as it is now called. Here they kept a pedigree herd of British Friesians, which were not then the common breed that they are today, for other farmers in the Vale mostly had Shorthorn cattle. Geoffrey helped his father with the farm work and for a while they also employed a Land Girl.
I first met Geoff when he was chairman of the Young Farmers' Club. It was not long before my brother and I started visiting their farm and helping with the milking. Geoffrey would have then been eighteen or nineteen. Always interested in all forms of farming, he tried out a number of ideas. Firstly, it was Berkshire pigs. Then he turned to Chinchillas, for at that time they were the new 'big idea'. Geoffrey got in early and did well selling breeding pairs, but the rush to breed for fur soon fizzled out.
We even kept our ponies on their farm for a while and would fetch in the cows for milking on horseback. Geoffrey, I should mention, showed absolutely no interest in ponies or horses, for vintage cars were more his cup of tea at that stage. In 1955, my twin and I left home, eventually to do our National Service in The Royal Horse Guards, so we lost touch with all at Spratt's Barn Farm.
I first met Geoff when he was chairman of the Young Farmers' Club. It was not long before my brother and I started visiting their farm and helping with the milking. Geoffrey would have then been eighteen or nineteen. Always interested in all forms of farming, he tried out a number of ideas. Firstly, it was Berkshire pigs. Then he turned to Chinchillas, for at that time they were the new 'big idea'. Geoffrey got in early and did well selling breeding pairs, but the rush to breed for fur soon fizzled out. We even kept our ponies on their farm for a while and would fetch in the cows for milking on horseback. Geoffrey, I should mention, showed absolutely no interest in ponies or horses, for vintage cars were more his cup of tea at that stage. In 1955, my twin and I left home, eventually to do our National Service in The Royal Horse Guards, so we lost touch with all at Spratt's Barn Farm.
We now jump forward nearly 20 years.
In the meantime, in 1958 Geoffrey had married Barbara, whom we had also known as she had been the receptionist for Dr Watson in Wootton Bassett. His parents had retired from the farm at which point Geoff moved into the property market with still, so far as I am aware, no interest in horses, let alone Arabians.
By chance I was visiting my brother Roger, who lived just outside Marlborough, when the telephone rang – it was Geoffrey on the line. He explained that he was the proud owner of some Arab horses which he had purchased from Cecil Covey when he decided to disband the Crabbet Stud. Could we help?
Geoffrey had at first lodged them with Jane Pointer at Cranham while he looked around for a suitable property to purchase. It was clear that he was impatient to find a better solution.
We were both pleased by his purchase, but totally surprised by what - to us - was a sudden diversion into a new interest in horses, and Arabian horses at that. How did it happen? He told us that some years earlier he had paid a visit to a circus with an act of six white liberty horses, all Arabs. He fell in love with them. Later, when on a rally in Sussex with one of his vintage cars (a Bugatti, I believe) he noticed a white Arab stallion in a paddock and went in to enquire about it. The horse was Indian Magic. So Geoffrey met Cecil Covey and they got on well with one another. Next came an offer of a stallion and some mares: Geoffrey chose Hanif, Sunset and Sherilla to be followed later by Siretta, Silver Rani (a Hanif daughter) and Maleka. Geoff had really wanted Dalika, Maleka's dam, but Jane Pointer got her first. Incidentally, on that first visit Indian Magic kicked Geoff out of his loose-box: he was always a one-man horse, and that man was Fred Rice.
Hanif when purchased from Crabbet (Imperial Stud Archives)
Both Roger and I naturally offered our help. Perhaps Geoffrey had discovered that I was by then a member of the AHS. Immediately four loose-boxes were built at Plough Cottage near Marlborough, two further boxes were already available. A good friend, who bred Welsh Cobs and lived at Lockeridge close by, agreed to provide grazing and stabling for the mares and youngstock.
The stallions at Plough Cottage were Hanif, Nijm, Magic Sun and Sir Star. All four were ridden for exercise and when a covering was needed at Lockeridge, Hanif was ridden there and back.
Not long after the horses had moved in, Burge Stace and his wife came to visit Hanif. He was so excited to see them that he nearly kicked the stable door down. Who says that horses don't remember?
The arrangement was that any mare or filly that was to be shown would also be kept at Plough Cottage, along with the stallions, and we started taking them to shows. The National Championships at that time were held at Syon Park, London. One year we took Hanif who I showed under saddle, a perfect gentleman, but rather noisy: we were fourth in the class. We also took up the two chestnut sisters, Sherilla and Shotifa, with their foals at foot. Dr. Peter Houtappel, the judge, got in a muddle with two look-alike twins leading their two look-alike mares. Shotifa ended up second with Sherilla third.
Eventually, Geoffrey found Diana Lodge Stud at Purton, not too far from Marlborough and bought it from a Major Blunt who had bred Thoroughbreds there. In fact, Geoff also purchased the remaining two Thoroughbred mares and the stallion Willipeg. He named his stud The Imperial Arabian Stud.
Painting of Diana Lodge by M. L Upton
The Plaister Charity Collection
Always on the look-out for other good mares, I learnt in 1976 that Zahri was for sale. She it was who introduced another strain to the stud. The original horses were of the Dajanieh and Hamdanieh strains, but Zahri was of the Seglawieh strain. Geoffrey took my word for it that she would be a good buy, even at nineteen years old, and purchased her without seeing her. She went on, through two of her daughters both by Hanif, to produce possibly the most important dynasty at Diana Lodge.
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Silver Vanity 1950 (Oran x Silver Gilt) and Fred Rice pictured in 1958
Credit: Crabbet Heritage Collection
Hanif, a truly great stallion by the beautiful Silver Vanity, was the king pin of the stud. In his long life he sired one hundred and sixteen foals, including champions such as Haroun, Zarafa and Shatir.
Geoffrey, looking for fresh bloodlines, used a number of other stallions including Manto, who he tried to buy, but Colin Pearson wouldn't have it! He leased other stallions, notably the little grey, Neffeuret from Ireland and finally Shabash, who I discovered in Wales. Both these horses produced excellent stock.
So for over forty years the Imperial Stud was to play an indelible role in the continuation and preservation of Crabbet bloodlines. Horses from the Imperial Stud still hold a dominant and essential place in the future of horses of Crabbet breeding.
Geoffrey and other dedicated breeders took over from Cecil Covey the task of maintaining a sadly diminishing line of horses who go back to the original stallions and mares brought from the desert and from the remnants of Ali Pasha-Cherif's Stud by Wilfrid and Lady Anne Blunt nearly 150 years ago.
Hanif, who lived to be thirty-one years old, was always Geoffrey and Barbara's favourite child.
Hanif and Geoffrey
Photo credit: Sweet Photography
We visited Geoffrey late in 2016 and asked Geoffrey how he came to know Cecil Covey, this is a transcript of what he told us..
Where did you know Cecil from?
“Jane Pointer came to me because I didn’t have any land or anything, she said Geoffrey if you want to get started, that champion mares for sale and if you want her I’ll look after her for you. So she went off to talk to Mrs Thomas who owned her in those days, but she’d already been sold to Iona Bowring so I missed it.
But Mr Coveys got a 2 year old filly and he said he’ll sell it to you if you’d like to go and see her and if you like it and he (Cecil Covey) likes you he’ll sell it to you, and that’s what happened, with the proviso that she goes back to Indian Magic. That filly was Sherilla, my first mare.
He had 2 fillies, a full sister to Sherilla, a filly called Siretta and Silver Rani so I asked if I could have them, and he said, “if I have several filies next year I’ll sell them to you.” I used to go down on my half day to see them and I rang him up to see if I could go and see them and he said, “Geoffrey I’m selling them all, they’re driving a new road through the middle of my land so I’m going to give up.” He said, “you’re the first person I’ve told and you can have your pick”, so I had Sunset and I had the two fillies and the unborn foal of Dalika’s which was a filly anyway and it came. Anyway, I had to get permission from Jane Pointer to see if she would have them. Well as soon as I had put the phone down, she rang Mr Covey and bought Dalika!
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Dalika 1963 (Dargee x Silver Gilt) Pictured in 1963
One that got away!
Photo credit: Crabbet Heritage collection
I started off with Sherilla, and while Jane Pointer didn’t push me into it, if she hadn’t have suggested that I would probably not ever have done it, but she gave me a chance and that’s how it happened.”