//
MY LIFE WITH
THE ARABIAN HORSE: SHAWN CREWS b y De n is e He a rs t
For nearly 40 years, Shawn Crews and the Egyptian Arabian have been inextricably linked. From her days at Gardner Bloodstock where she honed her skills with such greats as Ruminaja Ali and Ali Jamaal, to her years with The Minstril and Thee Desperado and their descendants at Judy Sirbasku’s Arabians Ltd. in Waco, Texas. There, she not only showed, managed and bred generations of winning horses, Shawn’s infectious enthusiasm helped introduce newcomers to the straight Egyptian Arabian through innovative outreach programs. We caught up with Shawn as she begins to transition to a new business model: working for herself and the breed she loves.
In around 1972-1973 Jarrell was buying his first Straight Egyptians. He enlisted my father to help him hook up the two-horse trailer to his white station wagon with the wood veneer sides, and they’d drive to Spring, Texas, to pick up mares he had purchased from Doug and Margaret Marshall’s Gleannloch Farms. It’s a miracle those two ever got one horse back to Waco safely. To this day my Dad always rubs this in: on one of those excursions he got to see *Morafic. At that time I was a chubby 12 or 13-year-old, and I was fascinated by Arabian horses. But I had no idea that they would become my life. Five or six years after Word Inc. was sold, my father moved us all out to W H AT WA S YO U R Southern California INTRODUCTION TO for the second time. Shawn Crews with THEE DESPERADO (The Minstril x AK Amiri Asmarr). ARABIAN HORSES? It was 1977, and My father ran the there was a lot of publishing arm of Word Incorporated of Waco, trouble to get into in that part of the world. Back Texas, for Jarrell McCracken. Jarrell caused quite a then if you were a kid that needed to straighten up, stir when he sold the publishing house/recording they would send you to a farm. The next thing I knew label for a then record-price to the ABC TV my bags were packed for me and I was being conglomerate. He and his daughter Lisa Lacy are shipped back to Waco, Texas. Shortly thereafter, I found myself in David best known as founders of Bentwood Farms Inc.
// A H W > 27 < 0 5 . 1 9