Robbins: What qualities do you look for in a broodmare?
Munson: I would put both pedigree and conformation at the top of the list. A mare has to have a good pedigree to breed on, but without good conformation there is no point in breeding on. The horse needs a good shoulder and withers, because you can't ride and use a horse that doesn't have good withers. It absolutely has to have good straight legs, natural tail carriage and a good length to hip and croup. Equally important, and indispensable is breed type, quality and disposition.

Robbins: if you could change anything about the breed today, what would you like to correct?

Munson: I'd like to take away all the malarkey that has developed over the last twenty years of showing horses and start all over again. Whip abuse came about because judges allowed it to happen. When you come down to nitty gritty, judges have allowed most of the breed problems to happen. If they had put a stop to the whip problem in the early 70s by excusing persons who abuse their horses, we wouldn't have that problem today.

The English Pleasure and Park classes today look like Saddle bred classes. If the judges had done away with all the high action, hopping, skipping, jumping at corners and all the four-beat troffers and instead had rewarded those who showed a strong two-beat trot with rhythmic, smooth even gait we would still have a true English Pleasure horse today. I've seen horses win National Champion Park Classes with four-beat trots that made me cringe. Unfortunately, there is a whole new generation out there who grew up under this new system. The change in conformation and movement first started back in the late 1960s when the "new park horses" came into existence. From that time on the breed has evolved toward the standard of the Saddle bred and away from that of the Arabian. This could prove to be the downfall of the Arabian as a breed.

Robbins: You have had a chance to know on a personal basis some of the legendary people involved with the breed. Often the people who breed horses seem more memorable than the horses themselves. Would you share your personal insights about some of these people, such as Roger Selby, Alice Payne, Carl Raswan and Jimmy Dean?

Munson: On Carl Raswan: "He was and still is the ultimate authority on Arabian horses through his Raswan Index. He had faults and limitations like anyone else, and was judged harshly by some people for them, but his breeding theories and the history of the Arabian as he wrote it have been proven correct time after time."

On Alice Payne: "Alice Payne was the most honest Arabian horse breeder ever. She was a true breeder in that she picked a type and a bloodline and stuck with them. She demanded perfection with her own horses, as she did with others, and didn't hesitate to point out a horse's faults whether it was her own or someone else. One of my favorite Alice stories was when I took her to Cedardell Farms in the early 1960s. At that time they had the National Champion mares Lallegra and Imarfa and the National Champion Stallion Synbad. Mr. and Mrs. Buckley were present at the time because "the" Alice Payne was coming to see their horses. Red Beyer, their trainer, brought out horse after horse and Alice ripped them to shreds in front on the Buckleys. I was madder than hell after that and told her I would never take her to another farm again. So a couple of years went by and she started badgering me to go and see Dr. La Rue's horses. I kept putting her off and telling her no, because the La Rues didn't have any children and thought of those horses as their kids. Finally agreed to take heron the condition that she didn't say one word about their horses.
They proceeded to bring out every horse on the place for Alice to see and she didn't say one single word. By the time we'd looked at twenty five horses and Alice hadn't said anything the La Rues were almost in tears. I was dying of embarrassment and all Alice did was stand there with her hands on her hips. Finally Carolyn Gardner, their trainer at the time, brought out the last horse, Harod. At this time Alice believed that horses should be shaped like rectangles on their sides (Ed. Note: horizontal rectangle), and Harod was shaped like anything but that. So I turned to Alice and said: "Alice, do you think this horse is shaped like a rectangle?" knowing full well he wasn't. Alice couldn't help herself and blurted out, "Yes, up and down." Realizing then that I'd tricked her into saying something, she said "Goddam you Bill," and stomped off to the car."

On Roger Selby: "Mr. Selby was a hard man to get close to. I don't think he and Jimmy Dean ever became close, even after all the years that Jimmy had been at Selby's. He was a very polite man to be around, but kept his distance about everything except the horses. He did import and breed some of the greatest Arabs of this century."

On Jimmy Dean: "I loved Jimmy Dean. He was the greatest public relations man in the history of the breed. Although he could violently disagree with people about horses, he would never say anything unkind to people to hurt their feelings. We had entirely different breeding programs but could and did respect each other's horses. Jimmy would often come and spend two or three days at the ranch and never mention the word 'horses.' Jimmy's passing was a great loss to the Arabian breed but even a greater loss to those who knew him."

Robbins: Bill, fifty years from now what would you like to be remembered for?

The Shalimar mares. I think I'll be remembered because these mares will breed on and on. I bred well enough and tight enough in pedigree that even with two or three out crosses they won't disappear. I wish you could see our fillies from last year's foal crop. They look like peas in a pod-typy, leggy, correct, pretty heads, good dispositions and they've been bred this way through seven generations.

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From the 1991 issue:
About Jim Robbins:
When Jim was eleven he saw a photograph of Shimmering Star (Syzygy x Lalla Kadija) and knew that was the type of Arabian he wanted to breed someday. Four years later he had saved enough money washing dishes after school to make payments on his first Arabian, purchased from Dick and Carolyn Hasbrook of Twinbrook Arabians. The Hasbrookes’ Crabbet-based breeding program and their friendship fostered Jim's interest in learning everything he could about the early *Raffies breeding programs. Through many hours of research, study and conversation, Jim has gained a substantial working knowledge of why those programs have succeeded and hopes to share the history and opinions of those early breeders with you.

Today Jim breeds Arabians in Portland, Oregon, and his stallion, Shah Zoom (Ansata Shah Zaman x Infinite), is out of Shimmering Star's full-sister. The mare band at his R-Farm includes three mares from Friendship Farm: Dancing Gem (Raffi x Geybima); Participate (Llano Grande Conquistador x Paragon), Chimes (Firebrand x Campana) who is on lease from Mrs. Hewitt. The two mares completing the band are the Rifage bred Royal Roseate (Rifik x B. Wyoma Rose) and his "out cross mare" P.R. Munequita (*EI Shaklan x Ramishka).