A good twenty years ago, the Bolzano furniture maker Peppi Selva began with two Haflinger mares: a leisure-time horse breeder. He then discovered his love for Arabian thoroughbreds and educated himself to the point of becoming a specialist in the complicated pedigrees and heredity lines of purebred Arabian horses. Selva purchased stallions and mares throughout all of Europe from famous and successful breeding families and founded the “Gaughof” Arabian stud farm in Wangen/Ritten in the Tyrolean Alps, one of the first breeding operations in Italy where thoroughbred Arabians were bred in the grand style. Steeply climbing paths, blossoming meadows, a man-made lake in the vicinity, abundant sunshine, and in winter an orderly frost – the bracing climate of the mountains is apparently precisely the right one for these horses of the desert who are accustomed to challenging conditions.

In 1979, Peppi Selva was among the founding members of ANICA (the Italian National Association of Thoroughbred Arabian Horses), a group which brought thoroughbred Arabian horses raised in Italy to a level of international recognition.

Numerous national and international competitions were won: one of his mares, Rasheda, was selected three times as the most beautiful mare of Italy; her daughters Rashima and Rayana likewise received numerous prices, as of course did many of the foals born at Gaughof. Not to be forgotten is the stallion Paks 7, a son of the famous stallion Aswan, which Peppi Selva and his son Philipp discovered at the Russian State Stud in Tersk in 1981 and brought to Italy. Paks 7 was considered to be the best breeding stallion in all of Italy. In the years following his arrival, he was Italian champion several times and in 1984 was both national and international champion.

Today, there are around 15 horses at Gaughof. The horses are in constant visual and physical contact with each other. The foals are raised in groups so that all bad habits wear off by themselves in the course of daily play. The stallions are so accustomed to contact with each other and with the mares that the usual dramas never occur is a stallion encounters another stallion or a stallion meets a mare.

Peppi Selva, who was also an A-Level judge of the international breeding association WAHO (World Arabian Horse Organization), passed away on June 14, 2002.

Today, it is his son Philipp with his wife Andrea who carry on his legacy with a breeding program based upon pure Egyptian bloodlines. They have already been able to record their first successes in Shows both in Italy and abroad. The foundation mares are Gameelah, imported from Texas and a very noble daughter of Ruminaja Ali, and TH Bint Rissala, a very typical daughter of Ansata Hejazi, in addition to Maydana-Madheen, the Junior Champion of the International Egyptian Event 2002 in Italy, the wonderfully beautiful Bahrija Bint Bukra, and the extraordinary elegant Nahma Bint Ibn Halim Shah.

The great pride of Gaughof is the 1999 Egyptian Supreme National Champion and Egyptian International Champion Mobarak EAO (Adl x Ghazalet Albadeia), one of the few purebred Arabians to leave the land of its origin, Egypt, in order to conquer Europe. His son Bashir al Gaug out of our mare Bahrija Bint Bukra has won the title of Champion Stallion Reserve 2006 at the Egyptian Event Europe with only 1 year of age.