Naef hajaya
Overrun with beasties
Arabian horses / New pic
- Thread starter Naef hajaya
- Start date
ducks4you
Loving the herd life
**sigh** I gotta have another Arab.
Corporal will understand.
Corporal will understand.
I think those are all American Arabs, not horses from the Middle East. Photos are just "styled" like show photos used in stallion advertising.
I like Arabs, just want them watered down a bit, Half or quarter Arab. Gives the toughness, but not the over-reactive portion of many Pures seen now.
I like Arabs, just want them watered down a bit, Half or quarter Arab. Gives the toughness, but not the over-reactive portion of many Pures seen now.
patandchickens
Overrun with beasties
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Although, I am wondering if there are professional photographers out there who would get understandably testy if this represents their work being stolen and propagated uncredited/unpaid on the internet...
*Hopefully* this is all with permission, just sayin',
Pat
*Hopefully* this is all with permission, just sayin',
Pat
My friend took me on a trail ride and put me on one of her Arabians. They hadn't been worked in over a month.
The ride was interesting. We spent much of the ride time, trying to get her horse to leave the barnyard.
He didn't wanna, was the gist of it.
I had to take dramamine, I was spinning around so much. Oh! A dixie cup! Oh! A person! Run! Run away! No - let's just SPIN!!!! WEEEEEE!!!!
At one point there was a PERSON (Oh!) walking on a trail that was on the hill a little above where we were, and he kicked a LEAF that then proceeded to TUMBLE DOWN THE HILL and my friend's horse was much more of a dervish about it than mine was.
A little like that talking dog Doug in the movie 'UP'. 'And I....SQUIRREL!'
That said, I'd be in the next county if I got on one of mine after not working them for a month, but at least I'd get there in a straight line.
Another thing I've noticed about them, while most of them are basically pets and not working very hard, they seem to live a long, long time. I've heard more than one middle aged lady brag, 'I grew up with this horse!' YOU DID? But you must be like...(time to not say any more).
And twenty five, twenty six, that's not at all an unusual age and the animal is still active, maybe a little arthritic, but doing very, very well overall.
And a friend of mine did indeed have a Russian Arab that was the most spookless thing I've ever seen. When he was three. He was also a little, what they call, 'hard sided'.
I was given one to ride, that for some reason, every time you asked him to canter on either lead, he would FLING his head to the outside and nearly brain himself on the fence. I was like, 'why are you doing that, fella?' Turns out his rider would turn his head to the outside every time she asked him to canter, sort of REALLY turn his head to the outside. The animal was a neurotic mess. Every time you acted like you might touch the reins he would spook, throw his head to the outside and rush off in a sideways galloping mess.
And because of other experiences, I can hazard a guess that a lot of Arabs, don't seem to get the best training so if they are not perhaps behaving too rationally that might be part of the problem.
They can attract very novice owners who think they don't need lessons. I think that's one reason you see some of them acting so terribly spoiled. There was a video on youtube for a long time of a trainer retraining an Arab, and it was like spinning, refusing to go to one end of the ring, spooking like mad, rearing, bucking, all kind of AT THE SAME TIME. As my friend said watching it, 'amazingly athletic, aren't they?' But I think you take a sensitive, busy kind of pushy type of horse and give him to someone that is a novice, and 'there you go', as they say.
I think if you see a horse spooking the 1000th time he goes past the mounting block in the arena, you can start to think, 'GOSH! I wonder if he's not afraid of it, and somethin' else is going on!' Yup, could be! Bad training and bad riding.
I think that's the mystique of the pretty appearance and the dainty head and high set pretty tail, it can attract a certain audience. I don't think you can 100% blame the breed for a lot of that.
A friend of mine had a really nice little Arab that did endurance and dressage, though he had a hard time keeping the two straight. Finally he just started warming the horse up by cantering for about an hour before dressage, and he started getting good tests out of him.
Still got judges making comments on his test like 'A LITTLE TENSE' with 'tense' underlined six times.
He also did hunter paces and hunt races on him. That little horse would flatten down to the ground and run like a bug on fire, then slam on the brakes in front of the fence, bounce over it with his head in the air, then flatten out again and fly. I watched him try to go around a corner once on a cross country horse, he was yelling, 'Come on boy, over there!' That was a real wide corner. There was no stopping that horse when his blood was up. He'd be over through or under but he'd be on the other side of it.
I sat in the tack shop a while ago and listened to a person yell and carry on for about forty five minutes about how the Arab has gone to HECK in the last few years, the halter people are RUINING the breed, selecting for TERRIBLE conformation, exaggerated heads and brainless, nutty temperaments.
So I said, 'So....what sort of horse do you breed?'
'Arabs'.
So unless I miss my guess the people complaining the loudest are ... arab breeders???
and unless memory does not serve (and it very well may not), I heard the same complaint when I was 14, as I did when I was 54, LOL.
The ride was interesting. We spent much of the ride time, trying to get her horse to leave the barnyard.
He didn't wanna, was the gist of it.
I had to take dramamine, I was spinning around so much. Oh! A dixie cup! Oh! A person! Run! Run away! No - let's just SPIN!!!! WEEEEEE!!!!
At one point there was a PERSON (Oh!) walking on a trail that was on the hill a little above where we were, and he kicked a LEAF that then proceeded to TUMBLE DOWN THE HILL and my friend's horse was much more of a dervish about it than mine was.
A little like that talking dog Doug in the movie 'UP'. 'And I....SQUIRREL!'
That said, I'd be in the next county if I got on one of mine after not working them for a month, but at least I'd get there in a straight line.
Another thing I've noticed about them, while most of them are basically pets and not working very hard, they seem to live a long, long time. I've heard more than one middle aged lady brag, 'I grew up with this horse!' YOU DID? But you must be like...(time to not say any more).
And twenty five, twenty six, that's not at all an unusual age and the animal is still active, maybe a little arthritic, but doing very, very well overall.
And a friend of mine did indeed have a Russian Arab that was the most spookless thing I've ever seen. When he was three. He was also a little, what they call, 'hard sided'.
I was given one to ride, that for some reason, every time you asked him to canter on either lead, he would FLING his head to the outside and nearly brain himself on the fence. I was like, 'why are you doing that, fella?' Turns out his rider would turn his head to the outside every time she asked him to canter, sort of REALLY turn his head to the outside. The animal was a neurotic mess. Every time you acted like you might touch the reins he would spook, throw his head to the outside and rush off in a sideways galloping mess.
And because of other experiences, I can hazard a guess that a lot of Arabs, don't seem to get the best training so if they are not perhaps behaving too rationally that might be part of the problem.
They can attract very novice owners who think they don't need lessons. I think that's one reason you see some of them acting so terribly spoiled. There was a video on youtube for a long time of a trainer retraining an Arab, and it was like spinning, refusing to go to one end of the ring, spooking like mad, rearing, bucking, all kind of AT THE SAME TIME. As my friend said watching it, 'amazingly athletic, aren't they?' But I think you take a sensitive, busy kind of pushy type of horse and give him to someone that is a novice, and 'there you go', as they say.
I think if you see a horse spooking the 1000th time he goes past the mounting block in the arena, you can start to think, 'GOSH! I wonder if he's not afraid of it, and somethin' else is going on!' Yup, could be! Bad training and bad riding.
I think that's the mystique of the pretty appearance and the dainty head and high set pretty tail, it can attract a certain audience. I don't think you can 100% blame the breed for a lot of that.
A friend of mine had a really nice little Arab that did endurance and dressage, though he had a hard time keeping the two straight. Finally he just started warming the horse up by cantering for about an hour before dressage, and he started getting good tests out of him.
Still got judges making comments on his test like 'A LITTLE TENSE' with 'tense' underlined six times.
He also did hunter paces and hunt races on him. That little horse would flatten down to the ground and run like a bug on fire, then slam on the brakes in front of the fence, bounce over it with his head in the air, then flatten out again and fly. I watched him try to go around a corner once on a cross country horse, he was yelling, 'Come on boy, over there!' That was a real wide corner. There was no stopping that horse when his blood was up. He'd be over through or under but he'd be on the other side of it.
I sat in the tack shop a while ago and listened to a person yell and carry on for about forty five minutes about how the Arab has gone to HECK in the last few years, the halter people are RUINING the breed, selecting for TERRIBLE conformation, exaggerated heads and brainless, nutty temperaments.
So I said, 'So....what sort of horse do you breed?'
'Arabs'.
So unless I miss my guess the people complaining the loudest are ... arab breeders???
and unless memory does not serve (and it very well may not), I heard the same complaint when I was 14, as I did when I was 54, LOL.
michickenwrangler
Loving the herd life
Yez all need to ride some endurance and comp Arabs 
MY Arabs have worked and children can ride them with confidence.
MY Arabs have worked and children can ride them with confidence.
Egg-xactly. Agree 100%
The thing is though, I think that difference is from three different factors -
One, many of the endurance riders simply have a lot of practical experience and ride and train horses rather well. So I think the endurance horses get a lot better training, on average, I'm sure there are exceptions, but on average.
Two, endurance is, I think, the kind of activity a more energetic, excitable horse can really just simply enjoy. Because they are going forward in very active gaits, on a long, loose rein. I think that makes a difference with the rider too. Going up and down hill, riding on a loose rein, they may develop better balance and have a more 'independent seat and hand'. I think that helps in riding the more tense, excitable horse.
Three, I think that endurance horses get worked more frequently and when they do get worked, they cover more miles, and I think most of the more sensitive, active type of horses many Arabs are, they simply need to get out and get worked more often or they have a lot of problems with pent up energy, tension, distractions, etc.
Another place where Arabs tend to do very well in many ways is dressage, that is, when it's a good rider. While there are a lot of very casual dressage riders, there are quite a few that work very hard at it, in the sense of practicing without stirrups so they can have a very steady light hand, as well as just plain old riding very often, 5-6 days a week year round, so the horse isn't just sitting around getting more and more nervous and pent up.
I think it's really pretty true of all the more active, tense types of horses...they just can't sit around doing nothing most of the time or be ridden with an unsteady hand. The rider needs to have the ability to ride in very forward, free, swinging gaits at least part of the time, and have good balance and independent seat and hand.
You know, I meant to ask you something. When I boarded at an Arab barn, the trainer told me they made every effort NOT to ride the halter horses, ever, because their backs would develop a sway if they were ridden. Have you ever heard any Arab trainer say that? I thought it was a fairly amazing thing to say, if nothing else.
Agree 100%The thing is though, I think that difference is from three different factors -
One, many of the endurance riders simply have a lot of practical experience and ride and train horses rather well. So I think the endurance horses get a lot better training, on average, I'm sure there are exceptions, but on average.
Two, endurance is, I think, the kind of activity a more energetic, excitable horse can really just simply enjoy. Because they are going forward in very active gaits, on a long, loose rein. I think that makes a difference with the rider too. Going up and down hill, riding on a loose rein, they may develop better balance and have a more 'independent seat and hand'. I think that helps in riding the more tense, excitable horse.
Three, I think that endurance horses get worked more frequently and when they do get worked, they cover more miles, and I think most of the more sensitive, active type of horses many Arabs are, they simply need to get out and get worked more often or they have a lot of problems with pent up energy, tension, distractions, etc.
Another place where Arabs tend to do very well in many ways is dressage, that is, when it's a good rider. While there are a lot of very casual dressage riders, there are quite a few that work very hard at it, in the sense of practicing without stirrups so they can have a very steady light hand, as well as just plain old riding very often, 5-6 days a week year round, so the horse isn't just sitting around getting more and more nervous and pent up.
I think it's really pretty true of all the more active, tense types of horses...they just can't sit around doing nothing most of the time or be ridden with an unsteady hand. The rider needs to have the ability to ride in very forward, free, swinging gaits at least part of the time, and have good balance and independent seat and hand.
You know, I meant to ask you something. When I boarded at an Arab barn, the trainer told me they made every effort NOT to ride the halter horses, ever, because their backs would develop a sway if they were ridden. Have you ever heard any Arab trainer say that? I thought it was a fairly amazing thing to say, if nothing else.
michickenwrangler
Loving the herd life
It's because they're breeding a lot of them to look like deer. They're breeding with longer backs and thinner bone. If you look at the halter horses from the early 1980s and before compared to now, it's like comparing a bull to a stag.
Bay-Abi and *Bask who both won halter national championships were fairly small, solid horses. Bay-Abi was also fairly heavily muscled for an Arabian. If you look at Padron or Magnum Psyche, they look very delicate and refined compared to the former
When I first began riding Arabs, I rode at a barn that did everything from halter to competitive trail to dressage and arena trail. Some of their horses were even former Arab racehorses. Most of them had Polish breeding and all were sturdy animals.
Bay-Abi and *Bask who both won halter national championships were fairly small, solid horses. Bay-Abi was also fairly heavily muscled for an Arabian. If you look at Padron or Magnum Psyche, they look very delicate and refined compared to the former
When I first began riding Arabs, I rode at a barn that did everything from halter to competitive trail to dressage and arena trail. Some of their horses were even former Arab racehorses. Most of them had Polish breeding and all were sturdy animals.
patandchickens
Overrun with beasties
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I dunno, I've known an awful lot of dead-broke bombproof kid-safe Arabs doing little local hunter shows or just backyard pets or that sort of thing. I do not think it is mainly an issue of ensuring sufficient exercise to burn off excess energy, nor a requirement for skilled riding.
To me the major "arab trait" that really (to me) DOES seem to be fairly consistant across the breed, with relatively few exceptions, is the tendency to raise the head and perk the ears at interesting new observations. Riders who take this as signs of impending doom tend to TURN IT INTO impending doom; riders who just take it as something that arabs often do, but of no particular consequence, tend to have nice calm problem-free rides
And, I think there is also a strong element of "people just NOTICE arabs that fit their stereotypes and preconceptions, and do NOT notice ones that don't"
JMHO,
Pat, who deeply loathes the way they are being bred for the ring these days, but who quite likes "normal" arabs even though they are not really optimally suited to the kinds of things I most like to do
To me the major "arab trait" that really (to me) DOES seem to be fairly consistant across the breed, with relatively few exceptions, is the tendency to raise the head and perk the ears at interesting new observations. Riders who take this as signs of impending doom tend to TURN IT INTO impending doom; riders who just take it as something that arabs often do, but of no particular consequence, tend to have nice calm problem-free rides
And, I think there is also a strong element of "people just NOTICE arabs that fit their stereotypes and preconceptions, and do NOT notice ones that don't"
JMHO,
Pat, who deeply loathes the way they are being bred for the ring these days, but who quite likes "normal" arabs even though they are not really optimally suited to the kinds of things I most like to do
So true, so true.
My favorite was one that I rode on a wilderness ride in Wyoming in the Wind River range. What a horse! What a great feeling to be on such an active, well balanced horse.
Mich and Pat, I do think there is a very extreme trend these days, not just for light bone and slender backs, but also for very extreme dish to the head.
My favorite was one that I rode on a wilderness ride in Wyoming in the Wind River range. What a horse! What a great feeling to be on such an active, well balanced horse.
Mich and Pat, I do think there is a very extreme trend these days, not just for light bone and slender backs, but also for very extreme dish to the head.
