Arabian horses / New pic

[dorothycoughlan]

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.

Wilderness ride is one of our activity in wilderness programs that our camp offered that's why I love horses to. I am an instructor in our camp and I am the one handling the horse back riding with our students, teaching them how to ride a horse properly is the most favorite part of my students.

 

[4-HKid]

awesome pictures!

 

[smoothmule]

When I bought my SE AK Arabian mare, she gave the impression of being high strung. She had a history of being difficult and had only had one foal, at age 12, which she totally rejected.

Sounds like what I hear a lot of from people about Arabians.

Well, I knew how this mare was fed, a lot of grain to try to keep her weight on, alfalfa hay and little else. I knew she had been sent to a trainers and had been declared to be crazy. She was well bred, a smallish mare (14 or 14.1 hands).

The truth: Brought her home (in foal again..to the same gigantic Friesian stallion she had her first foal by), penned her up a couple of days on good grass hay, salt/minerals with access to my MFT mares and mules who were pastured next to her pen. Turned her out with no reaction.....None. That is abnormal. Typically, if only for a few minutes, the whole herd will sniff, pester, chase then go back to eating when the new of worn off. Not this mare. She had never been turned out on pasture to my knowledge. She sniffed around then went to eating grass. The "herd" didn't even look up at her and she began grazing quietly and wandered down to the opposite end of the field, almost a quarter mile from the herd. She was "difficult" to catch but not impossible with a bucket and grain. She understood that at least. But I didn't even try for a couple of weeks. It was winter and I wanted to give her time to learn a little about her new home. The only way I could describe her was she held her head up a lot, extremely attentive but very controlled and it was as though she was trying to do Exactly as asked but mechanical about it and not "soft" by any stretch of the word.

There was never a a moment that she tried to escape or run the fence. She watched me but never bolted. She would walk away, just out of reach when I was out there unless I had a bucket with feed. I really couldn't feed her out there or the whole herd would have stomped her but I would put the bucket down and lay a lead over her neck and she would stand quietly for the halter and I'd bring her into the barn to feed her after that first couple of weeks. She didn't get much, more supplements than "feed" and that was only the last 3 months of her pregnancy. The last 2 months, I penned her up in the barnlot with one of my MFT mares due a few weeks before she was, plus 2 yearling ponies, their sire (my 10.2 hand pony stallion) and a llama I was weaning.

They all wanted in her face and she "waaas definitely annoyed" (which to me was far better than the aloofness) but they were unrelenting youngsters dying for a momma figure and she finally gave in to having equine friends. She had not bonded to a single other horse at this point. She began to soften with them and the young ponies were less in her face so they began to bond. The other mare was a seasoned broodmare. I wanted this mare to witness the process of birth and care by a mare who was good at it. When the MFT mare foaled, it was in the lot smack dab in the middle of this little herd I created and the mare did her thing, foaling was easy and she was nurturing and protective but not overly protective as to be neurotic acting. They remained with the "herd" and the foal was a doll to handle.

When it came time for this Arabian to foal, I had been spending a "lot" of time with her before hand. She was brought into the barn every evening, a little feed and a lot of TLC. She had still not bonded with me but accepted the care a little more everyday. This was a mare who shuddered at being groomed and would not put her head in my arms but pulled back with just a touch from me. I started her on red raspberry leaves from my local health food store a couple of weeks before she was due. She got a fist full mixed in her feed every night with just a little feed but she was on good grass hay and had spent much of her pregnancy on pasture. I also put her on titrated doses of domperidone to regulate the milk production a week before her due date. She looked like a maiden mare who had never had milk at all so I figured she may have foaled her first time with no milk.

The day she foaled, yes I was worried. It was early morning, just a day before her due date. I got up at day break and there she was in the lot and about 10 feet from the foal on the ground. He was a big, lanky foal. She would charge the others if they approached the foal but wasn't licking it when I found them. The foal looked like he had been cleaned but I wasn't sure if she had done it or the other mare. I was at least happy that she was not wanting any of the others near him. I loaded him up and brought him into the barn and she followed me, looking interested but didn't seem to want him to touch her so I put him in a far corner and he got up on his feet while I haltered her and stood in her line of vision so she couldn't see the foal. I praised her, cried, rubbed her and told her what a beautiful baby she had. I had been slowly getting her used to having her sides, belly, back end and udder touched so I waited till I felt her relaxing (she was learning that she was safe and cared for in the barn with me) and I was able to rube her udder, which was nice and full and I milked out a couple squirts without a reaction from her. By then, the foal was nearby but I still kept between them and let the foal get close and nuzzle as I reassured her. It didn't take him long, he was hungry! When he latched on, it was like a lightbulb lit up and she totally relaxed then would tense a little when the milk let down but she was a different mare from that moment.

She ended up being the best mom and when I turned her out this time, a couple weeks after foaling, she was now a part of the herd. Maybe the bottom of the totem pole but accepted and she stayed with them. I was so proud of this mare.

It took another 2 years, really 2 years for her to become mine but I would trust her with my life now and it wasn't until this year that the woman who had boarded her when I bought her told me that she had been severely abused at the trainers and came home "crazy" so they wanted rid of her. I can turn her out in the yard, which is open to the hay pasture, which is open to the road, for weeks and she's never stepped off the property. She's given special privileges and she seems to know that and it's like she reads my mind now were "so" on the same page. I wouldn't take a million for this mare now and I've chosen not to have her trained to ride although I would not be afraid of it as she will accept any of the crazy things I do with her and trusts I will not ask of her anything that would hurt her.

I think there "are" horses out there of every breed with issues, whether man made or bred in but I also feel certain horses match up with certain people and I always preach that when people buy our mules. They spend a lot of time with them here before they can leave with them and you can see from the reactions of both the people and the mule whether they will work together, or not.

I don't know how anyone can label a Breed as difficult.

Here is my Macarena, loose in the front yard......edited to include photo

 

[mydakota]

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

I am 46 years old and have ridden Arabs my whole life. I agree with this. Right now I have a purebred Arab mare who is bombproof and my kids ride, and I have an Arab/QH cross gelding who is very high-energy, but very smart and willing. I can't imagine riding anything else.

 

[terrilhb]

What beautiful horses. Thank you so much for the beautiful pictures. Awesome.

 

[mydakota]

Just thought I should also add, isn't a certain "energy" the whole point of riding an Arabian anyway? Not saying that they shouldn't be mannerly and well-behaved. But having Arabians is all about enjoying what makes them Arab in the first place. They have a certain energy and a certain presence most other horses don't. Not for everyone. But for those that love them? Priceless.

 

[PatchiePonie]

*ridiculously cute*

 

[kstaven]

Just thought I should also add, isn't a certain "energy" the whole point of riding an Arabian anyway? Not saying that they shouldn't be mannerly and well-behaved. But having Arabians is all about enjoying what makes them Arab in the first place. They have a certain energy and a certain presence most other horses don't. Not for everyone. But for those that love them? Priceless.