Arabian horse

Arabian horse

Zobeyni, an Arabian stallion, foaled 1844
Conservation status	Template:StatusDomesticated
Other names	Arabian, Arab
Country of origin	Middle East, including Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Iraq
Traits
Distinguishing features	finely chisled bone structure, concave profile, arched neck, comparatively level croup, high-carried tail.
Breed standards
Arabian Horse Association (AHA)
Equus ferus caballus

The Arabian horse is a breed of horse with a reputation for intelligence, high spirit, and outstanding stamina. With a distinctively chiseled head and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world.

Arabians are one of the oldest horse breeds in the world. There is archaeological evidence of horses that resemble modern Arabians dating back 4,500 years. Throughout history, Arabian horses from the Middle East spread around the world by both war and trade, used to improve other breeds by adding speed, refinement, endurance, and good bone. Today, Arabian bloodlines are found in almost every modern breed of riding horse.

"The Versatile Arabian" is a slogan of the breed. Arabians compete today in many fields of equestrian activity, making it one of the top ten most popular horse breeds in the world. Arabian horses are now found worldwide, including the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, continental Europe, South America (especially Brazil), and of course, the Middle East.

The Arabian developed in a desert climate and was prized by the nomadic Bedouin people, often being brought inside the family tent for shelter and protection. This close relationship with humans created a horse breed with a good disposition, quick to learn, and willing to please. But the Arabian also developed the high spirit and alertness needed in a horse used for raiding and war. This combination of willingness and sensitivity requires modern Arabian horse owners to handle their horses with competence and respect.

Breed characteristics

A yearling Arabian horse

Arabian horses have refined, wedge-shaped heads, a broad forehead, large eyes, large nostrils, and small muzzles. Most display a distinctive concave or "dished" profile. Many Arabians also have a slight forehead bulge between their eyes, called the "jibbah" by the Bedouin, that adds additional sinus capacity, believed to have helped the Arabian horse in its native dry desert climate.

Another breed characteristic is an arched neck with a large, well-set windpipe set on a fine, clean throatlatch. This structure of the poll and throatlatch was called the "mitbah" by the Bedouin, and in the best Arabians is long and somewhat straight, allowing flexibility in the bridle and room for the windpipe. Other distinctive features are a relatively long, level croup and naturally high tail carriage. All quality Arabians have a deep, well-angled hip and well laid-back shoulder.

This Arabian exhibits the breed's "dish-faced" profile, arched neck and high-carried tail. photo: Hanka Čertík

Most Arabian horses have a compact body with a short back. Many, though not all, have 5 lumbar vertebrae instead of the usual 6, and 17 rather than 18 pairs of ribs. Thus, even a small Arabian can carry a heavy rider with ease.

Arabians usually possess dense, strong bone, sound feet, and good hoof walls. They are especially noted for endurance. Arabians have natural balance, nimbleness and impulsion, qualities originally essential in a desert warhorse, and today seen in various competitive disciplines.

Size

The breed standard for Arabian horses, as stated by the United States Equestrian Federation, describes the Arabians as standing between 14.1 and 15.1 hands tall, "with the occasional individual over or under." Thus, all Arabians, regardless of height, are classified as "horses," even though 14.2 hands is the traditional cutoff height between a horse and a pony. Because many horse owners in Europe and the Americas prefer taller animals, the Arabian has been bred for increased height, and many Arabians today are between 15 and 16 hands (60-64 inches at the withers).

Temperament

For centuries, Arabian horses lived in the desert in close association with humans. Prized war mares were sometimes kept in the family tent, along with children. Only horses with a naturally good disposition were allowed to breed on. Arabians today are one of the few breeds where the United States Equestrian Federation allows children to exhibit stallions in show ring classes limited to riders under 18.

On the other hand, the Arabian is also classified as a "hot-blooded" breed, a category that includes other refined, spirited horses bred for speed, such as the Thoroughbred and the Barb. Like other hot-bloods, Arabians' sensitivity and intelligence enable quick learning and greater communication with their riders. However, their intelligence also allows them to learn bad habits as quickly as good ones. They also can quickly lose trust in a poor rider and do not tolerate inept or abusive training practices. (see also "Controversies" section, below)

Colors

see also equine coat color genetics and equine coat color.

The Arabian Horse Association recognizes purebred horses with the coat colors bay, gray, chestnut, black, and roan. All Arabians, regardless of coat color, have black skin, except under white markings. Black skin provided natural protection from the hot desert sun.

Although many Arabians appear "white," this is the natural action of the gray gene. Gray horses are born bay, black or chestnut, then get progressively lighter as they age, until their hair coat eventually turns pure white or becomes "flea-bitten." Their skin is black and remains so throughout their life. Therefore, all "white" Arabians are actually grays.

Black Arabians are somewhat rare. One reason is that the black gene is genetically suppressed by the more dominant Agouti gene that creates the black points of a bay horse. Some breeding farms now use DNA testing to breed black Arabians.

People sometimes cross Arabians with other breeds to produce half-Arabians with additional colors. This is because purebred Arabians never carry the dun gene, nor the cremello and perlino dilution genes. Because they do not carry any dilution genes, purebred Arabians cannot be palomino or buckskin, either. Purebreds also do not possess genes for spotting patterns, such as pinto or appaloosa, with the exception of the sabino gene (or gene-complex). They also never carry the dominant "W" gene that produces a true white horse. However, though the purebred Arabian produces a limited range of potential colors, there is also a positive result: because they never carry white or frame overo genes, they never produce foals with lethal albino or lethal white syndrome.

The Bedouin had assorted beliefs about color. Some areas considered black Arabians to be a bad omen, in other areas they were a valued treasure. It is also said that a particular type of heavily flea-bitten gray, known as a "bloody-shouldered" horse, was prized as a superior animal, particularly if a mare.

Most breeders agree with the adage, "a good horse is never a bad color," but white spotting patterns were once thought by some to be a sign of "impure" blood. Until the development of DNA testing to verify parentage, an Arabian foal with blatant body spots or excessive white markings could not be registered. It is now known that the sabino color pattern does exist in purebred Arabians.

There is scientific debate over whether roan Arabians actually exist. There are very few Arabians registered as "roan," and fewer, if any, have been DNA tested for the roan gene. Some geneticists suggest that roaning patterns on purebred Arabians are actually the action of the sabino or the rabicano genes. Also, some people confuse a young grey horse with a roan because of the intermixed hair colors common to both. However, a roan does not change color with age, while a gray does.

Influence on other horse breeds

Because of the genetic strength of the desert-bred Arabian horse, Arabian bloodlines have played a part in the development of many breeds, including the Thoroughbred, American Quarter Horse, Morgan, American Saddlebred, Appaloosa and Warmblood breeds such as the Oldenburg and the Trakehner. Arabian bloodlines have also influenced the development of the Welsh Pony and the Percheron draft horse.

Today, people cross Arabians on other breeds to add refinement, endurance and soundness. In the USA, Half-Arabians have their own registry within the Arabian Horse Association, which includes a special section for Anglo-Arabians, an Arabian-Thoroughbred cross. Some crosses originally registered only as Half-Arabians became popular enough to have their own breed registry, including the National Show Horse, an Arabian-Saddlebred cross; the Quarab (Arabian-Quarter Horse); the Welara (Arabian-Welsh Pony); and the Morab (Arabian-Morgan). In addition, some Arabians and Half Arabians have been approved for registration by some Warmblood registries, particularly the Trakehner registry.

Mythology

Arabian horses are the topic of many romantic legends. The most popular are those told about their origins.

One creation myth tells how the prophet Muhammad chose his foundation mares by a test of their courage and loyalty. It is said that after a long journey through the desert, Muhammad turned his herd of horses loose to race to an oasis for a desperately-needed drink of water. Before the herd reached the water, he blew his war horn, summoning the animals to return to him. Only five mares responded. Because they turned away from water and faithfully returned to their master, these mares became his favorites and were called Al Khamsa, meaning, the five. These mares thus became the legendary founders of the five choice "strains" of the Bedouin bloodlines of the Arabian horse.

Another tale claims that King Solomon gave his renowned stallion, Zad el-Raheb (Gift to the Rider) to a group of Arabs who had come from afar to pay tribute to the king. This legendary stallion was said to be faster than the zebra and the gazelle, and every hunt with him was successful, thus the Arabs put him to stud and that is how the breed began.

Yet another creation myth puts the origin of the Arabian in the time of Ishmael, the son of Abraham. It is said the Angel Jibril (also known as Gabriel) descended from Heaven and awakened Ishmael with a "wind-spout" that whirled toward him. The Angel then commanded the thundercloud to stop scattering dust and rain, and so it gathered itself into a prancing, handsome creature--a horse--that seemed to swallow up the ground. Hence, the Bedouins bestowed the title "Drinker of the Wind" to the first Arabian horse, a stallion named Kuhaylah.

Another Bedouin story declares that it was Allah who created the Arabian horse from the south wind, saying, "I create thee, Oh Arabian. To thy forelock, I bind Victory in battle. On thy back, I set a rich spoil and a Treasure in thy loins. I establish thee as one of the Glories of the Earth... I give thee flight without wings." Other versions of the story claim Allah said: "I call you Horse; I make you Arabian and I give you the chestnut color of the ant; I have hung happiness from the forelock which hangs between your eyes; you shall be the Lord of the other animals. Men shall follow you wherever you go; you shall be as good for flight as for pursuit; riches shall be on your back and fortune shall come through your meditation."

History

Hittite chariot (drawing of an Egyptian relief)

Arabians are one of the oldest human-developed breeds in the world. "Proto-Arabian" horses with oriental characteristics similar to the modern Arabian horse appeared in rock paintings and inscriptions in the Arabian Peninsula as far back as 2,500 B.C. Likewise, horses with refined heads and high-carried tails were depicted in artwork throughout the Ancient Near East.

Desert origins

There are different theories about where the wild ancestor of the Arabian originally lived. Some suggest the horse came from the area along the northern edge of the Fertile Crescent. Others argue for the southwestern corner of the Arabian peninsula, in modern-day Yemen, where three now-dry riverbeds suggest good natural pastures existed long ago.

The Arabian prototype was originally tamed by the people of the Arabian peninsula known today as the Bedouin, probably domesticated shortly after the Bedouin learned to use the camel.

Gladys Brown Edwards, a noted scholar of the Arabian horse, theorized that the Arabian came from a separate subspecies of horse, Equus agilis. However, other scholars believe that the "dry" oriental horse of the desert from which the modern Arabian developed was one of four basic subtypes of Equus caballus that had specific characteristics based on the environments in which they lived. Horses with similar physical characteristics include the now-extinct Turkoman Horse, the Barb of North Africa and the Akhal-Teke of western Asia.

The desert environment meant that a domesticated horse had to cooperate with humans to survive, as humans were the only source of food in certain areas. Legends claim that, where there was no pasture, the Bedouin fed their horses dates, barley and camel's milk. The desert horse needed to thrive on very little food, and possess anatomical traits to compensate for life in a dry climate with temperature extremes from day to night. Weak individuals were weeded out of the breeding pool, and the animals that remained were honed by centuries of human warfare.

In return, the Bedouin way of life depended on horses: Arabians were bred as a warhorse with speed, endurance, soundness, and intelligence. A good disposition was critical; prized war mares were often brought inside family tents to prevent theft and for protection from weather and predators. Though appearance was not necessarily a survival factor, the Bedouin bred for refinement and beauty in their horses as well as for more practical features.

For centuries, the Bedouin tracked the ancestry of each horse through an oral history tradition. The first written pedigrees in the middle east that specifically used the term "Arabian" date to 1330 A.D. Horses of the purest blood were known as Asil and crossbreeding with non-Asil horses was forbidden. Mares were the most valued, both for riding and breeding, and pedigree families were traced through the female line. The Bedouin did not believe in gelding male horses, thus most stallions were sold to city-dwellers.

Over time, the Bedouin developed several sub-types or strains of Arabian horse, each with unique characteristics. According to the Arabian Horse Association, the five primary strains were known as the Keheilan, Seglawi, Abeyan, Hamdani and Hadban. There were also lesser strains, sub-strains, and regional variations in strain names. Thus, many Arabian horses were not only Asil, of pure blood, but also bred to be pure in strain as well, with crossbreeding between strains discouraged, though not forbidden, by some tribes. This complex web of bloodline and strain was an integral part of Bedouin culture. The Bedouin knew the pedigrees and history of their best war mares in detail, via an oral tradition that also tracked the breeding of their camels, Saluki dogs, and their own family or tribal history.

Role in the ancient world

Fiery war horses with dished faces and high-carried tails were popular artistic subjects in Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, often depicted pulling chariots in war or for hunting. Horses with oriental characteristics appear in artwork as far north as that of Ancient Greece and the Roman Empire. While the horse wasn't yet called an "Arabian" in the Ancient Near East, these "proto-Arabian" or "Oriental" horses shared many characteristics with the modern Arabian, including speed, endurance, and refinement.

Arabian horses in Islamic history

Battle of Higueruela, 1431. Spanish fighting the Moorish forces of Sultan Muhammed IX of Granada

Following the Hegira or Hijra in A.D. 622, the Arabian horse spread across the known world of the time, became recognized as a distinct, named breed, and played a significant role in the History of the Middle East and of Islam. By A.D. 630, Muslim influence expanded across the Middle East and North Africa. By A.D. 711, Muslim warriors had reached Spain, and controlled most of the Iberian peninsula by 720. Their mounts were of various oriental types, including both Arabians and the Barb horse of North Africa.

Muslim invaders reached as far north as France, where they were stopped by Charles Martel at the Battle of Tours in 732. Arabian and other oriental horses captured in the wake of this defeat were crossed with local stock, adding agility to the heavier animals, influencing the development of the Percheron.

From the Middle East to Europe

Muslim invasions were not the only source of Arabians in Europe. During the Crusades, beginning in 1095, European armies invaded Palestine and many knights returned home with Arabian horses as spoils of war. As development of the longbow and gunpowder made knights and the heavy, armored war horses who carried them obsolete, Arabians were used to develop faster, agile light cavalry horses that were used on battlefields into the 20th century.

Another way Arabian horses spread to the rest of the world was from the Ottoman Empire, which rose in 1299, and came to control much of the Middle East. Though it never fully dominated the heart of the Arabian Peninsula, this Turkish empire obtained many Arabian horses through trade, diplomacy and war, and in the same manner, the Ottomans sent many Arabian horses on to Europe.

One major infusion of Arabian horses occurred when the Ottoman Turks sent 300,000 horsemen into Hungary in A.D. 1522. Many Turks were mounted on pure-blooded Arabians captured during raids into Arabia. By 1529, the Ottomans reached Vienna, where they were stopped by the Polish and Hungarian armies, who captured Arabians from the defeated Ottoman cavalry. Some of these horses provided foundation stock for the major studs of eastern Europe.

File:Evstafy Sangushka.jpg

Several noble families of Poland became major breeders of Arabian horses. Eustachy Sanguszko (1768-1844), painted by Juliusz Kossak

The stamina and agility of horses with Arabian blood gave an enormous military advantage to any cavalry who possessed them. Thus, many European monarchs began to support large breeding establishments that crossed Arabians on local stock. One example was the Imperial Russian Stud of Peter the Great, and another was Knyszyna, the royal stud of Polish king Zygmunt II August.

European horse breeders also obtained Arabian stock directly from the desert. Notable imports from Arabia included those of Prince Hieronymous Sanguszko (1743-1812) of Poland. Count Alexey Orlov of Russia also obtained many Arabians, including Smetanka, an Arabian stallion who was a foundation sire of the Orlov trotter. Orlov provided Arabian horses to Catherine the Great, who in 1772 owned 12 pure Arabian stallions and 10 mares. Other monarchs obtained Arabian horses, often as personal mounts. One of the most famous Arabian stallions in Europe was Marengo, the war horse ridden by Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Darley Arabian

The 18th century marked the establishment of most of the great Arabian studs of Europe, dedicated to preserving "pure" Arabian bloodstock. One example was the Babolna Stud of Hungary, set up in 1789. By 1850, major Arabian studs included Weil in Germany; Antoniny, owned by the Polish Count Potocki (who had married into the Sanguszko family); and Poland's first state-run Arabian stud farm, Janow Podlaski, established by the decree of Alexander I of Russia. Arabians were also introduced into European racehorse breeding, especially via the Darley Arabian, Byerly Turk, and Godolphin Arabian, the three foundation stallions of the modern Thoroughbred breed, who were each brought to England in the 1700s.

The rise of the Crabbet Park Stud

Main article: Crabbet Arabian Stud

See also: Lady Anne Blunt, Lady Wentworth

Perhaps the most famous of all Arabian breeding operations founded in Europe was the Crabbet Park Stud of England.

Starting in 1877, Wilfrid Scawen Blunt and Lady Anne Blunt made repeated journeys to the Middle East, including Egypt and the Nejd, bringing the best Arabians they could find to England. Lady Anne also purchased and maintained the Sheykh Obeyd stud farm in Egypt. Upon Lady Anne's death in 1917, the Blunts' daughter, Judith, Lady Wentworth, inherited the Wentworth title and Lady Anne's portion of the estate, and obtained the remainder of the Crabbet Stud following a protracted legal battle with her father, Wilfrid. Lady Wentworth expanded the stud, added new bloodstock, and exported Arabian horses worldwide. Upon Lady Wentworth's death in 1957, the stud passed to her manager, Cecil Covey, who ran Crabbet until 1971, when a freeway was cut through the property, forcing the sale of the land and dispersal of the horses.

Egypt

Meanwhile, the passion brought by the Blunts to saving the pure horse of the desert helped the Egyptians recognize the need to preserve their own native bloodstock. Therefore, the government of Egypt formed the Royal Agricultural Society in 1908. Other than a group of horses purchased by Henry Babson for importation to the United States in the 1930s, and one other importation to the USA in 1947, relatively few Egyptian-bred Arabian horses were exported until the overthrow of King Farouk I in 1952. After that, as oil development brought more foreign investors to Egypt, some of whom were horse fanciers, Arabians were exported to Germany and the United States, as well as to the former Soviet Union, then an ally of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser. Following the death of Nasser in 1970 and the rise of a less Soviet-oriented government, even more Egyptian-bred Arabians were exported. Today, the designation "Straight Egyptian" is popular with some Arabian breeders, and the distinct "dry" look of the Egyptian-bred Arabian is an outcross used to add refinement in some breeding programs.

20th Century Warfare and its impact on European studs

Following the end of World War I and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the historic European stud farms that survived the war re-established their breeding operations and added to their studs with new imports of desert-bred Arabian horses from the Middle East. Notable among the survivors was the Janow Podlaski Stud of Poland, the Veragua Stud of Spain, and the newly-founded Tersk Stud of the then-Soviet Union.

The Spanish Civil War and World War II had a devastating impact on horse breeding throughout Europe. The Veragua stud was destroyed, though studs such as Crabbet Park, Tersk, and Janow Podlaski survived. Both the Soviet Union and the United States obtained valuable Arabian bloodlines as spoils of war, which they used to strengthen their breeding programs; the Soviets at Tersk, and the Americans at Kellogg U.S. Army Remount station, the former W.K. Kellogg Ranch in California.

In the postwar era, nations such as Poland, Spain, The Netherlands, Sweden and Germany developed or re-established many well-respected Arabian stud farms. The studs of Poland in particular were decimated by both the Nazis and the Soviets, but were able to reclaim some of their breeding stock and became particularly world-renowned for their quality Arabian horses, tested rigorously by racing and other performance standards.

After the Cold War

While only a few Arabians were exported from behind the Iron Curtain during the Cold War, those who did come to the west caught the eye of breeders worldwide. Improving relations between eastern Europe and the west led to major imports of Polish and Russian-bred Arabian horses to western Europe and the United States in the 1970s and 1980s. The collapse of the former Soviet Union in 1989, greater political stability in Egypt, and the rise of the European Union all increased international trade in Arabian horses. Organizations such as the World Arabian Horse Association (WAHO) created consistent standards for transferring the registration of Arabian horses between different nations. Today, Arabian horses are traded all over the world.

The Arabian horse in America

Coronado Sets out to the North. Frederic Remington, 1861-1909.

The first horses on the American mainland since the end of the Ice Age arrived with the Spanish Conquistadors. Hernán Cortés brought 16 Andalusian, Barb, and Arabian horses with him to Mexico in 1519. Others followed, such as Francisco Vásquez de Coronado, who brought 250 horses of similar breeding to America in 1540. Many horses escaped, becoming the foundation stock of the American Mustang.

American colonists from England also brought horses of Arabian breeding to the eastern seaboard. One example was Nathaniel Harrison, who imported a horse of Arabian, Barb and Turkish ancestry to America in 1747.

Washington Taking Control of the American Army, at Cambridge, Mass. July 1775. Copy of lithograph by Currier & Ives, 1876.

George Washington rode a gray horse named Nelson during the Revolutionary War, who was a half-Arabian. The horse was sired by the stallion Ranger, also known as Lindsay's Arabian, said to have been obtained from the Sultan of Morocco. Other Presidents are linked to ownership of Arabian horses. In 1840, President Martin Van Buren received two Arabians from the Sultan of Oman, and in 1877, President Ulysses S. Grant obtained two Arabian stallions, Leopard and Linden Tree, as diplomatic gifts from the Sultan of Turkey.

A. Keene Richard was the first American known to have specifically bred Arabian horses. He traveled to the desert in 1853 and 1856 to obtain breeding stock. Unfortunately, his horses were lost during the Civil War and have no known descendants today. Leopard is also considered a foundation sire in the Appaloosa breed.

In 1893, the Hamidie Society exhibited 45 Arabian horses at the World Fair in Chicago, some of whom remained in the United States and caught the interest of some American breeders, who traveled abroad to obtain more. As a result, by 1908, the Arabian Horse Registry of America was established, recording 71 animals. By 1994, the number had reached half a million. There are now more Arabians registered in North America than in the rest of the world put together.

Major Arabian importations to the United States in the 20th century were made by breeders such as Homer Davenport and Peter Hingham of the Hingham Stock Farm, who purchased several stallions and mares directly from the Bedouin in 1906; Spencer Borden of the Interlachen Stud, who made several importations between 1898 and 1911; and W.R. Brown of the Maynesboro Stud, who had a particular interest in the Arabian as a cavalry mount and imported many Arabians starting in 1918. Another wave of imports came in the 1920s and 30s when breeders such as W.K. Kellogg, Henry Babson, Roger Selby, James Draper, and others imported Arabian bloodstock from Crabbet Park Stud in England, as well as from Poland, Spain and Egypt. Several Arabians, mostly of Polish breeding, were captured from Nazi Germany and imported to the U.S.A. following World War II. As the tensions of the Cold War eased, more Arabians were imported to America from Poland and Egypt. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, as political issues surrounding import regulations and the recognition of stud books were resolved, Arabian horses were imported in greater numbers from Spain and Russia.

In the 1980s, popularity of the Arabian horse rose to unsustainable heights. Arabians became a popular status symbol for celebrities and other wealthy people, many of whom were inexperienced with horses and considered them "living art." Prices skyrocketed, especially in the United States, with a record-setting public auction price for a mare named NH Love Potion, who sold for $2.55 million in 1984, and the largest syndication in history for an Arabian stallion, *Padron, at $11,000,000. The potential for profit led to over-breeding of the Arabian. When tax laws related to the horse industry changed in 1986, limiting the use of horse farms as tax shelters, the Arabian market was particularly vulnerable due to over-saturation and artificially inflated prices, and thus it collapsed, forcing many breeders into bankruptcy. Prices recovered slowly, with many breeders moving away from producing "living art" and towards a horse more suitable for amateur owners in many different riding disciplines. Today, the vast majority of Arabian horses in America are owned for recreational riding purposes.

Arabians today

Arabian horses today are found all over the world. They are no longer classified by Bedouin strain, but are informally classified by the nation of origin of famed horses in a given pedigree. Popular types of Arabians are labeled "Polish," "Spanish," "Crabbet," "Russian," "Egyptian", and "Domestic" (describing horses whose ancestors were imported to the United States prior to 1944, including those from programs such as Kellogg, Davenport, Maynesboro, Babson, Dickenson and Selby). In the USA, a specific mixture of Crabbet, Maynesboro and Kellogg bloodlines has acquired the copyrighted designation "CMK."

Each set of bloodlines has its own devoted followers, with the virtues of each hotly debated. Most debates are between those who value the Arabian most for its refined beauty and those who value the horse for its stamina and athleticism. There are also various controversies over the relative "purity" of certain bloodlines. (See "Controversies" section, below)

Uses

File:Jumping Arabian2.jpg

A purebred Arabian in jumping competition.

Arabians are versatile horses that compete in many equestrian fields, including Horse racing, the horse show disciplines of Saddle Seat, Western Pleasure, and Hunt seat, as well as Dressage, Cutting, Reining, Endurance riding, Show jumping, Eventing, youth events such as equitation, and others. They make reliable pleasure, trail, and working ranch horses for those who are not interested in competition.

Competition

Arabians dominate the endurance sport because of their stamina, where they are the leading breed in competitions such as the Tevis Cup that can cover up to 100 miles in a day. They participate in FEI-sanctioned endurance events worldwide, including the World Equestrian Games.

"Sport Horse" events for Arabian horses are popular today in the USA, though Arabians have participated in this type of competition for a long time, especially in Europe. The Arabian Horse Association began hosting an Arabian and Half Arabian Sport Horse National Championship in 2003 that within two years grew to draw over 1900 entries competing in Hunter, Jumper, Sport Horse Under Saddle, Sport Horse In Hand, Dressage, and Driving competition.

Arabians have excelled in open events against other breeds. The most famous example was the Arabian mare Ronteza, who defeated 50 horses of all breeds to win the 1961 Reined Cow Horse championship at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, CA. The Arabian stallion Aaraf won an all-breed cutting horse competition at the Quarter Horse Congress in the 1950s. At the 1936 Olympics, the French, with two Anglo-Arabians on their team, won the Silver team medal in Dressage.

Other activities

Arabians are involved in a wide variety of activities, including fairs, movies, parades, circuses and other places where horses are showcased.

Rudolph Valentino and Jadaan. Publicity shot for The Son of the Sheik

Arabians have been popular in movies, dating back to the silent film era when Rudolph Valentino rode the Kellogg Arabian stallion Jadaan in 1926's Son of the Sheik. Other Arabian horse film stars include the stallion Cass Ole in The Black Stallion. Arabian horses also appeared in Lawrence of Arabia, The 13th Warrior, Hidalgo, and other films.

Arabians are mascots for football teams, performing crowd-pleasing activities on the field and sidelines. Traveler, the mascot for the University of Southern California Trojans, is currently a purebred Arabian. Thunder, a purebred Arabian stallion, was mascot for the Denver Broncos until his retirement in 2004. Cal Poly Pomona's W.K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Center Equestrian Unit and many other Arabian organizations have made Arabian horses a regular sight at the annual Tournament of Roses Parade held each New Year's day in Pasadena, California.

Arabians also are used on search and rescue teams and occasionally for police work. Some Arabians are also used in Bloodless Bullfighting (Portuguese style) in the USA and Europe, in the Turkish equestrian sport of Cirit (pronounced Jee-rit), as well as circuses, therapeutic riding programs, and on dude ranches.

Controversies

Misunderstandings and myths plague the Arabian breed. Through, as noted above, purebred Arabians are competitive against other breeds, Arabians are relatively uncommon at some high-level all-breed competitions. There are many reasons, some justifiable, others due to misunderstandings and inaccurate information.

"Hot blooded" controversy

Firm but gentle and patient handling is especially important for hot-blooded horses such as the Arabian.

Some people believe that it is more difficult to train a hot-blooded horse. It is true that rough training methods are unsuitable for hot-blooded breeds. Most Arabians have a natural tendency to cooperate with humans, but when treated badly can become excessively nervous or anxious, though seldom become vicious unless seriously spoiled or subjected to extreme abuse. With proper handling, Arabians are suitable riding horses for riders at all levels.

"Weakness" controversies

Some people confuse the refinement of Arabians with having weak or too-light bone. However, the USEF breed standard requires Arabians have solid bone and correct conformation, and the superiority of the breed in endurance competition clearly demonstrates that well-bred Arabians are strong, sound horses with good bone and superior stamina. At international levels of FEI-sponsored endurance events, Arabians and half-Arabians are the dominant performers in distance competition worldwide.

Physical size

Another myth is that Arabians are not strong because of their size. However, the smaller size of the Arabian is not a physical liability. The Arabian horse is noted for dense, strong bone, short cannons, sound feet, and a broad, short back; all of which give the breed physical strength comparable to many taller animals. Clearly, for tasks where the sheer weight of the horse matters, such as farm work done by a draft horse, or team roping, any lighter-weight horse is at a disadvantage, but for most purposes, the Arabian is a strong and hardy breed of light horse able to carry any type of rider in most equestrian pursuits.

Hip angle

Another misconception confuses the skeletal structure of the spine with the angle of the hip, implying that the comparatively horizontal croup and high-carried tail of Arabians make it difficult for them to use their hindquarters properly. However, the correlation of spine and hip is in LENGTH, not angle. All horses need a good length of croup and good length of hip, and the two go together as a rule. The hip ANGLE, on the other hand, is not necessarily correlated to the line of the Arabian's croup. The croup is formed by the sacral vertebrae. The hip angle is determined by the attachment of the illium to the spine, the structure and length of the femur, and the relationship to the cannon bone, and hindquarter anatomy. Any good-quality Arabian has both a relatively horizontal croup and a properly angled pelvis with good length of croup and depth of hip to allow impulsion.

see also Horse conformation

"Arabians are magic" beliefs

Arabians are sometimes plagued by excessively romantic myths that give them human intelligence, mystical or psychic powers, telepathy, and other miraculous abilities. Though well-intentioned, such myths sometimes lead people who know little about horses to purchase an Arabian and expect them not to act like ordinary horses. However, like any horse, Arabians have natural horse behaviors and instincts, so people must never forget the basic rules of horse safety when handling them.

Ancestry in other breeds

There can be intense debate over the role the Arabian played in the development of other light horse breeds. While the complete tale will not be told until the horse genome is mapped, it is thought that all modern domesticated horse breeds descended from one of four Wild prototypes, one of which was the light, "dry," oriental horse adapted to the desert climate, the prototype of the modern Arabian. Because of the location of the Middle East as a crossroads of the ancient world, as well as one of the earliest locations of domestication of the horse, oriental horses spread throughout Europe and Asia both in ancient and modern times.

Thus, there is little doubt that "oriental" blood was crossed on that of other wild prototypes to create light riding horses; the only actual controversy is at what point the "oriental" prototype could be called an "Arabian," how much Arabian blood was mixed with local animals, and at what point in history. For some breeds, such as the Thoroughbred, Arabian influence of specific animals is documented in written stud books. For older breeds, dating the influx of Arabian ancestry is more difficult. For example, in the case of the Andalusian horse, DNA studies, as well as the historical and archaeological record, document that outside cultures, and the horses they brought with them, strongly influenced the Iberian peninsula in both the time of Ancient Rome and again with the Moorish invasions of the 8th century. However it is difficult to precisely trace the details of the journeys taken by waves of conquerers and their oriental horses as they traveled from the Middle East to North Africa and across Gibralter to southern Europe.

"Purity" question

One set of hot debates within the Arabian industry are about bloodlines. In particular, breeders argue about the genetic "purity" of various pedigrees, discussing whether some horses descend from "impure" animals that cannot be traced to the desert Bedouin. The major factions are as follows:

• The Arabian Horse Association (AHA) states, "The origin of the purebred Arabian horse was the Arabian desert, and all Arabians ultimately trace their lineage to this source." In essence, all horses accepted for registration in the United States are deemed to be "purebred" Arabians by AHA.
• The World Arabian Horse Association (WAHO) has the broadest definition of a purebred Arabian. WAHO states, "A Purebred Arabian horse is one which appears in any purebred Arabian Stud Book or Register listed by WAHO as acceptable." By this definition, over 95% of the known purebred Arabian horses in the world are registered in stud books acceptable to WAHO. WAHO also researched the purity question in general, and its findings are on its web site, describing both the research and the political issues surrounding Arabian horse bloodlines, particularly in America.
• At the other end of the spectrum, the Al Khamsa organization takes the position that "The horses of primary interest to Al Khamsa, which are called “Al Khamsa Arabian Horses,” are those horses in North America that can reasonably be assumed to descend entirely from bedouin Arabian horses bred by horse-breeding bedouin tribes of the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula without admixture from sources unacceptable to Al Khamsa." By this rigorous definition, only about 2% of all registered Arabian horses qualify as "Al Khamsa Arabian Horses."
• "Blue Star" designation is the most rigid, accepting only horses who qualify as Al Khamsa, but also as having no lines to the "Mu'niqi" strain, which some claim was "contaminated" by crossbreeding with Turkoman Horses about 300 years ago. Horses who otherwise meet this standard except for Mu'niqi blood are sometimes referred to as "Blue List."
• There are also a number of breeders who specialize in preservation breeding of various bloodlines. However, these breeders generally do not assert that their horses are the only "pure" Arabians.
• Ironically, some pure-blooded desert-bred Arabians in the Middle East today cannot be registered because the Bedouin who own them see no need to obtain a piece of paper to verify the purity of their horses.

Genetic Diseases

There are four known genetic conditions in Arabian horses which usually result in euthansia of the affected animal. All four are thought to be autosomal recessive conditions, which means that the flawed gene is not sex-linked and has to come from both parents for an affected foal to be born. Arabians are not the only breed of horse to have problems with inherited diseases; fatal or disabling genetic conditions also exist in the American Quarter Horse, American Paint Horse, American Saddlebred and Belgian. Lethal white syndrome and dominant white can affect several breeds (though not purebred Arabians).

The "genetic lethal" conditions (though two of the four are not always lethal) in Arabian horses are:

• Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID). Similar to the "bubble boy" condition in humans, an affected foal is born with no immune system, and thus generally dies of an opportunistic infection, usually before the age of five months. There is a DNA test that can detect healthy horses who are carriers of the gene causing SCID, thus testing and careful, planned matings can now eliminate the possibility of an affected foal ever being born.
• Cerebellar abiotrophy (CA). An affected foal is usually born without symptoms, but at some point, usually after six weeks of age, develops severe incoordination, a head tremor, wide-legged stance and other symptoms related to the death of the purkinje cells in the cerebellum. Such foals are frequently diagnosed only after they have crashed into a fence or fallen over backwards, and sometimes their symptoms are misdiagnosed as a head injury caused by the accident. The only way to confirm a diagnosis of CA is to examine the brain after euthanasia. The degree of severity varies, with some foals having fast onset of severe coordination problems, others showing milder symptoms. In theory, mildly affected horses could live a full lifespan, but in practice most are euthanized before adulthood because they are so accident-prone as to be a danger to themselves and others. There is currently no genetic test for CA.
• Lavender Foal Syndrome (LFS), also called Coat Color Dilution Lethal (CCDL). The condition gets it name because most affected foals are born with a coat color dilution that lightens the tips of the coat hairs, or even the entire hair shaft. Foals with LFS are unable to stand at birth, often have seizures, and are usually euthanized within a few days of birth. There is currently no genetic test for LFS.
• Occipital Atlanto-Axial Malformation (OAAM). This is a condition where the cervical vertebrae fuse together in the neck and at the base of the skull. Symptoms range from mild incoordination to the paralysis of both front and rear legs. Some affected foals cannot stand to nurse, in others the symptoms may not be seen for several weeks. This is the only cervical spinal cord disease seen in horses less than 1 month of age, and a radiograph can diagnose the condition. There is no genetic test for OAAM, and the hereditary component of this condition is the least researched to date.

The organization F.O.A.L. (Fight Off Arabian Lethals) is a clearinghouse for information on these conditions.

Bibliography

• Arabian Horse Association Website.
• Archer, Rosemary, Colin Pearson and Cecil Covey. The Crabbet Arabian Stud: Its History and Influence. Crabbet Organisation, 1978. ISBN 0-906382-13-0
• Budiansky, Stephen. The Nature of Horses. Free Press, 1997. ISBN 0-684-82768-9
• Edwards, Gladys Brown. The Arabian: War Horse to Show Horse. Arabian Horse Trust of America; 3rd rev. edition, 1980. ISBN 0-938276-00-X
• World Arabian Horse Organization

External links

• Arabian Horse Association
• History of the Arabian horse in the desert
• The W.K.Kellogg Arabian Horse Library
• Frequently asked questions about Arabian horses
• CMK Arabians - historical articles
• Arabian Experts, an online and print publication with helpful articles for the Arabian horse owner.
• AWhiteHorse, Family-Friendly Arabian Horse Discussion Forum, online since 1996
• ABlackHorse, Popular Arabian Horse Discussion Forum
• "Horse of the Desert Bedouin"
• A History of the Australian Colonial Arabian
• Al Khamsa Organization
• Arabian Lines The Complete Arabian Horse Resource