Somewhere on SM recently, I’ve seen an Arab finally attack it’s handler during a show. It says a great deal about the good nature of the breed that it doesn’t happen more often.
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There have been several instances of Arabs attacking their handlers during shows over the years. What’s even worse is the warped mental state of many who don’t attack but are permanently traumatized by halter training. This was especially true in the 80s and 90s - truly awful things happened to those poor horses. I know of at least one stallion that finally trusted one of its new handlers after a show career so could be handled for breeding etc. but was otherwise pretty dangerous. It is so sad and so unnecessary.
Like I said, Sport Horse Nationals is much easier on the psyche of horse and human.
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I ride a lovely Arabian gelding sometimes - has shown through 3rd level at USDF shows and has also been to Scottsdale. Beautifully schooled, beautifully behaved. Last month someone else at the barn was having trouble with a balky young horse and they came into the ring while I was riding, followed by a friend on foot with a lunge whip, and the horse I was on lost his ever-loving mind. My pro was like, “he’s fine, he’s seen a lot in his life, he’s been to giant Arab breed shows… aaaaand I just remembered he was probably chased around with a lunge whip at those shows, maybe just hop off.”
This video isn’t all that objectionable to me, but clearly some horses have negative experiences - it was pretty notable to have a very level-headed horse start shaking and spinning under me because someone walked into the arena with a lunge whip.
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I wonder if part of the “Let’s amp 'em up with noise and whips” is made possible by the relatively small size of most Arabians. The two year old filly I saw being treated that way was pretty tiny compared with huge warmbloods. Very unpleasant to have a 17 hand warmblood plunging around at the end of a lead. Ask me how I know.
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Show bred arabians can be inherently “up” horses.
They are bred for that overreaction to any and all around them and be ready to display that alertness.
You can hear other horses in mixed herds sigh about it.
We had OTTB’s, OTTQ’s and one show bred arabian, see picture that demonstrates that, the quarter horse behind standing there low headed and unconcerned to my soft noises to get their ears up for the picuture and the arabian very normal for him overreaction to that.
He knows perfectly well is me there and has had many pictures taken by someone standing there making noises.
I was trying yet another saddle for him, this one finally seemed a good fit, why the picture.
We bought him when the local lady that raised arabians decided he was not stallion material and gelded him. She bought him from a breeder in California, his sire was a breed halter champion, this colt of his was promising, but not growing refined enough to be competitive.
She said he was not “active and flashy” enough.
He was a very smart, confident and gentle colt and made a nice ranch horse, just didn’t have enough “cow” to work cattle, it was more play than serious stuff for him.
My point, maybe some horses are bred to be “showy”.
Still, as others point out already, there is a horse showing off and one chased around senselessly and wildly.
Takes both for liberty acts to be right, the horses trained for it and the handlers trained not to just spook and chase horses around.
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Years ago, before I bought my mare, I had a part lease on a QH from a private party who had a couple other horses too. They were older horses she used primarily in her home-schooling program. I was starting back out as a re-rider so these guys fit the bill.
The one I leased was a “good ol’ boy” who would connect, not on the bit, but mentally. But the other I tried was an older grey who had been a show arab in his youth. He was totally shut down. One could not connect with him mentally-he simply WOULD NOT LET ANYONE IN. He would do whatever you wanted him to do, he knew lots of stuff, but you could tell that it was just him submitting. There was NO “We can both go and have fun” in his equation.
I mentioned his demeanor to the owner, and she said, “yes, he’s great to ride, but mentally, he’s that way with everyone.” He’s gone now, but I always wondered what had been done to him to make him that way.
I knew a reining mare this way as well, Enterprise bred. Super responsive ride, but you could feel it was a “I’ll do this because of what will happen to me if I dont” thing. She had very thin scars over her ears from some kind of horrendous tie down.
Her filly was a MEAN little thing from the moment she hit the ground. I couldn’t get through to that one either because I wasn’t willing to do what it might take. She would kick, bite, whatever she could the second she got the opportunity. It was weird, we bred and foaled her on the farm, no unknown history, the stallion (Doc Bar bred) was such a kind animal - gave us a little hint as to how/why the dam ended up being treated the way she was.
The filly, not owned by me, was sold. Not sure where she ended up.
My horse had thin scars along his ears - they were caused by a lycra hood. He managed to do it over night. The wounds were no big deal, just a line with barely a scab, but they ended up as white lines when the hair grew back in.
She was owned by rough handed Hispanics/charro type when we bought her. I doubt it was from a lycra hood.
The large pony I got for my daughter to ride, later trained to drive, was a hot mess when we got him. He deliberately stepped on my foot and ground down on it in the first few weeks we had him. He tried to bolt for home when my daughter was riding him, and was quite creative on trying to dump her. She was very sticky and he never succeeded.
We decided he’d probably been abused as he flinched if you moved at all suddenly anywhere around him. Our other horses were pretty relaxed when being groomed and saddled/harnessed. Not this guy. You could feel the tension coming off him.
My daughter started a campaign to gently get him over his fears. By the time she was done, he would trot around the round pen with plastic bags hanging all over him, completely relaxed. He became affectionate with humans and there was nothing I couldn’t do with him on the ground. I was picking out his feet one day when we had a microburst of wind and a branch came down right on him. He just stood there until I put his hind hoof down, then he reacted a bit. That’s when I was sure we’d succeeded.
He was a great driving pony but never did like to be ridden. So we made his job driving only.
Rebecca
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having poured over BLM videos and the flagging they do in them to make the horses moveout…i suppose i’m immune to the horror of this. I had sound off, so didn’t hear crowd, but i watched that young fella … Would have been more exciting had he not just galloped with his head up but floated. Noticed how close he kept to the people handling too. He didn’t seem very interested in getting away. I felt he was participating in the game.
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Interesting that whiskers were such a big issue (FEI), but horse terrorism is ok.
There are some “training” methods which are obviously cruel, yet they continue. Why is that? AQHA, TWHBA, APHA, NSBA certainly don’t promote horse welfare.
A loose Arabian is frightened, not tortured.
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You realize FEI has no jurisdiction over breed shows or even USEF shows? Also I think the FEI whisker initiative came from Europe.
The FEI has has jurisdiction over the international level of competition of the horse sports that go to the Olympics. Show Jumping, dressage, 3 day event. They don’t have any jurisdiction over lower levels.
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To me, this horse looked tense and like he would really rather go home. Not terribly scared though. He never showed his floaty trot and tried to stay near the gate. I wonder how the judge scored him.
I have more issues with the in-hand Arabian classes I have seen. Same whips and flags but also lots of jerking on the head.
It seems with the “animated” breeds things can go wrong in two ways for the horses: Some get brain-fried and act hysterical at any movement. Others are inadvertently desensitized and don’t react to the stimulus any more. (Of course the ideal is that the horse is “on” and excited but not scared) I used to attend a big multi-ring, multi-discipline show as a kid. So one ring might have hunter under saddle while another had a Saddlebred class. The biggest issue was limited warmup areas so there will be people trailing Saddlebreds with whips, shake cans and even fire extinguishers among the hunters. You better believe the hunters reacted much more than most of the Saddlebreds who had seen it all before!
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There is a line in the USEF General Rules on abuse GR838.4.a
“Except in emergency situations, any striking of the horse’s head (on the poll and forward of the poll) with the whip shall be deemed excessive.”
If I remember correctly, when the rule change was proposed, it just said: “Any striking of the horse’s head (on the poll and forward of the poll) with the whip shall be deemed excessive.”
It was the Arab/Arabian affiliate that insisted in including the phrase “Except in emergency situations.”
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Yes, of course the breed shows are a different world. It’s sad US owners accept the torture, no matter who is governing the sport.
In the UK, you’d never find NSBA, TWH, …
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Thing is, the halter classes at Arab shows didn’t used to be abusive.
Way back when, they were a family-oriented breed, similar to what the QH still is.
The same horse might show in halter, Western pleasure, equitation, costume, and egg and spoon races.
Then the professional trainers moved in.
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I was curious just what they’re being judged on in this class, like how specific they are about gaits, balance, etc. (partly because I don’t recall the horse in the video trotting), and I found the Score Card, including instructions for the judge:
"Arabian Freestyle Liberty Score Card
Arabian Type (10)
Animation &
Charisma (10)
Movement
(10)
Use of the Arena
(10)
Crowd
Participation (10)
Freestyle Liberty is one of the most anticipated classes each year at the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show.
Spectators fill the stands on Championship night to watch Freestyle Liberty and participate as a crowd.
Freestyle Liberty is not an AHA or USEF recognized class. We ask that you try to keep your scores in the above
average range for our spectators’ enjoyment and participation unless a horse’s performance does not fit the
criteria described below.
The ideal liberty horse is brilliant, confident, and has Arabian type while performing with a look at-me attitude.
Ultimately the liberty horse should have great expression and is exciting to watch perform loose in the arena.
Horses are to give a brilliant performance with style and presence while making use of the entire arena. If an individual horse is average or below average for a single criteria, please only deduct from its score in that
particular criteria. Judges are required to consider each category of the performance equally. Each individual
criteria will be given a score from 1-10 with 10 being the highest.
Freestyle Liberty is not to be judged solely on the individuals trot. Some horses may trot very little but will still
exhibit type, animation, and presence while giving a brilliant performance."
Interesting!
(BTW, despite my screen name, I’ve only ever owned one Arab and have never been anywhere near an Arab show.)
That is what I did back in the 80’s. Had a couple wonderful geldings…one half-Arab and one purebred. I showed English pleasure, western pleasure, costume, driving (the half-Arab), trail and the occasional equitation class. Halter was just starting to go off the rails to the whips and noise makers. Neither one of my geldings were halter material but even if they had been, that method of showing was a hard no from me.
Susan
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No…but the competition breeds base there are hardly immune to abuse, sometimes by big name riders. Nobody sees what happens at the home barn preparing to chase after shiny things and $$$$.
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