Exactly – it was a pyramid scheme based on selling fillies/mares to be bred to the stallions already standing. Performance geldings? So what?
“The basic product of your breeding program is the riding gelding.” Bazy Tankersley (Al-Marah Arabians)
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[QUOTE=ambar;4731574]
Can’t mention the McNairs without thinking of Sakr. Now that was a horse.[/QUOTE]
SICK 'EM, SAKR!
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[QUOTE=Sonesta;4731924]
SICK 'EM, SAKR![/QUOTE]
I had his AHW ad in my locker in middle school.
Please give Rhita my best-I’ve always admired her from afar as a true horsewoman.
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You know, Rhita loves to talk Arabians and the old days. And she is NOT shy. If any of you would like to contact her - just to say hello or to ask her about the glory days, PM me and I’ll be happy to give you her email address. She is not very computer savvy, but she can reply to an email and certainly WILL do so - with copious amounts of information.
I’m sure she’d enjoy knowing there are those who still admire her.
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[QUOTE=Bank of Dad;4728202]
Arabian Horse World, now that was a class magazine. I still have some of the pictures pasted in an adolescent scrap book. I had all those bloodlines memorized. Every birthday, I got to go to the Arabian Horse show in Santa Barbara, CA–the Earl Warren showgrounds. That was back when the Washington International Horse Show was still at the DC Armory.[/QUOTE]
most of the modern horse world could take lessons on advertising from that old magazine;)
Tamara in TN
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PM sent. She’s someone I have admired ‘from afar’ and would love to let her know how much she means to a lot of us!
Wow, I am sorry to dredge this thread out from the depths of 2010, but this is a topic I’ve been looking into for months. Anyone want to expand on some of all of this? I’ve read Cali Canberra’s books and have done a ton of research into it - but a lot of what went on seems to be obfuscated - which I can’t help but think has been intentional on the industry’s part as a bid to maintain relationships and move forward after the market crashed in the 80s.
Edit: yes, this is the first post that I’ve chosen to make on COTH after years of quietly stalking threads :lol: I’m not a troll, I promise. I just didn’t get into Arabians until around 2004 and only really started seriously considering them as “my breed” circa 2013. And then I went and got a history degree a few years thereafter… 
Edit #2: I have also contacted the professors that originally posted the Reaganomics radio segment for a transcript. I’m pretty darn deaf, so that wasn’t readily accessible. Just an FYI 
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I love Arabians, they were all over my wall as a horse crazy kid. But honestly, outside of endurance, they are a jack-of-all-trades but master-of-none kind of horse. They can’t run as fast as TBs, jump or do dressage like WBs, event or hunt like TBs/WBs, rope, cut, run barrels, do ranch work or do wp like QHs, etc. Those are the most popular competitive horse sports, and other breeds dominate.
People just don’t have money to spend 5 or more figures on an all around, trail / fun / recreational horse, and if they want to compete, they go to another breed. The whole horse world is shrinking, and there is not much demand for an Arabian outside the endurance world. I personally love them, but I have always competed, and rode a breed that was best suited to the discipline in which I competed.
I’m sure someone will pull up examples of Arabians who excelled at something, but honestly, if you go to the Hampton Classic you won’t see many Arabians, nor will you see them at the race track, or hunt meets, or rodeos. And yes I know there are racing Arabians, but the purses suck.
The thoroughbred world went off a cliff too in the 1980s, and is only still around because they compete in a timed event and everyone can easily appreciate a fast horse, and there is still lots of money involved.
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Palm Beach,
I’m not sure I would necessarily agree that Arabians fit the bill as a “master of none” type of horse, but I also have Feelings about how specialized horses have become for specific sports, and I rather like the all-purpose breeds. That is rather neither here nor there, however
A friend and I were actually recently discussing that it seems like a lot of the people that were involved in Arabians when the market crashed in the 80s jumped over to the racing Thoroughbreds; there’s still the gamble, and there’s still money involved, but probably the only reasons their industry hasn’t imploded is because they were bred for performance (as opposed to looking pretty in a halter show ring, so you still get a horse that can have a decent performance career after racing) and because the Jockey Club still requires live cover for registration. How different the Arabian industry might have looked, if live cover had still been a prerequisite for registration. But on the other hand, it would have been a mighty blow to modern day preservation breeders.
I know Arabians have this reputation for being expensive, but I have a feeling that it’s really just a holdover from the 80s. I got my Arabian for $0, and I know many people who have been able to get wonderfully athletic Arabs for very slim sums. I look at the Warmbloods and see a lot of really inaccessible horses for the everyday rider, and I know that they’re not breeding for the everyday rider but in theory for the elite of the sports. Which -shrug-
I’m more curious about the history, rather than having a discussion about the merits of the Arabian horse in today’s world, 30 years post-crash of the Arabian market.
@Chaila - the barn your dad was renovating: do you think it might have been related to the big Kentucky farm the Lasma group was working on?
@gwenrowdy - Do you remember what that article about the detective investigating killed Arabians was called, or when/where it was published? That sounds like an absolutely fascinating read, and reminds me a little bit of the killing of the TB stallion Alydar. That have been involved with the horse murder scandals of the mid-70s through the mid-90s, wouldn’t it?
@Sonesta - I would love to hear about some of your stories, perhaps even privately. Everything I’ve read and heard confirms that this is such a painful part of our breed history, but one of the things that concerns me very dearly is that it was 30+ years ago, and so many of the first-hand accounts of these events have already been lost to us. I’ve been struck by how remarkably sanitized this time is, and how few people 30 (and even 40) and under know about the market crash and the particulars involved. It does seem like there’s some politicism involved with this, with a fear of speaking out and with a lot of people really not even understanding what happened even as they lived through it. This is a research topic that I have begun to feel very strongly about 
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As with most things horse and horse breeding stuff gets swept under the carpet: The Quarter Horse industry denying for years that Impressive bred horses had anything wrong with them, the thousands upon thousands of TB sent to slaughter each year, Arabians treated as art or investments, the scandal that is QH racing - I’m sure the list goes on and on and the stats paint an ugly picture.
Out here where I live Arabs have never recovered their value and you can find them for dirt cheap. And if you’re buying you better know your bloodlines because they were just breeding them willy-nilly and there are a lot of really crazy ones out there. What a shame…
If anyone is interested in reading about how narco-traficantes invaded QH racing and helped send it spiraling into the mud read: https://www.amazon.com/Bones-Brothers-Horses-Cartels-Borderland/dp/0812989600/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1536110066&sr=1-1&keywords=joe+tone
and this: https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/25/us/death-and-disarray-at-americas-racetracks.html
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@shiloh - yeah, every breed has their bad history. I mean, nobody wants to hear about Warmbloods being the result of Nazi experiments with purity and the like, but that’s a thing, too, thanks to good ol’ Gustav Rau :lol:
Arabs are mostly dirt cheap where I’m at, too. TBH, with the Arabian industry, everything I’ve read indicates that something like 95% of all the breeders and owners were selling their horses for pretty modest prices, and anything under 10k was a steal when you’re looking at a time where NH Love Potion sold for $2,550,000.00, or when Padron was syndicated for $11,000,000. Hell, even the stallion Bandos was standing at stud with an 1986 stud fee of $35,000, which is a mind-boggling number for me but is even more horrifying when you adjust for inflation and realize that it’s the equivalent of $81,068.11 today.
I’m glad this interesting historical thread got revived. A desert Arab raised me when I was a kid in Kenya.
I remember those days and the US was not the only place - Canada fell for it, too.
I do think there is a place for some Arabians. Family friendly, gorgeous and it is almost time to add some of that strength and durability back into our breeding if we had the timeline. Way back, the warmbloods had Arabians and they made better horses and improved the endurance, and internal character. Mostly they have horrible style over a fence…!
A Shagyar Arabian still remains in my eye from years back.
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@Foxtrot’s - you may end up being the only one that feels this way Were you involved in Canada’s scene? I know I have mostly been focusing on the effects that this all had on the US, but it would make sense that Canada was affected, as well. After all, part of the “Triple Crown” for Arabians was the Canadian Nationals.
There is absolutely a place for the Arabian as a family horse - in the US, over 1,00,000 people use their horses for exclusively recreational riding. That’s a lot of horses that aren’t being bred for the elite of the elite in the sports. Most people just want a solid, reliable horse to dink around on.
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No, I was not involved - But a friend we know was and tried to talk us into the scheme. He was a musical promotor and was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. (Not like us). He showed us glossy catalogues and had a lovely place in South Langley. I remember my Jamilla fondly from my childhood, tho.
Arab shows were FUN! That’s what we did in the '80’s.
Group classes entered the ring at the trot, and Arabian Costume entered at the canter. Costume was the biggest riot because there were only three gaits required - canter, hand gallop, and the walk, just for changing direction. Hot horses, wild costumes representing the Hollywood version of Arabian desert attire for the most part (and I remember the pictures of Sakr with Tommy riding him in strictly traditional sheikh wear), and speed! Everything you could want in a fun outing.
My first costume class was in a borrowed costume, and the headdress used a lampshade for its upper structure. The owner did not remove the light bulb clip wires from the shade, so those squidgy wires were digging into my head as I tried to keep the whole works on.
There was a big regional Arabian show at the local fairgrounds, and the Shriners were the folks who made it happen. They also liked a good time.
My friend was bemoaning the lack of entries in the Jack Benny pleasure class, which had an age requirement of 39 and up (for the riders, not the horses). She was afraid of being last in a two-horse class. I had a hunter class just before Jack Benny. Another friend had a Western pleasure class right afterward. We made a fake back number for each of us, 0 and 00. The class went in. Before the gate man could close the gate, we came blasting down the alley, screaming, “Wait!” He’d never seen anything like us, so of course, he waited.
We were riding double, I in my hunter turn-out and jumping saddle, and behind me, Norma in her chaps and Western hat. She was posting right along with me as we trotted in and took the rail.
The judge had never seen anything like us, either. He let us stay in the ring. We did get a lot of side eye looks from our friend and her competitor.
The class went very well. The judge continued to play along, and Squeak was actually doing a better job than the other two horses. The judge came up with a new wrinkle, though. He asked us to dismount…and remount. We had both gotten off on the same side, so we couldn’t get back on efficiently. That put us third, and our friend won the class.
The market collapse didn’t affect us, or my friends, though their horse values probably tanked. We were having lots of fun.
By the way, there was an Arabian Journal magazine as well as Arabian Horse World. AHW was a lot more fun to read, though, and I borrowed several years of copies to read cover to cover so that I would be better informed about the breed.
here was one thing I never saw firsthand… As the fad for chiseled faces grew more and more extreme, there was at least one champion stallion who would perform in the halter ring, then come out and have an oxygen canula inserted in his nostrils. He was a very famous horse, perhaps one of those mentioned earlier, but I don’t remember his name for sure. Perhaps famous isn’t the right word - his owners bought a lot of lavish full-page advertising, and he was well known.
Does the Arabian Association have a look up like the AQHA, where you can see show records or breeding of a particular horse? I just recently bought my first Arabian, I know his registration number and registered name, but the owner did not get the registration papers when she bought them, so I didn’t get them either. I really don’t care about the papers, just curious about my horse’s past.
FYI at 21, he is a wonderful horse, very smart but kind and fun!
The AHA has the Data Source which can provide information on pedigree and performance records at AHA shows, AERC endurance, and AJC races. You do have to pay a fee to use the database.
I’m loving that this thread was started up again. Mom and Dad founded “Triple C Arabians” in the early 70s. The 1986 tax law changes certainly impacted the LLC’s that were created for nothing more than a tax shelter. The housing industry was impacted the same way. I remember the fun of those old shows too. Mom would show. Dad would run the bar. They sold a lot of horses that way. But, most of their foals were sold for endurance.
You can see the impact of that change by looking at the Arabian World. I have Mom’s collection from the early 70s to 2012 the year she died. It’s sort of like tree rings. The good years the Worlds are fat… then they get real skinny. Then fatter again. Like a drought affects trees. I’d like to sell it if anyone knows a good place. Perhaps here at COTH?
Yes, you can look up a horse’s breeding and show career at the Registry. You can also have a horse registered in your name if their dam and sire had DNA or blood type on record. You have to jump through hoops to do it. I’ve done it for a few horses that were abandoned at Mom & Dad’s old ranch.
I love all horses. But, my heart belongs to Arabs. They’re beautiful, fun, sneaky and all together wonderful. I am also keeping the ranch my parents loved so much going. I’m down to two horses now. In a 10-stall barn! I’ve had them both from foals and they were bred here. We had the dams, sires and grand dams. The breeding fee for one of the grand dams was $80,000. It’s a long story as to how we acquired her. We didn’t pay that.
Mom loved nothing more than beating those she called “one of the big boys” in the ring. They were in it for the love of Arabs and the lifestyle. Course, Mom was always a bit on the competitive side so there is that too.
Great thread! I may go back and read the other pages.
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Oh my gosh, would you be willing to share how your family got that particular mare? Sounds like a rollercoaster!
And I actually might potentially be interested in some of them from 1980-1987, actually. Should I PM you?
Ha! That’s quite a memory. I’ve always been curious about the costume classes - seems like a lot of them were hardly traditional
And oh my gosh!! Do you remember around what time that stallion was performing, or what color he was?
This has been a really interesting thread to read, and nothing I had any idea about to begin with! I had a beautiful Polish Arabian that I rescued. She was in foal to some run of the mill Quarter Horse which I didn’t find out until 2 months in, when she got suspiciously larger, and I had a vet check to see. Sadly, I lost her to a pretty traumatic colic at 7 months along. We tried everything, aside from surgery, which the vet didn’t think would save her. I still miss that mare. Her name was Diamond and she was one of a kind. She came to me with No Name. Literally, the name they called her was No Name. She was 18. She had a rough life I could tell, but I was happy I could give her 5 fantastic months, and a name.
It was heartbreaking to lose her. These horses will give you everything and then some. I hope to own another again in the future.
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