WHY is southernhighlander SO adamant about trying to convince the world that the majority of endurance riders have made a horrible decision in their choice of steed???
I suggest we just not respond to southernhighlander regarding this issue anymore because is quite apparant she will not be happy until “we” are all riding mustangs in endurance. Maybe some of us can get away with riding a brumby, appy, TB, or draft horse when all the mustangs are taken up? Ok, well, anything BUT an arabian.
I agree, this is perfectly ridiculous. I don’t come to this thread to argue with someone who obviously has no idea what on earth they are talking about and won’t listen to any real proof. Go ahead, southernhighlander. If you want to keep riding your Appy’s, go ahead by all means. Let me know when you win the Tevis Cup, Old Dominion, AERC National Championships, WEG, World Endurance CHampionships, the Quilty, or get B.C. on any of those rides. Or for that matter, let me know the next time an Appy or Mustang period does anything that spectacular. Or once you come up with an explanation for why all but two or three of the Tevis CUp winners have been pure or part bred Arab. Or why Heraldic, a purebred ARabian, won the three most prestigious 100 mile rides in the U.S. last year, and got B.C. on all of them. Now, I know that is just one horse, but you have to admit that your Appy’s and Mustangs have rarely won even one of those rides. Please don’t call the Arab weak, that is sheer, unadulterated ignorance. I actually suggest that you just be happy riding your Appy’s and Mustangs, and not try to make yourself the laughingstock of the entire endurance world.
Also, I know this has nothing to do with the point at all, but it just rather solidifies our view of your ignorance. You might try learning to type properly.
if you look at my sig you will see that all horses came from america first before people shifted there to live and the horse shifted from america to the rest of the world and the proof is in the musems in america also of all the dna testing done on the bones of the old fossils of the first horse they have used all horse breeds in the states to see which horse is closes to the first horse and you know what the arab is no way near close to the first horse the mustang is the only one out of all the breeds of horses tested.
[QUOTE=southernhighlander;2514231]
if you look at my sig you will see that all horses came from america first before people shifted there to live and the horse shifted from america to the rest of the world and the proof is in the musems in america also of all the dna testing done on the bones of the old fossils of the first horse they have used all horse breeds in the states to see which horse is closes to the first horse and you know what the arab is no way near close to the first horse the mustang is the only one out of all the breeds of horses tested.[/QUOTE]
You have no idea what a mustang even is!!! Mustangs are feral horses, a mixture of everything from Spanish Andalusians and Jennets of centuries ago to Belgians, Percherons and Clydesdales left loose/escaped from the last great decades of the use of equines in agriculture in America, the '20s, '30s and '40s. Mustangs can be anything from little ponies to stocky hairy good sized horses with the draft horse breeding very evident (huge bone, featherd legs, heavy built, definatly not the type of horses that win endurance competitions however hardy they may be). Mustangs are not a breed, it is just a word for all feral horses in the united States.
The animal the crossed the land bridge from North America to Eurasia so very long ago were the very rootest ancestors of the modern horse, and if you are looking for the closest living relative to that animal look at the Tarpan or Prezwalski horse, not the Mustang, which is essentially a mutt with the exception of a very few isloted herds, and those horses are Spanish, which goes back to the Arabians and Barbs of North Africa. If there were no Arabian there would definatly be no Mustang.
read this and then weep.
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/109-fossils.shtml
also many native america indian tribes told of the horse coming home.
Southernhighlander,
Although this article states that a young boy found the fossils of an animal which the modern horse evolved from, it does not make ANY claims that this animal is the same as the Mustangs of today, which did indeed descend from such breeds as Andalusions, Barbs, etc. brought over by Spanish Conquistadors that escaped or were set free.
So, to help simplify:
-The animals that eventually evolved into today’s modern horses at one time roamed in North America.
-These animals dissapeared from North America.
-Horses did not appear in North America again until they were BROUGHT there.
-These horses that were BROUGH to America (Barbs, Andalusions, etc.) were turned loose, lost, etc. and bred amongst themselves.
-When previously domestic horses “turn” wild, they become “feral.”
-These feral horses have continued to breed and survive while intermingling with other feral horses which have created what we call “Mustangs” today.
-The mustang did not CREATE any breed because it is CREATED by many other breeds.
[QUOTE=southernhighlander;2514888]
read this and then weep.
http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/features/109-fossils.shtml
also many native america indian tribes told of the horse coming home.[/QUOTE]
Weep about what, your lack of reading comprehension? Why don’t you actually read a few articles on equine evolution, such as this http://horsecare.stablemade.com/articles2/horse_origins.htm
In North America all the horses became extinct as well, but more likely due to some mass contagium. At the end of the 15th century, when the first Europeans came to America, there were no horses; the cultural tribes of Indians (in today’s Mexico and Peru) did not have a name for the animal. The Spanish imported predecessors of all the horses in America for the first time. The runaway horses (also cattle) went wild on the pampas and soon proliferated into large herds, only to be caught later and again domesticated.
http://talkorigins.org/faqs/horses/horse_evol.html
In the late Pleistocene there was a set of devastating extinctions that killed off most of the large mammals in North and South America. All the horses of North and South America died out (along with the mammoths and saber-tooth tigers).
[QUOTE=islandhorse;2513346]
quite apparant she will not be happy until “we” are all riding mustangs[/QUOTE]
I told you so! He, He
I’m laughing so hard from all of you go back and forth, it looks like I’m weeping.
Renae, SweetLatte, Romantic Rider, I am amazed at your preserverance.
I’m guessing southernhighlander must have been expelled from the debate team at prep school and then slapped with a restraining order to boot???
Don’t feed the troll and sometimes they go away. If they don’t the “ignore” feature is fabulous.
But it is absolutely amazing that this neophyte seems to think that Mustangs are some magikal creature that magikally escaped the mass extinction of all large mammals in North America and hid in soem magikal mountains for not just ceturies but entire eras of history and magikally reappearred because magikal spirits said so. Um, no.
Plain and simple the vass majority of Mustangs are mutt horses with no special distinguishing chracteristics. A few isolated bands, such as the Kiger Mustangs, that were kept pure by their isolation are most definatly Spanish horses, and the Spanish horses are very largely influenced by the horses of North Africa as the Moors invaded and controlled Spain for quite some time and the Moors had Barbs and Arabians!
I will add, perhaps in New Zealand Mustangs are magikal creatures like Magikal Gypsy Vanners are in America??? My friend’s mom is Cornish and she does not get what the big deal is about the “coloured cobs”, and perhaps in the same vain their is some wise cookie down under tauting Mustangs as magikal creatures, friend and companion of wise sage Indians. They may be on to something. I think I will get some Mustangs and move to New Zealand and wear fetahers in my hair and say I am one of the Magikal descedndants of the Ojibwe that Leif Ericson met when he came to Minnesota and left the Kensington Runestone in what was to be Olof Ohman’s field (thus explaining by Scandinavian appearance). Cha-ching I think my pay day has come in $$$$$$$$
People are free to their own opinions. Even if those opinions have no basis in fact whatsoever. Who gives a rat’s behind if this chick thinks Mustangs = The Holy Grail. No skin off my back. Or yours either! Ride your Arabs, continue to be successful, and don’t waste your precious time and resources fighting with someone half a world away whom you don’t even know, and who has no bearing on your life whatsoever!
As for me, I’ll continue to ride my Arabian and train for endurance, and do my long distance rides, and marvel at her heritage, and everyone can do the same on whatever other horse they want.
Please guys, try to keep this board free of snarky cat fighting.
Hey, guys, cut Southernhighlander a break, okay? She is what…10 years old? 12? And not an American, right? I couldn’t tell you the history of the Maoris, anymore than she can give an accurate account on how our Native Americans domesticated their horses.
Hah! Busted!
islandhorse wrote:
I’m guessing southernhighlander must have been expelled from the debate team at prep school and then slapped with a restraining order to boot???
I disagree. This sounds like a child and her My Little Pony meets The Saddle Club fantasies ~
This poster is closer to the mark, methinks.
[QUOTE=RHdobes563;2515712]
Hey, guys, cut Southernhighlander a break, okay? She is what…10 years old? 12? And not an American, right? I couldn’t tell you the history of the Maoris, anymore than she can give an accurate account on how our Native Americans domesticated their horses.[/QUOTE]
True. But the rest of us aren’t trying to give wildly inaccurate info of the Maoris.
And I am of the belief that rude, pushy children should not be “given a break”, but put in their place so that they may learn to interact with adults, as future adults.
Quick question…
Where did you guys get that she/he was 10 or 12? Her profile says she’s a university student and 26… 
I got so sick of reading “arabian” I puked
Jk, Jk, Jk. I do have a soft spot for Ay-rabs in my heart
This list edited from:
http://www.foothill.net/tevis/
I won’t comment on the “26” with those sort of typing skilllz 
.
1955 Arabian
1956 Arabian
1957 Arabian
1958 Arabian
1959 TB Cross
1960 Mustang
1961 3/4 Arabian
1962 3/4 Arabian
1963 Arabian
1964 Arabian
1965 Arabian
1966 1/2 Arabian
1967 Arabian
1968 1/2 Arabian
1969 Arabian M
1970 Arabian G
1971 Arabian
1972 Arabian
1973 Arabian
1974 Arabian
1975 Arabian
1976(Tie)
Arabian
Arabian
1977 Arabian
1978 Arabian
1979 Arabian
1980 Arabian
1981 Arabian
1982 Arabian
1983 Arabian
1984 Arabian
1985 Arabian
1986 Arabian
1987 Arabian
1988 Arabian
1989 Arabian
1990 Arabian
1991 3/4 Arabian
1992
(Tie)
Arabian M
Arabian
1993 Arabian
1994 Arabian
1995 Anglo/Arab
1996 3/4 Arabian
1997 Arabian
1998 Arabian
1999 Arabian
2000 Arabian
2001 Arabian
2002 Arabian/Shagya
2003 Arabian
2004
(Tie)
Aarbian
Arabian
2005 Arabian
2006 Arabian
Thank you for that list. It kind of proves a point… or would to some people. 26? uh-huh…
[QUOTE=Romantic Rider;2516911]
Thank you for that list. It kind of proves a point… or would to some people. 26? uh-huh…[/QUOTE]
26
2 6
2 x 6
2 x 6 = 12
opinions
Hi there,
I am new here,…lured by the bickering about Arab vs everything else in endurance.
I breed Spanish Mustangs in the UK, but I am not going to say they are the best endurance horse. I am just starting with my Stallion, who is 5, and he is doing OK so far.
Here in the UK, most top endurance horses are not arabs. They are mostly mixed breeds. It is true, there are many arabs, and we also have the royal family of Dubai competing on their purpose bred arabs in FEI events.
Many people here in EGB are moving away from the Arab as an endurance horse though, for various reasons, some are temperament and soundness issues.
Some of the posts here fail to distinguish between the $150 BLM Mustang, and the Spanish Mustang. I specialize in the Spanish Mustangs, that have been chosen and bred for their genetic ancestry to the horses the Conquistadores introduced to the US as the “first horses” 500 years ago.
They were made up of Barb, Sorria, Iberian, Gennet and the Old Andalusian horse. The reason they are tough is because over that 500 year period in the wilderness, only the fittest survived in often very tough conditions.
By the way the Kiger is not accepted into the SMR because it is believed there was too much european influence in those parts.
No one has mentioned Geronimo’s Warrior, a Spanish Mustang stallion who logged 10000 AERC miles between 2000 and 2004, and won the Jim Jones Stallion award 5 years running. But that is OK. He might not have won speed races, but he passed every vetting along the 10000 miles he completed. He is a breeding stallion that was only ridden in a rope halter.
I think that says everything about the temperament and toughness of these horses, don’t you.
What is important is that everyone has to make their own choice about which horse breed best suits their needs and go for it. Every breed has its merits and its faults.
This discussion is a bit like trying to convince someone that their religion is not as good as yours.
Enjoy the horse you have. If you are thinking of buying an arab, see if it suits you in temperament and whether you like each other.
To excell in endurance, you do not need to have an arab though! Many other breeds do just as well with the right training and the right rider.
To compete in endurance at international level, you need to have a lot of money behind you and time! That is possibly why not more Spanish Mustangs are seen competing at that level…we are all poor breeders!!
It would be interesting to see though…
To really assess the merits of other breeds vs arabs, one would have to set up an experiment whereby say 3 or four top international riders each take on a different breed for training and then go for a 100 miler. That would be the true test.
10,000 competition miles in 4 years and never got a “did not finish” for ANYTHING? Completed every race he ever entered? Would love more information - never heard of him.
There are always stunning individuals in every breed that can accomplish things beyond their realm, but that is no indication of what the breed is capable of on the whole.
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