Saturday, November 29, 2008

All the Pretty Arabians...

There have been a lot of bloggers who have posted about their favorite breed, or breeds, of horses lately, so I thought that I would take a minute to show you mine! Those of you who know me, know that I have had a lifelong love affair with the Arabian horse, and even though I may now prefer Arab crosses to purebred Arab's, it is only because of the way some prominent Arabian breeders, similar to breeders of any type of registered horse (or any registered animal for that matter!) have focused only one area, typeyness, and sacrificed other areas that should count more than looks-brains!!!! By brains, I am not referring to the spookiness of a horse-I have ridden several breeds of horses who are spookier than many of the Arabians that I have ridden-rather what I am referring to is the intelligence and problem solving (or problem causing...lol!!) abilities that the Arabian horse was/is known for.

Take a look at Abu Farwa, a Crabbet-bred stallion, in the above picture. I bet that he is not what most of us think of when we think of the Arab "type," but 40+ years ago, he was. Today, there are several types of Arabian horses, and to me, the interesting thing about them is that they are all interconnected.
Unfortunately, I do not have the time to write a really in-depth post (I should be finishing one of my papers right now!) so I am just going to touch on the various types/strains of Arabian horses that there are today, post a link where you can go read about their history, and post a few pictures of some of the Arab stallions who are credited with being the forefathers of their particular type.My favorite type of Arab is known as the Crabbet Arab. They were selected from Bedouin herds in Egypt and imported to England's Crabbet Park, by Lady Anne Blunt and her successors. *Abu Farwa, the chestnut featured earlier, and *Skowronek (actually imported from Poland), the gray stallion above, are a few famous stallions that came from this breeding program, and who's influence is still seen today. (See this link for more info)Perhaps no Arabian stallion is as well known as *Bask++ (above stallion). He is one of the most prominent Polish Arabian stallions ever, and many horses can be traced back to him. Polish Arabians have a fascinating history that is riddled with many hardships, and the fact that the breed survived in Poland is amazing. You can read more about them here and here, and Val over at Fantastyk Voyage did an excellent post on their history as well!Another bloodline, which is closely related to the Polish Arabian, is the Russian Arabian. This bloodline was also lucky to have made it through political turmoil and strife, and it really took off when prized, Polish Arabian stallions were sent to the Tersk Stud in Russia during World War II. Until then, the Russian Arabian was mostly composed of some stallions who were imported from France and the Crabbet Stud in England. The stallion above is *Muscat, and you can read more about them here.Most likely the least known Arabian, the Spanish Arab composes less than 1% of the Arabian bloodlines today. They were originally bred from Polish and Crabbet horses, but were eventually refined to represent the Spanish Arabian as it is known today. They were introduced in Spain to enhance the breeding of Iberian horses, and their influence can be seen in breeds such as the Andalusian and Lipizzaner. The above stallion is *Barich de Washoe, and you can read more about the Spanish Arabian here. Lastly there is the line that most people think of when they reflect upon Arabian horses, and that is the Egyptian Arabian. They are often considered to be the purest of the Arabian bloodlines, and were developed by breeders such as Henry Babson. The important thing to remember about Arabian horses is that they all stem from the Egyptian Arab, and that the various "lines" that are seen today, are representative of the areas/regions where they come from-Poland, England, Russia, and Spain- and their breeding programs. Two prominent stallions that helped to carry on the Egyptian line, are *Morafic (above), and *Nazeer (below). You can read more about Egyptian Arabians here. Again, this is just a brief synopsis of the Arabian horses current lineage, and I will write more about their versatility in another post. If there are any major errors, I am apologizing ahead of time...my research time is limited and I am going off of what I can remember "off the top of my head"...lol!!!! Can you tell which line, Bo (Caballero SF), comes from by noting any resemblances to horses in the above photos??
Hope that everyone is recovering from Thanksgiving!!! Have a great weekend!
PS-My other favorite breed is mentioned in this post. Can you guess what it is?

18 comments:

20 meter circle of life said...

Booster says thanks for outting up a pick of his great great great grand sire- Nazeer!

Carolynn Anctil said...

Very nice. I don't have a favourite breed yet, although I have favourite individual horsey-types.

Glad to hear you're almost (?) through your school semester. Good luck with all of that.

I love Twittums. He reminds me of my Bear. A big ball of fluffy love.

I'm hosting a Giveaway over at my place, if you want to swing by and enter.

Have a great weekend!
Carolynn

20 meter circle of life said...

Mel
I think Booster is a good example of what the Retro Style Arabs looked liked.

Gail said...

Thanks for the compact knowledge. I was glad to see it summed up that way. I have no favorite breed but do own an Arabian, a Haflinger, one Quarter horse/Haflinger and one Arabian/Haflinger. I love everyone of them but they are all different. The Arabians I have seem to be more of a people horse and are quite dedicated, full of energy but easily directed. I am not sure of the lineage, I have the papers but not familiar with the names. I know they are not Egytian. On the other hand My Haflinger is gentle as a kitten, very tolerant of my ignorance, and very, very careful of children. My QH/H is also gentle and loving.
So maybe it is not the breed but the horse...or the training.

Unknown said...

Fun post - I loved looking at all the photos and seeing what lines change.

Canyon is a WOP (as they used to call my italian grandmother) so I have no idea where his Arab comes from. But maybe by looking at his traits I can give it a guess.

Thanks! And keep going on that school work!
Winter

Laughing Orca Ranch said...

I'd guess that BoBo is Polish or Egyptian. And I'm positive that he's absolutely......HANDSOME! And adorable, too.

I never gave Arabian much thought except to think they were a little zany and too spirited for me to consider owning.
And then I moved next door to Val and her 2 Arabians and 1 Arabian/Appy/Paint. What beautiful, intelligent...and yes...spirited horses they are.
I've had a few great rides on Val's 26 yr old Arabian, Nadia. So now I have a respect and admiration for the Arabian breed, and especially their history.

I'd guess that your other favorite breed is a Lipizzaner or maybe an Andalusian. Mine would be the Lipizzaner.

Now, take a break from all that school work, my friend :)

~Lisa
New Mexico

Melanie said...

Jewel-Booster is definitely old school Arabian...lol!!! Nothing wrong with that now, is there???

Carolynn-I am headed over there in a minute!!

Gail-Arabs are super personable, and that is one of the things that attracts me to them. I had no idea that you had so many horses! That Halflinger that is good to your grandkids? Priceless!!

Breathe-Is Winter your real name??? LOVE it!!! LOL about Canyon being a WOP!!!

Lisa-Oooohhhhh you are too good to play a long...lol!!! Yes, Bo Bo is Polish and Egyptian bred. One day I will own another Crabbet bred horse. Oh, and my other favorite is the Andalusian! :)

allhorsestuff said...

Whoops got in too late..I was actually gonna guess Crabbet for Bo. And Andalusian for a fav for Mellie!

I LOVE Arabians and trained and fell in love with one 5 year old Egyption. He looked like someting else though..very stocky-well built. I will put a photo up of My Cody man for you to see.
My dream would be to breed Wa with an Arabian.

allhorsestuff said...

sooo what ya think of the link from my post for the BOH??? (Bay Ocean House)
Interested in coming?You can bring the fam horse and Fam too!!!

Melanie said...

All Horse-
The BOH looks like a wonderful place to spend a family vacation!!! Once I am done with school, we may have to head down there!!!

Fantastyk Voyager said...

My post never made it. Oh well! Great, informative post!
I have to say that on my post, I used information from a couple of websites: the Amberlea Equestrian Services website and Courtly Lives- Polish Arabian Horses,http://www.angelfire.com/mi4/polcrt/Arab.html.
I was going to say that one of my favorite breeds is Andalusian, and that would be my guess for you, as well.

I love the neck on Skowronek!! Talk about "swan-like"! Gorgeous!!

I always think of Polish and Russian Arabs as being "long legged" and Egyptians being squarer with ultra high tails- kind of coming straight out of their flat toplines.

Melanie said...

Val-
The link to your post is on here! It is under the Polish Arab section.
I second your comments about Polish, Russian and Egyptian Arabs.
That is one of the reason I prefer Crabbet's...they often have a little more girth on them (not always though!)

Grey Horse Matters said...

Now that I actually have an Arabian horse I will have to do some research on them. I must confess that an Arabian was the last horse on my list that I ever wanted to own. I like the bigger horses like Dutch Warmbloods etc... But since we rescued the two Arabians, I have come to see that they are beautiful and very intelligent and sensible. As I said I have a lot of research to do and this post was a good start.

Paige said...

Thanks for comparing the different types in that way--I am Arabian challenged, although one of our previous reining trainers trained out of a barn that was an Arabian show barn and I spent a lot of time just looking at those pretty heads

Unknown said...

Very interesting post - I know very little about Arabians so that was kinda neat - expanding my mind so to speak.

Holidays were great BTW! Thanks for checking up on me. Just real busy here at work...hopefully will have time for a post later.

Meg said...

You know...I always liked the way Arabians looked,but considered them too high headed for me. My bf back home had one and it was the meanest horse I have ever come across...that being said...I would like to try one sometime...REALLY.

Unknown said...

Very ineresting all the different types of Arabian horses. Any horse can be a good horse no matter the breed.

People have asked me why I bought a Lipizzan. I always answer "I didn't buy a Lipzzan, I bought a horse I like!"

In the enire 15 years I have had him, I have never looked at anyone else's horse with envy. Admiration often, but never envy.

Andrea said...

Okay, I used to really not like Arabians. I showed half arabs in saddle seat. Maybe that is where I got my dislike for them? It was a hold on tight, ride like you stole it, type of riding. In tiny saddles no less. LOL I don't know. I was a Quarter Horse Snob for a while, but blogging has really opened my eyes up to different breeds. I used to say I would never own an Arabian, and about 5 years ago I got a registered Half Arabian pony, her name was Annie. She was Half Arabian half Appy! Can you believe the rap that pony got.

But I used her for lessons and I loved her. Old Faithful. I miss that dear little pony. I sold her at 20 to an English Lesson barn, where they pamper her and love her.

I now am not a big QH snob. I acutally don't own one QH out of the 7 that I own. :)

Thank you for the wonderful history, I loved it. And that first one, the Abu Farwa, a Crabbet-bred stallion, is my favorite. I like Arabians that have some thickness.

I was going to guess that Bo-Bo was an Egyptian bred Arabian. He is such a handsome devil and a sweet heart.

I read a few blogs that are Arabian owners and they have made me appriciate the breed more. Thanks for the great post.

Sorry for the novel!! :)