Arab Showing, what a disgraceful display

[NZJenny]

The revolting practices came to NZ via Australia and all of us back yard Kiwi's were supposed to be grateful that these trainers and handlers would come here at all.

"You have to do that if you want to win" is what we kept getting told. There will always be a few who buy in, but mostly people have just walked away, so the numbers of Arabians being shown has plummeted in recent years.

 

[Clodagh]

I think Crabbet showing is still traditional. I do think arabs are even more abused in the ring than the Welshies, no wonder they lose support as a ridden breed, no bone, tiny seahorse heads and acting like pschyos.

 

[dominobrown]

I have produced (ridden!) arabs for a breeder this year. Went to the Scottish show this year, all for quiet and sensible, not the other shows I have been too though. The ridden part is normal- they are shown as riding horses and should have the manners etc of a riding horse/ hack. All very civilised!
The in-hand is something else though- watching a stallion get so wound up that it was rearing and striking and lunging at the hander, who was very skilled to get out the way just in time! The breeder I have ridden for is very outspoken about in hand showing, and her horses are produced in a very calm and controlled way and are a pleasure to work with, and have won the crabbet championship.
Stuff has been said at AGM's and their are grumbles but no one seems to enforce the rules...

 

[Petethehunt]

We have a few arabs at our yards and know this show was not the AHS National Show but a C show. Judges were council members of the AHS so any activity there was allowed. The exhibits are encouraged to show their arabs in full flight to show off and show the trot at full pelt and to get this to happen most shake bags wave sticks with bags on ends and shout and whoop. If you go to any Welsh show especially in Wales it is the same for their breed. If you sit in the stand in Bluith Wales stand when cobs go round the earth shakes. Arabs show best when lit up but to get them to do this is another thing, I am told the arab world is like the TV show TOWIE. Says it all really

 

[ester]

Having been both to the national arab show and the royal welsh (and others) I found the arab showing another world to the cobs. - An awful lot less shanking and whip waving to get the cobs to stand still for a start, they seem to be wound up at times but stand when they actually need to.

Of course the earth shakes! that doesn't really relate to their treatment though.

Activity allowed or just overlooked?

 

[DanceswithCows]

don't really understand the justification of 'well the cobs do it aswell!' - and? its like little kids in the playground saying 'he started it!'

 

[yellowpony]

This form of Arab showing is an embarrassment, I've owned pure and part breds for forty years and I don't understand why anyone would want to do this to their horse. It doesn't even show them to advantage.

 

[Pigeon]

The stallion is very closely related to a Shagya stallion well known to followers on the Breeding Forum.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70VVLp-XYmQ

Nice looking horse but all I could think was he seems like a pita to handle. Constantly running out to the end of the line and having to be jerked back, or breaking pace.

 

[ester]

Pah that is far more civilised than the usual, and all the incesscent 'lungeing' that occurs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D89RO-5oSeM

 

[Pigeon]

Pah that is far more civilised than the usual, and all the incesscent 'lungeing' that occurs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D89RO-5oSeM

Eurgh jeeze. What's the point of that? Doesn't even show off the paces, because horse is going sideways and flailing about.

What's so wrong with having an obedient horse?

 

[ester]

and another that clearly needs the plastic bag on the end of the stick...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ZxysAv5lg

so many videos, if anyone wants to find any welshie ones quite so bad please do!

 

[Pigeon]

Also do they not eventually get used to bags on sticks? I imagine they must get a whack from time to time to keep the fear fresh.

 

[ester]

quite exciting at the start but they are pretty much all trotting when they get to the grandstands and no swinging round in circles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGQmLJNxVi0

have to say the one time I did attend the arab national in this country there were plenty I wanted to tell the crowd to shush for as the horse obviously found it too overwhelming and couldn't show themselves

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcELy9B1_WA

 

[NZJenny]

What everyone forgets, is that Arabians were bred to canter! A big trot, when you have miles of desert to cross, and no stirrups, is of no use to anyone. Trot is not used in Arabian costume classes, for that very reason. And any one who has ever ridden any miles knows, canter is far easier on both horse and rider.

So, apart from the appalling handling and the dreadful modern conformation, Arabians are also losing (or in most cases have already lost), their fabulous canter as well.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

There are still many well conformed arab horses out there. They aren't necessarily the ones winning in-hand of course. Having said that i do like the Straight Egyptian (so a seahorse headed type) stallion Botswana and he's done very well in-hand.

There is such a huge variety in the arabian breed. Both of the horses below are arabs.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/cms-arabiansinternational/files/photos/465/images/large.jpg?1398187101

http://www.horsegroomingsupplies.co...f-you-could-pair-my-mare-stallion-madjani.jpg

I do find it sad that some of these wonderful horses are treated so badly by their 'trainers'. Anyone who has known ex in-hand horses will know that they are far from the psychos that they were described as looking like earlier in this thread. The vast majority have wonderful, kind, willing temperaments and they somehow retain that despite everything. This kind of showing does the breed such a disservice with non-arab horse people.

ETA - I wonder what people make of this video? It shows the australian Crabbet stallion Snow'n'Fire doing a display with lots of whip cracking. He's a working stock horse. I think he's a great little horse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h88dA28YGKw

 

[tallyho!]

Loved that video faracat.

Out of the two pics, I much prefer the second as the first does not even look real... I mean how does it even breathe?

 

[Meowy Catkin]

The way they turn them out does not become them at all. Shaving the muzzle and round the eyes and then piling on the oil. Yuck. He's actually a very nice horse when you break down his conformation. The other is straight through the hocks which I have noticed a few times in the race bred arabs. My anglo is a bit straight in the hocks and her sire is - yep you guessed it - a race bred stallion.

I did pick the two extremes, you get pretty much every variation in between the two also.

 

[ester]

Nowt wrong with a bit of whip cracking with a purpose, I'd rather he'd look less like he was trying to remove his back teeth in that vid though!

All of Cally's confo faults can be spotted in her race bred sire

 

[junglefairy]

ETA - I wonder what people make of this video? It shows the australian Crabbet stallion Snow'n'Fire doing a display with lots of whip cracking. He's a working stock horse. I think he's a great little horse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h88dA28YGKw

I love arabs, a proper old school ridden type is a lovely all round ridden horse. The in-hand showing makes a mockery of the breed.

I hate that video though, horrible riding. The rider has no tact or elegance, he looks like he's just yanking the poor horse around.

 

[Meowy Catkin]

Yes, he deserved to be ridden better.

Ester - He's the same stallion that sired my mare IRC. Is Cally also straight through the hocks and a bit narrow chested?

 

[ArabianGem78]

Reports like this remind me why I don't show my well-bred, well put-together, well mannered mare. She is a classic, good stamp of a crabbet but I bought her to be my riding, endurance companion and that is what she is. I am tempted though to take her into an arab class and show her "properly" (i.e. calm and well-mannered) even though we would be placed NOWHERE!

 

[Zobeyni Arabians]

I fell in love with Arabians in the 1970's when they were still shown sensibly without shaving and lashings of oil and the horses had a leg at each corner and often went on to appear under saddle in the show ring or in performance. These horses do still exist but their owners and breeders don't bother with the oil and hoopla nonsense.
If you search the back rings at Arabian shows you can still find calm, well built Arabians in the Crabbet Classes. These classes are sponsored by the Crabbet Organisation which is named for the Crabbet Arabian Stud, founded in the 1870s, and the predominant ingredient in traditionally bred Old English Arabian horses. These horses usually do a little light, sensible showing for their education and a bit of fun and go on to become superb ridden horses turning their hooves to all kinds of occupations as well as the obvious endurance sector. The 50th anniversary of the famous Tom Quilty endurance ride in Australia has just been won by a Crabbet stallion and his rider.
This is how Arabians are meant to be and they do still exist if you know where to look. It is just a shame that sensible showing where horses are turned away if their handler's whips are too long (never mind any plastic bags!) have become reliant on enthusiast clubs while the mainstream gives the general horse world the impression that all Arabian horses are crazy.
The horses are not really the problem!

 

[Fatfish]

Sadly, the British Arabian scene has imported the worst aspects of both Welsh Cob and American Arabian showing. I have had Arabs for thirty five years, breeding high class horses with both type and performance ability, but I no longer find any pleasure in going to shows, either to show or as a spectator. Arab 'showing' is no longer about showing: it is a spectacle, like the circus and the spectators too often behave in a like manner. Owners of horses with Crabbet lines are lucky in that they have an alternative: there is nothing of that kind available to those of us who breed other bloodlines. Complaint upon complaint has been delivered to the AHS Council, but their stance is that 'C' shows are run under European rules, where this kind of behaviour is permitted, and we must lump it.

I find it sickening that this beautiful, talented, breed is displayed in such a way that makes real horsemen and women turn their backs in disgust, but again the AHS appears oblivious to the damage being done to the breed's reputation and therefore its market. As long as a small circle can win and sell to each other, then everything is apparently well in the world. There is little or no thought given to developing the market for geldings which are the inevitable result of any breeding programme.

Thankfully, there ARE people who care about the original Arab and its reputation as a ridden horse sans pareil, but they literally do not make the noise that the inland crowd do, and so do not catch the public eye. But they can be found, in the ridden ring, or at any one of the many activities in which Arabs thrive - not just endurance but also hunter trials, showjumping and dressage. So if you are offended by the vulgar display of the in-hand Arab ring, turn your back on it and head for the ridden Arab classes, where you will find tradition upheld, and many, sane, capable ridden horses.

 

[princess pony]

Thw thing is dc's are surposed to monitor these things, but because they are too scared to stand up to the top handlers they dont.

I refuse to show inhand now since a few years a go a horse at a show was reported by a few people to be whipped in the stable area by a professional, photos were taken of their wounds, only the horse was disqualified from the show and nothing happened to the handler...

The ahs dont have any guts to stand up to them, cause of the money side! Shameful

 

[cornbrodolly]

Perhaps one way to get round the C shows rules would be to only have inhand classes fro youngsters? 4 yr olds and up to be ridden only. Thats the case for lots of breed/type classes in the showing world .Then the trainers would have to train any mature animal to be sensible in the ring and not this awful exagerated tension ? Visiting USA in 1989 we watched Arab classes - were horrified by the type of handling and behaviour that earned rosettes - but it soon came across to this country,unfortunately.

 

[princess pony]

That wouldnt work as no matter what age group they are they get shown the same.
Ahs just been to stand up rather that hide behind their mountains of money.

 

[DanceswithCows]

I enjoyed the vid faracat but what the heck was going on with the mouth? I couldn't see what kind of bitting situation was going on but it looked pretty hard and cranked in, not what I usually expect from stock-type riding - neck reining?

It's all a shame, I like arabs but they really do come across like nutters with all this. its the same in all showing though seemingly, people claiming to love their animals but then forcing them into further and further contortions for a bit of ribbon whether it's shearing sheep in the depths of winter or plugging cow's tits up to bulge the udder before a class or teasing and frightening horses into 'performing' it all depresses me. I'm going to very tentatively have a go at showing my mini gelding but if I get any sniff of having to do any kind of crap to him to win we'll both be high-tailing it out of the ring!

Ironically I sometimes get grief for what I 'put my cows through' for performances, people are very suspicious of the training methods for performing animals, vehemently against circus etc. and just assume it's cruel when I've never seen anything approaching normal everyday showring abuse with professional performing animals!

 

[ester]

Yes, he deserved to be ridden better.

Ester - He's the same stallion that sired my mare IRC. Is Cally also straight through the hocks and a bit narrow chested?

Pogojii, Russian who looks nice in some photos and quite strange in others!

straight through the hocks, very narrow chested and wide behind and bum high

Oh and wild like an arab

It's nice to hear that not all arab fans dig the current showing trends. There are some that I really liked when I went.

 

[rara007]

That wouldnt work as no matter what age group they are they get shown the same.
Ahs just been to stand up rather that hide behind their mountains of money.

And they'd still breed them just they'd be written off at 4 as useless or breeding stock and by then would probably be difficult to retrain to become a normal riding horse!

 

[Auntieboo]

No not all arab breeders or fans of Arabs are so lacking in horse skills. Unfortunately a lot of newcomers to the breed are, they just copy what they see in Europe and the Middle East and sadly the AHS have no power to stop what goes in in it's own country due to belonging to the European group called ECAHO. They always lay blame at their door for what happens in the ring. Bit like us in the UK should we leave the European union or stay in it. The AHS in the UK could leave ECAHO but if it did you would see no one at it's shows, if a show is put on for sensible calm handling under the UK AHS rules no one turns up. Education could be the answer but I doubt if any handler will admit to lacking in basic horse skills. The AHS believe that a show needs such razzmatazz to bring in exhibitors, spectators and new blood...for me they need to get some balls and make some new rules that at least can over rule those of ECAHO to be used in our own country at least. There could be a fine line got between having fun day out and making the arab breed look like stupid.