Arabians, Endurance, and Dressage

freebird

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Hello! I'm currently from and living in Texas, but if everything continues to go the way it is, I may be moving to England in the next year. Please excuse my ignorance. The horse "world" between Texas and England is very different!

I, unfortunately, recently sold my Arabian mare that I did Endurance and started doing Dressage with. Arabians are relatively popular where I'm from, but what about in England? Are they seen in Dressage? Are there Arabian breed shows? Snooping around some facebook pages for horses for sale, I see quite a bit of of TBs, ID and IDx, cobs, ponies. Not too many Arabians! If I'm in England for at least 5 years I was thinking about looking for an Arab or cross but I'm concerned about their popularity and how easy or difficult it would be to find and possibly compete with one.

Thanks in advance for any help, advice, etc. It is appreciated!
 
Yes, there's plenty of Arabs around here! They tend not to be general riding horses, more endurance or show horses which is a shame.

There's an Arab Horse society, which also has regional shows and get togethers and most larger shows will have an Arab class or two. At smaller shows, they're often in one class with the part needs and Anglo Arabs.

Can't really help you on the dressage front I'm afraid.

Lots of Arabs in endurance oer here as well, you'll have plenty of options!
 
Any horse can do dressage but tbh the dressage world in the uk is very competitive and an Arabs gait is not conducive to the top marks. However you'll be fine at the lower levels as long as it is trained correctly.
 
Arabs can and do make excellent general riding horses, they are more often seen in the show ring, there are breed shows around the country, or endurance which they tend to excel at but there are many nice general riding horses taking part in a full range of activities, they can do a decent dressage test if trained correctly, they may not be likely to get to GP but no reason to not start at the lower levels.

Although they are now on everyone's minds for totally the wrong reasons the dreadful Peel family did promote the arab as a competition horse, it is such a shame they failed to take care of their horses as they were starting to do a good job getting them out eventing, even though they had little real success they did show arabs could do so much more than look pretty or be ridden for long distances.
 
Have a look on the arabian lines website you will find some for sale on there, I have 2 Arabs mainly used for hacking and they do ridden showing, where are you moving to in England ? there are quite a few showing groups all over the country and we have a yearly national show in Malvern which has dressage classes, there is also a international show held at addington manor in Buckinghamshire every year.
 
Thanks for the replies everyone. Sounds about the same as here, Arabians can be seen in Dressage but typically less so in higher levels, although there are some lovely half-Arabs showing higher levels!

Here there are some very active Arabian shows. Over there, I think I would still try to go for a half-Arab, I just love the breed to much! Although cobs, which aren't common here at all, seem like great all all rounders as well... hmm! Still have quite a bit of time to research and try to get a grasp of the differences from the US to the UK before I (hopefully) move.

Have a look on the arabian lines website you will find some for sale on there, I have 2 Arabs mainly used for hacking and they do ridden showing, where are you moving to in England ? there are quite a few showing groups all over the country and we have a yearly national show in Malvern which has dressage classes, there is also a international show held at addington manor in Buckinghamshire every year.

Possibly Birmingham, not sure though! Still trying to figure out how to navigate social media and google to find the right things in England!
 
You have the following groups north Staffordshire, wessex, Midlands and the national show is north all have pure and part bred classes.

what is it your trying to find here I may be able to help!
 
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