Dreadful Handing at Arab Show

The majority of arabs are no more neurotic than a welshie, but handling such as this turns them into nutcases, some of which get sold to members of the public who then develop a misconception that this behaviour is typical of the breed.

Personnally I hate this form of showing, it does nothing to enhance the beauty of the breed. If I had my way the modern showing technique would be banned forever. They should be shown classically with the horses in a natural pose. They are not designed to be held in this extreme pose in fear if being flicked in the face with the whip (personally seen many times at arab c shows in the uk) or punched. They should be shown in a natural pose, with no whips (which would preclude their use to make the horses extend their strides).

Not only should the arab world be looking to produce a beautiful horse, but it should be fit for purpose. If it is so extreme that it cannot carry a rider (bearing in mind these horses have lived with & been bred by Bedouin for millenia as war horses), eyes so bulbus they cause problems & faces so dished it interferes with their breathing. The arab is in danger of going the way of the bulldog, that waddles & can't breath if it is a show standard specimen & could never fulfil its original role of being an athletic animal able to fight bears & bulls. I just think the 'ideal' is getting so extreme the original purpose has been lost to the detrment of the animal. There are some excellent breeders & animals, but the EACHO needs to look in which direction it should go in terms of the animal produced & how it is judged at shows.

Rant over, sorry.
 
Firstly, Pip, you are right. A lot of Arabs are very inbred with overly dished faces etc, meaning often there are 2 types of arabs, ones that can be ridden and work, and other that just breed and show. Remember Arabs are meant to a WORKING horse!

Secondly, the respone 'positive' video cn anyone post a video of someone not patting their horse when it wins a class?? Happens all the time, the only thing is most showing producers don't work their horses into a state, but slowly produce well schooled and relaxed horses, you will see a lot of this a HOYS especially in the hunter/cob/ ridden classes.

Thirdly, for all those who thinks its not that bad, but yourself in the horses shoes. Does any of these horse look calm, happy and look like their enjoying themsleves? No I don't think so. Well done to those of you who are taking action.
 
Oberon said:
They are wonderful horses, proud, noble and beautiful.

This kind of behaviour makes them look foolish
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Not foolish no.....my heart bled for them!!!! As usual it is the damn humans who are foolish!!! WHY is this allowed??? Have never seen anything like this before IN FRONT OF JUDGES????? It won't change if the Judges allow it!!

I really cannot believe what I have just seen.............
 
Following on from the Arab going the same way as the bulldog.The sad thing is that diseases directly caused by inbreeding Arabs such as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency Disease (SCID) and Cerebellar Abiotrophy (CA) don't just affect Arabs they affect all registries that accept part bred Arabs too.
 
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My personal stand is I believe arab owners should know if their stock are carriers of these diseases. With knowledge they can be eradicated. If I had a stallion who was used for covering I would test before he covered his first mare. I do have a vested interest as I own two purebred arabs.

I have no axe to grind as I don't show. I am looking from the standpoint of a devotee of the breed who only has their long term health, naturally good & human loving mentality, & future at heart.
 
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Agreed well done!

For those who wish to bury their heads and deny physical abuse of horses goes on in some competitive disciplines...
Quote from the link
Besides shanking and whipping, campaigners say that behind the scenes, certain handlers cut underneath the dock and apply astringent to make horses hold their tails higher,
 
amandap said:
For those who wish to bury their heads and deny physical abuse of horses goes on in some competitive disciplines...
Quote from the link
Besides shanking and whipping, campaigners say that behind the scenes, certain handlers cut underneath the dock and apply astringent to make horses hold their tails higher,
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Nasty B&st*rds!
 
I_Am_A_ChristNatch_Pudding said:
Flame_ said:
Well until the judges start giving out the prizes to arabs that stand there and trot around normally instead if to the ones wired up to boiling point it won't change.
Absolutely.



Well I'm suprised nobody has mentioned it before but welsh cob in-hand showing is very similar in that they wind them up as much as possible, especially the stallions. Although its not shown on this clip, its not uncommon to see things thrown up in the air and railingd rattled by the handler's whip to fire the welshies up further.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGQmLJNxVi0&feature=related

I haven't seen a calmly done welsh class for comparisson, but actually at 1.43 on the above video there is a nice cob being trotted out fast, but not messed about, and I think its really pleasing on the eye.

How different to a county showing class I groomed for a friend with her highland pony. He was very laid back, and didn't show himself off well in trot in hand, so we wound him up as much as we could before she went in the ring. We did a bit too good a job of it, and he cantered a few strides when he first went off into trot. She got placed at the bottom of the line up and the judge told her that that was the reason why. All these welshies and arabs rearing, bucking, cantering instead of trotting should be treated the same, in my opinion. That's how you stop the handlers from wanting to wind them up too much.
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I dont know what im more amazed at - the speed the handlers are running or some of the obese horses. But thats a whole different topic.
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Seems like total idiocy to me. The horses weren't spooking or shying *until* the d*ckwad trainers started jerking on their faces and holding whips over their heads! Way to ruin a horse! Great one, coz I'd SO want them to show my horse... ¬¬
 
dominobrown said:
I have done a lot a showing in hand (with hunters) and if the horse behaved like they would be sent out of the ring. The handlers are winding the horses up into a state, obviously hitting them across the face with a schooling whip and being overly harsh with the yanking.
If you think that this is ok, not that bad and its just 'arabs' then shame on you.
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I went to a recent indoor show up north and the part breds and full bred were shown together - the plaited part breds were a whole world away from the way the full breds were shown - all that whooping from the stands to wind them up too ! If we did that in normal showing it would be called outside asistance and we'd be sent out of the ring ! Then in the line up I saw the winning horse het thumped square in the nose I kid you not .... it was winning and the jusdge had its back to them watching someone else what does it really matter if it brings its head down a tuch and stands still

Crazy business .... I'll stick to trying to force mine to be well behaved thanks
 
fburton said:
I've seen an Arab ploughing a field (albeit with a small plough - maybe people can guess where/by whom).
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That wouldn't be the good Dr M. K-W would it? :) The same ones that race on the flat (although I don't think they do race them anymore) win marathon races and do dressage displays bridleless ?
 
Ladylina83 said:
I went to a recent indoor show up north and the part breds and full bred were shown together - the plaited part breds were a whole world away from the way the full breds were shown - all that whooping from the stands to wind them up too ! If we did that in normal showing it would be called outside asistance and we'd be sent out of the ring ! Then in the line up I saw the winning horse het thumped square in the nose I kid you not .... it was winning and the jusdge had its back to them watching someone else what does it really matter if it brings its head down a tuch and stands still

Crazy business .... I'll stick to trying to force mine to be well behaved thanks
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*it was the horse which came second, the winning horse was quite sensible and was handled very nicely. I've never seen anyone blatently repeatedly slapping their (arab) horse in the face in the ring before. A few people are on a mission to get this person's license revoked and are spreading the word in the arab world not to use them (they are supposedly a producer).
 
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stylemichelle21 said:
Wow...what a complete catastrophe.
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Indeed and was borderline hideously hilarious just from the sheer stupidty of the people.
Probably would have been prevented if everyone wasn't running around like headless chickens and scaring the poor horses even more,what idiots honestly!
I hope the horse that fell to the ground was alright. :(
 
I was in Paris for the Salon Du Cheval on Sunday for the championships and it wasn't a bad example of Arabian showing really. There was some bagging in the stands, and some of the younger horses were a bit frightened but the atmosphere was quite buzzling anyway. There were a couple of harsh shankers, but they didn't win. There were a couple who thought it was cool to make their horses rear. One of them did win. Didn't see anything bad in the collecting ring either, seemed quite calm actually.

It's no where near as bad as what i saw at a relatively small show in Aintree, in the Welsh and Arab classes there.

So hopefully things seem to be moving in the right direction for European Arabian showing :)
 
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