Versatile Arabians

[Rollin]

Picking up from the post on heavy horses being rarer than giant pandas, it is suggested that Arabs are difficult to break to harness.

I have two Shagya Arabs from Babolna, Hungary where fillies are broken to harness before they are backed.

I thought you might like the website - it can be slow key in on the union jack for a it of history and then look at the section on Arabians. They have a hostel so it is possible to stay, ride and carriage drive. The staff are lovely and the horses just huggable.

www.babolnamenes.hu

 

[Archangel]

What a great place and such a friendly website makes you want to visit. Agree, lovely horses. Can't comment on the driving aspect as find it all far too scary! Will stick to riding I think

 

[mrdarcy]

Lovely website - thanks for posting!

I'd better confess first and foremost I'm an arab nut (have four of them) so I am biased but they make wonderful driving horses - though not fashionable at the moment they were commonly used as driving/riding horses back in the 1800's.

The beautiful stallion Adres was broken to drive - scroll down the page to see a photo of him:
http://www.cullinghurst.com/stallions_adres.htm

Sadly he died last year - a huge loss to the breed... a truly great example of how versatile arabs are.

 

[cariad]

There was a mention on one of the forums where Arabs were the topic and someone said they'd love to see an Arab ploughing! Well, if you go to Egypt, you can. As they are the native horse, they are used for everything from riding, driving, carriers, tourist horses, racehorses and farm work. I went years ago when my partner was doing some work at a military hospital there and one of the soldiers rode and had a small farm ready for when he left the Army. He had a couple of Arabs which did everything, including ploughing. Admittedly, sometimes the welfare aspect leaves much to be desired, but I won't sit in judgment on that. I got to ride a little Arab stallion on the racecourse in the middle of Alexandria and I was as nervous as anything, thinking "oh, my God, Arab stallion -racecourse -got to be trouble...why am I doing this...." He was the sweetest horse ever and better behaved than lots of ours, absolutely no tricks. They're often horses with a job to do and have busy days; I wonder whether that's part of it?