I have a friend in my local service club with 7 Arabians. I offered to help with some ground work at her place, and she offered to pay me. I have some reservations, but I should know what I am up against pretty quickly. I have ridden these horses only a few times, but have been around them fairly often. They usually seem hot, nervous and ready to take off. But they are underexercised a lot. We had one on a pack trip for a week. He was small and easy to get on in the mountains. At the end of some long days he had plenty of gas in the tank. I came to really like the horse.

I refuse to be talked into riding any of these critters, but feel pretty confident on the ground, at least when armed with some tools. What has your experience been with these animals?
Mustangs and Arabians are the closest thing to mules in the horse world, because they are smart and have lots of self-preservation.

We have one horse that is 7/8 Arab & 1/8 Saddlebred. My wife has worked with a number of Arabians, and they tend to be quite intelligent and quick to learn. Think of them as so intelligent they are easily bored.

I have done ground work with some of the ones that my wife has worked with and found them to be quickly engaged, but you have to keep them that way.

Granted, there are different types, even within the breed, but they are consistently more sensitive to stimulus. Body language that might be appropriate for most horses is "too loud: for the Arabs I have been around.
They like subtlety, in fact that creates curiosity, which holds their attention on you.

Have fun!

Ed

When I was growing up, my horse was 3/4 Arab, 1/4 Quarterhorse. She was all Arab except she was 16 hands high. She was one tough horse. Us kids would spend the day riding in the mountains and by nightfall, she'd still be going strong while the other horses were whacked. She was ready to take off at any time but she minded her manners. She'd only take off when I wanted her to. Her only fault was that she was too fast on trails. I had to hold her back all the time.

Arabs are pretty intelligent and have great stamina, but can be "hot" and "flighty" in my experience. I remember riding through a snow packed forest and a fox jumped out. My arab freaked and took off while the appys were just chillin'. I got her under control pretty quickly but in the end, I much preferred a thoroughbred who was just "hot". lol.

Eric

I had a half Arab that my Dad was amazed at how calm she was. After a while he came to the conclusion that Arabs as a rule were calm because over in the desert the Arabian people kept them in the tent with them, so the other Arabs would not steal them. miles

Arabians do have a lot of stamina.That is the main reason most win endurance races. They are a hot blood or at least a warm blood and do require a lot of work. A well trained Arabian can be a joy to own, a bad one is the opposite.Once trained,they work as well as most other breeds,but you have to keep in mind that evey specific breed of equines have been bred to do certain task better than others.

Because they are smart and are on the hot side, I have found that Arabian mules are a bad combination. They are too darn smart,are nervous, and spook very easily. I do know there have been some folks that have had Arabian mules that have made out ok, but know a lot more that have not.

However,it is the individual animal that makes the difference and how they are treated, trained ,etc. Just because the blood line says Arabian, does not mean I would write it off.Same as a thorobred, morgan, appenedix bred,etc.

My very first horse many years ago was an arabian/quarter cross and he was a darn good horse.

If you can get past the over fed and under worked, go for it.

I've worked with several (just trail riding) and I wouldn't term them as "nervous", but they were "busy" all the time. Always looking, prancing, kinda flashy...didn't care to be tied for very long. Generally just not "relaxed" horses. None that I worked with were headstrong or stubborn but seemed to like to learn. It almost seemed like they wanted to examine everything....like crossing a swift creek...a quarter horse would just stop and stand stiff legged until it crossed...the arabians would walk up/down along the edge until it found the angle it wanted to cross at, never stopped moving or balked just had to check everything out.

Just my limited experience, but it seemed to be common with the ones I worked with.

We had two different ones. They was ok. After we gave a walking horse a try that's all we've rode since. Thy just fit us better for what we have done up to this point. So far they do everything any of the others have done just much smoother.

If I liked the way a particular Arabian behaved or thought it had good potential, I'd have no reservations about working with it.
But I'd say the same thing about any other breed...even Appys.

Give your haid a shake!