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!

I like a 50/50 mix. Arab and quarter. Endurance and brains.

The troubles with arabians are almost always man made. Not my type of horse, but good for what they were designed for; running thru the desert. If thats what you want in a horse they're about the best.

Good lord this forum brings back memories!

Years ago in another life time I spent all my free time and half my work time on or near horses. Ended up working for a local horse breeding/training facility as the rough stock guy. Nothing real bad around there in those days, mostly green broke silliness. However, the owner was from up North and still kept show horse contacts, so we got several Arabian and Saddlebred horses in for either initial saddle work or refreshing of soured show horses. Man, they taught me to hate anything but a quarter horse! Nervous as cats, especially the halter horse lines the Egyptian Arabs. I hated them!

With one exception. I would have never believed it if I had not road the rascal, but one time we got a middle aged Arab stud in that the owner was scared of. He was hot! Famous for dumping her and running, she resorted to all kinds of cruel bits but couldn't hold him with nothing!

Turned out he was just over fed, under worked, and ill managed. He was older, had a thick neck, and resented being made into a Saddle seat pimp!

He was more muscular than any Arab I had ever seen, with a more rounded croup and more weight in the hind quarters. First Arab I had ever seen like that. Short coupled, powerful, almost my kind of horse!

Anyway, one day when all the bosses were off to a show I happened to be at his turn out pen. Horse was looking off in the distance at the hay meadow, like he had never seen grass! Just for the hell of it I slipped my personal stock saddle on him, and wouldn't you know a bosal made for my own 2 year old quarter horse colts fit him!

I was young and crazy and thought I was about to step onto a cyclone, but you could not believe the change in that horse! After an hour of riding across the meadow easy like, another half hour of chomping real grass, why he was plumb nice!

I would have never dreamed it, but if there is such a thing as a natural Arab stock horse he was it! I ended up loving that horse. After a week of such light hearted fun he quit bucking, had a good handle, and was a little responsive to leg pressure. Good attitude!

Seemed to me the owner was making him into something he was not, was scared of him, and was keeping him cooped up too much.

It was very sad when later the bosses all returned, became horrified that I had put a stock saddle on an refined show horse, and shipped him back home. The last saga of this story had the owner getting near hurt by him on a blow up, after all the bad habits returned!

Poor horse!

Rex you're a true horseman; can tell you had your mind open for the betterment of a horse, and pretty keen observer. Couldn't fit so many turths in otherwise.
Thanks for sharing that, was a good read.

That indeed was agood read.

I shutter at times at what all these horses go thru in those stables such as you mentioned.When all the horse wants is to be a horse.

Locally we have the United States Air Force Academy that has a stable on the south end that military folks can keep thier horses on.Up until a few years ago,anyone could trailer in and ride on the Acadamy. Since terrorist threat, you now have to have a military ID to get on and that cuts any civilians out.

They have a string of horses that people can rent for trail rides and they are not too bad, but the boarders get a stall and a paddock.The paddock is about 10 ft by 25 feet.
Most of the time the horses don't get out of there but once a month.Some longer. There are all types of breeds and all are definitely over fed and for sure under worked. When we were able to get on,we got a lot of entertainmnet from thsoe owners when they did finally decide to ride those horses.

When I met my wife, she was boarding her horse at a big boarding facility in Missouri. The stories we could tell! I came to the conclusion a long time ago that most horse's would be better off if people would get a goldfish. Great to see on here there are some HORSEMEN who have a clue!

Thanks for all the responses. Maybe Arabs don't tolerate mistakes in training as well as some breeds. I had breakfast with the owner of the 7 horses. The two that she wants me to work with are both brood mares. The 12 year old mare was "green broke when she was young." The 8 year old " has to be sedated to trim her feet and has never been handled."

Let's see 2 warm-blood mares, over fed, under exercised, one hasn't been ridden in years, the other has never seen a saddle. Call me old and scary, but I am tired of being hurt and decided to pass on the "opportunity." I told her she needs a professional to have a chance of making using horses out of them.

That does put eveything in a different perspective.Walk on by.

Their highest and best use, IMO.

Spoiled, mean, nasty, ignorant....and those are their good points!

Even an Arabian makes good dog food sometimes.

...a recommendation to use them as brood mares would be good advice...

See that all the time with some of the idiots around here. Stuffing feed in them so they look like butterball turkeys and keep them caged up for 23 1/2 hours a day. Then they wonder why the horse lashes out.

As my pard says: put them in easy-to-handle 2 lb packages and send them to Nome!

There's enough good horses out there to not have to F around with bad ones.

How many times do you hear this; no account mares being bred. Breeding should really be left to those that have a clue what they're doing. And anybody that wants to start training on a worthless 12 yr old mare should have to be the one to do it.

This should be posted on one of those horsey forums frequented by overweight/over opinionated idle women and reprinted 100 times a day.

I actually got banned from one of those forums for posting such things.

Do you want a useless horse? My next door neighbor adopted a yearling mustang gelding 2 years ago. They have him in a round pen next to my fence. In 2 years, he's never been out of that pen, has never had a lead snapped to his halter, and certainly hasn't been worked in any way.

I use to post on a site and had about two friends until I made that overweight comment. Then I had none.

IMO, round pens are for training, not boarding; except in certain short term circumstances.

I have been pretty idle, and not following this thread, but a friend of mine is the horse trainer at a very popular western college. He has 70 students in the equestrian program. Of those, 65 are female and the majority of them are from California.
The math tells me that California women plus horses equals a lack of common sense. This has nothing specific to do with Arabians, but in the bigger picture.....

So much truth in soooo.. much of this. When my dear old Dad was involved with the Morgan assoc. a couple of these "ladies" call the Dept. of Ag on him and said he was starving his horse's. The investigator, when he saw the horse's, could not believe there had ever been a call.
As for Arab's, they are certainly a different breed of cat, but for what they were originally intended, they are great.

My pard has three arabs that ride and pack. I call them *Jesus horses* because they can walk on water. It's amusing the things they will do to try to avoid stepping in water on the trail, especially when there are really no other options.

There are different strains of Arabs and they vary considerably. This summer a breeder in Texas sent me a large packet of information on what she raises but I'm not interested in switching at this point in my life. Rush Creek Land and Livestock in Nebraska used to raise some very good Arabian stock horses. They were larger framed and more muscled than the average Arab. I heard recently that they are going back to Quarter Horses. If they are dispersing theirs would be a good herd to buy into.

Good to "see" you here John. Hope you are feeling well!

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

Thank you. I am doing pretty well considering the final diagnosis on my leg was a severe bone bruise, sprained and dislocated knee, ruptured bursa sack, torn meniscus tendon and broken tibia. Big game season ends here tomorrow and I have been one grumpy little bear the past few weeks knowing I had a elk hunting pack trip planned, plus, there's an old mule deer buck just up the creek a ways that's likely to be a year older next season.

Get mended and tear it up.

Thank you Richard, that was a very kind compliment. Not sure if it really applies to me as I have known a few "real" horse folks, but I did try hard!

One thing that some posters have alluded to that has puzzled me for some time is why we have to keep reinventing the wheel? Mankind has known for centuries how to handle horses (and kids), why all the confusion now? From my experience horses, dogs, and people all do better if they are treated with a little kindness and respect, are given a job and allowed to do it, and are mostly tired all the time!

Horses are not hamsters!

Lol.....so funny and so true!!! Worse thing for a goofy fat gal is a horse and worse thing for a good horse is a goofy fat gal.

We got plenty of them in my neck of the woods too

I seen enough of them turn dead broke quarter horses into nutjobs.

Unfortunately, the Parellis have made that situation worse by making women believe they can fix anything "wrong" with a horse.

They make a LOT of money spreading that myth.

Someone needs to tell all those 30/300's (thirty years old & 300lb) that if they want to try to "fix" something, they need to go get themselves help first.

I don't know how my wife keeps her sanity dealing with them.

The advice that Rex gave is sound, and if I can add one other thing to his list, make sure that the horse understands that YOU are the lead horse, and life is much better if they understand that. No cruelty involved, just be the "boss".

Ed

I got a neighbor like that.She has an older horse (20+) that is swaybacked enough that the spine is at least 7 " below the withers. This was one of those off the track horses that was probably started too young. She was having trouble with the horse acting like it's back botherde it.I told her the horse needs to retire.She figured it just needed a new saddle pad.Duh!!! go figure

Same way that a poorly trained/green, under-worked, overfed horse just needs a more severe bit to understand.

Any of you ever use Haflingers in the mountains for riding or packing?

I have. I used one while I was breeding mules with her. Mountain work is what they were bred for and work great if you can get a saddle to fit that short round back. Packing, the gait gives a challenge to keep a pack secure as it is more of a swaying gait. Same problem fitting a pack saddle, but they sure are handy to pack if they are in the 13 hand class.

Mine was a heavy draft type which are getting hard to find as everyone wants to make them taller and lighter.

A lot of folks think they will have the disposition of a heavy horse,but most don't.Probably because if you trace thier lineage back far enough you will find little Arab blood in there.But overall,they are pretty decent.

My mules turdned out pretty good. The first inherited that swaying gait and packing her was a challenge indeed.They finished out at 15 hands.Way bigger than I wanted,but probably because this mare had little 1/4 horse blood in her way back. I had to sell the first one when my health turned bad a few years ago. The fellow that has her is in Grand Junction and can't brag enough about he. I still have one as my sadlle mule.She also grew to 15 hds, and is one heck of mule.Learns fast, no quit in her, is stocky like I wanted, and can carry a load. She will out walk about anything she has ever been with.She never missed a lick the first time I loaded meat on her. When I had both, I started them in harness as a team and they took right too it.

She has taken awhile to come around,but at 10 she has finished out nice and some of that flightiness has mellowed out, except when she sees bicycles, baby strollers, or sheep.

My only complaint is I sure wish she had stopped growing 4 inches shy of what she is now.

Fifteen years ago, you could not find a halflinger in Colorado.I might have had one of the first and I had to go to Missouiri to buy her.Now days I am seeing more and more of them in outfitter's strings. Both for packing and riding.

I sure like mine.

http://s716.beta.photobucket.com/user/chochocookie/media/bestwoodhauling.mp4.html

This was mine.Neighbor kids a few miles away got her now.

Old style like mine.

It is great to hear from people who know what the Hell they are talking about. I am happy to have passed on the 2 mares. We can mostly agree that Arabians can be trained to be useful horses. The big problem is that they tend to attract the goofy women that make lawn ornaments out of them. Arabians are smart and learn avoidance behaviors quickly. Happ trails.

I've only used Wholelingers.







<rimshot>