My kind of horses
The other day I was telling Carrie Slayton that I wanted to breed and own very powerful Arabian horses horses, with very deep girths, very round barrels, short backs, long hips, high and extended withers, flamboyant action, lots of spirit, fire in the eyes, dark skin on the face, very fine skin, shiny coats, masculine males, feminine females, very dry overall.
And of course of unquestionably pure origins.
And do you know where these horses are?
Of course, I always start with the last point myself before I choose. I agree, but it’s not easy. This is where you can get the most disappointment. Plus, I’m looking for rare pedigrees. Then comes the horse. Partially suitable specimens of the dream horses described above can still be found in traces, but were not bred with them because they were not successful or their owners did not know what value they had in their hands. Of course, from our point of view. Most of these horses are therefore as old as the highway, difficult or impossible to fertilize. Of course you can try any modern technique, but the result is very doubtful.
I have traveled these paths myself. Terrible costs are mostly ineffective. My breeding farm was a geriatric institute. If I find a horse that is at least partially in line with my idea, I always plan to correct the bugs with a good stallion in the next step. Of course, this can’t be a sure recipe either.
I can read from anyone from Abd El Kader to what a real, optimal Arabian horse is like, finding this is a serious task today.
And it is even harder to preserve what is less and less existing. It involves a lot of compromise.
Of course, I am not thinking of an unquestionable origin.
Maybe the Manifesto movement, if successful, will help preserve the remnants and the source may flourish again. It would be good.
Best wishes,
László
Laszlo, You and I are like-minded breeders as if born from the same experience.
I also start with the pedigree. I also look for rare lines. I also maintain a geriatric hospital. At some point I had ten mares, seven of which were 22 or older. When I find that kind of horse, it is either very old, or does not produce and I lose the line in the end.
I will keep looking, because I am going after a dream. I know what I want, and I want to keep looking until I find it, and until I breed it and sustain it.
I don’t think “purity” is as important as producing a healthy, athletic horse that serves the function it was bred for. What is “purity” anyway? All horses share the same genetic origin. The true wild breeds are shaped by environment into different phenotypes, but for the rest, it’s humans that change them and mutations happen along the way and are kept or bred out as we desire. And I think that most horse breeders, never mind Arabian breeders, would share most of your breeding goals.
Been thinking about this post for a couple of days, and I do believe the qualities you want are out there. Combining them all in a single horse, that is certainly the tricky part, but judicious selection gets one quite a long way.
By the way, you get a window into Lady Anne Blunt’s very similar selection criteria when reading this passage of her Journals, March 15, 1887:
“He [Zeyd al-Mutayri, the Bedouin agent she sent on a shopping trip to Northern Arabia] is to be very particular about plenty of bone, height of wither, length, of course everything else perfect and origin mazbut.”
Edouard,
It’s a long way and sometimes we get tired, but after a while we follow our dreams again because we still believe in them somewhere.
I basically agree with your wish list, but you could certainly go on and on..
My dream horse is the “southern type”, the Nejdi. How wrote Lady Anne Blunt about them? “….The Nejd horses have short necks, short bodies, good shoulders and a very good tail carriage. Their heads are better than the Anazeh’s in every respect the Arabs admire: the heads are not too large, but neither too small, a great width between ears and eyes and between the eyes, but not between the ears; the profile concave below the eyes. The tails of the Nejd horses are thrown out in movement, like their heads, in a perfect arch.”
And yes, black skin on the face from the eyes all the way down to the muzzle…
and …and.
Dreams bring life forward. We ” just” have to implement them….
László
We have the horses we want to breed. But we have another problem, how to maintain it and to whom to pass it on.
I so love this discussion. I have looked and looked at these horses. Maybe it has been only a decade but it has been an intense decade. I have spent countless hours upon hours that turned from days to years, studying pedigrees, photos/videos, and seeing many in the flesh. I have taken on misused stallions and elderly mares. I have blended what I think would produce symmetry and art into new physical bodies. There are many horses with beauty, power, grace, and presence. There are few that have it all. There are also those who exemplify the qualities we all seek but do not produce it. To go forward, one has to breed many and choose few to carry forward. The problem is…the ages of those who remain, the affordability of the endeavor, and the reproductive health of those we choose tax not only our mental health and judgement but also our financial means. I have pieces of perfection in each one of my horses but I am now a mad critic of even my own. It takes a long time to see the end result of only one foal …to see what they will grow to be in a mature horse. We have to make a map of our destination and chart the course but pulling up the anchor is the hardest part. Why? We have to be responsible for what we produce in a world, where people have no commitment and want the latest fad. I have two beautiful colts I will sell. No one seems interested because they haven’t had the investment of media and training and exposure. They are exquisite colts but I will have to feed and care for them at the same time as I am trying to produce more glorious mares. So before we think of what we need to produce those authentic examples of Bedouin gold, we have the cost, logistics, and time to deal with before we keep sailing. That is where my journey has stalled a little. I have found those powerful authentic mares, who look chiseled out of granite. If they would start producing fillies maybe I could get a little closer to the destination. I have two amazing stallions. I still find fault in them all. I know what I want to produce but a mare has to settle and grow that precious foal. The waiting and the expense is painful. Even in such a closely related group, I see differences some are to my liking and others not. With three asil foals now growing up, I am hopeful that my choices will reward me with the goals I wish to attain. We will see. I wish we could all share photos herr so we can give each other comments and insight we may not have thought of. If we are here because we wish to produce the authentic bedouin horse as a useful and exemplary horse, where else but here can we have such discussion? Facebook? I hope not.