Catching up on the message board & discovered this! Horses are my passion. I have a 50 year background with Quarter Horses. However, over the last 30+ years my personal passion has become Arabians. I got hooked on Arabians when I saw Padron go US National Champion in 1982. A couple of years later while coaching horse judging teams we all had the great joy to be introduced to Ruminaja Ali, US Futurity National Champ & US Res. National Champion Open. I used to sneak carrots into Ali's feed tub. He was a happy camper. For several years while still living in MI I had the priviledge of riding a friend's 3/4 Arabian mare. I'm riding her in one of my profile photos. Missy taught me a lot about Arabians and was such a great ride I was determined to have another. I purchased my first horse in 32 years last September. A Half-Arabian mare now 4 years old - WC Sugar N Spice. Spice & I are now the primary profile photo. Spice is sired by a Khemosabi son who has been many times US Reserve Natl. Champ Working Cow Horse. Her Quarter Horse dam is royally, and I do mean royally, bred for cutting. Spice is now in cutting training and showing a lot of potential. The goal is the US National's Half-Arabian Cutting Futurity in 2011. Then, on to both Open and Non Pro (me). An FYI re: Arabian Cutting. The Arabian Cutting Horse Association (TACHA) has been using NCHA Rules and Judges since it's inception at all levels of competition - Class A, Regional, and National. Have a great day and enjoy your Arabians!

Funny story to share about Layla, my Arabian. She is still at my trainers but hope to have her home this weekend!!! Anyways.......he had her tied up loosely while triming another horse when he heard this noise. He looked up and Layla had put her head through a wrought iron hanging basket that had been sitting on the ground & was looking at him like "Now what do I do?" Gosh, where was the camera?? Yes, it could have been a disaster & very happy it was not. She is not an "fussy" mare, even when in heat. She just stood there while he took it off. This breed has to be one of the most "curious" breeds I have been around. Plus like Hearthman mentioned, Layla likes to be the leader of the pack & can she ever "walk". Get out of her way cuz she will put her head down and "walk"!! This breed is also known for endurance & speed.

Howdy All, I love ALL horses, but my 4 Arabians have, for sure, captured my heart. They are not just horswes, but they are family. Lakota, my black Arabian, thinks he is a puppy. Would rather be with me then with the other horses. When I go for a ride I usually just let him go and when I call him he runs back to be with me....there is nothing better then that. Wow, what a great feeling. He is now 12 and when I first got on him at he was three and turned his head and looked at me asking what would I like him to do. He has never had a bit in his mouth as I just use a light rope haulter. Was teaching him to lay down and only stopped as I felt I did not know enough and did not want to scare him. I love Gem ,12,my chestnut mare, Shea, 13, chestnut gledling, and Flash, 24, bay mare. I am truly blessed to have these beautiful creatures as part of my family. The greatest fear is what will happen to them if something happens to me....... Have a great day and thanks for letting me tell you about my beautiful Arabians. Rich

Just finished reading and enjoyed all the posts. I know now, that i will certainly enjoy all the years to come w/ Laddie Lenya. She is just ground broke and will require much more training before she is rideable, but spending only one day w/ her yesterday was one of the most fulfilling days I have ever experienced. Her gentleness and calming spirit makes it well worth the wait til I can ride her as pleasure hunter, trail or dressage.

Just bought my first horse yesterday and she is an Arabian..one of my favorite breeds. I bought her from another ES chatter, Luvmyarabs who has 6 other Arabs. There are many many more ppl on ES who own Arabians. My mare is grandaughter of Alada Baskin.

I currently have two arabs, one pure Khemosabi great-grandson (pleasure horse), one desertbred 1/2 arab 1/2 standardbred (started German Dressage / cross training for Endurance, Rescue and Retrieval) man never knew a horse could bend like that. But my favorite story is when I went to lil arena with a lil arab, quarter horse breeder asked me what I was doing arabians can't cut cows. So I politely excused myself through the areana gate slipped off my bridle and let him loose, he had mommas in one corner babies in the other corner and held them there till I yelled at him to get out of there, he moved quit elegantly to other side of the areana and stood very proud awaiting his next command. I told quaterhorse breeder maybe he should go tell that lil Arab that, becuase I think somebody else forgot too. Breeder took his hat off to me, and opened every gate for me the rest of the night. Best standing ovation I ever got. I think they thought I was nuts taking the bridle off that stallion. Thanks lil Arab. Gotta luvem but don't get me wrong I love them quarter horses just as much.

My breed by choice. I have ridden all my life & owned three Arabians, which my current mare, Layla, is a Black Arabian Mare. She is a rescue horse also...go to www.blazesequinerescue.com, then to the adopted tab & scroll down till you find Layla. Friends bought the other black arabian mare "Hayle" but when you read about her, be forewarned, her pics when she was rescued are pretty bad. Both Layla & Hayle are in loving homes now & well taken care of. It's doubtful if we will ever be able to get the papers on either. These horses are some of the best "people horses" I have ever seen. Awesome breed for sure.

Hearthman....Loved reading your story. I probably would not have figured you for an Arab man. I have a lot of those kinds of Arab stories and that's the very reason I keep these great Arabs I ride ! thanks for sharing Rue

I bought my first Arab 36 years ago. She was Arab/welsh cross 14.1 hands and had been mistreated when halter training. She did not have a lot of trust and disliked men. I took some time to get her to recover from that and she could be obnoxious if she was anxious and asked to put up with distraction in her surroundings while being shoed or trimmed. She was fine in the right place and people. When my daughter was a toddler, she would lean on the bottom rail of the fence and that mare would leave feed to come to her and have her nose petted and at times bopped. She would pull back and then put her head right back. My little girl would babble away happily till we collected her. It was rare the mare left before that happened. We raised a couple of foals from her, bred back to an Arab stud. She became the mare we put toddlers and beginners on. Her ride adjusted itself to the rider. If someone got rough with their cues she had the worst gait you can imagine! We got our first pure bred a few years later and had 2 stallions, a total of 19 pure bred horses when the market collapse for Arabs occurred. We had to sell most of them due to tax audit at the time and the “finding” that we had “no reasonable expectation of profit”. No kidding! At that time a 5000 dollar Arab sold for a few hundred. A mare appraised at 15000 sold for 750 at the auction! Both my son and daughter rode any of the horses that we had trained from early in their training. We never had a problem horse. We received an unsolicited letter of thanks from every client that we sold a trained animal too. My daughter would take either of the stallions and disappear into the creeks for the afternoon riding bareback. We never had to worry that her horse would over react and cause her injury. She had become a good rider of course, but the animals were rational, reacted reasonably even when startled by Hungarian Partridge exploding from the grass at their feet or a deer from a thicket. The biggest complaint I had with them was on trail rides. They did not like to travel at the back of the crowd! Get out of the way and let us walk out! We herded cattle, roped and dragged cattle out of willow thickets for a neighbor and dragged, chased and were charged by the animals and those horses stuck with it for two days of hard work. Dragging a 650 lb calf across a couple of miles of summer fallow is tough work. When my marriage ended I took a mother/daughter pair to the mountains and had a couple of kind hearted patient companions. My favorite ride had never worn a pack saddle and she never reacted at all when I put it on the first time, or any other. (That is a story in itself! If you have tried to put on a pack saddle from scratch with only one description of the process and a book you will know what I mean!) I took the wrong branch and followed a hunters trail to an empty camp, needed to get to the bottom of the valley to stay on schedule so crossed the creek and bush wacked. That was third day out. The pack mare was sliding side ways to accommodate trees, did not fight when the pack would strike a solid tree, and I was watching her maneuver through a tight spot when my ride, her mom stopped under me. I looked ahead and realized we were above a canyon, had to ride around the tree we were next, pass beside the canyon ridge in about 5 feet of room which was plenty by bending back the branches, but the pack mare had to pass there too and I was concerned what she would do. Both horses just walked around the tree and passed the canyon ridge looking over the edge to take in the scene. They led down a steep slide pass track that had young tree growth on it to get to the bottom of the valley. Not one fight or refusal. The only problem I had was due to my own mistake and that is another story. That was our first trip into the mountains. They accepted hobbles, stayed near camp, came to the fire in the morning. I have not been to a show in years but I will keep my Arabs for every day riding, w

I have everything from arabs to quarter horses.. well one Arab, one Qtr/Arab cross and one qtr horse. So that is from Arabs to Qtr horses and everything in between right? Quarab I started as a baby, doing great but fits the english folks better. This Arabian I have was always a girl's horse as he only let me come to him when I had my shoeing chaps on and was bent over. Truth! Took me a while to get smart enough to ride him. His sire is on the U.S. Endurance team, but he won't make endurance a career since a prior injury. I started him with roping and took him out on trail for the first time and now the for sale sign is off and I am keeping him. What a fun and safe horse to ride! Even if all the cowboys laugh at this 6' guy on a 14.3 Arab. Sure wish they would change the name of this great horse to something a little less terroristic.