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By: Nicole Arnold On: 06/12/05 16:01:31 PDT
The desert Arabian is the epitomy of strength, beauty, intelligence, and endurance. The breed is all at once attainable and unattainable. Breeders cannot ever bring back bloodlines lost, or famous horses of the past; but they can strive to preserve what we have left, and in doing so, preserve a legend. The Arabian is a hardy, enduring breed, and consistently proves itself when pitted against other types of horses, in all events - western, english, halter, pleasure...
People need to breed the Arabian for its BEST qualities, for the qualities that allowed it to survive in countless wars, in the hot desert sun. While I will not mention any names, many of the show Arabians bred today are, in a sense, ..lawn ornaments. They are bred to be pretty and typey to the point that they cannot breath through their own two nostrils. At any point, a wind sweep them off their crooked legs!
Preservation breeding is about bringing back an awareness for a horse breed predating almost any other, bringing back the unchallengeable strength and sweet affection, bringing back the romance of the desert. The desert Arabian can be used today to teach us the past, and about other societies. Arabians are just the horses to revitalize the role of the equine in society - as sport horses, as companions, and as a beautiful vision unlike any other.
By: Bruce Peek On: 04/07/05 20:35:24 PDT
First breed only from horses that we can establish descend from desertbred stock. 2. Drastically cull horses that have weak hindquarters, are high behind, and have cannon bones which measure less than 8 inches in circumference per one thousand pounds body weight. This means a 900 lb. horse needs 7 1/4 inch bone. 3. Drastically cull out horses with spooky dispositions that shy at mailboxes, and road, trail, and arena side equipment, trees, bushes etc.
Then if we have anything left we can further select from horses that are actually sound enough in body and mind to be of some use.
By: Joseph Linzner On: 03/08/05 08:19:23 PST
It is imperative that horses which can be reasonably assumed to trace in all lines to the desert be preserved for generations to come. The reason therefore is simple. To preserve a unique and historical genepool that more accurately represents the hores of the desert. It matteres not which particular lines a preservation breeder concentrates on whether it be Egyptian, Doyle, Babson, Davenport or multi-source. The term Al Khamsa is all inclusive. However, it is also important that we breed Good Horses and do not concentrate on just adding horses to a genepool willy-nilly without considering the quality of the horse produced. That does not mean that the horses should be National Halter quality since that is just a faddish happenstance in time since fads change rapidly....No, the horses produced must be better conformed than those before, must be ultimately useful horses than can perform and carry a rider as those produced in the desert were useful.
Secondly we are guardians of a genepool that ultimately can re-contribute the characteristic of a true desert horse into lines that have digressed from what an Arabian horse is supposed to be. We are seeing maladies in the general population that just a few generations ago were unheard of in Arabians, it is that hardiness, that strength of "blood" that can be returned to for invigoration of the "modern" arab.
Breeders must make wise decisions so as not to diminish the horse but rather to preserve the horse in all it's desert glory.
Just a humble opinion,
Regards
Joe L.
By: Kay Wimberly On: 01/27/05 17:05:44 PST
Why should we preserve the Desert Arabian bloodlines?
Given the dilution of the majority of the Arabian breed due to
"globalization" in the last 20+ years is reason alone. Our small segment
of the breed (the desert arabian) is all that is really left of the PURE
blood on the planet.
By: Elizabeth Dawsari On: 01/22/05 12:35:33 PST
I plan to attend the symposium but in case I am unable to for some unforeseen reason, a few comments are listed below.
Your question is :
How should preservation concern us in relation to the Desert Arabian, especially given that the native environment is all but lost and the role of the equine in society continues to diminish and evolve? What should we try to preserve?
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
I would imagine that there are as many opinions of what we should try to preserve as there are participants in this symposium. First of all, just what exactly have we already preserved? A genetically defined group of horses? A breeding concept? Mere descendants of a few horses imported from the Middle East to the United States? So … what is it that we are trying to preserve? Individual descendants of actual horses? A cluster of equine genes? An outstandingly capable group of horses? Aesthetically pleasing horses? A breeding concept?
For whom are we preserving these horses? For serous horsemen who actually use horses in one discipline or another? For collectors who value merely the notion of ownership or investment? For zoos and museums housing curiosities of an antique past?
On the face of things, all we have today is a documented CLOSED herd descended from Bedouin-bred horses originally intended to be war horses. That was their sole purpose and function. These horses were used for ghazus (raids) of one Bedouin tribe on another or possibly on some settled area ripe for plunder. The Bedu would ride camels across the desert--maybe 200 or 300 kilometers--with the mares tied to them. When time for the ghazu would actually occur, individual warriors would untie the mares, jump from their camels onto their mares, and ride into the fray. Firearms were not the weapons of choice; the lance was. The objective was not to kill people. It was to steal camels and horses. The camels and horses then would be driven back across the desert--200 or 300 kilometers--to the tribe’s grazing area. Naturally, it was expected that a raid to retrieve said livestock would probably occur within the predictable future. And such was the lifestyle of which these horses were an integral part.
Stop and think about this for a minute ... the distances across the desert are tremendous, the conditions are horrific, the terrain rough, and the horses received no rest and barely any feed. They were given camel's milk to drink and had little opportunity to browse as they were led across the desert and often were ridden back a considerable distance before being secured, once again, to the camels. These horses bred for the ghazu weren't at all like chargers, in the sense of European or Ottoman cavalry horses, as there was no such thing as a Bedouin cavalry unit charging infantry or even artillery.
My personal interest is in Egyptian horses. In the early 1800s, the Egyptians successfully invaded Hijaz and Nejd (in the persons of Muhammad Ali's sons). I have been told that the reason for that invasion was to subjugate the Arab tribes and secure their horses for subsequent Egyptian war efforts. At that time, and in the ensuing years, the Egyptians cleared the deserts of Arabia of many fine horses and carried them back to Egypt, where they were bred and thus perpetuated.
Over fifty years later, commencing in 1878, Lady Anne Blunt traversed northern Arabia and Mesopotamia, purchased horses and, ultimately, ended up in Egypt establishing her Sheykh Obeyd stud which incorporated many of the descendants of the Bedouin horses removed to Egypt during the earlier years of the 1800s.
Again ... the raison d'être for these Bedouin-bred horses was that they were war horses. They weren't show horses, they weren't hunters, they weren't race horses, and they weren’t pets. They were part and parcel of what made the Bedouin warrior successful in the ghazu.
So ... here we are today with the VERY FEW individuals which are 100% documented descendants of these horses. Just because that's what they are genetically doesn't mean that individual horses today measure up to the qualities that were considered paramount one hundred years ago amongst the Bedouin. To begin with, there is no such thing as a war horse in the Bedouin sense any longer today. There ARE horses used in current war efforts (those of you who know Faye Mariisa know of her 1987 contribution to the U.S. military) but they are not employed in ghazus across the Arabian desert.
When breeding these horses today it is impossible to employ the same criteria for selection that the Bedouin used. We have to try and should test the mares and stallions in terms of performance abilities and endurance. But we also must accept that our means of testing are not the same as the standards used by the Bedu. We will not necessarily produce the same type of horse a Bedouin of one hundred years ago would have either bred or chosen.
Today, true devotees of preservation breeding use the disciplines of Endurance, Dressage, Over Fences, Cutting, Working Cow and Reining in order to select their breeding stock. However, our feed is probably vastly superior to that which Bedouin horses received, and we have no camel's milk to give them. We have outstanding farriers. Our horses are generally in the peak of condition when we compete with them in organized events. We do 100-mile endurance tests over mountains, but we have veterinarians who monitor the horses' conditions and pull the weak and the tired and the unfit. We herd and cut cattle but not camels.
But there are those alleged “preservation” breeders who do not take into consideration the worthiness or qualities of the horses they are perpetuating. They are enchanted by the notion of this group of horses and, thus, fail to challenge their breeding stock physically as well as mentally, thus selecting randomly and without basis in fact instead of choosing only the competent. This particular type of breeder is committed to a romantic notion of horse keeping rather than to the discipline of preservation breeding and, ultimately, will degrade dedicated breeders’ preservation efforts.
I have no idea whether or not we have been successful in perpetuating the essential Desert Arabian Horse here in the United States (or elsewhere, for that matter). Our efforts will probably be judged by the horses descended from those we've yet to breed.
By: Maruyama Julia On: 01/21/05 19:56:24 PST
The native environment has changed, but the specific qualities which made the Desert Arabian unique and desireable remains. Their wonderful disposition, desire to please, and learn and ability to go long distances, as well as their versatility makes the Desert Arabian very desireable. We need to promote their versatile athletic abilities, by demonstrating them in public places, including shows, parades, trail rides, different competitions, etc.
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