The way of a horse's going is the truth of him.

Past Editorial #4 - 05/01/03

While browsing the forums on the Internet, I saw this statement in a thread that was discussing the reputation of straight Egyptians, suggesting that they are incapable of performing:

"Most straight Egyptian horses do not pick up their knees like some of the Polish horses."

I'm not picking on the person that posted this statement, but my response is THANK GOODNESS! Look at the tape on "Movement" produced by Lorry Wagner, you can see exactly this point and why SEs may be the only hope for the breed. Lorry properly defines in her "Movement" video, that Arabian movement should involve as little up and down movement as possible but rather the hocks and knees should move in a long, extended forward line. Compare any two horses at the trot with these two ways of moving and you will see that the horse that lifts its knees and hocks is working for every inch of ground that it covers while the horse with the level action will cover a lot of ground and have a point of suspension with all 4 feet off the ground. This is "free ground" and requires no effort on the horses part so the animal can go further and last longer. *I* call it the "desert trot" because it is how the Bedouin horses had to move and how they were bred to move across the desert terrain.

The expectation of high knee action points to what is wrong in today’s showring. Beverly Sziraky’s open letter on the Imperial Egyptian Stud web site clearly describes the feelings of many of us. So many people are complaining about Arabian show judging, but my own feelings are that maybe the problem isn't with the judges -- they can only compare what is in the ring. The problem is with the Type Standard. Look at the original drawings of the "standard" and then look at the image published today. The reason we have Russian Arabians, Spanish Arabians, etc. is because each country breeds their Arabians to look like the horses they are familiar with. Americans have recreated the American Saddler because we LOVE that high-stepping action. But the Arabian was never meant to be a Saddler and move that way so you see short mincey trots and 4-beat canters. I've seen these horses as they have aged and their blown out hocks and fetlock joints bear testament to the fact that maybe you can force ("train") a horse to perform a certain way, but if its conformation is not suited, it will suffer both physically and in performance. OF COURSE the Arabian show horse looks like a gaited horse; we demand that it moves like one so we breed for the conformation and characteristics that will produce that high-stepping action. Long skinny necks, flat croups, and unbalanced overall construction have led to a grotesque charicature of the Arabian horse. It can no longer move like an Arabian because it no longer IS an Arabian.

If we want to preserve the Arabian as a breed, we have to stop trying to make it into another breed of horse. If you want an American Saddler, buy one, but let's preserve the Arabian that looks like it could and still can function in environmental extremes and in all disciplines. Maybe we need to start all over. Call this new trendy show-ring Arabian something else, some new breed, then we can start over with the few remaining gene pools of Bedouin horses. IMHO, these are the straight Egyptian Asil Arabians. Remember,

"The way of a horses going is the truth of him." sw