I agree with You, Allie, 100%.
I do know what Jimmy is talking about, tho, I've seen quite a few of "his" type of Arabians here in Italy too.
But I also have seen 90% of their riders just don't know how to deal with a horse like an Arabian. They probably got one, because it was cheap (some are cheap here, for above mentioned reasons, or because they didn't have the desired color, etc., etc.), or because the friend has one, or because they heard they can go for long with little feed, or any other of these crazy reasons. The common idea about Arabians here is that they have to be "lean". But then there's the other extreme, too well fed, and fed wrong, too. All that is really asking for problems.
Then there's another thing, and I'm sorry, Jimmy, to say that. The average Italian rider doesn't really have a "hand" for Arabians. From what I've seen here, if you put three, four people with horses together, there's a lot of screaming and yelling going on, not fighting, don't get me wrong, just the way of communicating with each other. For example, across my barn, there are 6 11-stall barns, which are frequently rented out to weekend guests with horses. Usually hobby riders, most of them with the for here typical Maremmano, or Tolfetano (a kind of semi wild horse), an occasional QH, and also Arabians. When these people show up, my Arabians get nervous. But so does my trotter and a friend's TB. Just the noise level is doing this. When there's other horses there, trotters, or jumpers, who work on a daily basis, they stay calm, no matter how much traffic there is.
Now you take a sensitive breed, like the Arabian, or TB's for that matter, under this kind of stress, they tend to overreact. Now add a handler who's always loud, exduberant, waving his arms constantly while talking and instead of a rub on the face the horse gets a good slap, well, meant, tho, but still. To me, it's no wonder these horses are like Jimmy describes them. In fact, when I have people there who want to pet my horses I tell them not to touch the heads. I learned.
I also noticed that the majority of TB's here are not very smart. Not like I know a typical TB. In fact, I talked to a friend who's working with them, preparing colts for auction. He said it's true. He said it seems like they shut off the brain to deal with this handling without going crazy.
I've had, in the 40+ years I've dealt with horses, Arabians, TB's, Warmbloods, a pony or two, Haflingers, Arabo Haflingers, Heavy drafts and Standardbreds. And I wholeheartedly can say, the Arabian is my absolute favourite. BECAUSE they are so sensitive, BECAUSE they show off, tail up, snorting and blowing, BECAUSE they are back to the ground equally fast, BECAUSE they are sometimes smarter than the handler (just ask my hubby) and BECAUSE they are not taking rough handling.
And I also have never seen an Arabian buck or kick. In fact, my now almost 23 year old came to me as yearling, I started him under saddle with 3. He NEVER caused problems, not with the first saddling, not with the first ride, the second ride I had my friend pass us in a lope and he never even moved as much as an ear. You can leave him on pasture for 5 years, just hop on and ride, he never forgets what he has learned or acts stupid.
I do have to say I don't have show blood lines, all my Arabs are of old German lines who were bred for riding. They have bone, they have chest, a good back and very nice movement. Further up in this threat I posted pics of them. And I agree there are differences between bloodlines. The Egyptian who is not bred for show only, usually has nerves of steel, the Polish tends to be a bit flighty. Russians I don't know, never had one, never met one straight Russian, Spanish are a bit like Andalusians, movement and looks, too.
And it's not Arabians only for me, I do appreciate a nice Hanoverian, I love my little Standardbred to pieces, I enjoyed riding my hubby's Haflinger, I'd take an Andalusian in a heartbeat. They are all horses after all. I've yet to try out a mule[
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