You be the judge!
Here we have three Arab bred horses, all looking to a career in dressage. We asked Malcolm Barns who has had enormous success in the dressage area with Arabian bred horses – first with Rami – then on Christopher – to give his expert opinion.
We don’t use Arabs very much in Australia, but in Europe they do like Arab blood. The British Olympic rider, Diana Mason’s horse, Prince Consort is an Anglo/ Arab and a beautiful horse – but you don’t the quality here, because we look for something different in our Arabs. In Germany, the Trakehners have a lot of Arab blood in them, and the other Warmbloods have quite a lot of Arab influence. A lot of the Arab came the Ramzes who was a Polish Anglo/Arab. They do have the movement, and the presence and they’ve got that bit of snap, we just don’t look for it here because the Arabs we have just don’t have that quality.
I’ve ridden some lovely Arabs. I sent a mare to Rami, and I liked the horse a lot. He was only a little horse – 14.2 – but nevertheless he had a lot of quality and scope, and he moved well. He was an unbroken nine year old when I backed him, but free in the yard he showed a lot of movement, extravagant movement. He was a lovely horse under saddle, and became a thicker, stronger horse with work. Christopher was his son, and while he too lacked size, he did have scope, he had perhaps not extravagant movement, but he had plenty of movement (sometime extravagant movement can be a pest). He had that look at me, and presence which is so necessary for all dressage horses.
We have got Merrifield Zia, Tutankhamon, lovely horses… lovely horses. Merrifield Zia is perhaps a little smaller, but they do breed Anglos up to over 17 hands. The French horses have a lot of Arab, but they look for a quality Arab that can be used to upgrade the other breeds. The Spanish Arab can be very beautiful, there are some lovely ones in Spain. We tend to look for a particular sort of Arab that is not much use to the other breeders. It’s a shame we are producing this horse that doesn’t seem to have much of a purpose.
I prefer this horse of the three. He looks as if he’d have a bit of scope. I don’t particularly like the shoulder or the front, I’d prefer him bigger in front, but the neck is set on quite nicely. I really can’t see him as a Grand Prix horse because he is not quite impressive enough. Take Tutankhamon, he really jumps out at you, he has a lovely outline, but this horse lacks a little extra. It doesn’t mean he couldn’t make Grand Prix in the right hands because they come in all shapes…
This horse is long in the leg and weedy in the body. He possibly could thicken up because Anglos are late maturing, but he doesn’t look enough horse to me. He doesn’t look enough in the hindlegs the shoulder is not bad, but it’s not brilliant. He doesn’t look particularly robust, I like a horse with a stronger constitution, he’s too much on the leg for his age. You’d need to work this horse slowly, and take time to build his body – with lunging. He’s certainly not developed enough for collection, he needs to develop his physique. He’s quite a nice little horse, but just not enough horse at the moment.
He looks common in the neck and straight in the shoulder. He is only two so perhaps he’ll grow a bit in front, but at the moment he’s over-built behind. He doesn’t have a nice set of neck, he might come up in time but I have my doubts. I’d like a better shoulder if he is going to move. Really you don’t know how a horse is going to come with work. They can change both ways, with correct work they can improve, and with wrong work they can deteriorate terribly. He might well come up quite nicely.