Contents
The Arabian horse breed is one of the most ancient in the world. At the same time, it is not known for certain where horses with such an original appearance came from on the Arabian Peninsula. If you do not take seriously the legends about the south wind thickened at the behest of Allah, from which the Arabian horse arose.
Or a legend about a warrior who was escaping from a chase on a foal mare. Moreover, the mare was already so ready for foaling that she foaled on one of the halts. But the warrior could not wait and galloped away, leaving the newborn filly behind. And at the next halt, the mare caught up with her mother. The warrior picked up the filly and, returning home, gave it to an old woman to raise. From this filly, the ancestor of all the Arabian horses of the world grew up.
The magical version with the wind is good for the Middle Ages, when people believed in such miracles. And the legend about the super-fast newborn foal is full of absurdities. But it sounds romantic.
Nevertheless, the chronicles of ancient times, listing the trophies captured during the war in Arabia, nowhere mention horses. In those days, the horse was a very valuable animal and would have been included in the list of trophies. But the number of captured camels is indicated, but not a word about horses. With a high degree of probability, at the beginning of our era, there were no horses at all on the Arabian Peninsula. As there were no Arab tribes themselves. The first mention of Arabian horses appears only in the XNUMXth century AD.
History of the breed
In the desert it is impossible to lead a settled way of life. Only nomadic is possible there. But due to the scarcity of resources, all nomadic peoples, to a greater or lesser extent, trade in robberies. The Arabian Thoroughbred breed of horse originated as a Bedouin warrior warhorse, capable of long runs with heavy loads and in extreme conditions.
It is believed that the process of rock formation took place from the XNUMXth to the XNUMXth century AD. In fact, the breed was formed earlier than the XNUMXth century. It was the Europeans who got acquainted with these horses when the power of the Arab Caliphate was established on the Iberian Peninsula.
Arabian horses were highly valued and it was extremely difficult to get them even at a later time. The Arab tribes traced their horses’ ancestry along the maternal lines, believing that all their horses were descended from the five mares of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Bedouins were convinced that a good mare would produce a good foal from a stallion of any quality, and a bad mare would not produce a quality foal even from the best stallion. Hence the pedigree of their horses, conducted only by mothers.
Since the main qualities valued in the horse by the Arabian nomadic tribes were endurance and speed, the knowledge gained empirically was confirmed. Indeed, mares with high working capacity give the same foals. In mares with low working capacity, foals are born even worse than mothers.
Accordingly, mares were highly valued in Arabia, while stallions were kept only in the stables of very rich people. They kept the stallions “in a black body”, giving them exactly as much food as needed so that the horse would not fall from hunger.
The Europeans, who got acquainted with the Arabian breed in the Early Middle Ages, highly appreciated the quality of the horse stock of their then enemies. Trophy Arabian horses began to be used to improve local European breeds. Almost all modern European horses have the blood of Arabian horses.
After the fall of the Caliphate and the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, expeditions began to be equipped to the East to search for and purchase Arabian horses. But it was impossible to buy mares. In Europe, they could only get as a trophy or a gift to the royal person.
Even with the purchase of stallions, the Europeans had serious difficulties. Taking advantage of the ignorance of the “savages”, the Arabs, under the guise of high-class horses, sold the culled. Most often graceful, beautiful, but the least hardy horses of the Siglavi tribe came to Europe. It was they who formed the image of the Arabian thoroughbred horse with a concave profile familiar to Europeans. The Arabs themselves preferred horses with a straight profile, since in this case the air channel does not block anything.
Today, the desert is driven by jeeps, not horses. Tourists prefer the usual type of siglavi.
Arabs
Passion for Arabian horses, as horses that improve local breeds, did not bypass the Empire. The first horses of this breed appeared in the stables of Ivan the Terrible. It is believed that they even influenced such seemingly completely aboriginal breeds as Karachay, Karabakh and Kabardian. Although what should Arabian desert horses do in the mountains?
Arabian horses became the ancestors of the Oryol trotting, Oryol riding, Rostopchinskaya and Streltsy breeds. Bred them and clean. During the Soviet era, Arab producers were bought from various populations. And sometimes high-quality stallions were presented to heads of state. One of these donated stallions was the famous Aswan. The gift was made by Egyptian President Nasser.
The USSR traded Arabian horses with the whole world. Pesnyar was sold for $1 million. Menes was bought for more than 1,5 million dollars. Peleng was purchased for 2 million 350 thousand dollars. All these horses were sold in the USA. And the Arabian horse Peach was sold to France – a horse, even a photo of which can only be found somewhere in a private collection. At the same time, Peach is considered the best producer of running horses. His descendant is the famous Nobby, a multiple winner of 160 km races.
Description
There are five types in the Arabian breed:
- siglavi;
- coheilan;
- Hadban
- obian;
- period.
According to legend, such nicknames were worn by the mares of the Prophet Muhammad, who became the progenitors of these tribes in the Arabian breed. The working characteristics of Arabian horses of different tribes are very different from each other.
Siglavi
The most elegant and most “useless” in terms of practical use intrabreed type. It is distinguished by the pronounced appearance of the Arabian horse with an exaggerated concavity of the profile. The neck is long, arched, with a long bend at the point of articulation of the head with the neck. The horses are very dry, but of a delicate constitution. The chest is flat, rather narrow. Poor-boned.
Abroad, for the most part, this type is bred, using it only for shows. The exaggeration of the siglavy type has reached the point where veterinarians have already begun to sound the alarm, and riding practitioners have noted the complete inability of such horses to carry loads. It is enough to look at the photo of the “extreme” horse of the Arabian breed, so that the too narrow muzzle with refined jaws and an exaggeratedly concave profile catches the eye.
The only scope of application of Arabian horses of similar appearance is the show. Like any other show animal, such siglavi are very expensive. The usual price for them is more than $ 1 million. Therefore, the breeders of Arabian horses for the show do not agree with the veterinarians and claim that there are no respiratory problems in Arabian horses of their breeding. In general, representatives of the Arabian breed for the show suffer from the same as the decorative breeds of dogs and cats: the desire to exaggerate the distinctive features, even to the detriment of the animal itself.
If you compare a photo of a high-class purebred Arabian horse of a custom direction with the photo above, then the comparison will not be in favor of the show Arab.
Nevertheless, in one of the richest Arab countries, exhibitions of just such show-Arabs are held. Show “extreme” Arabian horses on video from Dubai.
To make the eyes and muzzle of the Arabian horses more expressive and shiny during the show, snoring and the skin around the eyes are smeared with oil.
It is believed that in a light gray Arabian horse, the skin on the snore and around the eyes is always black. Oil helps to “show” this feature.
Coheilan
Horses of harmonious strong constitution. The head is small with a broad forehead. The neck is shorter than that of the siglavi. The chest is round. Relatively economical in maintenance, keep the body well.
Obeyan
In the version, they are usually referred to as koheilan-siglavi. The type is in between the two. Combines the refined oriental breed of the siglavy with the bonyness, strength and endurance of the coheilan. Most successful for those who need a beautiful horse that can withstand loads.
When breeding, the type is taken into account only when selecting pairs, therefore, in Tersky, it is the coheilan-siglavi that is most common.
Hadban
The roughest type, with an often hook-nosed profile showing Barbary influence. This is to the question of the purebred Arabian horse. Hadban horses are the largest of all. And although they hardly look like Arabs, they have good leverage and excellent jumping abilities.
Time
The type most reminiscent of the Akhal-Teke breed. Horses of long lines, with long legs and a narrow, shallow chest. These are typical racehorses of long lines.
The growth of the Arabs previously ranged from 135 to 140 cm. Today, thanks to good feed and selection, the horses have “grown up”. Stallions often reach 160 cm. Mares are slightly lower, on average 155 cm.
Fat
The most common in the breed is the gray color, highly valued by the Arabian Bedouins. There are bay and red colors. The black color is found in the breed, but somewhat less often than others, since the Bedouins once believed that the black horse brings misfortune and culled individuals with this color from breeding. But they did not take into account that it was necessary to cull those black horses, which later turned gray up to a completely white color.
Milky white Arabs are actually light gray, but have reached the last stage of graying. The black skin of the groin and snore confirms that genetically these are horses of dark colors.
Mutations of the gene that determines the dominant white color occur spontaneously and in any breed. Because of this, it arose among the Bedouins to lubricate the snores and eyes of gray horses with oil to show that the horse is gray and not white. Horses of true white color would not have survived under the scorching Arabian sun. For the same reason, there are no suits in the Arabian breed, except for the four main ones: gray, bay, red and black.
Application
In the classical disciplines, Arabian horses have irrevocably lost the championship to European sports breeds. Today Arabs are used only in horse races and races. And if in races the Arab is inferior in speed to the Thoroughbred, then in the runs of a serious level he has no equal.
Reviews
Conclusion
Today one can come across the opinion that the Arabian breed has degenerated and can no longer serve as an improver for other breeds, but professional horse breeders categorically disagree with this thesis. It is not known how in the Arabian Peninsula itself, but all over the world they continue to improve the half-breed breeds with Arabian horses. You need at least an Arabian mix to win races. And for world-class runs, only Arabian horses are suitable, and even in this case, not the first ones that come across. But for the personal maintenance of such a horse at home, experience in handling horses is needed.