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The Arabian horse breed is one of the oldest 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 condensed at the behest of Allah, from which the Arabian horse arose.
Or the legend about a warrior escaping from pursuit on a pregnant mare. Moreover, the mare was already so ready for foaling that she foaled at one of the rest stops. But the warrior could not wait and galloped away, abandoning the newborn filly. And at the next stop, the filly caught up with her mother. The warrior picked up the filly and, returning home, gave her to be raised by an old woman. From this filly the ancestor of all Arabian horses in the world grew.
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.
However, the chronicles of ancient times, listing the trophies captured during the war in Arabia, nowhere mention horses. In those days, a horse was a very valuable animal and would definitely be 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, horses were completely absent on the Arabian Peninsula.Just as there were no Arab tribes themselves. The first mentions of Arabian horses appear only in the 4th century AD.
History of the breed
It is impossible to lead a sedentary life in the desert. Only nomadism is possible there. But due to the scarcity of resources, all nomadic peoples rely on robbery to a greater or lesser extent. The Arabian thoroughbred horse breed originated as the war horse of the Bedouin warrior, capable of long runs with heavy loads and in extreme conditions.
It is believed that the process of formation of the breed took place from the 4th to the 7th centuries AD. In fact, the breed was formed earlier than the 7th century. It was the Europeans who became acquainted with these horses when the power of the Arab Caliphate was established on the Iberian Peninsula.
Arabian horses were very valuable and it was extremely difficult to get them even in later times. Arab tribes traced the ancestry of their horses along maternal lines, believing that all their horses 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, while a bad mare could not be expected to produce a high-quality foal, even from the best stallion. Hence the pedigree of their horses, traced only through their mothers.
Since the main qualities valued in a horse by the Arabian nomadic tribes were endurance and speed, the knowledge obtained empirically was confirmed. Indeed, mares with high performance produce the same foals. Mares with low performance have foals that are even worse than their 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 was needed so that the horse did not die from hunger.
Europeans who became 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 decline of the Caliphate and the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, expeditions began to be sent to the East to search for and purchase Arabian horses. But it was impossible to buy mares. They could only get to Europe as a trophy or a gift to a royal person.
Even with the purchase of stallions, the Europeans had serious difficulties. Taking advantage of the ignorance of the “savages,” the Arabs sold culling horses under the guise of high-quality horses. Most often, the graceful, beautiful, but least hardy horses of the Siglawi 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 people travel through the deserts in jeeps, not on horses. Tourists prefer the usual type of siglavi.
Russian Arabs
The passion for Arabian horses, as horses that improve local breeds, did not bypass the Russian Empire. The first horses of this breed appeared in the stables of Ivan the Terrible. There is an opinion that they influenced even such seemingly completely indigenous breeds as the Karachay, Karabakh and Kabardian. But what should Arabian desert horses do in the mountains?
Arabian horses became the ancestors of the Oryol trotting, Oryol riding, Rostopchin and Streletsky breeds. They were bred clean. During Soviet times, Arabian sires were purchased from various populations. And sometimes high-quality stallions were given 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 purchased 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, Persik is considered the best producer of racing horses. His descendant is the famous Nobby, a multiple winner of races over a distance of 160 km.
Description
There are five types in the Arabian breed:
- siglavi;
- Koheilan;
- hadban;
- obeyan;
- maanegi.
According to legend, such nicknames were borne by the mares of the Prophet Muhammad, who became the ancestors of these tribes in the Arabian breed. The performance characteristics of Arabian horses of different tribes differ greatly from each other.
Siglavi
The most elegant and most “worthless” from the point of view of practical use is the intra-breed type. It is distinguished by the pronounced appearance of an Arabian horse with an exaggerated concavity of the profile. The neck is long, arched, with a long bend at the junction of the head and neck. The horses are very dry, but have a delicate constitution. The chest is flat, rather narrow. Poor-boned.
Abroad, for the most part, this type is bred, using it only for show. The exaggeration of the Siglavi 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 bear the load. It is enough to look at a photo of an “extreme” horse of the Arabian breed to be struck by an overly narrow muzzle with refined jaws and an exaggerated concave profile.
The only area of application for Arabian horses of this appearance is show. Like any other show animal, such siglavi are very expensive. The usual price for them is more than $1 million. Therefore, breeders of Arabian horses for show do not agree with veterinarians and claim that the Arabian horses of their breeding do not have breathing problems. In general, representatives of the Arabian show breed suffer from the same thing as decorative breeds of dogs and cats: the desire to exaggerate 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, the comparison will not be in favor of the show Arabian.
Nevertheless, in one of the richest Arab countries, exhibitions of just such show Arabs are held. “Extreme” Arabian horse show on video from Dubai.
To make the eyes and muzzle of Arabian horses more expressive and shiny during the show, the snoring area and the skin around the eyes are lubricated with oil.
It is believed that the light gray Arabian horse always has black skin on its rump and around its eyes. The oil helps to “reveal” this feature.
Koheilan
Horses of harmonious, strong build. The head is small with a wide forehead. The neck is shorter than that of the Siglavi.The chest is round. Relatively economical to maintain and hold the body well.
Obeian
In the Russian version it is usually referred to as koheilan-siglavi. The type is in between these two. Combines the exquisite oriental Siglavi breed with the bonyness, strength and endurance of the Koheilan. Most suitable for those who need a beautiful horse that can withstand stress.
When breeding, the type is taken into account only when selecting pairs, so in Tersky it is the Koheilan-Siglavi that is most common.
Hadban
The coarsest type with an often hooked nose, showing the influence of the Barbary breed. This is about the question of the thoroughbred of the Arabian horse. Horses of the Hadban type are the largest of all the others. And although they hardly look Arab, they have good leverage and excellent jumping abilities.
Maanegi
The type most reminiscent of the Akhal-Teke breed. Horses of long lines, with long legs and a narrow, shallow chest. These are typical long line racehorses.
The height of 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.
Suits
The most common color in the breed is gray, highly valued by the Arabian Bedouins. There are bay and red colors. Black color is found in the breed, but somewhat less frequently than others, since the Bedouins once believed that a black horse brought misfortune and rejected individuals with this color from breeding. But they did not take into account that it was necessary to cull those black horses that later turned gray until completely white.
Milky white Arabians are actually light gray but have reached the final stage of greying. The black skin of the groin and snoring confirms that genetically these are horses of dark colors.
Mutations of the gene that determines the dominant white color occur spontaneously in any breed. Because of this, the Bedouins began to lubricate the snoring and eyes of gray horses with oil to show that the horse was gray and not white. True white horses would not have survived under the scorching Arabian sun. For the same reason, the Arabian breed does not have any colors other than the four main ones: gray, bay, red and black.
Application
In classical disciplines, Arabian horses irrevocably lost primacy to European sports breeds. Today Arabians are used only in racing and racing. And if in horse racing the Arab is inferior in speed to the Thoroughbred horse, then in serious-level races he has no equal.
Reviews
Conclusion
Today you can come across the opinion that the Arabian breed has degenerated and can no longer serve as an improver of other breeds, but professional horse breeders categorically disagree with this thesis. It is not known how it is on the Arabian Peninsula itself, but all over the world they continue to improve half-bred breeds with Arabian horses. To win in runs you need at least an Arabian cross. And for world-class racing, only Arabian horses are suitable, and even in this case, not the first ones that come across. But to personally keep such a horse at home, you need experience in handling horses.
