Arabians

[csabugler]

Let me begin by saying I am not interested in one. Period.
That being said, I guess I was under the impression that Arabians were among the group of incorrect breeds for our interests due to unavailability. In reading Frederick calhouns book on U S Marshals The lawmen they reference an auction of 4 arabian horses in New York in 1831.
Maybe my lack of interest in them has manifested itself into the belief that they are incorrect.
Was I thinking wrong about them?

[Clsinclair]

Re: Arabians

If I had been an officer or a rich calvary person, the Arabian would be my choice. Most are classified as a "Pony" due to their height but they have great endurance. I have raised a few Arabians from birth and they are easy to train and break. I jumped on the back of an eight year old stallion and after a few minutes were were going through a field without a care in the world. My next choice if they had been available would have been the Appaloosa. They also have great endurance and strenght. Some of my ancestors that were in the 4th SC Calvary brought their own horses with them when they enlisted. One was a blacksmith.

Regards,
Claude Sinclair

[Spinster]

Re: Arabians

Pete,

One of my bandboxes that bit the dust here lately ( at the hands of the airport baggage inspectors, packed inside a larger steel framed suitcase), was lined with a Harper's Weekly illustration captioned "Mr. Sewards Horses". One of those prize horses was an Arabian. I cannot quote the date of the particular issue, but I use pre war or very early war repro papers to line all my trunks and boxes.

This horse was considered newsworthy, over and above the fame of its owner, Secretary of State Willam Seward--so from that point, we can construe that Arabians were in-country, and there were enough of them to 'show'.

Common useage is quite another matter.....

[moarkcav]

Re: Arabians

I have always ridden Arabians and they are my horse of choice. The best horse I have ever had is my 1/2 Arab 1/2 Quarter Horse gelding. He is 24 and still going strong.We know they were around in the US long beofre the war just not how common they were among the general population.


Chris Talburt

[Hank Trent]

Re: Arabians

The four Arabian horses sold in New York were the gift of a sultan to a diplomat, who sold them to avoid the appearance of accepting an unethical gift. More here: http://books.google.com/books?id=Yd0xAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA581

They were sporadically imported, but I'd say the question is, were Arabians being bred pure here in the U.S.? The period mindset seemed to be that the Arabians were wonderful horses for being the foundation stock of thoroughbreds and other breeds, but nowadays, U.S. and English thoroughbreds had improved on the original blood so much, that pureblood Arabs were inferior. (See for example Henry Herbert.)

So there was some interest in using imported Arab blood to inject more of the original blood in thoroughbred and other lines, to continue improving them, but if I were a breeder in the period, I'd see less motivation to breed an Arab to an Arab, since the result would surely be inferior to a thoroughbred.

So the challenge would be to find examples of continuing lines of pure (or almost pure) Arabs being bred here for their own sake, rather than individually imported Arabs used to mix with thoroughbreds or other lines.

Also, if a horse was, say, half or a quarter imported Arab and the rest thoroughbred or Morgan, I suspect that one might be more apt to call him a thoroughbred or Morgan than an Arab, because the mindset would be that the Arab was used to improve the other breed, rather than the other way around.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@voyager.net

[The Egyptian Homeguard]

Re: Arabians

Look at it this way all TB's trace back to three Arabian stallions that were imported into England from the Mid East around the late 17th or early 18th century. It's true....they were the Byerly Turk, the Darley Arabian, and the Godolphin Arabian.

There was also an Arab racing here in Illinois in the 1830's or 40's. In the 1860's a pure Arab would have been an expensive horse for a common person, especially when a common hose was well so common...plus given that I've been riding horses all my life I would not want a seriously hot horse under me while at war...

By all accounts I've seen the Arabians in U.S. at the time of the Civil War were racers and that spells spirited and expensive...not that a horse can't be calm, well adjusted and fast, but all too often that isn't the case.

Later, TEH

[csabugler]

Re: Arabians

Hello Zack, how the heck are ya? That's interesting. I guess I had lost my mind again thinking they were taboo. Very insightful remarks about not being "common" , maybe that was the source of my wayward thinking. From my limited experience they are too hot for me generally. Mike Nickerson down in Tampa, FL has run across an intersting TWH that I am looking at, he's going to try shooting off her for me, as she is close by him.

[idlewild]

Re: Arabians

I recently looked up the book by Henry W Herbert, "Horses, Mules and Ponies and How to Keep Them" for a reason besides this topic. Though as I was scanning over the contents I did note that there was a chapter on Arab horses.

Here is the link to the book on google. If you scroll down to page 58 you'll find the chapter. There is one page missing of the section, but there is enough to read that you get the idea of what the author thought of the Arab horse.

http://books.google.com/books?id=ZL5V-8w54McC

I found it interesting and wanted to share for those who might not have yet read that.

[The Egyptian Homeguard]

Re: Arabians

Hey Pete, yea I too would rather have a horse I could lolly-gag a bit on too! With the drop in horse prices around here you can pick up some pretty good horses pretty cheap.... My biggest issue with most Arabs is they are too bloody short 14.2 and 14.3 makes a long legged galoot look like he is riding a shetland pony! later, ZZ