Animals

The Arabian or Arab horse is a breed of horse that originated on the Arabian Peninsula. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world.

It is one of the oldest horse breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses that resemble modern Arabians dating back 4,500 years. Throughout history, Arabian horses spread around the world by both war and trade, used to improve other breeds by adding speed, refinement, endurance, and strong bone. Today, Arabian bloodlines are found in almost every modern breed of riding horse.
The Arabian (or Arab) is a horse of exceptional beauty, elegance, grace, intelligence, balance, agility, speed and stamina. This magnificient horse breed has been the inspiration for legends, artists, fantasies and little girls everywhere.
Many historians have been associated with the beauitful Arabian horse including Alexander the Great.

The Arabian is a versatile breed. Arabians dominate the discipline of endurance riding, and compete today in many other fields of equestrian activity. They are one of the top ten most popular horse breeds in the world. Arabian horses are now found worldwide, including the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, continental Europe, South America (especially Brazil), and its land of origin, the Middle East.

Arabians are hot-blooded horses and some people think they are hard to deal with. Despite some common beliefs, Arabs can develop a deep bond with their owners and seem to put heart into pleasing them as long as they are fairly treated and understood. Don’t forget that for many years these horses depended on their owners for survival and have been domesticated longer than any other breed. With proper training Arabians can be very effectionate and become great horses.

The Andalusian horse is the direct descendant of an indigenous Iberian wild horse, which in prehistoric times roamed in southern Iberia and even crossed over into Northwest Africa by way of the land bridge that existed where the Strait of Gibraltar is now. It is also quite possible that the Iberians had introduced some of their horses in Northwest Africa when they crossed over by ship — long before the Moorish invasion.

The Andalusian was used in the development of many breeds: Lipizzan, Kladruber, German and Scandinavian Warmblood, Friesian, Nonius, Connemara, Shire and Clydesdale, Cleveland Bay. Also most American breeds descend from Spanish Horses.

The spectacular paces and the agility of the Andalusian met the demands of the mounted bullfighters. In a period of several centuries when the mounted bull fight was prohibited in Spain by a royal decree, the Andalusian was still ridden out in the campus, but found a new role as a spectacular carriage horse. This horse was taken to Italy by the Spaniards in the 15th century for their wars in the kingdom of Naples, where they defeated the heavy French cavalry, and where they helped create the Neapolitano breed, the horse of Naples. It was here, then, where riding academies were founded, and the newly improved horsemanship spread to other parts of Europe. The Neapolitano, along with pure Spanish horses, helped develop the Lipizzan and Kladruber breeds. In all these breeds, the flamboyant paces of the Spanish horse were selected for to suit the demands for the haute ecole. The great riding masters — La Broue, La Noue, Pluvinel, La Gueriniere, Duke of Newcastle, Riedinger — all without exception tell of the unrivalled qualities of the Spanish horse.

Muscular in build, the overall picture of the Andalusian is a horse of great beauty and balance. Typically he stands between 15 and 16.2 hands. Gray and bay coats are dominant and others are admissible in Andalusian Horse Associations. In Spain, only grey, bay and black are accepted by the studbook — no chestnuts or other-colored horses.

Temperament: these are horses with easy response to command and very sensitive mouths, resulting in a mount that is obedient and of extraordinary comfort. They are temperate and hardy; noble and docile. They learn rapidly and participate intimately with their riders.