The importance of the Arabian English Pleasure standard is that it clearly and specifically describes what the outcome of training for the English Pleasure discipline should ideally be. By reading the standard you can more easily understand what true uphill balance and motion is and the type of conformation that is necessary to achieve it. Please follow the direct link to the standard and read it.

(I know, I know, it’s tedious. But it will only take you a few extra minutes and it will be entirely worth it! Just think of the advantage you will have when you log on to “A Black Horse” and are able to tell Tom Zaffer precisely, how he is full of s**t!)

In the Standard, the words “balance”, “self-carriage”, “engagement”, “suppleness”, “mobility”, and “perfection of carriage” are used, sometimes repeatedly. Do these words help you to form a mental picture of a horse that is not “rushing the bridle” during his performance, or of a horse that is not being “over-ridden”, or “hustled” for more speed?

Have you ever given thought to the fact that it takes more strength to complete the movement of a balanced trot in an uphill manner at a slower speed than it does at a faster speed? The strength necessary to slightly suspend, or “carry” (as in self-carriage), is much greater than what is needed to “flail” at speed.

Is balance required to have suppleness and mobility? Of course it is. Does balance require strength? Absolutely.

Strength and balance are the keys to better performance. A rudimentary understanding of the bio-mechanics of a working horse is important when assessing conformational balance and strength.

The nature of bio-mechanics is such that for every deviation from normal that impacts the horse in a positive manner, there will be corresponding consequences that may impact the horse in a negative manner. For example, an excessively long pastern will enable a horse to have more bounce and motion in his stride, but, that horse will be prone to suffer excessive wear and tear on his suspensory ligaments, making him inherently weaker than a horse with a more “normal” length of pasterns. And, a horse with pasterns that are too short and upright probably will not have suspensory problems, but he may be prone to ankle arthritis because his leg lacks the suspension and cushion that a long sloping pastern gives in response to concussion from the ground. The straighter, more upright pasterns transmit relatively more concussive force directly to the ankle joint.

What parts of the horse, then, specifically, have to be strong in order for the horse to be in perfect balance while traveling forward in an uphill manner?

The answer lies not only in saying, “the hind leg”, or “the hindquarters”, but also the ratio of length of back to length of leg, and the height of the hip relative to the height of the withers. A “butt high” horse with a long back will struggle to achieve uphill balance at any gait. Other examples are: A horse with a hock placed higher on the hind leg due to excessive rear cannon bone length will be less capable of reaching under himself than a horse with relatively short hind cannons. A horse with an improperly placed lumbo-sacral joint will also be less able to produce the power necessary for suspension due to an inability to fully complete the engagement process. All of these body parts and more should be in “conformational balance” in order for the horse to be bio-mechanically strong.

An excellent education about conformation can obtained by reading Deb Bennet’s series of three booklets called “Principles of Conformation Analysis”. Years ago this series of books were my bible, and they are still pertinent today.

So…the keys to the future, in my opinion, lie in accurately assessing the pedigree of each horse to be bred and comparing the totality of the pedigree to their actual phenotype (or conformational qualities).

I know in the last article I promised that we would discuss the sires of the future and talk about their strengths and weaknesses. (Yeah, yeah, yeah, Ray, promises, promises) I promise that I will get to these horses, it’s just that I keep thinking of things that should be mentioned to provide context in order to actually evaluate these horses.

So… to conclude this article, I will give you the names of the horses that I consider important to the further development of the English style Arabian horse. They are in alphabetical order: A Temptation, Afire’s Heir, Baske-Afire, Mamage, Matoi, IXL Noble Express, SF Spec’s Shockwave, and Vegas. There are some up and coming young potentials and deceased sires that I’ll also mention.  So… In the next article we will actually dissect the strengths and weaknesses of these sires.

(Opinions expressed in articles are those of the corresponding writer and do not not necessarily represent the views of Mamage.com)

Today’s Arabian horse breeders are much more savvy. They are carefully breeding for their own individual market segment and their decisions are being influenced by two factors that go hand in hand; the rising costs of production and participation with our horses, and the limited number of participants to sell them to.  This relationship drives the market towards the production of more of what is popular and winning, in any given division. While efficient for the moment, this is not much different than the fad breeding of years past, and the laws of diminishing returns have already caught up.

The complaints of the last 4-5 years of show ring results are starting to drive today’s breeding decisions.

Now, more than ever, there is an effort underfoot to shift away from the sameness of the bloodlines that have been used so heavily for the last decade. The Arabian public is finally bored with most what they are breeding and consequently seeing in the show arena. This doesn’t mean that what was bred is bad; it means that it is now expected, and too few individual horses are surfacing to rise above expectations and excite the imagination.

In breeding, what trumps every stallion on the market is the next “new thing”. This refers to an exciting individual that bursts on to the scene with totally new bloodlines. Back in the day, this was possible and happened with frequency, with new stallion importations. Today, this is no longer possible because every source of new blood the world has to offer that could positively impact our English division has been found. The production and emergence of the “next new thing” will come from mixing the effective performance lines that remain. The “next new sire”, then, will be difficult to spot, because he will have to first prove himself to become visible, before he can possibly become dominant.

The key qualities of the “next new thing”

For our English division, the complaints have been, really, about uphill self- carriage. What is exciting to watch is an English horse, hindquarters lowered through deep engagement, trotting uphill with his/her head and neck highly elevated and softly flexed at the poll. The shoulders of this horse are loose, delivering forelimb motion such that the knees are higher than the elbows, and the delivery of that motion that is reaching enough to cover ground, with a balanced rhythm that is fluid and precisely cadenced. To complete this beautiful picture, all of this joint flexing motion has to be presented in a package wrapped without anxiety and the stiffness of tension. Other than a select few horses showing today, this isn’t what we are seeing. The conformational qualities that are necessary to produce the image that I’ve verbalized above are the keys to the future.

The key qualities are conformational balance, which leads to strength, trainability, and Arabian type. I’ve left out refinement as a key quality because all of the major stallions that can contribute are the products of an ongoing American predisposition towards breeding for refinement and the horses that we are producing are refined to the point of being weak.

Every breeding decision should compliment the broodmare.

The above statement might be the most over stated yet under used breeding tip in America. What your mare is (phenotype) reflects all of the possibilities of what she could be, filtered through the common denominator of why breeding great horses is so difficult and why breeding average horses is so easy, random selection. Random selection isn’t quite as random as the name implies. Random selection, however, will mostly select similar qualities with what you see if, in the pedigree, the horses in the past mostly have those same qualities. That’s why hidden deficiencies can, over the years compound and, for example, take away the chance that your foal will have an excellent hind leg. Daddy’s hind leg may have been decent, but suppose random selection gave him a hind leg a few percentage points better than what he should have received. Daddy then passed on, not the hind leg that he has, but what most of the horses in his pedigree have. The lineage then, in totality, is more or less what you will receive.

My point about every breeding decision complimenting the broodmare is that most people see what their mare is, but are fairly unaware of what she really represents. One should first know what the mare’s pedigree really represents, then, if the mare is true to her pedigree, breed to compliment her. If she isn’t what she should be, both in a good or a bad way, then look at the first 3 generations back and make decisions from that. I have seen (and personally bred) more national champions bred to national champions with the resultant foals being far from what either parent was than I care to admit. In the next article I will list what I feel are the viable potential sires that will have a positive impact on our English division, and discuss their potential strengths and weaknesses.

As an aside to the article, I currently have in training one of the best, if not the best, horse that I have ever ridden for the division he is being shown in. His name is RH Gladiator and he is the 2009 National Champion ½ Arabian Country English Pleasure horse. Peter Stachowski showed him to his victory in 2009, and Barbara Rothman subsequently purchased him. He was a champion with her in the Amateur division at the 2010 Scottsdale All Arabian show.

Why am I mentioning this?

He is by Mamage, and he truly is what his sire represents. Peter did a great job of training him. Gladiator is soft, willing, smart, talented, and absolutely beautiful. Every time I ride him I think, “This is a privilege, to ride a horse this good.” Watch for him and Barbara Rothman this year!

You can email me at mail@raylacroix.com.

Thanks,
Ray Lacroix

It’s like the saying, “Life is not about the destination, it’s the journey that’s important.”
Where this breed has landed, is what it is. How we got here, in my opinion, is worth knowing. What follows is my interpretation of what I saw happening.

I’ll begin this journey during the mid 1970’s. From roughly 1976 through 1986 were the wild growth years for the Arabian horse business and the Arabian horse breed. An unparalleled combination of inflation, tax preferences, marketing, national media exposure, and celebrity and VIP involvement, drove the sale prices for the high end of the premiere show horses from a high of about $30,000 to roughly $1,200,000, with many horses selling from $100,000 to $300,000. Registrations topped out at about 30,000 new horses registered in one year.

That was pretty amazing.

That was also the classic description of an asset bubble.

The bubble burst in 1986 during the Reagan presidency and the tax code changes that were enacted. The ability to write off expenses, if one was engaged in the “business of Arabian horses”, was radically altered and the formula that fed the VIP/celebrity induced growth no longer existed.

In 6 months, the upper end of the Arabian horse industry was decimated. In another year, the entire Arabian horse industry was dead.

What survived can no longer be called an “Industry”.

By taking a close, impartial look at what happened, it is easy to see how the gene pool for the Arabian breed took a left, exited the freeway, and started down some farm to market roads, looking for direction.

In the late 1980’s, at the end of the boom, performance horses were selling very well and halter horses were selling even better. The halter horses actually did have value as future breeding stock for more “halter horses”, and well bred broodmares sold for some high dollars as well. At this point, a “good” pedigree was highly regarded and had value. (I can do more about what a “good pedigree” was if there is interest in this)

It is important to note that when the tax code revision was enacted, it affected the entire U.S. economy and particularly the equine industry and real estate. The tax code revision, however, had no direct impact (other than our economic woes) on any other country.

Within 6 months of the enactment, most of the expensive horses that had been sold utilizing financing (popular at the time) were given back by the purchasers or were repossessed for non-payment. Other horses, similar in prestige and pedigree to those being repossessed, failed to sell, and like today’s real estate bubble, the market crashed. The large commercial breeders were immediately the most affected. Those establishments that were highly leveraged, failed, and went into bankruptcy. The demand for breedings slowed way down, and this, in turn, impacted mid level breeders. Within a year and a half, the entire US market for Arabian horse sales and breedings ground almost to a halt.

The foreign markets, at this point began to emerge as the only significant segment of the Arabian market with any viable activity. 90% of the foreign markets desired only halter horses, and so, for the next decade, the majority of Arabian horse breeding in America was driven to produce halter horses.

The roughly 10 year period just referenced (1988-1998) is very interesting due to the influences that occurred.

Performance breeding, though minimal, continued through the perseverance of Varian Arabians and Varian lines of Bey Abi, Bay El Bey, and Huckle Berry Bey, Huckle Bey Berry. Varian Arabians had been popular and highly viable before this period, but with the disappearance of Lasma and a host of other breeders, Varian became dominant.

Mom and Pop breeders struggled to produce anything that could be reliably sold and settled for the production of halter horses for two reasons; they could be sold as weanlings and yearlings, cutting the costs of production, and there were some foreign buyers. Performance horses, no longer selling as yearlings due to the lack of speculation, became too expensive to breed and then hold until 3yrs of age.

By the mid 1990’s Afire Bey V’s presence as a sire began to be felt. His offspring were taller, more refined, and had more “scope”, than those of Huckle Berry Bey and Huckle Bey Berry. The owners of Afire Bey V, Maroon Fire Arabians, guided by Tim and Marty Shea did an outstanding job of assembling a great broodmare band to support him. As well, the advertising acumen of Dave Liniger (owner of Re-Max realtors and Maroon Fire Arabians) was fantastic. Having production of winning stock, a persistent and dominant advertising presence, and the talent of Tim and Marty Shea involved with training and marketing proved to be an irresistible combination and Afire Bey V became the number one sire for over a decade. So… Varian breeding in one form or another, has been dominant in the performance market for roughly 20 years.

As well, remember that total Arabian breedings for the period of 1988 to 1995 was heavily dominated by the halter horse market. What this means is that Egyptian, Russian, and other domestic strains that had type were heavily utilized. These strains produced horses that were not as athletic as the Bask bred horses. Why? The majority of these horses were conformed with poor over all balance (short necks, blocky shoulders, long backs, high hocks, tipped pelvises). They had type, however.

Hind sight is always 20-20, and in retrospect it is easy to see what happened to our genetic pool. At the time, however, the only thing that I knew for sure was that the influence of the pretty headed halter horses that would trip if you threw a dime in front of them, was not good for our performance gene pool. It took more time to see and understand that the Varian breeding program, while producing some outstanding sires, had commonalities within some weaknesses that, when concentrated, took a toll. To be specific, weak hindquarters ran throughout the lineage. (To be fair, any breeding program, put through the same scenario, would end up producing both, good and bad qualities.) Under normal circumstances these sires would have been used on mares with stronger rear ends and other stallions with stronger rear ends could have been added in to this mix. But that didn’t happen because of the confluence of circumstances. Those strong rear ended horses simply didn’t exist in enough numbers to make a difference.

In the Arabian Horse world, cycles come and go. With the breeding scenario I have detailed, I provided rough time frames. However, the influence of the sires referenced had an ebb and flow of impact that crossed time lines. Indeed, as we speak, a new awareness of the athleticism necessary to help our breed is already starting the next era with new and old bloodlines. The artful mixing (breeding) of these bloodlines will extend the journey of the American Arabian horse to a new destination. Next month let’s talk about what makes good, bad, weak or strong. And most importantly, which horses will play significant roles.

I worry about our Arabian horse breed. I’m 54 years old and I really don’t think that, at this stage of my life, I should have to worry about our breed, but I do.

Why do I worry?

Because I still care.

What do I worry about?

All kinds of things.

I worry that we have no growth within our breed while other breeds are growing. I worry that this generation of children are growing up with digital toys, face book, and twitter, instead of going outside and playing in the mud, or grass, or even, God forbid, being around horses. (Or a farm, for that matter)

I also worry about the fact that our present day Arabian performance horses are being born without rear-ends. What, No Hind Legs??? No, not literally. They still have them. Hind legs, I mean. They just don’t function quite as well as they used to.

At the US Nationals this year, I thought that the competition in most of our English divisions was “better” than I’ve ever seen before. “Better”, meaning that I saw more, well prepared horses, competing, with out looking quite as strained and harassed as last year. Is this progress? Yes and no. The progress that has been made is by the trainers doing a better job with what they have to work with. The sad fact is, however, that these beautiful, well mannered, well turned out performance horses, are low voltage representations of the horses that we bred and trained 30 years ago.

How do I know this?

I remember.

I remember hearing my father talk about the various strains of Arabian blood that we were able to mix with our domestic Arabians through all of the European imports. There were, of course, the Polish lines. The main strains were the Kuheilan and Saglawi lines. Additionally, there was a big influence from the Crabbet Arabian Stud in England. Other imports came from Spain, Russia, and the Middle East. The most successful crosses for Lasma were combinations of Polish and Crabbet breeding mixed with our domestically bred Arabians.

I remember training not only the *Bask++ bred horses, but numerous others from different programs from around the country. With the limited knowledge that we had about training, the non-existent knowledge about soundness diagnostics and treatment, and the limits of a 12 oz shoe with no pad, we still managed to turn out some really great performance horses. Those horses of the past, trained and shod to today’s standards (along with the present day veterinarian technology), would have been tremendous. Think about the great park mare, Prowizja. She was Polish, had a rear end to die for, and great motion up front. She produced the park horses Ibn Prowizja, Cometego, Promotion, and Profire, all national champions. Think about the Polish mare, Mesalina. She was a park horse and was the dam of National Champion park horses Mieczych, and Mesol.

Were the “oldtime” horses mentioned above as tall and stretchy as our present day winners? No. The necks weren’t as long and refined, but they were long enough to fold softly at the poll. Their legs may not have been as long, but they were proportioned and contributed to over all excellent balance. What they had were powerful, wonderfully conformed, rear ends that had the carrying power that enabled them to squat or lower their hindquarters through engagement, and literally redistribute their balance to create true uphill carriage. These horses looked light in the bridle because they were light in the bridle. Their rear ends enabled them to carry themselves and their riders, not the other way around. And…they were exciting to watch.

Are these weak hindquarters that we are presently breeding a cause for concern?

I think so.

I think that we are rapidly losing the athleticism that has been in the heritage of the Arabian horse. Witness our poorly represented US National Champion Park horse class. Will this class be eliminated in the same manner as our formal driving and formal combination classes were?

What can be done about our problem? We can, as breeders, wake up to the fact that similar pedigrees producing horses that suffer from weak hindquarters, bred to the same similar pedigrees will continue to escalate the production of weak hindquarters.

Next month I will identify some of the trends that are responsible for weakening our genetic pools as well as discuss some of the older bloodlines that are still available that can improve functional hindquarters.

(Yes, we are going to talk about Mamage!)

You can get more information on our forum at Mamage Forum

(This blog is intended to encourage conversations and opinions on the state of the breed. We encourage you to ask questions of Ray, give us your opinions, or make suggestions for subjects you would like Ray to write on. We reserve the right to deny publication and may not be able to publish all comments.)

Besides horse training and being a coach, I am a consultant and as such, sometimes people hire me to find them “the right horse”. Right now I have 2 requests to find a National Champion quality purebred English Pleasure horse. You would think that finding these horses wouldn’t be that difficult, but there’s a catch. Great English horses are so hard to replace that most owners, if they have one, won’t sell them. (I have repeatedly had this same conversation with many well-known trainers, and they all say the same thing; Good horses are almost impossible to find). If the horses that I am looking for were show horses that were age 6 or older and actively competing, and for sale, I would know if they were out there. What I see competing that is potentially for sale isn’t what I’m looking for. What this means is that I will have to find these horses as 4 or 5 year olds while they are still relatively unproven. These horses will have been bred in 2004 or 2005.

The law of supply and demand

How many Arabians were registered in ’04 or ’05? I think a good guess would be about 3000 in each year. (I’m sure that’s not the exact number, but it’s close enough to serve the purpose). Let’s take the year 2005, for example. If 50% of the horses born in 2005 were bred to be show horses, which would be generous, then I have 1,500 possibilities. Being generous once again, if 50% of those 1,500 were bred to be performance horses only, I would have 750 horses to look at. But…let’s say that of the 750 performance breedings, only 40% were bred to be English horses (just a guess). I would now have 300 horses to look at. However, I know from experience that the quality of horse that I am looking for has less than a 1 in 10 chance of being “that good”. (Let’s just put it at 1 in 10). Now we are down to 30 potential horses to look at. Of those 30, how many do you think will be injury free, and mentally good training horses by the time they are 4 or 5?

I’ve done the math and at least I won’t have to spend too much money on airfares flying back and forth across the country. And… the one thing that I have discovered is that the type of Arabian that I want is RARE! And consequently EXPENSIVE!

History reminds us that the law of supply and demand isn’t a fad

In 1973 during the Arab oil embargo, long lines of cars formed at any gas station that still had gasoline to ration at exorbitant prices. Remember that time? (Don’t answer that).

In more recent times, now that it seems everyone is facing foreclosure, if you have been checking out beachfront property (because you think that you just might have a chance at that getaway condo), were you surprised to learn that beach front property has more than held every dream busting penny of value?

So, why breed now?

How many less breedings do you think were sold in 2009 as compared to 2005? Perhaps 50%? (I think that’s way low). So a few years from now, if you were me and on my mission, there could possibly be way less than 15 horses that would fit your criteria. (Could that be true?) Save on the plane fare, just take a bus, and remember the law of supply and demand. In the year 2013 there will be such a shortage of good young horses that prices will spike for several years.

Could there be a better time?

Because you are reading this particular article, on this web site, I’m going to take the liberty to assume a few things.

You are into English style Arabian horses.

You have probably been around this scene for a few years (not a newbie).

Either you are very opinionated or want to be (am I right???)

You probably don’t have a problem with your sense of self-esteem.

So I have a question for you, the reader, who admittedly has a great sense of self-esteem, and is mostly all knowledgeable about Arabian English horses.

Why don’t YOU take all of the knowledge that you have and put it to work by leasing a mare and breeding her??? Times being what they are, you would think that you could lease a great potential brood mare for a good rate (a mare that fits your own personal criteria so well, that you just know she’ll produce a winner). And, breedings to any stallion that you want just have to be on sale, don’t they?? (You’re on this site…….Maybe Mamage……Hey, I’m just saying…)

4 years from now, do you think that your ability to select a winner would help you out perform the “average” breeder? (You know you can).

Do you think that you can produce that 1 in 10 offspring that I am looking for? ((By God, You Know You Can).

4 years from now I will guarantee you that I will still have at least 2 people that want me to find them great English Pleasure horses. I will also guarantee you that there will be at least 10 more trainers that will have as many or more requests than I have. If you can breed the horse that I’m looking for you’d be in luck, ‘cause my budget, today, is north of $150,000.

Do you think that English prospects will be cheaper in 2013 than today???

Do you believe in the law of supply and demand?

Could you be competitive on “Are you smarter than a Fifth grader”?

Do you think that your odds of producing this foal are better than what you would get in the lottery?

Damn straight they are. Now get to it……..Hey, I’m just saying….

Ray LaCroix

You can get more information on our forum at Mamage Forum

(This blog is intended to encourage conversations and opinions on the state of the breed. We encourage you to ask questions of Ray, give us your opinions, or make suggestions for subjects you would like Ray to write on. We reserve the right to deny publication and may not be able to publish all comments.)