Whispers from the Tent

To me, the Arabian Horse is the desert horse; a noble creature and the most beautiful conquest of man he is the true and faithful companion and friend to whoever loves and keeps him. He is the father of all good horses in the world, and it is like a symphony of pride, courage, grace, refinement, substance, and power. This symphony is played at its best, very well studied and perfectly balanced. It is the work of God. l No man can do better.

Stressing one note would be at the expense of another. Here lie my fears: people love the Arabian horse. It is not difficult to do so in fact it’s hard not to but people have to learn to love him the way he is with his faults, as well as his good qualities of course, we all think he should be bred to perfection, but what is perfection? Perfection is relative to what one thinks or imagines or needs.

Caught between everyone’s beliefs this heavenly gift of God will be lost. He is small. We say he does not have much of a neck, he has not the greatest movement in the world, etc. etc. we seem to be always looking for faults, faults, which could be in fact his qualities as a desert horse, the desert horse long dash small and exquisite, dainty dry light and very refined lawn dash eats Little drinks. Little is able to fly without wings, carrying his friend in the vast and extremely hot desert of Arabia. No sweat no short breath always full of spirit and head high with his fine densely bone legs that do not sink in the sand and graceful high movement like his Desert companion the gazelle, for which he does not really need a long neck.

If everyone keeps on breeding him the way they conceive he should be instead of the way he was meant to be we might as well confess to ourselves that we are breeding a different, beautiful horse to fit our needs of today. “close to the blood“ but not the pure Arabian that over the years and ages has inspired kings and sultans, poets and painters, and to whom we all to whom we owe all the good breeds of the world today.

I pray and hope that breeders of pure Arabians will always keep in mind that he is a desert horse. He should be loved and appreciated for what he really is because he simply cannot be better.

“He who keeps a mare, for the love of God is a kid to he who prays, fast, and gives to the poor.“ This is one of the most beautiful sayings I have ever heard about the Arabian. He is blessed by God and I believe that if we keep him as he is, pure as we can, for the love of God, also will be blessed.

— The late Danni El Barbary of Shams el Assil Stud, Cairo, Egypt

Photo by Denise Hearst