So tell me about Cow Bred Arabians

Khemander Kody was a phenomenal horse. He was a Khemosabi son and Khemo horses seemed to always do really well at the western disciplines. I'm sure they still do, though Khemo wouldn't be as close up.

I'm not familiar with the horse, Tempo.

Kalaloch I've known since he was a foal. He did well in young horse halter classes, then went on to do western disciplines, cutting and reining. He did really well in both. Unfortunately he was before his time, cow classes and such still really haven't caught on all that well with Arab folks and his owner made the huge mistake of showing him open and doing well. He's pure Polish, smart as a whip, super easy to handle and now doing dressage. I don't think she ever gelded him but thought about it. He was just never really accepted because he wasn't a halter or Saddleseat champion. Really sad, he had/has a lot he could have offered.

Arabians can do anything you want them to, most can do more than one thing and do it well. When I first moved out here to OK, I got told several times that those "itty bitty Ayrabs" just couldn't be expected to hold a cow. And then I saw my first cutting or reining bred QHs. My comment,which didn't go over well, was, "I have yearlings bigger than that.". I thought they were all babies and was shocked to find out they were full grown. So much for "itty bitty Ayrabs".
My trainer, Tom, had not met my Arabs when I got Skippy and wanted to get some good QH mares to breed to him. He sent me to a sale to find a, "Nice, Big, Heavy mare" to breed to him. That's when I first saw cutters & reiners. I found the nicest, biggest, heaviest mare in the place and bought her. Tom said, "But......she's halter bred.". I said, "Well, you said go find a big mare, so I did.". We got to talking about what I'd seen there at the sale and when I told him I had yearlings bigger than those horses, he came to see my Arabs and had to agree that "itty & bitty" did not fit my Ayrabs. LOL!

Since then, he's trained a couple of my Ayrabs and wouldn't admit it to anyone else but he fell in love. It was pretty darn funny to hear him talking nonsense about them and stand there loving on them and hopping up to ride and having a huge grin on his face. He used them to bring cows up for roping, then started them on the Hot Heels and then roped on slow cows with them, his daughter would take them out trail riding, and I'd do western pleasure and trail with them, in addition to halter.

My last Arab, Cloney, did halter in both main ring and sport horse, won at both. Then did hunt seat pleasure, then western pleasure and now western dressage and riding out on trail. He's won at everything he's ever done in the show ring. And has been easy to do it with. Was one of the easiest stallions I've ever handled and raised, and now as a gelding, he's super easy too. They're some pretty darn nice horses. And I'm not saying that to take anything away from the stock horses, they're pretty darn nice too.

Zimalia22 said:

We used to show all over WA, OR and ID. Even MT, and ventured up into Canada. You get to see some real nice country, meet good people, and see some darn good horses.
I guess I just don't understand those that don't want to step up, and see other parts of the country. We had a lot of fun in the "trailer race" as it's called.
Others are always welcomed to a cutting horse show. There are plenty of good folks that will help a newbie get started. Yet, the arabian people don't come. They should! How will they ever know if their arabian cutter can cut it if they never try! You win, you get paid!
We always heard that they are as good or better than QH cutters, but they never come on out and give it a try. I would just like to see one arab with ncha earnings! It means they had the guts to get out and try it!

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From my experiences with the Arabian shows, the horses at the very top are rarely ridden by owners or ammies. I can't tell you how many times we heard, "Well, it was only an amateur class, it doesn't count." or "Well, you trained him yourself, it doesn't count." or "Well, it was only Pinto World Championships, it doesn't count." or "OH you showed in an open class and won? My, they must not have realized you were an amateur.". "You can't show him in those shows, what if he doesn't win?". There was absolutely no thought for the owner doing stuff with their horse and having fun showing as a pair. It was a total AFRONT to show in the open (trainer) classes rather than ammy. I had never heard the expression, "You know what Reserve Champion means? First loser.". I almost went to jail that day. Oh, and a class with less than 10 horses in it? Happened all the time. Win that class and you'd get, "Yeah but you didn't have any competition, there were only 2, 4, 6 horses in it. It doesn't coun't." It was without doubt the most negative experience I've ever had with horses.

I've told this story before but it's very illuminating. My husband had to go to Regional Championships to qualify for US Nationals. He called once he got there and told me there were only 2 horses in his class and the other horse was, in his words, "Fugly". I asked who it was and he told me. Said, "We've got this in the bag.". I knew the horse and who its trainer was, so asked who was showing him in the class (ammy class). He told me and I said, "Don't worry about it honey, Reserve is just fine.". The ammy was the trainer's paid amateur. It was well known whose barn the horse was in and that the handler was an ammy on paper only and that guaranteed the win. My husband couldn't believe it. Called me back later and told me, "We went Reserve. And they followed me back to the stall and tried to buy Cloney.". They took their horse home and gelded him and he wasn't shown again.

That was also the year at Nationals where a guy had bought a bunch of working cow horses and showed them to several championships. Guess what? They were ringers. Not an Arab in the bunch. AHA fought tooth and nail to keep from having to re-award those championships to actual Arabs and Half Arabs. That was the year we brought Cloney home, sold the mares and gelded him. Haven't shown Arab shows since, strictly open and he's done fine. That's why I can talk all day about some of the older Arabs but don't really know much about the 'current crops'. Don't care either.