Blog - Shame in the Horse Show Ring

I found the blog Shame in the Horse Show Ring today. An interesting blog to say the least. A subject put forth which for years I was showing our Arabians aggravated me to no end. As all horse owners believe, their favorite breed is the best. For me it is Arabians, but let me stress an excellent horse of any breed is IMHO a joy to behold. I also am a believer that all horses regardless of what they look like should be treated with honor and respect!


Pictured in my LO is one of our family's three Arabians. This is Ibn Zubaydahh (Tammen x Zubaydahh) a Straight Egyptian we bred. In fact the last one we bred. He's a dream, well behaved with a fun loving streak. He isn't for the faint of heart. His mind like all Tammen babies is quick and devious at times. He isn't for a beginner. He will test and test you just for the fun of it. His forever home now resides at the ranch. His companion is Asia TA an El Hadayhh daughter. She has been at the ranch for 10 months as a refuge of Ike. She finally gets to return to her Mother, my Mom next Monday. The third I've yet to meet and shame on me for forgetting his name. Mom just adopted him. A very sweet gentleman in his aged years she says. I will meet him in a couple of weeks. The fourth equine we own is a donkey by the name of "Donkey" who pulls double duty at the ranch as a guard animal and halter breaks our show calves for us. To me the three I know well are so special to me. They never are abused but respected loving members of our family.

As I wrote "Shame in the Horse Show Ring" is a terrific blog! It points out the abuses that go on in the show world. A good friend near our Houston home was telling me about a the Arabian English (Saddle Seat) Horses. I was appalled to hear of them being shoe with stacked shoes, if that is even the correct terminology. I thought in the late eighties we solved that problem from ever beginning to occur. Arabians aren't AHS or Walkers. They are a desert horse: smart, brave, beautiful, and sensitive. WHY!!!!? would the people involved in Arabians do this. I've been away from the show scene since the early '90's because of money back then. Our kids got involved with livestock and that is the direction we have taken. I could never go back with this treatment of a breed as wonderful as the Arabian.

As I sat and read several posts today on "Shame in the Horse Show Ring." The post dated April 28, 2009, Model Citizens of the Horse World, is a post after my own heart. It talks about horse owners with an "ego." Something that would grate on me with several trainers in the show world. An truth be told I see it to some extent and much less in the cattle show world. For the most part it is from those who have moved or are showing horses, too. I shy away from them.

Speaking of which....abuse of horses just doesn't occur in the show world, it occurs outside of it, too. I happened to have my daughter tell me about a man who was chiropractor when she had an appointment the other day. This man had his horse literally dance on his back, run wide open around the ring several times then headed down a calf chute. Read between the lines....he did something to that horse to cause it. I have no sympathy. The nurse at the doctor's said he was always in for something relating to his horses (that was to me as I took my daughter to her appointment)....again read between the lines......I have no sympathy! I've been riding since I was nine and started with English Hunt Seat lessons on a Welsh cross horse. I've only ever had one horse in my entire life buck with me. It was a quarter horse who had a bad accident with another rider working on a ranch I worked on. A cow turned on her and she went to pitching. I road her out, more afraid of the cow then the mare bucking. She took three huge pitches, I kept kicking her forward until she took off at a run. About a hundred yards later I was able to slow her into an easy lope and then to an easy trot and finally to a jog. I never punished her or hit her. Her accident was she had been flipped when her legs got tangled in a rope after the rider roped the cow. In forty years of riding, I've been unseated by a horse shying at something or stumbling. I've never had one buck in training a youngster to saddle.

I've become a follower of "Shame in the Horse Show Ring," if for nothing else then to make a statement that abuse of any animal is abhorrent to me and my sensibilities!

For those animal rights activists who sit and read my blog....I don't tolerate animal abuse! Here at the ranch my husband laughs as he watches "my kids", the show calves, following me around their pasture. Somewhere along the line I would like animal rights activists to give me the freedom to do what I love and that is to contribute to the food supply of my country and to the world. I AM NOT A FACTORY FARM!

Kim