Arabian Horses

by Mohanned Al Mubarak

The Arabian horse story starts with Arabs in the old days, when there were a lot of legends about horses and maybe the most famous one said that God made horses from the wind.

The origin of the Arabian horse started with the messenger Suleiman. The story says people from Oman went to him and asked him about religion and about some things in this life. Then when they wanted to go back home they asked him to provide them with some supplies so he gave them a horse and told them, “This is your supply. Then when you stop, let one of you ride it and hunt with it while the others collect wood and set a fire. When you finish collecting you shall see him with some food he hunted.”

There are five main Arabian horse families which branch into twenty and these twenty branch into hundreds of families. So here we will talk about the five main families. The story about these five horses says that there were five wild horses found in the desert and five riders went after them. When they found these horses they made an ambush to catch these horses. After they caught the horses the riders decided to return home. On the way home their food was finished, so one of them said. “Let’s race and eat the losing horse.” So they raced and the loser didn’t agree to kill his horse. He asked them to repeat the race and when they repeated the race another horse lost so its rider asked to repeat the race. They kept repeating and every time another horse lost, they continued racing over and over again until a herd of gazelles appeared. They then hunted the gazelles and caught a few. The five horses were then named according to their predominant characteristic.

The first horse was called “Saglaweah” because she had soft hair. The second one was “ Um Argoap” (Argoap means that she has a neck like a scorpion’s tail) .The third one was called “ Al Soimah” (Soimah means spots) because this horse had spots. The fourth one was called “ Al-Kohellah” ( Kohellah means eye liner) because this horse had lines around its eyes. The fifth horse was called “ Al-Obeah” (meaning cloak) because this horse’s rider was wearing a cloak, which fell from his back during the race and hung from the horse’s tail. All Arabian horses raise their tails when running, but this particular type of horse raise their tails erect – at 90 degrees.

Arabian horses' most common colors

The five most common colors are white (which is called yellow), blue, red, blonde, and black. At the beginning of my explanation I would like to tell you that Arabs don't call white horses white, instead they call them yellow. This is done because white donkeys are called white and Arabs want to honor horses and differentiate them from donkeys. The second color, called blue, is used to describe horses who have black and white spots. The third color is red, which is used to describe red and brown horses. The blond and black are named according to their appearance.

Arabian horse aren’t born white, instead they are born blond or in any other color. As horses age white hair starts to appear on the horse's legs and face. As time passes more and more patches of white appear on the horse's body. At one point the horse's color becomes blue, then when there is more white hair than black the horse is said to be yellow. The horse gets whiter every summer, as it loses its old (black) hair, which is replaced by white hair. This horse may take two years, or the horse may die while it is still blue.

Characteristics of Arabian Horses

The most important characteristic in Arabian horses is its patience and loyalty to its owner. Their physical characteristics are as follows:- Height 150-160 cm, although we may find Arabian horses which are outside this range. It is important that the horse’s body must be symmetrical. The neck, back, legs and head must fit with one another in a perfect compact form. They have a large muscle so they can breathe fast. The also have large eyes, the larger and darker the better. They have soft skin, a muscular body and an especially muscular short back. A large chest indicates that it has large lungs so it can handle physical exhaustion. Another important feature is that Arabian horses sweat a lot, and it is said that they are warm-blooded (They don't like any one to ride them and if some one rides them they want to run as fast as they can). The last feature is that when Arabian horses run they raise their tails.

This raising of tails differs from family to family. Some families raise it to the right and some to the left, and the famous raising is that of Al-Obeah family, which raise their tails at 90 degrees Al-Obeah horse are known to hide their riders. The riders can not be seen from the front because the horse has its head raised, and can't be seen from the back because the horse has its tail raised.