funding for this program provided in part by the Arabian horse owners foundation serving the Arabian horse community since 1956 it is the dawn of a new life and with it all the questions of what the future holds what will become of her this filling how far will she go on those skinny legs as far as this is how it wins some might say she is after all an Arabian [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] the veterans of the desert perfected the breeding of the horse we refer to the art of breeding because it it is an art in itself to maintain the high quality and a high level established thousands of years ago indeed Arabians have maintained their pure bloodlines for over 2,000 years judy forbus is a noted authority and author on the history and origin of the Arabian horse the origin of the Arabian horses is really steeped in history and mystery the Arabs like to say that God took a handful of the Southwind and created the horse there from the horse originated in this deep south of Arabia and was isolated there for so many years because of the climate and the desert and that the Bedouin used the horse and bred it within a specific group of bloodlines so that this particular type of horse came into being they say that Arabian actually came from the root word Barba which means to move because the veterans were always moving the derivation eventually came that they called an Arab or Arab or Arabian probably the most important thing a better ones took their horses were to move anticipate or to be able to adjust to different tactics you know they were fierce the horse had to be very nimble because often it was difference of whether a rider kept his head or not they were afraid the Stallions would give away their positions so most of them Road mayors and usually they attacked just before dawn there were warring tribes and they raided each other's territories rub their sheep rub their camels and of course the horse was in many instances their means of attack and retreat just as the bad ones relied on their horses to travel great distances in a short time Arabian horses continue to demonstrate their amazing endurance in competitions the Telus Cup 100 miles over the land west of Lake Tahoe Nevada is one of the oldest endurance races in the country dr. Marsha Smith John Crandall and Crockett Dumas are among the riders getting ready for what many believe to be the toughest and most prestigious tests for horse and rider veterinarians like dr. Richard barceló will monitor their progress the founder of the ride was Wendell will be and he started it in 1955 claiming that today's modern horse could do what some of the whole Pony Express horses too did and carrying the mail the ride itself is difficult in terms of heat humidity dust rocks and then the clock following you trying to get it all done in 24 hours you know you don't just come out here and perform at your best and do the best by your horse without some pretty significant knowledge of the course I divided the course into three sections when I ride it the first third is most challenging for the technical terrain it goes through Granite chief wilderness area and there are lots of rock hazards the trails very rough there are also bogs that the horses have to go through it's always a relief when you get to Robinson with your horse unscathed and get out of that bed check and continue on the second section of the trail is challenging for the canyons a lot of riders will get off and run down the hill with a horse or tail the horse up out of the canyons both riders and horses are doing a lot of work through there the canyons and there's three canyons and they end Forest Hill bath Road in Forest Hill where the second one our hold is and that starts you into the last section of the trail that's where the race starts is it Forest Hill so you've got a third of the race left to go or should have a lot of energy left and so should you and then the trail is challenging at that point because there's some of the most precipitous cliffs the horses are a little tired riders are a little tired and for most of the riders you're riding at night there's a lot of luck involved in covering this hundred miles of rocky terrain but in some ways you can make your luck good with good judgment in common sense so I've got a horse who's ready and I was born under a lucky star so I'll see how I do 2:22 pam Stalley and her two teenage daughters will be making the ride as well and of course it's gonna go 100 miles through these hills as a very interesting starting so you just always try to survive the start because you know you've got a lot of power under you and then you try to manage that power and that fuel throughout the whole hundred miles everybody's got to admit that they are scared right amigo but courage is overcoming the fear and it's a little thing you let the horses job [Music] a win is finishing it about winning I mean I wouldn't even think about winning the teres people ask me oh are you gonna ride the terrace and no I would say I would hope so it can be estimated that less than 50% of the horses who start the tempest will complete it to date over 90% of the winning horses have been pure or half bred Arabians veterinarian ray randall knows the breed arabs do better endurance righty then then about any other breed that I've that I've been been associated with they have huge hearts they've got huge lungs when their nostrils dilate and they extend their head they it's just like putting a supercharger on a car Arabs are particularly built for the way the endurance is to come because Arabs were typically bred in the Middle East they had camels for packing the big stuff and making longer tracks your horse was what you got on when you were in a hurry to get a message to the next town or when you were going to mount to go have a feud Arabs were almost bred for the range between kingdoms the bloodlines of these horses remained pure for thousands of years the Arabian had been isolated for centuries the Arabs and Turks refusing to sell their prized possessions to foreigners these horses would only leave their native territory as royal gifts or for political purposes but the power beauty and intelligence of the breed could not be contained it moved into what we now refer to as the Middle East India and Europe with the Islamic conquest exportation of these horses moved to a new level with the arrival of the travelers from a small island far to the northwest the English there were a number of Victorian travelers that went to Arabia in the mid-1800s and they've left us some marvellous records and probably the most significant without question would be Lady Anne and Wilfred Blount from England they set out to acquire horses in the desert and in those days it was an incredible journey to go into Arabia and especially a woman but they did succeed in bringing quite a number of horses back to England and also as to establishing a very famous stud in in Egypt but Lady Anne was the one who truly loved the horse and through her research and through her devotion to carrying on the breeding program was one of the great people of the Western world that brought this horse forward there was no way the breed would not equally fascinate her lovers across the Atlantic by the 1930s there was a growing importation of Arabians into the United States like I'm with family because everybody has an Arabian horse it's part of the same tribe anyway we share our passion I don't think anybody enjoys their horses as much as Ryu some of the most important breeders include Roger Selby WR Brown Homer Davenport WK Kellogg and William Randolph Hearst the crabbit stud founded by the blunts and mate world famous by their daughter Lady Wentworth is exemplified today in horses such as a.m. Bend today there are more than a million Arabian horses in the world over 300,000 of them are in the United States bred from coast to coast we made a decision four years ago to move out to Santa Ynez from Naples Florida and actually the decision was driven mostly by the horses as far as climate access to equine vets and the Arabian horse community probably saniye Nez today is probably the largest concentration of Arabian horse breeders and training centers in the country Henry and Kristy Metz own silver maple farms where they specialize in breeding Egyptian strains of the Arabian horse Cynthia Culbertson oversees their breeding and sales operations when the Westerners began to go from Europe to Arabia and seek of these wonderful horses they would hear lots of different names mentioned like kuhaylan and a-buyin and so Chloe and they wanted met that the Arabs had several different breeds of horses eventually they found out that the Arabs who very much love their war mares divided them into family [Applause] and gave them names descending from the female line strain breeding is when you take a particular strain let's say Domon show on and you breed for the characteristics of that strain in that case most of the document or Sasaram or compact horse very beautiful faces and eyes very noble at shibaura is showing us and you would concentrate on the characteristics from that particular strain so what all we really comes down to our different families used together in this long and wonderful history of the Arabian horse and creating your own blend or recipe something that was successful in the desert and replicating it today even thousands of years later this is Sammy and shy he is he represents the hot bonanza he strain and this is the strain that we use to blend with our horses to bring them back into type and frame they're very strong they're very similar to the kyln but maybe a little bit finer besides being very beautiful he passes just a wonderful wonderful character okay this filly will do what we call a little dance which all the ciruit babies have it's a natural movement called a pia where they just kind of spring off their little feet from the ankle and almost dance and that is natural and every one of the Cirque des bees has that along with the tail immediately popping up and they have a great deal of pride these babies that he sires this is not only a beautiful blending of physical characteristics it's a beautiful blending of character the mayor is very feminine but the sire brings to the table a little more hotness and joyfulness and pride of show off and every one of the babies has that too so this is a really really good Nick what we would call a Nick this is what you look for in breeding to find the the best Nick that you can to get the best traits from both sides of the parents one of the most obvious things about an Arabian of course is the shape of their head their large eyes dark eyes very important in the desert and something we call dryness you can see this tear bone and this vein think about being in a desert where it can get a hundred and thirty-five degrees and you can tell that thin skin is so important it's kind of a desert air-conditioning for these horses we also have a small muzzle but you can see her large nostrils that's very important to take in that hot desert air and cool it tail carriage very high a lot of people believe that this is a form of desert air conditioning as well allowing body heat to escape they also have a very beautiful arched neck and a fineness about their bones their veins short backs are really important the Arabian horse always had a super short back and that meant they could carry writers and equipment very heavily over long distances and do just fine the Arabians are famous for having a width between the jaw here so that that windpipe is open and clear for galloping long distances and we know the Arabian has the greatest stamina of any breed if you need to go a hundred miles in one day this is what you want and if you want to go to America's most prestigious horse show this is what you have to have with a whole lot more the United States National Championship Arabian and half Arabian horse show this is the big one more than two thousand horses competing the best of the best this is the most exciting horse show in the world to announce [Music] you feel the energy and to give it back and people get more excited and more excited and and the whole evening can just become magic [Applause] for up it five 4:30 in the morning we go to bed it like like it 1 2 and do it there for two weeks no stopping today we actually had break we took a nap I've been braiding for so long that this is just habit anymore of how to do it so I don't even think about it sassy towards this can range in price like you can find a good deal on a horse for maybe 20 if they're young and our prospects other times like finish the good ones quality can go up to two hundred and fifty thousand high or lower this is like crunch time right now those that win here will go down in history as the top competitor in the Arabian and half Arabian breathing the classes that you might see at the US national championship show would include in hand classes which would be stallions and mares and geldings we also see the yearlings which would be again Colts and fillies they are half Arab and purebred you would also see English pleasure classes show hat classes western pleasure classes hunter classes throughout the show [Music] the National Champion stallion these are like their Triple Crown winner he's like Scottsdale which is a huge major show Canada the Canadian Nationals and it's just one US Nationals [Music] in this breed [Applause] a stallion win here can a breeder sell maybe a hundred breedings as a result of an effort national championship win that could easily profit that particular breeder of $600,000 as a result of that National Championship win [Applause] [Music] the younger mayor championship is on these from Bolin and she's called by the Polish people the princess of home I see her picture in the post office around the country work more than average coalition people look at it Arabian horses as a symbol for their country the native costume horses show at the walk the canter and the hand gallop they come in the gate at the canter which no other class in the Arabian world does there isn't any trotting in the class as there is in every other class because in the desert sands very little trotting was actually done it's very deep there and so the class recognizes that and so they show it the walk and the canter and then they move on to the hand gallop with all all appointments flying all the costume the customs are based on authentic costumes of course with the show business angle to it more sparkles and sequins and diamonds are added to the costume that of course you wouldn't see in the desert but the idea of it is authentic they always wear a headdress be it a turban or a veil many of the costumes are imported from Arabia many of them are made here they're terribly expensive when they first began in medieval England actually the main concept was to ride with and capture the attention of the king many of the women were actually sewn into their writing habits they fitted so snugly so of course it's good enough for the people to do to ride with the King it became popular with the masses and all the ladies started riding sidesaddle [Music] from the very proper to the dirt chicken from one costume to another the versatility of the Arabian rules the ring this is the Arabian working cow horse class and it is a competition between one horse and one cow so the horse is the lead partner in this so-called dance manoeuvre when you have shown the judge that the horse is paying attention to the cow then you take it down one of the rails either rail and make at least one good for each directions then you take the cow to the center of the arena and circle at once at once at each way it sounds very simple but sometimes the cattle have a mind of their own [Applause] [Music] there's such a great machine in spite of us they do well good shooting for shooing these are you know it's the greatest machine in the world these shoes were putting on don't make them fries I mean they they enhance what they're doing just a little bit actually burn into the shoe and I can look at that and go well this needs to come in that needs to go out get as close you can with all smoke and heat and what Jill let you do is usually are lighter shorter footage a lot of them have gone to the bigger shoes not as heavy as we with horses the Rangers and of course they have sliding plates that actually you know enhance the stop or make them slide which is just for show [Music] reading class is each writer by himself doing the pattern that is prescribed a one small circle to ours fast circles then will be lead change then you have your turns or spins as are called there will be at least three sliding stops after each one though there may be either a rollback or you back up they're all wonderful but I think the park risk class generates the most excitement [Music] and why it's called Park horse is because indeed in the parks in England it was kind of like today's people show off their cars the riders of the time and the gentlemen who could afford the very best horses wanted to have the best horse then it has to trot higher and be brighter and be more beautiful than any other horse in the park being a u.s. national champion of the arabian national championship show is the epitome for anyone who always shows breeze or loves Arabian horses if they only went at once their career is complete got to be the most exciting and fulfilling moment in the world to have your horse named a national champion making history and making money the equine industry is a multi-billion dollar industry the financial impact for this community for this city is approximately twenty two million dollars really well top ten to seventy eighty four eighty four how to 84 so yeah which is great here I'm good to go home fuzzy and be a horse for a while now to show a season's over with officially forum it seems like a long way from the competition and the camaraderie of the children to the ranch land of Nebraska out here a horse is expected to work long hard hours yet here too on Adam Edmonds ranch that four-legged icon of the American West is also an Arabian we're located in Sioux County Nebraska which is the most Northwest County in the panhandle of Nebraska it's the third largest county in the state of Nebraska but there's only one town which is about 300 people my grandfather's dock Mike's a minute Arabian business for 65 years I kind of had a lifelong dream being a rancher and in the western part of the United States he got into the business in 1942 fell in love with the Raffles type horses that mr. Selby was raising in in Ohio we can't really good friends with Jimmy Dean and Daisy Tankersley and other individuals that you call themselves the Raffles mafia and it's stuck to this reading program throughout that timeframe this rate being heard is one of the oldest herds in the country they have a job to do now jobs to do what we're doing today move cattle do cattle work it's not unusual to do 12-hour days for ten days to two weeks at a time and you get back on the same horse every day this source old rope calves all day and this is predominantly quarter horse country our neighbors will change out to three horses to rope calves does their horses will get tired this horse never he never backs down he just keeps roping calves all May to do anything we have to do in my ranch we handle more cattle with less people in anybody in Sioux County will trail a thousand yearlings 15 miles with five people and why Arabians my grandfather he had Arabians so I told him I like God like he's Arabian so it's kind of fun the Buffalo in the herd there's just a novelty that I was just playing with they got cheap here a few years ago and so I thought I'd buy one and see what Ted Turner is all about there they're kind of just pretty much like a cow they're not as hard to handle as everybody thinks we have varying trained a lot of what you see here today undulating ridges prairie you can't have a good ranch horse that can't stand up to this kind of country and this is tough country this is a cold and winter and hot in the summer our horses are outside all the time we don't you know we have a barn but they're not in the barn very often they're the babies are born outside they stay outside all winter so we breed for a tough horse the kind of a tough horse that could wind the terrace the riders are now approaching Robinson flat a crucial vet check located 37 miles into the race [Music] Arabs have a way of zoning and getting into the games shutting out everything else about themselves and just focusing [Music] it's not a matter of so much the speed but the metabolic efficiency of being able to get from here to there and not consuming to so many calories and that's really what it comes down to an endurance race in the end it's it's not so much a power race it is an efficiency race because you've everybody's only got one horse got to be a very efficient animal to do this you go through everything you'll ever see on an endurance ride in one ride in 100 mile trail you've got some hard pack but you've got narrow mountain trails you've got rocks you've got roads you've got traffic but a wilderness that is so far out there well you don't want to get stuck out there because you're out there on nowhere just all these people and they're cheering you on and just just pulling for you and yelling it's like the Tour de France when you come into a vet jack it's it's like coming to the top of one of those mountains when we vet horses in we don't always know who's going to do what each stop during the ride he'll represent this card we're getting a snapshot of the horse what he's doing right now but they're they're living with him the horses can eat they can drink they can be taken care of the riders can get them cooled off there's not a lot of water on this trail so the hydration is extremely important two years ago I was finishing top five the last couple years I was always ahead he's 19 years old name is mr. Joseph [Music] and she did fabulous through the rocks I've never ridden her through any terrain like that so she acted like she was a ice skater at the Ice Capades I felt like chopped liver for a week takes everything out I mean I'm 60 years old so maybe takes a little more I mean I know younger people [Music] right after switchback here there [Music] 100 miles in one day that's a busy day it isn't easy people can zip down in two hours with the car from Truckee Auburn and paint up another but we're in the country of the tests of horse that's a rider too and it's not easy it's not an easy extent the biggest challenge is probably patience you've got to go slow and pace your horse otherwise you're going too fast through the rock you'll wind up the sole bruising next to the US Nationals the most important show for demonstrating the incredible athleticism of the Arabian is the national sport horse Championship held every year in the fall Edie Peterson is the show manager and member of the sport horse national show Commission this show differs very greatly from the national championship show in Kentucky you have five rings going but we have primarily four disciplines hunter/jumper that's the test of horse and rider over fences of various heights various courses if you look at the ring okay what we call lines which are set distances or single fences such as this and basically it's what manners and way of going in the way that the horse jumps the face consistent pace traveling an even kind of a jump over top does he wear his knees does he does he pick his feet up there are major faults a major fault would be trotting on course only refusals are knock downs or major faults then if you were to go over to the sport horse in hand and on the flat pretty nervous everything's riding on this performance those are classes just looking at the sport horse as an individual athlete without a rider in hand looking at his way of going conformational quality and the overall suitability of a sport horse to be an athlete then we come on over here to the dressage ring and dressage is perhaps the epitome of rider and horse riding her half Arabian fancy trick Hilde gurney is a three-time Olympian Rider and holds six national championship titles in dressage dressage is two horses what ballet or gymnastics or figure skating is to humans massage comes from the medieval period and now the Middle Ages and dressage means training in French it's what the soldiers did with their horses when they were stuck indoors with a horrible cold weather and it was no Wars to fight so they did all these fancy things with their horses and that became dressage and it became an international and the big discipline it's one of the only sports where men and women compete equally we all wear wear or what I call penguin suits and you really can't tell the age of the sex of the rider it makes a very level playing field and it's your harmony with the horse and it's sort of an ageless sexless sport where everything is what you and your horse can do together and of course training these fabulous animals and working with them and developing this tactile language you have with this phenomenal animal who just wants to please you just tremendously and has it's tremendous body and athletic ability is the most exciting thing in my life I just love riding it feels like you and the horse are one I mean truly a centaur that you have the strength of the horse and the power and the elasticity of the horse and they're an extension of your own body it's really a oneness really fabulous another event in which the Arabian horse has proven his championship ability is that of competitive driving competitive driving and goes way back to when the carriages we're going through the parks and have people decided well this isn't much fun let's see what we can do to create a little competition here been driving there are a number of different types of obstacle courses this is one type this is will be classified as a time competition since that seems to be the largest factor completing the course and then fastest time really is a determiner who will end up to be the winner horses do you have a tendency when you ask them to move forward the to change gears as you're good in the car and the next year for a horse from the trot is they canter and here it's penalized so what they're trying to do it's very difficult sometimes to get them to move forward and lengthen that stride at the Trop about breaking into the candidate there is a prescribed dress most of them are turned out in a fashion as if they were on their way to something on their way to church off for an afternoon in a visitor friend hats are mandatory lives are mandatory and what's called a driving apron is mandatory she's a ton of 129 704 and she looks like she's in the range I mean I'm not sure I'll check with the judgments if it's the fastest time to know I think driving allows people to do is to continue the career much longer of courses driving is something that people can do of all ages if you go people of all ages that is so true of those who love this breed they start young for many of them it began with a book when I was a young girl my aunt gave me a book called the black stallion I think probably ten thousands thousands upon thousands of kids have been given this book but even though I'd been riding horses for quite a few years it just changed my whole perception about a horse the black stallion by Walter Farley is a story of a young boy marooned on a desert island his only companion a black stallion another popular Farley book is little black a pony geared for young readers both books form the basis of the black stallion literacy project the black stallion Literacy Project is a literacy project that uses the black stallion books written by Walter Farley combined with live horse experiences to motivate and inspire kids to become lifelong readers today we are watching what we call second touch which is a field trip that our first graders take to a local horse ranch where they get to go through four different stations and learn about feed tack grooming and horseshoe right here these are horseshoes right now we all wear shoes right right you have shoes I have shoes everybody has shoes right hold up you're right they've spent the last four weeks working on a book little black a pony and this is just a way for them to celebrate their successes in reading they also get an opportunity to reach your horse while they're here at the ranch [Music] the experience makes it very real for them they actually get to meet the two characters in the story that they're reading little black and big red I think it really motivates them and inspires them to want to learn to read [Music] they've been working really hard learning to read little black a pony and they're looking to build on that interest of horses and they always come off the bus is really excited energetic ready to see the horses and learn more Arizona we've had approximately 16,000 kids come through so in both 1st and 4th and I think Florida is close to 30,000 yeah these books and the life-force experiences are really going to catch their imagination and make them want to learn to read that reading is fun and you know when they can read they can go anywhere it'd be anything and do anything the fourth graders are actually reading the chapter book the black stallion and they work on that book with their teachers back in their classrooms for approximately six weeks before they attend a show at a local arena where they actually get to see the black stallion the children will see a traveling show which brings the black stallion to life the production was adapted from Arabian Nights a dinner theater of horses riders and actors based in Orlando Florida Mark Miller who co-founded the Literacy Project with his friend Tim Farley is also the owner and creator of Arabian Nights a one-year I went the SeaWorld and I just thought it'd be marvelous to do what for horses what SeaWorld does for marine mammals so we started Arabian night [Applause] what we do is we use music and lights and special effects and a plot and bring it all together so they can feel the joy and some of the sorrow and the disappointment and and the expectations and then the sheer relation of owning and riding words the megastar is Walter Farley's black stallion the most famous fictional horse of all time and I'll have to admit that there is a quite a bit of responsibility we have to every night have a superior performance that lives up to the expectations people have when they read Walter Farley [Music] block saying literacy project will do 70,000 children this year in first and fourth grades encouraging them and hopefully exciting them to have an interest in reading that they haven't had before this is a horse that in his career with us is going to rear probably ten thousand times so he has to have a very good leg so he doesn't break down he has to be exciting enough so when he comes into the ring I get oohs and ahhs from the crowd and he lives up to the expectation of the great racehorse and then he has to be trainable enough and calm enough so that the woman riding him in silk pants can do that at a full gallop with no saddle no bridle that's what an Arabian horse is to me a love affair that may start with a book or a fantasy can turn into a lifelong bond for many horse owners an Arabian horse is simply a backyard horse a companion a reason to go for a ride that's one thing I've enjoyed immensely was joining up with other people who do these trail rides with us and you get to make good friends and share a lot of advice I've learned an awful lot from everybody and I come back I've just had a wonderful day I used to show for years I showed just about every discipline and you get to the point where you're kind of just looking for something else something a little less stressful less expensive perfect evening for a ride we've been waiting a long time for some nice Pleasant weather I think most of us are so used to driving cars and did be able to get outward maybe no one has ever been before no cell phone service out there some places and that's great I've got a 24 year old Arab here her name is phantom I had her for about five years now I think she did some inventing before I had her though I know nothing about it all we do is trail right why do you travel right because it feeds your soul and it's relaxing and it makes you happy and it makes you smile and you get to enjoy friends or get to go by yourself and just be out it's good for you I train for the fun of it it's really fun it relaxes me it's fun to go exploring and find new places and just go out and have a good time on a horse get rid of some stress some anger because I was pushing it when you're done riding up well we moved to Tucson and I'm with my husband on the golf course and hitting balls and I'm looking at the people riding horses and I'm thinking I really want to be there I'm there now one day my husband came up to me and he says honey go out and buy that horse and it was awesome that was back in 1991 and I've had you know all those years we've grown together and learned a lot and for me writing is my therapy this is what gets me away from all the stress of work and other things we go out if we see a log you jump in if we want to run we run exploring so we have a lot of fun my husband rides both of my daughters we like to go out and ride we're not just upfront enough to do showing and all of that who are usually the clowns to the class if we tried but we go out and just have a good time with them this is my best girl she's been with me the longest this is what I always wanted to do my husband can have the golf course I'll take the barn that's the way it goes but I've always liked horses my whole life it's every girl out there or boy that has that love affair with the horse should definitely pursue it notes I can't even think about it makes me we'd be that's a passionate I am about this a few miles away an organization called trot is using horses in a different way helping children with special needs Denise anger Hoffer is a therapeutic riding teacher with the trot program in Tucson Arizona trot stands for therapeutic riding of Tucson and it was founded over 25 years ago by Nancy McKibben and Barbara rector and Nancy McKibben is a physical therapist and they got together and and developed the program to meet the needs of children and adults with special needs we have a variety of horses a variety of breeds and we have quarter horses we have ponies we have a Norwegian Fjord we find we have to look for horses that have a very good temperament that are able to deal with the variety of things we throw at them those horses are those of the same breed who once carried Napoleon into battle and General George Washington into victory at trot the fiery war horses of history with eyes ablaze Mane's flying have come to ground solid and patient here children the kids really enjoy just the movement of the horse they have learned to develop muscles so in their trunks and in their legs and in their arms and in their hands as a special teacher I find when I go back to the classroom they're able to coordinate better for writing their names cutting with scissors doing fine motor activities it also helps them Center and get their attention it kind of grounds them and helps them integrate their senses I've been teaching therapeutic riding for over 20 years with the program I've had an autistic student who we didn't think had any communication skills start to talk wrote a story about a horse I've had two students who couldn't walk at all without a walker walk independently without crutches or a walker kids start talking and they just get so excited it's just such a wonderful way for the horses and the children to interact and a chance for them to be together [Music] [Music] with night time quickly approaching the race for the tethoscape intensifies as the riders near the finish line this ride traditionally starts way too fast and most of the riders override the beginning of it and so I had not tried it all to be near the front thoroughly got into Forest Hill which is the last good place to get a real rest and a feed because it's the only power check first horse at that point I was in fourth in the first horse was 21 minutes I caught the first horse about halfway to the next leg we rode together but he pretty much established the pace [Music] when we got into the quarry LP and harder pretty easily just walked in made his perimeter got checked out went right on through that gave me a comfortable enough margin I didn't really even have to ask anything extra them to finish and I was pulling him up and telling him I wanted to make sure he got a nice-looking presentation here at the finish [Music] [Applause] [Music] why should a horse maintain his impulsion through the course of a hundred miles just to please us handlers and riders well that's the sport of it isn't it we have to admire this kind of a traveling force because the riders done something right to get him to this peak of perfection and their ability to take that terrain the temperature the humidity the dust the rocks the riders weight and then just a general attitude of the horse for that day how do they hold them together so it comes in one simple word horse mastership [Applause] the winners of the race are John Crandall and his Arabian Peralta [Applause] John is all the way from the East Coast earlier this year he won the Old Dominion and here he is today very few people understand just how essential endurance writing may be for the long term integrity of horse breeds and particularly era breeds horses were transcontinent migrators particular arrows they're all their ancestors and in the modern times there is no room and space on earth for that kind of migration for animals anymore and that is what was formative of the animal and endurance rides are probably the closest test we have to measure the horse against that kind of standard if you've read a horse for endurance a thousand times over a thousand generations you've come up with another arab there are lots of things and legends throughout time about the importance of the Arabian horse stroking the forelocks of horses brings great blessings and that lots of poets said that heaven on earth was to be found on the back of a galloping horse are there a lot of beautiful religious and literary sayings which celebrate their beauty and stamina I think they bring the kid in all of us out I think that's why we love them because we get back to the pure intuitive emotional state that we were when we were children and we bond with this incredible 800 to 2,200 pound animal on this on this great basis it doesn't matter who you are or what you have if you have an Arabian horse you can sit down and talk to a king a prince or a pauper and you all have something in common [Music] it's a great bridge among people's [Music] it's hard when you take anything that you have a passion for and try and explain it to the average person it's what drives the heart and move to the soul [Music] so what does the future hold for this filly the competition and grammar of the show rain betrayals the prairies a small barn and equally small riders everything is possible in the beginning of her life after all she is an Arabian [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] funding for this program provided in part by the Arabian horse owners foundation serving the Arabian horse community since 1956 to order a DVD copy of this program please call one eight hundred eight four one five nine two three [Music]
