Hi Tara! I've had different experiences with a couple of my Arabs. When I bought my mare Solstice, it was off a video that I watched over and over for a month or so, and then I got my trailer and went to get her 600 miles away, with the caveat, "She better not be lame, and she has to let me lift her feet" When I opened her barn door, she looked at me like as if to say, "Well finally you got here!" And I have loved her ever since..for 10 years. My most recent boy...I didn't immediately fall for him..it took about 15 minutes, and I took him on a scary one hour trail ride with a girl on a more experienced horse of 3 years old who spooked at everything. By the end of the ride, he was watching me, and moving his head as we walked around the barnyard, following me with his eyes. His owner said..."He already knows who you are". And off we went. Now the mare that I sold last summer, I tried to bond with her for a number of years, and it never was just right.. Then a cute teenage boy came over, and it was like a hot date at a singles bar, and off they went, she never looked back. Maybe it has to do with how hot the owner gets for the horse, and their response to that emotion. Maybe they understand the "ooh and the ahhhh" and the loving caress...and go with that person. I have never bonded with an Appy in all my days, sorry, it just never happened to me. And My farrier loves Arabs...doesn't ride them, he's a bulldog quarter horse man. But he loves to work with them. He states that they are flexible like gumby, and don't heavily lean on him, so he doesn't get as tired working with them. Mine love him too. Beth