A dark day for Arabians

[Anna Wolfe <awolfe@etsc.net>]

Dear Fellow Adventurers,

Since my daughters are in 4H I was at the Union Couny Fair in New Mexico 
instead of cheering my sister on at the Tevis (time to call me Ad, and 
let me know what happened at Robinson's Flat).  Now I know this is 
Quarter horse country, but I grew up in 4H, and I always believed it to 
be an open show.

Anyway, they did quite well for total novices in showmanship, but the 
problem arose when they were in the aged mare class.  The horses looked 
fantastic.  But the judge lined up the other horses, leaving them out, 
and then put them in their own line of first and second.  He made a 
pretty little speech of how Arabs are probably the most classic beauties 
of all, and these were fine examples, but that he didn't know anything 
about them, and much preferred stock horses that could carry him 
(implying that the Arabs were weaklings) and so he left them in their 
own little second rate discriminated against division.  I believe that 
Aqui could have been Grand Champion Mare if he had any brains (of 
course I'm a bit prejudiced myself), but the girls didn't press the 
issue by bringing them back in for the championship - he would have 
ignored them anyway.

Some of the people around here seemed to understand - I know more than I 
expected who have Arabs - including my new endurance friend (Hi Sue!), 
but some just said that that's the way it's always been, as if that made 
it right. And some thought he had done the right and kind thing by 
letting them get first and second place ribbons, which didn't mean a 
thing.  I was raised to be very proud of showing Arabs in open divisions 
and beating them at their own game, and he didn't give us a chance.

The point of this story is that my dream would be to find a list of 
judges (who would be willing to judge a lowly county fair) that DO have 
the knowledge to judge both Arabs and Quarter horses (and preferably 
whatever else might show up) according to the standards of their own 
breeds.  They do this at dog shows, and this is how the rabbits were 
judged, so does anyone out there know of any such people that I might 
recommend to fair management?  I did speak to the fair board chairman 
(after taking rescue remedy so I wouldn't cry!) and he basically seemed 
to think that this is the way it had always been, and there are no 
people qualified to do both.  

Thanks for any suggestions

Anna from Northeastern New Mexico