Re: Arabians and distance riding

[BMcCrary27@aol.com]

Rita - the IAHA 1999 National Endurance Championship will take place at our
Swanton Pacific 100, 8 miles north of Davenport (20 miles north of Santa Cruz,
60 miles south of San Francisco).  We're honored that we've been asked to host
this event.  The trail is absolutely gorgeous, the footing is safe and has
very little dust, weather is moderate, and ride management works very hard to
present a ride that will be a wonderful experience for all.  We've hosted IAHA
once before, the first FEI endurance championship in the western hemisphere,
and two West Region AERC series championship rides.  

What can we do to help promote Arabs and new IAHA members?  After riding
grades and QHs for years, we've gone all Arab (or part-Arabs).  There's
nothing like them.  We were observing recently that they are easy to catch out
in pasture.  The number of hours spent trying to catch our horses of many
years ago in pasture represents a lot of wasted time.  Generally, if Arabs are
handled correctly from the beginning they are very people-oriented.  They are
also energetic on the trail and very trail-savvy.  I would find it hard to go
back to the pre-Arab days.

Barbara McCrary