Overview of All Nations Cup

If you like Arabians, you might like this post. If you hate them, you will like this for sure. If you like Aachen, well, I was misled; I thought the show would be in an ancient castle or cathedral grounds. Hm!

I saw some lovely dressage Saturday at the All Nations Cup in Aachen, which is on the CHIO grounds, a stadium built for show jumping events that is as big as Husky Stadium. (The lovely dressage I saw had horses that were not behind the bit like the one below.)








And then there are the barns: rows of white-painted brick barns, one after the other. Took me forever to find the one with the Polish horses in it. The cool thing was, I could walk up and speak English to anyone.




I'm going to show photos of the horses in a natural stance, because that is where you can truly evaluate them. Sorry my photos are blurry - the arena was dark, and they were so far away from me.




Pogrom....just standing there. *sigh* Check out the joints on him. The only thing I don't like about him is he doesn't care to carry his tail up. But I can live without that cuz he's so awesome. To me he looks like a sport horse, not a halter horse.

David Boggs recalls. “He took my breath away at that first meeting and he still makes my heart beat fast when I see him in motion"

He believes the United States to be the best place for Pogrom at the opening of his breeding career. His only regret is that Pogrom will not have an opportunity to prove himself on the track, but he adds that the stallion has been broken to saddle and is likely to be ridden when he returns to Poland after his time abroad. More on that story here.

Not that I'm a fan of Boggs, but I felt my breath taken away too, by Pogrom. It's been over 20 years since I've been to an all Arabian show so maybe I've felt that way before, but I don't recall.




This is the score for my Washington-state bred chestnut stallion. What a horse. Actually, he looks just like Pogrom, overall. Hm! Both coming from Marwan, well...

Who is this Heir of Marwan? I just looked. He's a mix, again, most of these are. But has double Ruminaja Ali, and Ali Jamaal, my childhood dream horse.

And Padron, and double Bey Shah. I wonder why this horse did not win this weekend, he presented so well. He came from my home and now lives in Belgium.

I love the pics I took of him moving casually, relaxed, and amazing. Of course you can get find profi pics of him online, but this is how he looks moving offstage, after he's done showing.






Mostly this weekend I saw Europe's and the middle east's superstar Arabian horses, and saw the domination of the middle east over Europe. That is Excalibur, above. He was National Champion. He is very nice, but I don't approve of breeding disease carriers (His grandsire. I realize most Arabians have some CA carriers in their past, but in the past, they had no test for it).

I heard the anthem of Kuwait, UAE, Dubia, Saudi Arabia, and some of those several times, because they played anthems and made the entire audience stand up for the anthem for every single Championship class. The only European anthem I heard was Switzerland's. Yay, a European horse won something!

These horses are lovely, from the stands. But go into the barns and you get to see how nasty they are up close. Cuz despite rules against it, their faces are indeed balded (with razors), greased, and their ear and muzzle hair removed. I love a trimmed face, but this is just too much. What I found interesting was no matter how messed up their faces were, there was always a little tuft of whiskers left on the underside of the chin. That can only mean compliance with German law.

The other day I showed S1 a photo of an Arabian horse and she said she doesn't believe the ear hair is removed, it must be photoshopped. I'll have to show her some of the photos I took.

In the mail this week I received an invitation to an online community against these practices, including weighted shoes. There is likely no hope.

Germans consider it animal cruelty, hence the laws. I don't, cuz hair grows back fast. I just think it's gone too far, and am ashamed of it.

It was wonderful to get swept up in the emotions of the crowd. Full grown adults screaming at the top of their lungs to support their favorite horses, it was the closest thing to a Seattle Storm game I've been to.

But most of the people in the audience were yelling in Arabic, and most of the people there altogether were young, Arabic men, in sports clothing. If a European owner won a class, it might be a woman who walks forward to receive the award, usually a woman in high heels. There were no Arabic women there. Why is this?

My friend told me it's a young men's club, and these horses are their prestige items. She sounded pretty racist, listening to her complain about them all day. How they invaded Europe and took over the show scene.

My entry fee was free, parking was free, and the some of the entry fees to the classes were also free, because they were sponsored by these people. The United Arab Emirates paid for the Lady Anne Blunt award, and the Breeder's cup as well. I understand, someone has to sponsor these things, it would have been nice if the Europeans had.

The judges had to hold their right hands over their hearts and swear that they would judge horses honestly, with no conflict of interest. A-hem.

It was annoying sitting in a group of young men, but I was horrified when they all started laughing at a handler. She was one of two women on the lead line I'd seen all day, and she was not athletic. She did her best but simply was too slow to keep up with the horse's trot, and although she was wearing a slick black suit, she was quite large. They started jeering at her cruelly when she ran by. It was like sitting with a bunch of 8th grade boys who'd been raised by wolves. Where were all the women, are they allowed to be around horses?

Also, they smoked. IN the arena, and no one told them to stop.

There was an auction for a breeding to Marwan, and a lady from France won, paying 30K Euros. They invited her into the ring to congratulate her, and the announcer, in his funny English, said, "Two questions. How many horses do you have, and which one will have the honor of being bred to the beautiful Marwan?" She answered, "I no speak English." The announcer answered to her, "OK you can speak French!" And she repeated, "I no speak English." *lol* right, she didn't understand your second statement in English either!! BTW, Marwan's breeding fee is 20K, but this breeding was generously donated by Al Shaqab....where does the money go...hm.

I got to see a few in-utero foals in the foal classes. These babies are so young they need their mothers in the ring with them, and some of the mares were clearly nurse mares.

Many of the winners this weekend were children and grandchildren of WH Justice, that disease carrier who is said to be the most beautiful Arabian in the world. I could not cheer for any of them, because I don't believe the people who say the breed will lose its diversity if we block disease carriers from breeding.

I got to know a couple who breed Egyptian Arabians not too far from where I live and they invited me over. It was great to talk to another enthusiastic breeder who loves his horses and feels passionately about things like, "A stallion should not look like a mare! An Arabian should not be over 15 hands high!" Should be an interesting visit. None of his horses are on allbreedpedigrees, which makes me wonder.





My first view of the stables - two horses tied up, but happily patient. Then the one on the left kicked his bucket down to the ground, and I freaked out, cuz I know what Mag could do with a bucket at his feet. But no one spoke German, no one spoke English.


My photographer friend is on the right, I missed the shot - she'd been kneeling down too beside that other shiny, puffy jacket guy, taking photos of ....I'm not gonna say the name. My friend has gone to her stables in Spain for photo shoots, but has repeatedly described the lady as a nasty person, who owns 120 horses and doesn't care about any of them. Strangely people want to photograph *her* not just her horses. Hm.

And what is the deal with all the shiny puffy jackets? I was hoping they'd eventually go away but they were everywhere. No one looks good in a shiny puffy coat.

My friend had scorned her so much, but as soon as the lady got off the phone, she bathed her in compliments, "How do you walk in those high heels!?" and "Can we please photograph your lovely Arabians!?" and then we went to meet her horses. I stood 20 meters away, disgusted that my friend was kissing up to her.

Whatever.

Later my photographer friend's photographer friend was hanging out with me, and started tossing accusations my way, "Horses should live in HERDS. Not just companions. HERDS. Why are you looking at me like that? You don't like what I have to say, do you?"

WTH!?


Oh.

Of course. My photographer friend gossips about me as much as she gossips about everyone else she knows, and this lady I just met, was accusing me of animal cruelty for keeping a horse with a donkey.

Nice.

SO! Who was it who said to me last week that she doesn't believe horses in Germany have their hair completely shaved free of hair? S1! I will have to share with her the photos I got from my up-close time with these gorgeous, but very bald and greasy horses.



Sax Arabians, in Germany, used all Hamilton halters as stall halters for their horses, and Hamilton lead lines, all in black. I was impressed, you never see that here. (I'm a lifelong Hamilton user.) This isn't one of them but it was American-style so it reminded me. The lead rope, you see, has no panic snap.



You can see the different clipper blades used here - in the middle of the forehead and halfway down the face, the hair is clipped (you can see the horse's star even though it's a grey). Then another blade is used to remove all hair for the super-freaky look.



"Where can I find the horses from Poland?"

Finally someone waved me three barns over.

YES.

And then, I saw this:

I called J immediately. "J! I'm standing in front of a semi from Mag's barn, it's huge!" J said, "Is this why Mag is so bad at hauling? Cuz he's used to luxury?" *lol!!!* Doubt it. For Mag's price, he never saw the inside of this thing, I'm sure.


And then I walked into the Michalow, Poland (state stud) barn, and found this filly.... Mag's niece, and fell in love.

 
Her name is Poganinka. Mag's father is Poganin. I'd never met a more affectionate horse in my life. More on that to come.

But no one was around. I was all alone in the Poland barn, and all the horses were just hanging out alone. Hm.

I see now. They were all in the big trailer truck, resting, during the lunch break from the show. Not in the barn, not there for potential buyers or fans like me.

I hung out with Mag's niece for a half hour and no one showed up.

This is so different from any show I've ever been to - in all others, the people were there to answer questions.

But this is a government operation. The government employees were all on break. I just waited.





Her eyes were all runny from the make-up, I assume.



Two of the horses were yawning repeatedly. Just like Mag does at breakfast time.



Mag's halter! They really do use this odd blue halter on all their horses! This is the halter Mag arrived in, if you recall, and I put it away in my "Halters of horses/donkeys I've bought but are too ugly to use again" section. (Does that make me weird?)

Finally a big guy came out and sat in a folding chair and I showed him the photo-pedigree I'd made of Mag and his family. He spoke some English, and pointed to the horses he knew. A Polish lady came over and pointed to Mag's photo and said he looks like his father, when his father was young.

So my goal for the weekend was sort-of accomplished - I saw some relatives of Mag, and met some people from Michalow. Now I have to get myself over to Poland. Which isn't close, I'm on the wrong side of Germany.



Excalibur EA has a personalized rig! As a kid I always dreamed of having such a rig, where I can turn around and see my horse right there. But as an adult I don't want it - there is no space for camping gear, no space for hay and water. This is entirely impractical!



The lovely Excalibur EA. My photographer friend published her profi photos of him (and Pogrom) today on facebook, but I much prefer a horse standing around naturally than posing.



This mare, Julia Justice, I think her name was, was so gorgeous I couldn't believe it was a mare.







My friend and her friend were taking fan photos of that Spanish lady with her Emerald J daughter. (Emerald J won reserve Champion this weekend, a half brother of Pogrom.)



Finally I got them into the Poland barn to meet Poganinka, where they both fell in love with her as well.


She wanted to have her ears rubbed, her chin rubbed, her eyes, and at only 2 years old, I was surprised that she never offered to nibble on us. We spent so much time with her.



She had a very extreme face, but very small eyes.



It makes me happy that we made this filly's day a little bit better.












Emerald J, reserve Champion, meets Excalibur EA.


My friend finally uploaded her photos to facebook today and I grabbed this one of Pogrom.

The whole time I was at this show, I couldn't help but thinking how much Mag would love to be there. He is a born show-off, even when no one is watching. He would have fit right in, I know it, if he were trained and cleaned up. There is a gelding class, but it was cancelled due to low entries.



Now for a little video of Pogrom just hanging out, not showing at the moment.



Here he is "losing" his class - but getting an award, and then watching the winners go by.

Well, that's it. I guess I have to go to Poland now, to see Mag's closer relatives.