Egyptian Event Europe

Welcome, but now go pay the 9,50E entry to the castle, where the show is held, whether you care about castles or not!



My photos are intended to be conformation analysis, most of them: )

I took effort to capture the horses as they stood at ease, rather than how they stood straining within an inch of their lives at the end of a chain and whip.


This one was one of the two who were related to Mag, I'm sad to say. He's fugly. I like his neck and shoulder, that's it. You can judge for yourself. It's important to get backstage and see these horses before they hide their faults by posing. I really liked this horse, cuz he came right up to me and said, "Hi there, strange person with tiny camera!" His name is Intisar Shihab Jamal, son of Al Lahab (awesome horse who is the son of Laheeb, Mag's grand-sire). He's here from Austria. Seeing him makes me think I have a chance with Mag - if this horse can do this, Mag could! OK, not really. Mag has never been trained, and has no condition : (





But then I saw #48, led by curly haired guy (Giacomo). I didn't know at the time, this is the horse most closely related to Mag - Mag's "uncle" if you will. Mag is Polish, but has 25% Egyptian, therefore I was able to find one or two horses at this show related to him. The rest were far off.


At this time, I'd just arrived, I had no idea, I just recognized curly hair guy on the line, and just then my phone rang and I said to J, "48 will win. He's balanced front to back, in comparison to the others, and he has the hobbit on his lead line."

This is the only photo if 48 I will show you of him posing, cuz it's more interesting to me to see him natural, without "sucking it all in." Indeed, this reveals a major flaw in Arabian conformation. The breed standard requires "depth of girth." That means, the breed is not, like Freisisans, "wasp waisted" - Arabians should have body in their flanks.


I'll come back to 48 later.




This horse is Mas Bisal, #51. The only chestnut on the entire show. Rabicano, with white stripes reaching over his entire body. Son of Al Adeed Al Shaqab, wow.  But......hrm. Breeder Italy, owner France. So impressive, but...



See his left front leg? This could be why he didn't win anything this show. At least I hope so. The leg rotates out from the knee. He was so impressive in the ring! But legs matter. I hope.






Intisar Shihab Jamal again. I see post hind legs, capped hock (which is nothing to judge, could be injury), but although I like his 45% front pasterns, his forelegs lean back, which my mare Mara had also. She could never keep her front legs straight down. All horses stand like this sometimes, but some horses always do. His right hind leg should not be able to stand that straight. I think he toes out in front, but that isn't so bad.




#48 again, but not standing up. Zain Al Dean. I am always amazed by Arabian horses who can somehow put their butts up into the air so high, that their croups raise as shown. Does the horse who has this feature have the ability to switch, and drop his haunches, and push into his job?

I'm gonna be open minded and say he can do it, if he is asked. But I hate that wasp waist. And although I think it's fine for a horse's forelegs to stand so far in front of his body, I've recently learned some consider it a fault.

He does have a nice face, and a long neck, relative to so many others on this day. This is the horse most closely related to Mag, his "uncle."


I'm afraid to say Giacomo shanked each horse brutally today, to punish them for looking away, or whatever he found wrong. One horse was so nervous, it half-reared, and when it came back obediently to Giacomo, he shanked it out of....revenge? As an ignorant bystander, it seemed rather rough. I don't think his horses hate going into the ring with him, but I think he could be nicer.












The waiter was nice enough to take our photo when I asked. A very pricey castle restaurant served tiny amounts of food for large prices, with wasps diving in and drinking our drinks and eating our food.


I had to get photos of this colt cuz he's only 3 but shows the typical Egyptian shark withers that make him appear slightly sway backed...at 3. He won his class.




1988, when I met Baasha, he was also 3, and had such withers. It must be an Egyptian thing. I asked his breeder, "Has he been ridden a lot?" (I knew nothing of horses at that time.) She said, "He's never been ridden." OK then. Baasha's entire life, he appeared to be sway backed because of his withers.





Here Giacomo shanks the colt.



My expectation was to find a show full of delicate, fragile horses. I was wrong, because I saw many strong boned horses, with low hocks and big joints. Just less mature than the young horses I'd seen in Aachen and at Ismer. I was amazed how mature a 3 year old can look, at the other shows.

Al Shaqab (most powerful Arabian horse people in the world) gave us gift after gift, for free. I got this can of palm seeds from the Sheiks. Hrm!





Michi's photo - tiny butt and no neck. Note his butt is facing the camera, so seems even larger than it is. Which is tiny.



This is BK Latif, the stallion I told you about that they purposefully presented with a mare, to show you his masculinity, which my friend put her logo over. He's the one they brought to the castle later to pose with the mare again, where all the international tourists got to take photos, and the Asian family posed in front of him.




One last photo of the only bay horse on the premises, and the happy winners. The lady had just presented the flower wreath, and it's probably his first. What got my attention was that they are  holding up a photo of someone. The horse's owner in Kuwait? Cuz those flags are Kuwait flags.

Anyway, another interesting day, learning a lot, and I'm totally looking forward to AACHEN where I'll get to see more of Mag's relatives.

Looking forward.