DIFFERENT CHOICES
Stavs Sorsha straight Egyptian mare. A beloved personal choice.
In life we have choices tempered and acted upon by our own specific circumstances. We can’t be forced into making a choice. Choices are usually made consciously to benefit personal plans and goals. Sometimes our choices don’t measure up to ideals and we decide to choose again.
Within the Arabian horse scene we constantly have to make choices, to breed, to sell, to show, to ride etc. It’s never easy as the consequences of these choices are often unknown. Just being an Arabian horse breeder is a choice.
In my case at some stage some fifteen years ago I chose to write a book and found I love writing nearly as much as I love horses. But then I chose to write about horses!
For me it’s the best of both the horse world and the equally challenging world of books.
At the Toowoomba Writers Festival this weekend it became apparent that there are huge numbers of uniquely gifted writers. I know I began to write to find some meaning in my goals. I wanted to highlight the beauty of breeding horses and to also remind people of the dark side. Finding a meaning to life has been the task of storytellers since man realised he could communicate.
Maya Angelou – “There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you.”
Every story is important to the person living it. No wonder there’s such diversity amongst writers. But isn’t it stupendous to think that it’s a writer’s job to choose what he wants to write about when sitting down to write universal stories. They could choose to write stories that reveal the history, the passion, the empathy and even the future in stories from around the world.
William Wordsworth wrote, Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. To me this represents the path I’ve chosen to travel on my Arabian horse breeding journey. I studied past breeders and their choices. The past can give you insights as to how you choose for the future.
Following are some answers to a question asked of prominent Arabian personalities in Arabian Horse World 1986.
The choice answers are interesting …
Q. Will the show ring continue to be the most important proving ground for Arabs and Arab breeding?
Gene LaCroix: Yes the show ring is and will continue to be, the proving ground. The increased costs of showing are no different to the increased costs of living. “You learn to live with it.” (At the time Gene LaCroix was owner of Lasma)
Mustafa Sabankaya: The importance of showing is jeopardized by flaws in the judging system and the ever increasing political influences. We need to judge HORSES not handlers. Also the high cost of transportation, entry fees, training fees etc. are forcing many people on limited budgets to drop out of the show ring. (M Sabankaya owner of Sabankaya Select)
Howard Kale: I take exception to the concept of the show ring as a proving ground for anything. The show ring has never been and never will be anything more than games and entertainment. Blue ribbons are not genetic. Horse breeders must depend on their own appraisals of quality and productivity – a blue ribbon proves only that a certain judge liked a certain horse on a certain day for one reason or another. If God were a judge, we could value show ring results. Otherwise the quality of the Arabian horse and its potential and productivity determine value. (Howard Kale owner of Karho Arabian Stud)
Paul Wooldridge: I’m not sure the show ring has ever proven the Arabian, but it has proven which wealthy owners could afford the biggest name in trainers. How many times have you seen good horses ignored because the judge didn’t recognise the handler? How many trainers have been fired on their way out to the ring during Scottsdale week? (Paul Wooldridge Dec. was a cartoonist and the instigator of One Mans Opinion in Arabian Horse World back in the 70’s and 80’s. It was a cartoon strip that bluntly poked fun at the Arabian horse scene.)
Photograph G Egan
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