I'd like to throw in a comment here, sometimes I see horses telling their
riders something but the riders aren't listening. Like the time I watched
a rider literally flogging her horse to leave a vet check and the next time
around had to be flogged and led by another person! The horse is trying to
tell you something. Some of us know our horses so well we know when they
need to take a pee. When my mare thinks I should get off for awhile, she'll
stop dead in her tracks and turn and look at me as if to say, "You can get
off now." They talk to you, but you have to know them well enough to under-
stand what they're trying to say. Yes, Arabs do have a lot of heart, I can't
discount that. Sometimes the messages are ever so subtle.
For the most part, I don't want a horse that has no regard for its own safety
and self-preservation; and there's a fine line between a horse giving its all
to please you, trusting that you will not allow it to come into danger, and
knowing when you're being buffaloed. My mare has fooled me a number of times,
but at least I'd rather err to caution than lose my friend.
Joyce