RC: Height in FEI Horses

[Leonard.LIESENS@cec.eu.int]

Interesting subject...

I agree with the fact that most of the well performing horses are big arab or arab crosses.

Especially in France or Spain the are using mostly arab crosses; this was noticeable at the last european championship : european champion (spanish / anglo cross) was a big horse, well proportioned; the same with the horse ridden by Tarek Taher; I must say that Orfeo, my horse was one of the smallest and probably the smallest in the top ten (Orfeo is 152 cm).

But one has to take into consideration that in the flat races (and the european championship in Portugal like the world championship in Dubai were flat races), it seems that tall horses with good canter capabilities are more successfull that small arabs. Now if you compare with races like Florac or the Tevis or the Outlaw, this is another story and maybe in this kind of races a small arab will perform better that a massive horse.

There is also a trend here on the market where buyers are making a important issue with the height of the horses; recently arab delegates came to Belgium in order to buy horses and the height was a very important factor.

I don't personally agree with that; I would be curious to have figures about the difference of energy burned when there is a difference of, let's say, 200 pounds between two give horses, cruising at the same speed. Just curious...

Leonard, in Belgium


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