Florence and I have been breeding purebred Arabians here at Foothills Arabians since the 1970’s. I’ve always had an eye for quality beyond my means and a 1972 trip to Sheila Varian’s was a revelation to me regarding both the quality of the horses and Sheila Varian’s horsemanship. As a result of that exposure I began doing my best to incorporate the bloodlines that were producing those high quality horses at Varian’s in our program, and to constantly improve my horsemanship.
In the same time frame, I read Dr. Ben K. Green’s book, The Color of Horses. His conclusions that pigment is protection and that the darker colors which represent more dense arrangements of pigment (melanin) stand up to the rigors of weather and the trappings of man better than the lighter colors seem irrefutable. These facts and the prevalence of melanoma in greys have caused me to cull in favor of bays and blacks.
My favorite activity is to explore the vast Gila National Forest, which provides endless opportunity for horse exploration in our own backyard. Therefore, we’ve selected for traits that make good trail horses. Temperament is of prime importance; we need kind, sensible, trainable horses that can safely provide dependable transportation. We also need sound, strong conformation and we pay particular attention to good feet and legs.
We’ve 90 acres devoted to the horses and all of our horses are raised in rugged pastures with other horses. They learn to be horses from each other and they grow strong in their freedom from confinement and mentally well adjusted from their natural lifestyle. The horses are handled daily, regularly wormed, and vaccinated and taught what they need to know for their age.
Over the years we’ve shown our horses successfully, won endurance rides and team penned for fun, but today most of our customers are interested in seeing the back country from the back of a beautiful, sound, sensible horse and we have a fine group of dark, young candidates for your consideration-all bays or blacks.