It's Friday, I'm a Judge! Breed: Arabian

It's the first judging clinic of the new year! We're starting off with a traditional breed class. 

As per usual, my judging credentials can be found on my About Me page. 

This week, we're back to focusing on a single class - an Arabian class. Let's start off by examining what it is we should be looking for. According to the Arabian Horse Association, the breed standard is as follows: 

• Comparatively small head with a straight or preferably concave profile, small muzzle, large nostrils, round expressive dark eyes set well apart, small thin and well-shaped ears
• Long arched neck set high, moderately high withers, short straight back, deep chest, comparatively horizontal croup, natural high tail carriage

Arabian stallion

Horse A: Classic Arabian Stallion

Arabian mare

Horse B: Weather Girl

Arabian mare

Horse C: Proud Arabian Mare

Evaluate these three against the breed standard. When you're ready, my placings are underneath the jump. ↓

The Placings:

🥇1st: Horse C - Proud Arabian Mare

The Proud Arabian Mare is pinned first. She's got a hobby reputation as one of the best Breyer Arabian sculpts, and for good reason. She has a nice short back, small head and dished profile, expressive eyes and small ears, with a long arched neck and deep chest. Her proportions are correct, as you'll find in just about all of the Maureen Love sculpts. She has nice shading, and although she has some shiny marks on her show side, I'm willing to let those slide as a judge in favor of pinning what I see as the most correct mold on the table. 

🥈2nd: Horse B - Classic Arabian Stallion

In second place, I've pinned the Classic Arabian Stallion. He's a little chunky for an Arabian, but he aligns with the breed standard well regardless. He also has fantastic color and shading - gloss always makes a bay pop, and this horse is no exception. One thing that could improve his entry is defining the strain of Arabian he is. Like I said, he is a little chunky for an Arabian, particularly with how the breed has developed over the years. Weather Girl is a better example of a modern Arabian (but we'll get to her placing in a moment). Specifying that the Classic Arabian Stallion is from Crabbet lines would improve his entry and make him more competitive. According to the Arabian Horse Association, Crabbet bred for sturdy and sound conformation over classical beauty. And indeed, when you look at photos of horses bred from Crabbet lines, they are thicker and sturdier than the Arabians seen in the show ring today. 

🥉3rd: Horse A - Weather Girl

In third place, we have Weather Girl. This doesn't mean she isn't a correct sculpt. She actually fits the breed standard reasonably well - she has a small head with a dished face, concave profile, long arched neck and moderately high withers, and a horizontal croup. Her back is a touch long in comparison to the CAS and the PAM, and her tail placement is slightly higher than it should be, but she's still a correct Arabian mold in the Breyer lineup. Where she loses points for me is in the execution of her color. She's intended as a rose gray, but the execution is less realistic than other depictions. For me, it's enough to knock her down in the placings. If she was in a different color, like the blacks used for Thunderstorm and Rhapsody, or even the rose gray shade used on Jasmine, it's likely she'd be in second over the CAS for me, and depending on the shading and quality of the paint job could challenge the PAM. 

How did you place this class, and why did you pin it that way? Remember, you don't need to place these horses the same as I did, as long as you can explain why you place the class the way you did.