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

Happy Friday judging clinic! We're back to mini breed land today. I thought I'd carry over the same class from the traditional scale breed class last month, so this month we're once again looking at an Arabian class! 

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

As a refresher, let's look at what we're looking for in an Arabian. 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: G1 Arabian Stallion

Arabian mare

Horse B: Akilah

Arabian mare

Horse C: Zara

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

The Placings:

🥇1st: Horse A - G1 Arabian Stallion

The G1 Arabian Stallion is, in my opinion, one of the best Arabians in the entire Breyer lineup across all scales. He conforms to the breed standard without going to the extreme: he has a nice head, a short back, and he's well-proportioned overall. This entry has lovely color and shading, especially on his face and around his eyes. He was an easy first place pin for me. 

🥈2nd: Horse C - Zara

Zara shares many similarities with the G1 Arabian Stallion: they're both sculpted by Maureen Love, and they're in a similar pose. Like him, she's well-proportioned and aligns to the breed standard very well. She has a little bit more of a pot belly, but that could easily be fixed by specifying her as a broodmare. I ultimately placed her second because I liked the depth of color better in the G1 Arabian Stallion, but these two molds could easily flip flop the placings. 

🥉3rd: Horse B - Akilah

My not so great photo aside, Akilah is the pin for third place. Like her traditional scale counterpart, her legs are set slightly too far forward. She's more of the modern Arabian type, which personally I do not prefer to the older lines, and the Polish and Crabbet types. She does follow the breed standard pretty well (horizontal croup, small head with a concave profile and small muzzle, long arched neck and moderately high withers, and a short straight back), but she's a more exaggerated version of it in line with the modern Arabian halter horses. She's by no means a bad sculpt aside from those front legs, but against the other two in this class, she simply doesn't hold up as well.  

How did you place this class? Why did you place it that way?