Every February since wintering in Arizona, I’ve seen posters and advertisements for the Scottsdale Arabian Horse Show. I don’t know the first thing about equestrian competitions, least of all, this breed-specific show. In an earlier century, Lynn and I were into dog shows so I imagined the horse show is something similar. I think basically that I was correct. While we didn’t learn much about the show’s judging, we did get to see a large number of beautiful animals and their well-dressed handlers. 

On the last day of the show, we headed about an hour northeast of our Buckeye home to Scottsdale Westworld, home of Barrett-Jackson in January and home of the Arabian Horse Show in February. The 11 days of the show are filled and this 63rd annual show had enough entrants that their show results book runs 278 pages. I did learn that the top ten competitors in each class got a ribbon. Some of the classes I saw only had a handful of entries. The image below featured a class from which the judges picked the ten best.

The blue ribbon pinned to the saddle in the image below is the “top ten” ribbon. The ribbon the lady is holding is for the best in class. I won’t pretend to have any expertise, but I did enjoy watching the animals perform.

With the large gathering of “horse people”, you can bet there are a ton of vendors selling everything from corral fencing to show quality gear and clothing. Row after row of trade booths attracted many people. The shot below is but one company selling show clothing.

What!??!

What’s that bird doing here? in the vendor area, an organization that rescues wild birds, mostly raptors, had some examples showing off their work. More raptor images are featured in the gallery. This post is short on words and long on images. In most browsers, you can click on a photo in the gallery to enlarge it and to scroll through the images.

John Steiner